er's provisions but for one day, and he will
implore the aid of Jupiter Olympius, the very God for whom he exercises
himself: he will cry out that he cannot endure it. Great is the force of
custom! Sportsmen will continue whole nights in the snow: they will bear
being almost frozen upon the mountains. From practice boxers will not so
much as utter a groan, however bruised by the cestus. But what do you
think of those to whom a victory in the Olympic games seemed almost on a
par with the ancient consulships of the Roman people? What wounds will the
gladiators bear, who are either barbarians, or the very dregs of mankind!
How do they, who are trained to it, prefer being wounded to basely
avoiding it! How often do they prove that they consider nothing but the
giving satisfaction to their masters or to the people! for when covered
with wounds, they send to their masters to learn their pleasure; if it is
their will, they are ready to lie down and die. What gladiator, of even
moderate reputation, ever gave a sigh? who ever turned pale? who ever
disgraced himself either in the actual combat, or even when about to die?
who that had been defeated ever drew in his neck to avoid the stroke of
death? So great is the force of practice, deliberation, and custom! Shall
this, then, be done by

A Samnite rascal, worthy of his trade;

and shall a man born to glory have so soft a part in his soul as not to be
able to fortify it by reason and reflection? The sight of the gladiators'
combats is by some looked on as cruel and inhuman, and I do not know, as
it is at present managed, but it may be so; but when the guilty fought, we
might receive by our ears perhaps (but certainly by our eyes we could not)
better training to harden us against pain and death.

XVIII. I have now said enough about the effects of exercise, custom, and
careful meditation; proceed we now to consider the force of reason, unless
you have something to reply to what has been said.

_A._ That I should interrupt you! by no means; for your discourse has
brought me over to your opinion. Let the Stoics, then, think it their
business to determine whether pain be an evil or not, while they endeavour
to show by some strained and trifling conclusions, which are nothing to
the purpose, that pain is no evil. My opinion is, that whatever it is, it
is not so great as it appears; and I say, that men are influenced to a
great extent by some false representations and appearanc