8. Gifts external to the soul are the gifts of chance or of fortune, whereas nobody is just or temperate from fortune, or in virtue of his fortune. 9. The real treasure is that laid up by man or woman Through charity and piety, temperance and selfcontrol; The treasure thus hid is secure, and passes not away; 10. Though he leave the fleeting riches of this world, this a man takes with him— A treasure that no wrong of others and no thief can steal. Let the wise man do good deeds,-the treasure follows of itself. 11. Externals are not in my power; will is in my power. Where shall I seek the good and the bad? Within, in the things which are my own. 12. But in what does not belong to thee, call nothing either good or bad, or profit or damage or anything of the kind. 13. The condition and characteristic of a fool is this: he never expects from himself profit nor harm, but from externals. 14. A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine, and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition towards him? 15. All good things are given, over and above, to him who desires but righteousness. To be disinterested is to be strong, and the world is at the feet of him whom it cannot tempt. THE INDEPENDENCE OF VIRTUE 16. There is no terror in your threats, For I am armed so strong in honesty, 17. Virtue may be assailed but never hurt, Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 18. The brave makes danger opportunity : 19. What men call luck Is the prerogative of valiant souls, The fealty life pays its rightful kings. 20. Our valours are our best gods. For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave. 21. A ruddy drop of manly blood 22. 23. The surging sea outweighs. Thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, The soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man Commands all light, all influence, all fate; CHAPTER XCI NO EVIL CAN BEFALL A GOOD MAN IN DEATH 1. I have seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood, and, at first, it was fair as the morning, and full with the dew of heaven, as LIKE A FLOWER a lamb's fleece; 2. But when a ruder breath had dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness, and to decline to softness and the symptoms of a sickly age: 3. It bowed the head and broke its stalk; and, at night, having lost some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of weeds and outworn faces. 4. The same is the portion of every man and every woman. 5. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 6. Man born of woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth and never continueth in one stay. 7. The days of man's age are threescore years and ten; and though man be so strong that they come to four score years; yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away and we are gone. 8. Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun shall see no more In all his course: nor yet in the cold ground, Thy image. 9. And who shall remember thee when thou art dead? 10. Death is the end of all, and man's life suddenly passeth away like a shadow. THE SUDDENNESS 11. Some have been paying their vows, and giving thanks for a prosperous return to their house, and the roof hath descended upon their heads, and turned their loud religion into the deeper silence of a grave. 12. How often dost thou hear these reports: such a man is slain, another man is drowned, this man died eating and that man playing; 13. One perished by fire, another by the sword, another of the plague, another was slain by thieves. 14. If at any time thou hast seen another man dic, make account that thou also must pass the same way. 15. If it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. 16. Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills. 17. For such as it is to be and to grow old, THE NATURALNESS OF DEATH and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have teeth and beard and grey hairs, and to beget and to be pregnant and bring forth, and all the other natural operations which the seasons of thy life bring, such also is dissolution. 18. This then is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the processes of nature. 19. Let us prize death as the best gift of nature, As a safe inn, where weary travellers, When they have journeyed through a world of cares, May put off life and be at rest forever. 20. It seemeth to me that most of the doctrines of the philosophers are more fearful and cautionary than the nature of things requireth. So have they increased the fear of death in offering to cure it. 21. For when they would have a man's whole life to be but a discipline or preparation to die, they must needs make men think that it is a terrible enemy, against whom there is no end of preparing. 22. The free man thinks of nothing so little as of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not of LIFE death but of life. THINK ON 23. That love of action which would put death out of sight is to be counted good, as a holy and healthy thing, necessary to the life of men, serving to knit them together and to advance them in the right. 24. But be thou in readiness, so lead thy life that death may never find thee unprepared. |