(c) Thus Horace, Ep. I. 1. 38. Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinofus, amator, The flave to envy, anger, wine or love, The wretch of floth, its excellence fhall prove.Francis. Out of the heart proceed evil (d) The imagination of man's thoughts, &c. Matth. 15. 19. Ceafe to do evil, learn to do well, &c. If. 1. 16. (e) Virtue, fays Socrates, like truth, admits not either addition, or diminution. Epp. 74. 75. Lipf. Manud. III. Diss. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 11. () See Epp. 92. 95. EPISTLE LI. Such Places are to be avoided as effeminate the Mind. EVERY one muft do as they can, my Lucilius: it is your lot to be near Etna, that celebrated mountain of Sicily; which I am furprized that Meffala and Valgius fhould take to be the only one of the kind, for so they both write; whereas vulcanos are to be feen, not only in high places (where indeed they are more frequent, as it is the nature of fire to afcend) but also in the low: for our part, we must be content with Baia (a); though, I own, I was induced to leave the place the day after I came thither: a place, not the more to be defired because nature hath endowed it with certain qualities, which the voluptuous take delight in, and the luxurious have made their theme of praise. No; And what then? Is any place to be cried down at pleasure? but as one dress is more becoming to a wife and good man than another; nor has he an averfion to any particular colour, but that he thinks fome one lefs decent for a man who profeffes frugality; fo there may be a country, which a wife man, or one in purfuit of wifdom, may difapprove 4 of, of, as tending to the corruption of good morals: thinking therefore on a place of retirement, he would never fix upon Canopus (b), (though as diffolute a place as it is, it hinders no one from being fober and temperate) nor on Baia, now become the very hoftrie of vice: where luxury takes her full fwing; and the people, as if by permiffion, grow more and more diffolute: whereas would we live happy, we should refort to a place, that is not only productive of health for the body, but conducive also to found morals. As I would not live among the executioners; so neither would I live in a tavern or a cook's-fhop. Is there any neceffity for feeing men drunk and reeling about the streets; or hearing the riotings of failors; and the lakes refounding with loose fongs, and concerts of mufick; with many the like entertainments; which luxury, as if altogether lawless, not only offends in, but makes public profeffion of. It is our business to fly as far as poffible from all allurements to vice: the mind is to be withdrawn from the foft blandishments of pleasures, and inured to hardships. One winter-quarters pulled down the ftrength of Hannibal; and the delights of Campania quite enervated that great man, who was impenetrable to the cold and deep fnows of the Alps: he conquered in arms, but was conquered by luxury and vice. Our condition likewife is a warfare (d), and fuch a one wherein no reft, no leisure-time is allowed. Pleasures in the first place are to be subdued; which (as you fee) have drawn in the most favage tempers. If any one fhould propofe to task himself, let him know, that nothing is to be done of a foft and delicate caft. What have I to do with warm baths or hot houfes, where the reeky air exhausts the juices of the body (e)? If I muft fweat, let it be by exercise. Were we to do as Hannibal did; and, during the interruption in the course of affairs, or in the time of a truce, give up ourselves to the pampering the body; no one would unjustly reprehend such an indulgence, dangerous to a conqueror, much more to him who hopes to conquer. We are not allowed fo much liberty as those who followed the Carthaginian ftandard: more danger remains for us, if we yield; and even more work, if we perfevere in duty. Fortune wages perpetual war against me; I have no mind to yield; I take not her yoke upon me; nay, nay, what requires still greater courage and virtue; when impofed upon me, I throw it off; the mind is not to be thus fhattered with delicacies. If I yield to pleasure, I must submit to pain, to trouble, to poverty: ambition would claim the fame right over me; and alfo anger: I fhall be distracted with a fad variety of paffions, nay, torn in pieces. Liberty is propofed to me; this is the prize to be contended for: do you afk, what is liberty (f)? it is to be a flave to nothing; not even to neceffity, or accidents; to bring fortune to reafon; from the day that I was fenfible of my fuperior power, fhe could do nothing; and fhall I fuffer her to triumph over me, while my mind is ftill free (g)? To a man reflecting on these things no places are proper but such as are serious and facred: too much pleasantnefs effeminates the mind; and no doubt but fome climates more than others corrupt the internal vigour of the foul. Any road is tolerable to our pack-horses, whose hoofs are hardened and grown callous, by travelling in rough and craggy ways; while fuch as are fed in foft and marshy pastures are foon fretted and worn out. The hardships of a country life (as in the Highlands) generally make better foldiers (b) than the idle and tender breeding of the city. The hands that are transferred from the plough to the pike refuse no labour: the fpruce and well-oiled boxer gives out at the first onfet: it is the more fevere difcipline of the place that ftrengthens the difpofition, and renders it fit for great enterprizes. Scipio (i) thought Linternum a more proper place for his voluntary banishment than Baia: his fall was not to be fo pleafantly accommodated. And those great men whom fortune had raised to the highest honours, and conferred on them the treasures of Rome, Caius Marius, Cneius Pompeius, and Cæfar, (k) built themselves indeed country-feats, in the Baian territory, but they placed them on tops of hills: this