again, and it will always be the fame Thing over and ⚫ over again. Verfamur ibidem, atque infumus ufque *. i. e. We yearly tread but one perpetual round, We ne'er strike out, but beat the former Ground. Atque in fe fua per veftigia volvitur Annus +. i. e. And the Year rolls within itself again. 'I am not determined, continues Nature, to contribute any new Recreations for you. ، Nam tibi præterea quod machiner, inveniamque Quod placet nihil eft; eadem funt omnia femper ‡. i. c. 'Make Room for others, as others have done for you. Equality is the Soul of Equity . Who can complain of ♦ being under the fame Destiny with all his Fellow-Creatures? Befides, live as long as you can, you will there by not at all fhorten the Space of Time that you are to lye dead in the Grave; it is all to no Purpose: you will 'be every Whit as long in that Situation which you fo 'much dread, as if you had died at the Breast. 6 ·licet quot vis vivendo vincere fecla, Mors æterna tamen, nihilominus illa manebit §. i. e. And yet I will place you in fuch a Condition as you 'fhall not be diffatisfied with; In vera nefcis nullum fore morte alium te Qui poffit vivus tibi te lugere peremptum. Stanfque jacentem ¶. i. e. When dead, a living Self thou canst not have, Nor fhall you fo much as wifh for the Life you are fo • much concerned for. Nec fibi enim quifquam tum fe vitamque requirit, Nec defiderium noftri nos afficit ullum *. i. e. Life, nor ourselves we wifh in that Estate, Death is lefs to be feared than nothing, if there was any Thing lefs than nothing. -multo mortem minus ad nos effe putandum, Si minus effe poteft quam quod nihil effe videmus †. i. e. Neither can it any Way concern you, whether living or dead: Not living, because you ftill exift; nor dead, be'cause you are no more. Moreover, no one dies before his Hour; and the Time you leave behind was no more your's, than that which was paft and gone before you was born ; nor does it any more concern you. Refpice enim quam nil ad nos antealta vetuftas Temporis æterni fuerit t. i. e. Look back, and tho' Times paft eternal were, 'Let your Life end where, or when it will, it is all in'cluded in Eternity. The Benefit of Life confifts not in the Space, but the Ufe of it. Such a one may have 'lived a long Time, who yet may be faid to have enjoyed ་ but a fhort Life. Give Attention to Time while it is present with you. It depends upon your Will, and not upon the Number of Years that you have lived long enough. Do you think never to arrive at the Place to'wards which you are continually going? And yet there is no Road but hath its End. And if Company will make it more pleafan", does not all the World go the felf fame Way as you do? Lucrét. lib. iii. v. 932, 935. G 4 omnia omnia te vita perfun&ta fequentur *. i. e. All the World in Death must follow thee. Does not all the World dance the fame Brawl that you do? Is there any Thing that does not grow old as well < as you ? A thousand Men, a thousand Animals, and a thoufand other Creatures die at the fame Inftant that you expire. Nam nox nulla diem, neque noctem aurora fecuta eft, Ploratus, mortis comites, et funeris atri †. No Night fucceeds the Day, nor Morning's Light To what End do you endeavour to avoid Death, unlefs it was poffible for you to evade it? You have seen Inftances enough of thofe to whom it has been welcome, as it has put an End to their great Mifery. Have you 'talked with any to whom it has therefore been unwelcome? It is very foolish to condemn a Thing which you have not experienced, neither yourself, nor in the Perfon of any other. Why (fays Nature) doft thou complain of me ' and Destiny? Do we wrong thee? Is it for thee to govern us, or for us to difpofe of thee? Tho' thy Age may not be accomplished, yet thy Life is. A little Man is as entirely a Man as a Giant; neither Men nor their Lives Immortality re- are measured by the Ell. Chiron refused to fufed by Chi- be immortal, when he was acquainted with ron, and why. the Terms upon which he was to enjoy it, by his Father, Saturn the very God of Time, and its "Duration. Do but seriously confider, how much more in'tolerable and painful a Life would be, which was to laft ⚫ for ever, than that which I