out of this life, and not to run out of it; not to escape from death, but to try it: and, to give himself leisure to parley with it, having forsaken all manner of nourishment, the third day following, when he had caused himself to be sprinkled with warm water, he fainted by degrees, and not without some kind of pleasure, as he himself declared. In earnest, such as have been acquainted with these faintings, proceeding from weakness, do say, that they are therein sensible of no manner of pain, but rather feel a kind of delight, as in a passage to sleep and rest: these are deaths studied and digested. confronted But, to the end that Cato only may furnish out Death the whole example of virtue, it seems as if his good bravely destiny had put his ill one into his hand, with which by Cato. he gave himself the blow; seeing he had the leisure. to confront and struggle with death, reinforcing his courage in the highest danger, instead of slackening it. And had I been to represent him to the greatest advantage, I would have done it in the posture of one tearing out his bloody bowels, rather than with his sword in his hand, as did the statuaries of his time for this second murder would have been much more furious than the first. CHAPTER V. How the Mind hampers itself. termined in IT is a pleasant imagination, to fancy a mind ex-How the actly balanced between two equal desires: for, mind is de doubtless, it can never pitch upon either, as the its choice choice and application would manifest an inequality between of value; and were we set between the bottle and indifferent. the ham, with an equal appetite to drink and to eat, there would be no remedy, but to die for thirst two things swer, and hunger. To provide against this inconvenience, the Stoics, when they are asked, "Whence proceeds "this election in the soul of two indifferent things "(so as, out of a great number of crowns, rather "to take one than another, there being no reason "to incline us to such a preference);" make an"That this movement of the soul is extraor"dinary and irregular; that it enters into us by a "strange, accidental, and fortuitous impulse." It might rather, methinks, be said, that nothing presents itself to us wherein there is not some difference, how little soever; and that, either by the sight or touch, there is always some choice, which, though it be imperceptibly, tempts and attracts us. Whoever likewise shall suppose a packthread equally strong throughout, it is utterly impossible it should break; for, where will you have the fracture to begin? And that it should break altogether is not in nature. Whoever also would hereunto join the geometrical propositions, that, by the certainty of their demonstrations, conclude the contained to be greater than the containing, the centre to be as great as the circumference, and that should find out two lines incessantly approaching each other, with no possibility of their ever meeting; and the philosopher's stone, and the quadrature of the circle, where reason and the effect are so opposite, might, peradventure, draw some argument to prove it, to support this bold saying of Pliny:* Solum certum nihil est certi, et homine nihil miserius aut superbius: "That "it is only certain there is nothing certain, and "that nothing is more miserable or proud than man." *Plin. lib. ii. cap. 7. CHAPTER VI. That our Desires are augmented by the Difficulty of obtaining them. 66 THERE is no reason that has not its contrary, say the wisest of philosophers. I sometimes ruminate on the excellent saying urged by one of the ancients for the contempt of life; "No good can bring pleasure, unless it be that for the loss of "which we are prepared:" In æquo est dolor amissæ rei, et timor amittenda :* " The grief of having "lost a thing, and the fear of losing it, are equal." Meaning, by that, that the fruition of life cannot be truly pleasant to us, if we are in fear of losing it. It might, however, be said on the contrary, that we grasp and embrace this good the more closely and affectionately, the less assured we are of holding it, and the more we fear to have it taken from us; for it is evident, that as the fire burns with greater fury when cold mixes with it, so our wills are more sharpened by being opposed: Si nunquam Danaen habuisset ahenea turris, A brazen tow'r if Danae had not had, She ne'er by Jove had been a mother made. And that there is nothing, in nature, so contrary to our taste as the satiety which proceeds from facility; nor any thing that so much whets it, as rarity and difficulty. Omnium rerum voluptas ipso quo debet fugare periculo crescit : " The pleasure of every thing increases by the very danger that "should deter us from it." Galla nega, satiatur amor nisi gaudia torquent.§ * Senec. ep. 98. +Ovid. Am. lib. ii. el. 19, ver. 27. Sen. de Ben. lib. vii. cap. 9. § Mart. lib. iv. epig. 38. Galla deny, be not too eas❜ly gain'd, For love will glut with joys too soon obtain❜d. To keep love in breath, Lycurgus made a decree, that the married people of Lacedæmonia should never enjoy one another, but by stealth; and that it should be as great a shame for them to be taken in bed together, as with others. The difficulty of assignations, the danger of surprise, and the shame of the next day: Et languor, et silentium, Et latere petitus imo spiritus,* The languor, silence, and the far-fetch'd sighs. These are what give the haut-gout to the sauce: how many very wantonly pleasant sports arise from the cleanly and modest way of speaking of the works of love? The pleasure itself seeks to be heightened with pain it is much sweeter when it smarts and excoriates. The courtezan Flora said, "She "never lay with Pompey, † but that she made him 66 carry off the prints of her teeth." Quod petiere, premunt arctè, faciuntque dolorem But still some sting remains, some fierce desire, And so it is in every thing: difficulty gives all things their value. The people of the marquisate of Ancona, most cheerfully make their vows to St. James de Compostella, and those of Galicia to our lady of Loretto; they make wonderful boasts, at Liege, of the baths of Lucca, and in Tuscany of *Hor. Epod. ode xi. ver. 13. + Plutarch, in the Life of Pompey, cap. 1. those of the Spa: there are few Romans seen in the fencing-school at Rome, which is full of French: the great Cato also, like us, was out of conceit with his wife while she lived with him, and longed for her when in the possession of another. I turned out an old stallion into the paddock, because he was not to be governed when he smelt a mare; the facility presently sated him, with regard to his own, but on the sight of strange mares, and of the first that passed by his pasture, he would again fall to his importunate neighings, and his furious heats, as before. Our appetite contemns and passes by what it has in possession, to run after what it has not; Transvolat in medio posita, et fugientia captat.* Thou scorn'st that lass thou may'st with ease enjoy, And court'st those that are difficult and coy: So (sings the rake) my passion can despise An easy prey, but follows when it flies.+ To forbid us any thing, is to make us eager for it; Nisi tu servare puellam Incipis, incipiet desinere esse mea.‡ If thou no better guard that girl of thine, To give it wholly up to us, is to beget a contempt of it in us: want and abundance are attended with the same inconvenience; Tibi quod super est, mihi quod desit, dolet.§ And what I want, and pant for, troubles me. Desire and fruition equally afflict us: the coyness of mistresses is disagreeable, but facility, to say truth, is more so; as discontent and anger spring from the esteem we have of the thing desired; love warms and *Horat. lib.. i. sat. 2, ver. 108. + Mr. Francis. 12 |