rquin, not being
able to bear the tyrant Cypselus, fled from Corinth to Tarquinii, settled
there, and had children. Was it, then, an unwise act in him to prefer the
liberty of banishment to slavery at home?

XXXVIII. Besides the emotions of the mind, all griefs and anxieties are
assuaged by forgetting them, and turning our thoughts to pleasure.
Therefore, it was not without reason that Epicurus presumed to say that a
wise man abounds with good things, because he may always have his
pleasures: from whence it follows, as he thinks, that that point is
gained, which is the subject of our present inquiry, that a wise man is
always happy. What! though he should be deprived of the senses of seeing
and hearing? Yes; for he holds those things very cheap. For, in the first
place, what are the pleasures of which we are deprived by that dreadful
thing, blindness? For though they allow other pleasures to be confined to
the senses, yet the things which are perceived by the sight do not depend
wholly on the pleasure the eyes receive; as is the case when we taste,
smell, touch, or hear; for, in respect of all these senses, the organs
themselves are the seat of pleasure; but it is not so with the eyes. For
it is the mind which is entertained by what we see; but the mind may be
entertained in many ways, even though we could not see at all. I am
speaking of a learned and a wise man, with whom to think is to live. But
thinking in the case of a wise man does not altogether require the use of
his eyes in his investigations; for if night does not strip him of his
happiness, why should blindness, which resembles night, have that effect?
For the reply of Antipater the Cyrenaic, to some women who bewailed his
being blind, though it is a little too obscene, is not without its
significance. "What do you mean?" saith he; "do you think the night can
furnish no pleasure?" And we find by his magistracies and his actions,
that old Appius(119) too, who was blind for many years, was not prevented
from doing whatever was required of him, with respect either to the
republic or his own affairs. It is said, that C. Drusus's house was
crowded with clients. When they, whose business it was, could not see how
to conduct themselves, they applied to a blind guide.

XXXIX. When I was a boy, Cn. Aufidius, a blind man, who had served the
office of praetor, not only gave his opinion in the senate, and was ready
to assist his friends, but wrote a Greek history, and ha