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it must be acknowledged, that, in fuch Souls as thefe, there is fome Tranfport, fome Fury, be it ever fo divine. When we come to thefe Stoical Sallies, I had rather be mad than merry; a Saying of || Antisthenes, Maveínu μov ndeino. When Sextius tells us, that he had rather be chained to Pain than Pleasure: When Epicurus, under Pretence to be fond of the Gout, and refufing Health and Eafe, gaily defies Evils, defpifing the leffer Pains, as difdaining to contend and struggle with them, he defires and calls out for those that are acute, violent, and worthy of him:

Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis
Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem*.

i. e.

Impatiently he views the feeble Prey, Wishing fome nobler Beast to cross his Way; And rather waits the furious Boar to wound, Or fee the tawny Lion from the Hills rufh down. Who would not think that they are pushed on by a Courage broke loose from its Hold? Our Soul cannot reach so high from her own Seat; fhe muft of Neceffity quit it, raise herself up, and pushing on, right or wrong, transport her Man fo far out of his Latitude, that afterwards he himfelf fhall be aftonifhed at what he has done. As in War the Heat of the Battle often pushes the brave Soldiers upon fuch hazardous Exploits, that, when they come to recollect them, they are the firft who are aftonished Man fometimes raifed above at them: As alfo Poets are often struck with bimself by a Admiration at their own Works, and know kind of Enthu- not where again to find the Track in which fiafm. they performed fo happy a Career, which is alfo, in them, 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, as Ariftotle, that there is no great Wit without a Mixture of Madness, fo all Sallies, how commendable foever, which furpafs our own Judgment and Reason, may well be called Folly; forafmuch as Wisdom

Aul. Gell. lib. ix. c. 5. and Diog. Laert. in Vita Antifthenis, lib. vi.
Eneid. lib. iv. v. 158, 159. + Seneca de Tranquillitate

fect. 3.

Animi.

Wisdom is a regular Management of our Mind, which it conducts by Rule and Measure, and is refponfible for it to itfelf. Plato argues thus, that, the Gift of Prophecy being above our Reach, we must be out of our Senfes when we meddle with it, and our Prudence must be clouded either by Sleep, or fome Difeafe, or lifted from its Place by fome celeftial Rapture.

CHA P. III.

The Cuftom of the Ile of Cea, in the gean Sea, or Archipelago.

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Death.

F to philofophize be, as they fay, to doubt, much more ought my frolickfome and fanciful Speculations to be termed Doubting; for 'tis for Learners to inquire and debate, and for those 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 Accidents worfe entered, with an armed Force, into Peloponne- 10 Suffer than fus, fome-body faid to Damindas, that the Lacedemonians were like to fuffer a great deal, if they did not regain his Favour. You Poltroon, faid he, what can they Suffer that are not afraid of Death? The Question being alfo put to Agis, How a Man might live free? By § defpifing Death, faid he. These and a thoufand other Sayings, 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; witnefs the Lacedemonian Lad, that was taken by Antigonus, and fold for a Slave, who being commanded by his Mafter to do fomething that was very mean, Thou shalt fee, faid the Boy, whom | thou haft bought; it would be a Scandal for me to be a Slave, when my Liberty is

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* In Timæus, v. 543. collected by Plutarch, under the Word Damizdas.

of Agis.

| Plutarch, in the notable Sayings of the Lacedemonians.

Book II. in my Power; and, when he had fo faid, he threw himself from the Top of the Houfe. Antipater threatening the Lacedemonians feverely, in order to force them to comply with a certain Demand of his: If thou doft threaten us with worfe than Death, faid they, we shall 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 also binder us from dying? This is the Meaning of that Saying, That the wife Man lives as long as he ought, not as long as be can; and that the most obliging Prefent which Nature has made us, whereby we are deprived of any Colour to Several Ways complain of our prefent Condition, is in havto get rid of ing left us the Key to flip away. She has orLife. dered 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:

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Ubique mors eft: optime hoc cavit Deus,

Eripere vitam nemo non homini poteft :

At nemo mortem: mille ad banc aditus patent††.

i. e.

To Death a Man can never want a Gate,
God has provided very well for that;
There's not a Man upon the Earth but may
Take any Fellow-creature's Life away;

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: 'Tis a most affured Port, which is fome-
times to be fought, and never to be fhunned. It comes all
to one, whether a Man puts an End to himself, or suffers
it from § another; whether he runs off before his Day,

or

*Plutarch, in the notable Sayings of the Lacedemonians.
+ Senec. Ep. 70.
Tacit. Annal. lib. xiii. tt Senec. Thebais, Act i. Sc. 1. v. 151, &t.
Senec. Ep. 70. § Id. 69.

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or whether he stays till it come. From what Quarter foever it come, he is ftill his own Mafter; in what Part foever the Thread breaks, 'tis all over, there's the End of the Clue.

Will.

That is the best Death * which a Man chuses voluntarily Life depends on the Will of another Perfon, Death dependDeath upon our own: In nothing ought we ent on the fo much to please our own Humours as in that. Reputation is not at all affected by fuch an Undertaking, and 'tis 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 desperate 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 Poison 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. 'Tis a Weakness, indeed, to fuccumb under Infirmities, but 'tis Madness to nourish them. As I do not offend the Laws against Robbers, when I embezzle my own Money, and cut my own Purse; nor that against Incendiaries, when I burn my own Wood; fo am I not under the Lafh 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 subject 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 Morrow;

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Senec. Ep. 70.

Non opus eft vafto vulnere dividere præcordia. Scalpello aperitur ad illam magnam libertatem via; et puncto fecuritas conftat, Senec. Ep. 70.

Servius Claudius, of Rome, Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxv. c. 3. and Suetonius de

illuftribus Grammaticis, cap. z. & 3.

tt Diog. Laert. in the Life of Ariftippus, lib. ii. fect. 94.

Idem, in the Life of Spenfippus, lib. iv. fect. 3.

Morrow; but Diogenes faid, No Good Morrow to you, whe can bear to live in fuch a State. 'Tis true, indeed, that, fome Time after, Speufippus put himself to Death, wearied out with fuch a painful Condition of Life.

Suicide probibited by God, and to be punished in the sther World.

But this does not pafs without being controverted: For 'tis the Opinion of many, that we are not to quit the Garrifon 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 Sakes only, but for his Glory, and the Service of our Fellow-creatures, to difmifs us when it shall best please him, and that we are not to difmifs ourfelves: That we are not born for ourfelves 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 Deferters from our Duty:

Proxima deinde tenent mæfti loca, qui fibi lethum
Infontes peperere manu, lucemque perofi

Projecere animas *.

i. e.

Next these the Bodies of those Men remain,
Who Innocent, by their own Hands were flain;
And, hating Light, to voluntary Death

Eclips'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. 'Tis 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,
Nigra feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per cades, ab ipfo,
Ducit opes animumque ferro +.

i. e.

Virg. Æneid. lib. vi. v. 434, c. Hor. lib. iv. Ode 4. v. 57, Sr.

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