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The Stoic afterwards told Marcellinus, That it would not ⚫ be indecent, as what is left on our Tables, when we have ⚫ dined, is given to the Waiters, fo, Life being ended, to ⚫ diftribute fomething to those who have been our Ser⚫ vants.' Now Marcellinus was of a free and liberal Spirit; he therefore divided a certain Sum of Money among his Attendants, and made them eafy. As to the reft, he had no Need of Steel, nor of Blood: He was refolved to go out of this Life, and not to run out of it; not to ef cape from Death, but to try it: And, to give himself Leifure to parly with it, having forfaken all manner of Nourishment, the third Day following, when he had caufed himself to be sprinkled with warm Water, he fainted by Degrees, and not without fome kind of Pleasure, as he himfelf declared. In Earneft, fuch as have been acquainted with thefe Faintings, proceeding from Weaknefs, do fay, that they are therein fenfible of no manner of Pain, but rather feel a kind of Delight, as in a Paffage to Sleep and Reft: Thefe are Deaths ftudied and digested.

Cato.

But, to the End that Cato only may furnish out the whole Example of Virtue, it seems as if his Death bravely good Destiny had put his ill one into his confronted by Hand, with which he gave himself the Blow; feeing he had the Leifure to confront and ftruggle with Death, reinforcing his Courage in the higheft Danger, inftead of flackening it. And, if I had been to represent him in his loftieft Station, I should have done it in the Pofture of one tearing out his bloody Bowels, rather than with his Sword in his Hand, as did the Statuaries of his Time: For this fecond Murder would have been much more furious than the firft.

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How the Mind

is determined in its Choice

betwixt two

Things indiffe

rent.

CHA P. XIV.

How the Mind bampers itself.

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IS a pleafant Imagination, to fancy a Mind exactly balanced betwixt two equal Defires: For, doubtlefs, it can never pitch upon either, forafmuch as the Choice and Application would manifeft an Inequality of Value; and were we fet betwixt the Bottle and the Ham, with an equal Appetite to Drink and to Eat, there would, doubtlefs, be no Remedy, but to die for Thirft and Hunger. To provide against this Inconvenience, the Stoics, when they are asked, Whence this Election in the Soul, of two indifferent Things, does proceed, (fo as, out of a great Number of Crowns, rather to take one than another, there being no Reafon to incline us to fuch a Preference)' make Answer, That this Movement of the Soul is extraordinary and irregular; that it enters into us by a ftrange, acciden⚫tal, and fortuitous Impulfe.' It might rather, methinks, be faid, that nothing prefents itself to us wherein there is not fome Difference, how little foever; and that, either by the Sight or Touch, there is always fome Choice, which, tho' it be imperceptibly, tempts and attracts us. Whoever likewife, fhall prefuppofe a Packthread equally ftrong throughout, it is utterly impoffible it should break; for, where will you have the Fracture to begin? And that it fhould break all together is not in Nature. Whoever alfo fhould hereunto join the Geometrical Propofitions, that, by the Certainty of their Demonftrations, conclude the Contained to be greater than the Containing, the Center to be as great as the Circumference, and that should find out two Lines inceffantly approaching each other, with no Poffibility of their ever meeting; and the Philofopher's Stone, and the Quadrature of the Circle, where Reafon and the Effect are fo oppofite, might, peradventure, draw fome Argument to prove it, to fup

port

port this bold Saying of Pliny, Solum certum nihil eft certi, et homine nibil miferius aut fuperbius. That it is only certain there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or proud than Man.

CHAP. XV.

That our Defires are augmented by the Difficulty of obtaining them.

HERE is no Reason that has not its contrary,

TH

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fay the Wisest of Philofophers. I fometimes 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 Lofs of which we are prepared: In æquo eft dolor amisse rei, et timor amittende; The Grief of having loft a Thing, and the Fear of lofing it, are equal. Meaning, by that, that the Fruition of Life cannot be truly pleafant to us, if we are in Fear of lofing it.

