turned into stone, from her never
speaking, I suppose, in her grief. But they imagine Hecuba to have been
converted into a bitch, from her rage and bitterness of mind. There are
others who love to converse with solitude itself, when in grief, as the
nurse in Ennius,--

Fain would I to the heavens and earth relate
Medea's ceaseless woes and cruel fate.(93)

XXVII. Now all these things are done in grief, from a persuasion of their
truth, and propriety, and necessity; and it is plain, that those who
behave thus, do so from a conviction of its being their duty; for should
these mourners by chance drop their grief, and either act or speak for a
moment in a more calm or cheerful manner, they presently check themselves
and return to their lamentations again, and blame themselves for having
been guilty of any intermissions from their grief. And parents and masters
generally correct children not by words only, but by blows, if they show
any levity by either word or deed when the family is under affliction,
and, as it were, oblige them to be sorrowful. What? does it not appear,
when you have ceased to mourn, and have discovered that your grief has
been ineffectual, that the whole of that mourning was voluntary, on your
part? What does that man say, in Terence, who punishes himself, the
Self-tormentor?

I think I do my son less harm, O Chremes,
As long as I myself am miserable.

He determines to be miserable: and can any one determine on anything
against his will?

I well might think that I deserved all evil.

He would think he deserved any misfortune, were he otherwise than
miserable! Therefore, you see the evil is in opinion, not in nature. How
is it, when some things do of themselves prevent your grieving at them? as
in Homer, so many died and were buried daily, that they had not leisure to
grieve: where you find these lines,--

The great, the bold, by thousands daily fall,
And endless were the grief to weep for all.
Eternal sorrows what avails to shed?
Greece honours not with solemn fasts the dead:
Enough when death demands the brave to pay
The tribute of a melancholy day.
One chief with patience to the grave resign'd,
Our care devolves on others left behind.(94)

Therefore it is in our own power to lay aside grief upon occasion; and is
there any opportunity (seeing the thing is in our own power) that we
should let slip of getting rid of care and g