have given thee. If Death was not to be your Lot you would eternally curfe me for having deprived 6 * Lucret. lib, üi. v. 981. + Ibid. lib. ii. v. 579, 580. deprived you of it. I have, it is true, mixt a little Bitternefs with it, to the End, that when you have per'ceived the Conveniency of it, you might not embrace it too greedily and indifcreetly: And that you might be eftablished in this Moderation which I require of you, neither to fly from Life nor Death, I have tempered 'both with Bitter and Sweet. I taught Thales, the chief ' of all your Sages, that either Life or Death was indifferent; fo that, when one asked him, Why then did he not die? he answered very wifely, because it was a Matter of Indifference. Water, Earth, Air, and Fire, and the other 'Members of this my Structure, are no more the Inftru'ments of thy Life than of thy Death. Why art thou afraid of thy laft Day, which conduces no more to thy Diffolution, than any before it. The laft Step is not the Caufe of Laffitude, but only the Discovery of it. Every Day travels towards Death, thy laft only arrives at it.' Thus far the good Leffons of our Mother Nature. Why Death appears to us lefs dreadful in the Field of Battle than in our own Houses. I have often confidered with myself whence it fhould proceed, that, in the Field of Battle, the Image of Death, whether we view it in our own Danger of it, or in that of others, is not near fo dreadful as in our own Houses, (which if it were not Fact, they would be a Pack of whining Milk-föps) and that Death having always the fame Afpect, yet it meets with more Courage in Peasants, and Men of low Rank, than in others. I really believe, that the difmal Air and Apparatus, with which we fet it out, more terrifies us than the Thing itfelf. A new Manner of Life quite contrary to the former; the Cries of Mothers, Wives and Children; the Vifits of aftonished, afflicted Friends, the Attendance of pale and blubbering Servants, a dark Room with burning Wax Tapers in it, our Beds furrounded with Phyficians and Parfons; in short, nothing but Ghaftliness and Horror about us, make Men fancy themselves already dead and buried t. 'Children are afraid of their very Friends when they fee them mafqued, and fo are we ourselves. The Vizor must be • taken * Seneca, epift. 120. + Ibid. epift. 24. Book I. • taken off as well from Things as Perfons. And when that is taken off, we fhall find nothing underneath but the very fame Death which a Footman or a Chamber-maid fuffered the other Day without any Fear. Happy therefore is that Death which does not give Time to make such a pompous Apparatus. Of the Effects of Imagination. CHA P. XX. Of the Power of Imagination. F Ortis Imaginatio generat cafum; a strong Imagination begets Accidents, fays the Schoolmen. I am one of thofe who are fenfible of the very great Power of Imagination. Every one is joftled, and fome are overthrown by it. Its Impreffion pierces me, and for Want of Strength to refift it, I have no Recourse to Art to escape it. The Company of those that are healthy and chearful is all that I wish for. The very Sight of another Perfon's Anguifh gives me fenfible Uneafinefs, and I often fympathize with a third Perfon. A perpetual Cough in another tickles my Lungs and Throat. I more unwillingly vifit the Sick, to whom I am in Duty bound, than thofe for whom I have lefs Concern and Regard. I take Poffeffion of the Disease, which ingroffes my Attention, and lay it to Heart, and do not at all wonder that Fancy fhould give Fevers, and fometimes Death, to thofe who give it Scope and Applaufe. Simon Thomas was a great Phyfician of his Time: I remem ber, that meeting me one Day at Thouloufe, at the House of a rich old Man who was troubled with bad Lungs, and confulting him about the Remedies for his Cure, he told his Patient, that one Thing would conduce to it, namely, to give me fome Caufe to be fond of his Company; and that by fixing his Eyes on the Freshnefs of my Complexion, and his Imagination upon the abundant Sprightliness and Vigour of my Youth, and poffeffing all his Senfes with that florid State of Body which I then enjoyed, his Conftitution might be the better for it; but he forgot to fay that |