fame being told, that the people laughed at him, Perhaps, fays he, the affes laugh at them; now I xo more mind the people than they do the affes.

(e) " Popularity, if purchased at the expence of base condefcenfion to the vices or follies of the people, is a difgrace to the possessor: but when it is the juft and natural refult of a laudable and patriotic condúc, it is an acquifition which no wife man will ever contemn. Cic. Læl. p. 93.

I have made bold to give another turn to this sentence, and to leave to the enlightened Stoic bis,

Ut fine metu deorum hominumque vivas; ut aut vincus mala, aut finias. "The Stoics, through/a

an affectation of greatnefs of mind, deftroyed, as far as in their power, the influence of fear in mortals, by taking away the fear of the gods, of pain, fickness, difgrace and death; which tends to fubvert one of the main principles of government, both human and divine.-It is evident, that this is one way by which the Author of Nature defigned Mankind fhould be governed, viz. by fear; which gives force to the fanctions of law, and without which they would have fmall effect. See Leland. II. 9.

EPISTLE XXX.

On the Contempt of Death.

I HAVE feen Bassus Aufidius (a), a very excellent man, shaken, and ftruggling with age: but now he is too low to be ever raised. Old age preffeth him down with all its weight: you know, Lucilius, he was always of a weak, and confumptive conftitution: he has fuftained it a long while, or rather patched it up, but now can hold out no longer.— As in a fhip, by the help of a pump, a leak or two is easily-remedied; but when it begins to be shattered, and to gape in many places, all remedies are applied in vain: fo, an old and crazy body may for a while be fupported, and propped up; but when, as in an old edifice the joyces are all ftarted, and, as foon as one crevice is clofed, another breaks out, nothing can be done, but patiently to wait its fall (b).

This is the fruit of

Our Baffus however is ftill chearful in mind. philofophy: it makes a man brave in every habit of body; in the fight of death easy and chearful; and not faint-hearted, though in full decay. (c) A fkilful pilot still navigates the ship, though the fails be rent, and

keeps

adınit

keeps on his course with such broken tackling as the storm has left him. Thus does our Baffus; he looks upon his end with such a steady mind and countenance, that was he to look fo upon the end of another man, you would think he had loft all feeling. This, Lucilius, is a great virtue, and, however neceffary, not foon or eafily learned,-when the inevitable hour is come, to depart without murmur or regret. Other kinds of death admit of hope to the laft: a disease may be got over; a fire be extinguished; a falling house hath thrown, on one fide, those, whom it was likely to have crushed in pieces: the sea hath cast some safe afhore, at the instant it was like to swallow them up: the foldier has withdrawn the fword from the neck of thofe he was about to kill: but they, whom extreme age is conveying to death, have no refource; no interceffion can be of fervice here. And though it be a longer fort of death, there is none more mild and gentle. Our Baffus feems to attend, and, as it were, inter, himself (d); nay, to live as if he had survived himself, and without concern made a report of his own deparFor he talks much of death, and this continually; in order to perfuade us, that whatever inconvenience or fear, there may be in this matter, it is the fault of the perfon dying, not of death; is no more trouble in it, than after it, [to a good man.] for a man to fear what he cannot be fenfible of, as to never happen: for can a man think, that he fhall be ever fenfible of that, which deprives him of all fenfation, [fuppofing that Death did fo?] Therefore, fays he, Death is fo far beyond every evil, that it is beyond all fear of evil. I know these things are often faid, and cannot be faid too often; but neither when I have read them, had they fo good an effect upon me; nor when I have heard them from those who, when they spoke of them, were in no danger themselves of the things which they told us we ought not to fear.

ture.

and that there

It is as absurd fear what will

But Basus had authority, when he spake of approaching death. For I will freely tell you my mind: a man is generally more brave at the very point of death, than when it is at fome distance from him: for Death, juft at hand, hath given courage enough even to the unlearned, not to think of escaping what is inevitable. So the gladiator who was afraid

of

of death during the combat, yields his neck to his victorious adversary,
and even guides the point of his fword to the moft mortal place. But
the death which is not so near but that it gives us leisure to see it advan-
cing towards us, requires a more compofed firmnefs of mind; which is
very rare, nor can be attained but by a wife man.
I most attentively
therefore heard Baffus paffing sentence upon death, and, as upon a nearer
inspection, giving an account of it) No doubt was one to rife from the
dead and inform you upon his own experience, that there was no evil
in death, he would find more credit, and have greater weight with you ;
yet what terror is to be apprehended at the approach of death, they can
well inform you who have stood near it; who have feen it coming, and
gave it welcome.

Among these you may reckon Baffus; who would by no means deceive us; and he fays that a man is as great a fool who fears Death, as he that fears old age; for as old age follows manhood, Death follows old age. He should not defire to live, who is afraid to die. Life is given us on thefe conditions; it is the path that neceffarily leads to Death: how ridiculous therefore to fear it! Things doubtful are to be feared; things certain are to be expected. Equal and alike invincible is the neceffity of death to all who then can complain of not being exempt? The first part of equity, is equality. But it is idle to pretend to plead the cause of Nature, who would not have our condition to differ from her own: whatever the hath framed, she breaks, and in time diffolves; and whatever the hath broken and diffolved, fhe frames anew. Now if any one

is so happy as to be gently taken off by old age; not fuddenly torn from life; but having ftolen away (g) gradually by an eafy decay: furely he hath great reason to thank all the gods; that, being full of days, he now retires to rest, so neceffary to man, fo.grateful to one that is weary and fatigued.

