it must be acknowledged, that, in fuch fouls as thefe, there is fome tranfport, fome fury, be it ever fo divine. When we come to thefe Stoical fallies, "I had rather be mad than merry;" a saying of * Antifthenes, Maveínv μãλλov & in. When Sextius tells us, that he had rather be "chained to pain than pleasure :" When Epicurus, under pretence of being fond of the gout, and refufing health and eafe, gaily defies evils, defpifing the leffer pains, as difdaining to contend and ftruggle with them, he defires and calls out for those that are acute, violent, and wor thy of him: Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem. Man sometimes raised above Who would not think that they are pushed on by a courage broke loose from its hold? Our foul cannot reach fo high from her own feat; the muft of neceffity quit it, raife herself up, and pushing on, right or wrong, tranf+ port her man fo far out of his latitude, that afterwards he himself shall be aftonished at what he has done. As in war the heat of the battle often pushes the brave foldiers upon fuch hazardous exploits, that, when they come to recollect, they are the first who are aftonished at them. Poets alfo are often ftruck with admiration at their own works, and know not where again to find the track in which they performed fo happy a career, which, in them, is called rage and rapture; and, as Plato fays, that it is to no purpose for a fedate man to knock at the gates of poetry; and Ariftotle, that there is no great wit without a mixture of madness; fo all fallies, how commendable foever, which furpafs our own judgment and reafon, may well be called folly; forafmuch as himfelf by a kind of enthusiasm. * Aul. Gell. lib. ix. cap. 5. and Diog. Laert. in Vita Antifthenis, lib. vi. fect. 3. + Æneid. lib. iv. ver, 158, 159. Seneca de Tranquil litate Animi. wisdom wisdom is a regular management of our mind, which it conducts by rule and measure, and is refponfible for it to itself. Plato argues thus, that, the gift of prophecy being above our reach, we must be out of our fenfes when we meddle with it, and our prudence must be clouded either by fleep, or some disease, or lifted from its place by fome celestial rapture. CHA P. III. The Cuftom of the Ifle of Cea, in the Ægean Sea, or Archipelago. I F to philofophize be, as they fay, to doubt, much more ought my frolickfome and fanciful fpeculations to be termed doubting; for it is for learners to inquire and debate, and for thofe in the chair to determine. My moderator is the authority of the divine will, which regulates us without contradiction, and which is fuperior to fuch human and vain difputes. Philip being entered, with an armed force, into Peloponnefus, fomebody faid to Damindas, that the Lacedæmonians were like to fuffer a great deal, if they did not regain his favour. "You poltroon, " said he, what can they fuffer that are not afraid of "death?" The queftion being alfo put to Agis, "How Accidents worse to fuffer than death. a man might live free? By defpifing death, faid he." Thefe and a thousand other fayings, that are to be met with to the fame purpose, plainly hint fomething more than a patient waiting for death till it comes, for there are feveral accidents in life that are more intolerable than death; witness the Lacedæmonian lad, that was taken by Antigonus, and fold for a flave, who being commanded by his mafter to do fomething that was very mean, "Thou fhalt fee, faid the boy, whom thou haft bought; "it would be a fcandal for me to be a flave, when my + See the notable fayings of the Lacedæmonians, collected by Plutarch, under the word Damindas. Ibid. under the name of Agis. Plutarch, in the notable sayings In Timæus, ver. 543. of the Lacedæmonians. "liberty is in my power;" and, when he had fo faid, he threw himself from the top of the houfe. Antipater threatening the Lacedæmonians feverely, in order to force them to comply with a certain demand of his: "If thou* " doft threaten us with worse than death, faid they, we "fhall be the more willing to die." And when Philip wrote word to them, that he would fruftrate all their enterprises: "What! faid they, wilt thou alfo hinder us "from dying?" This is the meaning of that faying, "That the wife man lives as long as he ought, not as "long as he can;" and that the moft obliging prefent which nature has made us, whereby we are deprived of any colour to complain of our prefent condition, is in having left us the key to flip away. She has ordered but one paffage into life, but a hundred thousand ways out. We may be ftraitened for earth to live upon, but earth fufficient to die upon we can never want, as Boiocalus made answer to the Romans. Why doft thou complain of this world? It does. not detain thee: if