It might, however, be faid, on the contrary, that we grafp and embrace this Good the more clofely and affectionately, the lefs affured we are of holding it, and the more we fear to have it taken from us; for it is evident, that as Fire burns with greater Fury when Cold comes to mix with it, so our Wills are more sharpened by being opposed:

Si nunquam Danaen habuiffet ahenea turris,
Non effet Danae de Jove faila parens'.

i. e.

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, fo contrary to our Tafte as the Satiety which proceeds from Facility; nor any Thing that fo much whets it, as Rarity and DiffiCc3 culty.

Plin. lib. ii. c. 7

• Senec. Ep. 98,

Ovid. Am. lib. ii

El, 19. v. 27.

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culty. " Omnium rerum voluptas ipfo quo debet fugare peri-
culo crefcit. The Pleasure of every Thing increases by
the very Danger that fhould deter us from it.

Galla nega, fatiatur amor nifi gaudia torquent
i. e.

Galla deny, be not too eas'ly gain'd,

W

For Love will glut with Joys too foon obtain❜d.

To keep Love in Breath, Lycurgus made a Decree, that the married People of Lacedemonia fhould never enjoy one another, but by Stealth; and that it fhould be as great a Shame for them to be taken in Bed together, as with others. The Difficulty of Affignations, the Danger of Surprife, and the Shame of the next Day.

Et languor, et filentium,

Et latere petitus imo fpiritus *.

i. e.

The Languor, Silence, and the far-fetch'd Sighs.
These are what give the Haut-gout to the Sauce: How
many very wantonly pleafant Sports arife from the clean-
ly and modeft Way of speaking of the Works of Love?
The Pleasure itself feeks to be heightened with Pain: It
is much sweeter when it fmarts, and excoriates. The
Courtezan Flora faid, She never lay with Pompey, but
that she made him carry off the Prints of her Teeth.'

Quod petiere, premunt artè, faciuntque dolorem
Corporis, et dentes inlidunt fæpe labellis :
Et ftimulis fubfunt, qui inftigant lædere id ipfum
Quodcunque eft, rabies unde illa germina furgunt 2.

i. e.

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What they defir'd, they hurt, and, 'midft the Bliss,
Raise Pain; and often, with a furious Kifs,

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But ftill fome Sting remains, fome fierce Defire,
To hurt whatever 'twas that rais'd the Fire.

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And fo it is in every Thing: Difficulty gives all Things their Valuation. The People of the Marquifate of Ancona, moft chearfully make their Vows to St. James de Compostella, and thofe of Galicia to our Lady of Loretto; they make wonderful Boafts, at Liege, of the Baths of Lucca, and in Tuscany of those of the Spa: There are few Romans feen in the Fencing-School at Rome, which is full of French: The great Cato alfo, like we, was out of Conceit with his Wife while fhe was his, and longed for her when in the Poffeffion of another. I turned out an old Stallion into the Paddock, because he was not to be governed when he fmelt a Mare; the Facility presently fated him, with Regard to his own, but on the Sight of ftrange Mares, and of the first that paffed by his Pafture, he would again fall to his importunate Neighings, and his furious Heats, as before. Our Appetite contemns, and paffes by what it has in Poffeffion, to run after what it has not.

Tranfvolat in medio pofita, et fugientia captat.

i. e.

Thou fcorn'ft that Lass thou may'st with Eafe enjoy,
And court'ft thofe that are difficult and coy:
So (fings the Rake) my Paffion can defpife
An eafy Prey, but follows when it flies.

To forbid us any Thing, is to make us eager for it.
nifi tu fervare puellam
Incipis, incipiet definere effe mea.

i. e.

If thou no better guard that Girl of thine,
She'll foon begin to be no longer mine.

To give it wholly up to us, is to beget a Contempt of it in us: Want, and Abundance, relapfe into the fame

Inconvenience.

Tibi quod fupereft, mihi quod defit, dolet ‘.

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