You fee fome wishing for death, and indeed with more earnestness than others wish for life. I know not which to think will infpire us with a nobler mind; they who wish for and demand death, or they who chearfully and contentedly wait its coming: the former fometimes happens

from

to receive and gé

from fuddden indignation or a fit of paffion; but the latter is a tranquillity founded on reason and found judgment (b): it is common to receive death angrily; no one receives him chearfully but fuch as have been a long while prepared for his coming.

I confefs therefore I made frequent vifits to my dear old friend; to know whether I fhould find him ftill the fame, or whether the vigour of his mind decayed with the ftrength of his body: but I found it rather encreased (i), like the joy of a racer, when, in the seventh and laft round, he drew near the prize. He said indeed that conforming himself to the precepts of Epicurus, he from the first had no great apprehenfions of pain at the last moment; or, if it was fo, his comfort was, it could be but short; as no pain can last long that is exquisite ; and still a greater comfort, that if in the feparation of foul and body, there must be torture, he had no reason to fear any other pain after that: yet that he did not doubt but that the foul of an old man was just fitting, as it were, upon his lips, and had no need of being forced from him by a painful violence: the fire that meets with fuel, must be extinguished by water, and fometimes not without the fall of the house: but where fuel is wanting, it goes out of itself. I am attentive, Lucilius, to thefe things, not as if they are new to me, but as what I must foon make proof of myself. What then? Have I not feen many forcibly breaking the thread of life? Indeed I have: but I efteem them more, who welcome death, not out of any hatred, or indignation to life; and who rather receive him as a vifiter, than force him to them.

Baffus moreover faid, that it was entirely from ourselves that we were tortured with the apprehenfion of death's being near: for to whom is he not near, being ready to ftrike in all places, and at every moment? But let us confider, fays he, even then, when there is an apparent cause of death, fome caufe may be nearer, which we do not dread. An enemy has threatened fome one with death, and behold a fudden indigeftion prevents the fword. the sword. If we were to distinguish the causes of our fear, we should find that fome are real, and others only imaginary. We fear not Death, but only the thoughts of Death: for we are not further VOL. I.

from

from it at one time than another; fo that if Death is to be feared, he is always to be feared: for, what hour is exempt from death?—But I am afraid you should hate so long an Epistle worse than death; and therefore shall conclude with this caution; The best way, never to fear Death, is to be often thinking of it (k).

ANNOTATIONS, &c.

(a) Bafus, an eminent hiftorian in the time of Auguftus and Tiberius.

(b) Circumfpiciendum eft, quomodo exeas. The Stoic again, according to cuftom. See the laft Note in the foregoing Epistle. And I cannot but think that Seneca himself hath fufficiently contradicted that favourite tenet in this Epiftle; as when he commends the fkilful pilot for endeavouring to work his ship, and keep on his courfe, though the vessel is almost a wreck: and in what follows with regard to Hope, and the extraordinary escapes from danger and death. Vid. infr. (N. h. i.) Ep. 24. (c) "Let us fence against phyfical evil by care, and the ufe of thofe means which experience "must have pointed out to us: let us fence against moral evils by philofophy.-We may, nay (if we "will follow Nature, and do not work up imagination against her plainest dictates) we shall of course "grow every year more indifferent to life, and to the affairs and interests of a system out of which we "are foon to go. The decay of passion strengthens philofophy."-Bolingbroke, Lett. 47. (d) Sc. componere] Thus Horace (Sat. I. 9. 27.)

Haud quifquam; omnes compofui.—

Not one (remains)—I saw them all by turns
Securely fettled in their urns.-Francis.

(e) The belief of a particular providence indeed is founded on fuch probable reasons as juftly to demand our affent: and to prefume, in this our imperfect ftate, to point out any particular inftances of an immediate divine interpofition, would be meer weakness and folly. (See Fitzofborne's Lett. 48.) Yet the paffage before us in Seneca was exemplified in fo extraordinary a manner, fome years ago, in my neighbourhood, that to fome at leaft the hand of providence could not but be manifeftly vifible. I mean in the prefervation of two young gentlemen, (the fons of Sir Richard Mill, Bart.) and others of the fame fchool at Kensington; when, in a high wind, November 1, 1740, part of the house fell, and the Rev. Mr. Dorman, the worthy master, (æt. 42) and his amiable and industrious confort (æt. 38) were both killed: and of the two young gentlemen beforementioned, one, who was, in turn, attending on Mr. Dorman, was thrown out of the room, as by report, rolled up in the carpet; and the other, who was ftanding by Mrs. Dorman, was thrown down into the cellar, and dug out of the ruins, both unhurt. And the rest of the young gentlemen, near fixty in number, it being Saturday, were happily in the yard at play; who, with the reft of the family within, received no injury. See the excellent Preface to Mr. Dorman's pofthumous Sermons.

(f) Was one to rife from the dead] Whatever effect this might have had upon Lucilius; of the Jew, and unbelieving Christian we are told by divine authority, that if they bear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither would they believe, though one rofe from the dead. Luke 16. 31.

(g) Minutatim fubductum. See Ep. 26. (N. b) Alexis, the comic poet, when he was decrepit and could fcarce crawl along, being asked, vì notes; How do you do? or, what are you doing? anfwered, Kara oriv ätodviona, I am dying leifurely. (Stob. Serm. 115.)

4

(b) Founded