thou liveft in pain, thy own cowardice is the cause of it; there remains no more to die but to be willing to do it: Several ways to get rid of life. Ubique mors eft: optime hoc cavit Deus, Eripere vitam nemo non homini poteft: At nemo mortem: mille ad hanc aditus patent . Tender of human woes, indulgent fate And any man that will, may yield his breath: There are a thousand ways that lead to death. Nor is this a recipe for one fingle difeafe only; death is the cure of all evils: "It is a moft affured port, which is "fometimes to be fought, and § never to be fhunned." It comes all to one, whether a man puts an end to himfelf, or fuffers death from the hand of another; whe Plutarch, in the notable sayings of the Ep. 70. Lacedemonians. § Senec. Ep. 70. + Senec. Senec. Thebais, A&t i. ¶ Id. 69. ther ther he runs off before his day, or whether he ftays till it arrives. From what quarter foever it come, he is still his own mafter; in what part foever the thread breaks, it is all over, there is the end of the clue. Death depend ent on the will. That is the beft death which a man chufes voluntarily; life depends on the will of another perfon, death upon our own: in nothing ought we fo much to please our own humours as in that. Reputation is not at all affected by fuch an undertaking, and it is a folly to have regard to it. To live would be bondage, were it not for the liberty of dying. The ordinary methods of cure are carried on at the expence of life. We are tormented with caustics, incifions, amputations of our members; our food, nay, our very blood is taken from us; one step farther, and we are cured indeed. Why is not the jugular vein as much at our difpofal as the median vein (of the arm)? Desperate difeafes require defperate remedies. When Servius the grammarian had the gout, he could think of no better remedy than to make an incifion in his feet, and to put poifon into the wound, not caring how gouty they were, provided they were infenfible of pain. God gives us leave enough, when he reduces us to fuch a condition that to live is worfe than to die. It is a weakness, indeed, to fuccumb under infirmities, but it is madness to nourish them. As I do not offend the laws against robbers, when I embezzle my own money, and cut my own purfe; nor that against incendiaries, when I burn my own wood; fo am I not under the lash of those made against murderers, for taking away my own life. Hegefias | faid, that the condition of death, as well as that of life, ought to be fubject to our own choice. And Speufippus § the philofopher, who had been long afflicted with the dropfy, and therefore used to be carried in a litter, meeting Diogenes, bid him " Good Senec. Ep. 70. Non opus elt vasto vulnere dividere præcordia. Scalpello aperitur ad illam magnam libertatem via; et puncto fecuritas conftat. Senec. Ep. 70. Servitius Claudius, of Rome, Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxv. cap. 3. and Suetonius de illuftribus Grammaticis, cap. 2. & 3. Diog. Laert. in the life of Aristippus, lib. ii. sect. 94. "morrow; 66 Suicide prohibited by God, and to be punished in the other world. "morrow;" but Diogenes faid, "No good morrow to you, who can bear to live in fuch a ftate." It is true, indeed, that, fome time after, Speufippus put himself to death, wearied out with fuch a painful condition of life. But this does not pass without being controverted: for it is the opinion of many, that we are not to quit the garrison of the world without the exprefs command of him who has placed us in it: that it appertains to God alone, who has fent us hither, not for our own fakes only, but for his glory, and the service of our fellow-crea tures, to difmifs us when it fhall beft please him, and that we are not to difmifs ourselyes; that we are not born for ourselves only, but for our country alfo, to the laws of which we are accountable, and by which there lies an action against us for murder: or, if these fail to lay hold of us, we are to be punished in the other world, as de ferters from our duty: Proxima deinde tenent mæfti loca, qui fibi lethum Projecere animas*. Next these the bodies of thofe men remain, Renounc'd their eye-balls, and refign'd their breath, There is much more conftancy in wearing the chain by which we are bound, than in breaking it; and Regulus gave a greater proof of fortitude than Cato. It is indifcretion and impatience that hurry us out of the world. True virtue turns its back to no accidents. It feeks for misfortune and pain, as its aliment. The menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures animate and rouze it : Duris ut ilex tonfa bipennibus, • Virg. Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 434, &c. † Hor. lib. iv. Ode 4. ver. 57, &c. That |