feemed more foldier-like, to live, as it were, in a watch-tower, that commanded the country far and wide. Behold what fituations they chofe; in what places they raised their buildings; and what manner of edifices they preferred! you would not call them villas but fortreffes. Do you think Cato would have chose some pleasant shore for his dwelling-place, that he might count the harlots as they failed by, and fee variety of pinnaces painted with VOL. I. divers A a divers colours; or a lake ftrewed over with flowers; or to have heard the nocturnal revels of jovial fongfters? Had he not rather, do you think, remain within the trenches (/), than spend a night amidst such merriment ()? Who that is a man, had not rather be awakened with the found of the trumpet calling to arms, than with a midnight ferenade! We have quarrelled long enough with Baia; but never can enough with our vices; which I befeech you, my Lucilius, to perfecute everlaftingly throw away from you every thing that tears the heart; and if you cannot otherwife get rid of it, fpare not the heart itself (n). But especially diflodge pleasures; and have as great spite against them as against the thieves, whom the Egyptians call Philetas (0), who hug that they may trip up, and embrace, in order to strangle us. (a) Baia, a city of Campania, near the fea, fituated between Puteoli and Misenum, famous for its warm baths from whence it is fuppofed all other baths of the like kind are called Baiæ. Nullus in orbe finus Baiis prælucet amoenis.-Hor. Ep. I. 1. 83. Canopus, a city in Egypt, 12 miles from Alexandria. It was built by Menelaus in memory of his pilot Canopus who died there; and wherein he left all his men who were unfit for fervice.- -Where the fores, fays Strabo, inceffantly refound, night and day, with the noife of pipes and feafting, in all manner of luxury and intemperance, among both men and women, on shipboard: fo that Canopea luxuria was become a proverb. Erafm. Adag. p. 1346. Prodigia et mores urbis damnante Canopo.-Juv. VI. 84. Luxuriâ quantum ipfe notari Barbara famofo non cedit turba Canopo. Id. XV. 45. (c) Livy 23, 18. Itaque quos nulla mali vicerat vis, perdidêre nimia bona ac voluptates immodica; et eo impenfiùs quo avidiùs ex infolentiâ in eas fe immerferant, &c. And thus, they, whom no hardships, no forces in the field had conquered, were destroyed by luxury and voluptuousness, to which fatal evils the more they were ftrangers, the more eagerly they plunged themfelves into them. (α) Στρατεία τίς ἐστιν ὁ βιος ἑκαστα και αυτή μικρά και, ποικίλη. various. Epit. III. 24. The weapons of our warfare, fays St. Paul, towards God, to the pulling down of strong holds, &c. 2 Cor. 10. 4. a good fight, &c. 2 Tim. 4, 7. See alfo Ep. 6. 14. 17. Life is a warfare long and are not carnal, but mighty And of himself, I have fought (e) In fudoribus---corpora exhaufturus.] Ep. 108. Decoquere corpus atque exinanire fudoribus,---inutile fimul delicatumque credimus. Suppofing it to be a nice and ufelefs cuftom to feeth the body, and weaken the folids by extravagant fweating. (f) Epic IV. 21. Sen. Ep. 75. (g) Ego illam feram, cum in manu mors fit.] I am again, you fee, obliged to give another turn to the fentence, in order to avoid the horrid ftoicifm, fo often advanced in thefe Epistles, and yet so often refuted by Seneca himself. (i) I must beg leave here to transcribe, at least an abstract of the character of this great man (often mentioned in thefe Epistles), as most elegantly drawn up by Mr. Melmoth in his Cato (or Cicero on old age) N. 27. "The military talents of the first Scipio Africanus, although in no refpect excelled by any of the most famous captains, in Roman or Grecian annals, were by no means fuperior to the more amiable virtues of his heart." And to crown all, this illuftrious Roman was impressed with a strong sense of religious duties, and a firm belief of a fuperintending providence.---But “the important fervices he had rendered his country, in conjunction with those eminent private virtues which he had upon every public occafion difplayed, feem to have given him fuch an afcendancy in the state, as to have raifed, in fome of the most diftinguifhed patriots of that age, a ftrong jealousy of his credit and power."---And accordingly " they commenced a prosecution against him.”---But Scipio," instead of vindicating his character from the charges of his impeachment, treated the accufation with difdain; and refusing to comply with the fummons for his appearance, withdrew to his villa at Linternum,---by a fort of voluntary exile ;---where he spent the remainder of his days, amufing himself in the cultivation of his farms, and without discovering the leaft regret at being. excluded from a scene, in which he had figured with fo much honour to himself, and advantage to his country." See Epift. 86. (k) Viam mifeni propter et villam Cæfaris, quæ fubjectos finus editiflima profpectat. Tac. Ann. 14. 9. The wretched Agrippina, mother to Nero, from the benevolence of her domestics, received a flight and vulgar grave, upon the road to Cape Mifenum, adjoining to a villa of Cæfar's the Diator; which from its elevated station overlooks the coafts and bays below. (1) Among the various readings here I have followed Gronovius ; in actâ. Baias, actas, convivia, commiffationes. Cic. pro Cato.---Et in actâ cum fuis accubuiffet. Cornel. Nep. (m) Quàm unam noctem inter talia duxiffe] al. Quod (vallum) in una nocte manu fuâ ipfe duxiffet. So, the old English, which in one night's space he had digged and caused to be inclofed. (n) If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and caft it from thee, &c. Matth. 5. 29. 18. 8 Mark, 9, 47. See Ep. 71, 8. (0) Philetus] qu. Kiffers. a Gr. v, ofculari, amplecti. Ο'ς γε γυναικὶ πεποιθε, πεποιθ ἔγε φιλητη. Hef. 4. 373. Too fatirical on the fair fex to be tranflated! Hefychius. Φιλήτης, Κλεπάλης ληστης, fur, latro. |