ou by nature. You ask, what this post is? it is
that of being a man. The wise man has another help, of the opposite
kind to this; you are hard at work, while he has already won the
victory. Do not quarrel with your own good advantage, and, until you
shall have made your way to the truth, keep alive this hope in your
minds, be willing to receive the news of a better life, and encourage
it by your admiration and your prayers; it is to the interest of the
commonwealth of mankind that there should be some one who is
unconquered, some one against whom fortune has no power.

II

OF CONSOLATION FOR THE LOSS OF FRIENDS[78]

Why should I lead you on through the endless series of great men and
pick out the unhappy ones, as tho it were not more difficult to find
happy ones? for how few households have remained possest of all their
members to the end? what one is there that has not suffered some loss?
Take any one year you please and name the Consuls for it; if you like,
that of Lucius Bibulus[79] and Julius Caesar; you will see that, tho
these colleagues were each other's bitterest enemies, yet their
fortunes agreed. Lucius Bibulus, a man more remarkable for goodness
than for strength of character, had both his sons murdered at the same
time, and even insulted by the Egyptian soldiery, so that the agent of
his bereavement was as much a subject for tears as the bereavement
itself. Nevertheless Bibulus, who during the whole of his year of
office had remained hidden in his house, to cast reproach upon his
colleague Caesar on the day following that upon which he heard of both
his sons' deaths, came forth and went through the routine business of
his magistracy. Who could devote less than one day to mourning for
two sons? Thus soon did he end his mourning for his children, altho he
had mourned a whole year for his consulship. Gaius Caesar, after having
traversed Britain, and not allowed even the ocean to set bounds to his
successes, heard of the death of his daughter, which hurried on the
crisis of affairs. Already Cnaeus Pompey stood before his eyes, a man
who would ill endure that any one besides himself should become a
great power in the state, and one who was likely to place a check upon
his advancement, which he had regarded, as onerous even when each
gained by the other's rise: yet within three days' time he resumed his
duties as general, and conquered his grief as quickly as he was wont
to conquer everything else.

W