thinks that
grief is called {~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}, as it were {~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, that is to say, a dissolution of
the whole man. The whole of which I think may be pulled up by the roots,
by explaining, as I said at the beginning, the cause of grief; for it is
nothing else but an opinion and judgment formed of a present acute evil.
And thus any bodily pain, let it be ever so grievous, may be endurable
where any hopes are proposed of some considerable good; and we receive
such consolation from a virtuous and illustrious life, that they who lead
such lives are seldom attacked by grief, or but slightly affected by it.

XXVI. But as besides this opinion of great evil there is this other added
also, that we ought to lament what has happened, that it is right so to
do, and part of our duty; then is brought about that terrible disorder of
mind, grief. And it is to this opinion that we owe all those various and
horrid kinds of lamentation, that neglect of our persons, that womanish
tearing of our cheeks, that striking on our thighs, breasts, and heads.
Thus Agamemnon, in Homer and in Accius,--

Tears in his grief his uncomb'd locks;(91)

from whence comes that pleasant saying of Bion, that the foolish king in
his sorrow tore away the hairs of his head, imagining that his grief would
be alleviated by baldness. But men do all these things from being
persuaded that they ought to do so. And thus AEschines inveighs against
Demosthenes for sacrificing within seven days after the death of his
daughter. But with what eloquence, with what fluency does he attack him!
what sentiments does he collect! what words does he hurl against him! You
may see by this that an orator may do anything; but nobody would approve
of such licence if it were not that we have an idea innate in our minds,
that every good man ought to lament the loss of a relation as bitterly as
possible. And it is owing to this that some men, when in sorrow, betake
themselves to deserts, as Homer says of Bellerophon;--

Distracted in his mind,
Forsook by heaven, forsaking human kind,
Wide o'er the Aleian field he chose to stray,
A long, forlorn, uncomfortable way!(92)

And thus Niobe is feigned to have been