EPISTLE LVII. On Fear, and the Immortality of the Soul. WHEN I was obliged to leave Baie again for Naples, I eafily perfuaded myfelf, that we should meet with another ftorm, fo determined to go by land. But the roads were fo bad, and full of floughs, that I was as much rocked as if I had gone by fea (a). I underwent the whole ceremony of wrestlers (6); wanting neither the ceroma (anointing) nor the haphe (being Sprinkled over with duft), efpecially in the hollow way that leads to Naples. Nothing can be more tedious than travelling through that dungeon-like vale; nothing more difagreeable than the narrow paffage, which is darkness itself: fo that it was impoffible to fee our way or had the place admitted any light, the duft itself would have blinded us, which is troublesome enough in the high and open road; but what muft it be, when enclofed, without a breath of air to carry it off; and we only kick it up upon one another? Thus I say we were plagued with two contrary evils; and the fame road, on the fame day, covered us with mud and duft. Yet even this darkfome way yielded matter for reflection; I felt a certain stroke upon my mind, and a change, though without fear, which the novelty and hideousness of the place brought upon me. I am not speaking, Lucilius, as if this was applicable only to myself; who am far from pretending to a tolerable fufficiency, and much less to perfection; let it be applied to one, over whom Fortune hath loft all her power; and you will find that even such a one may be fenfible of an attack, and change his colour. For there are certain fenfations which even a virtuous man cannot avoid; as when Nature seriously reminds him of his mortality: wherefore his countenance occafionally puts on a gloomy forrow; he is ftartled with furprize; and his head as dizzy, as if he looked down into the deep from a lofty precipice. Now, this is not fear, but a natural affection, which Reafon itself cannot difcard (d). Whence it happens that fome brave men, who are ready to fhed their own blood in their country's caufe, yet cannot bear to fee the blood of another perfon; fome have even fwooned away at the fight of a fresli wound; and fome at the dreffing of an old and purulent fore; others had rather receive a ftroke from a fword, than fee one given. Therefore, as I said before, I felt a certain alteration, but no perturbation of mind. And now, as foon as the light began to break in upon us, I felt an alacrity, which came upon me, unthought of, uninvited: I began then to fay with myfelf; how ridiculous is it to fear any thing, more or less, when there is one common end of all? for what matter is it whether a man be killed by the falling of a tower, or of a mountain? it is still but death; nothing more: yet there are fome who are more afraid of one thing than another, tho' they are both alike fatal: fear is therefore more apprehenfive of the cause, than of the effect. You perhaps may think I am now speaking of those little Stoics, who suppose the foul of man, when violently preffed down by an enormous weight, cannot make its way any where, but is totally crushed and demolished, because it had not a free exit: no (c) fuch matter; they who advance this doctrine seem to me much mistaken: as the flame cannot be fuppreffed, but still flies round that which would prefs it down; and as the air is not hurt by any stroke you give it; nor indeed divided, but that by its elasticity pours back again upon the place it has quitted; fo the foul, which is of the finest and most subtile quality, cannot be surprised and crushed within the body, but by reafon of its fubtilty, breaks forth from whatever seems to overwhelm it. it As the lightning having darted its influence far and wide, returns through a small crevice; fo the foul which is far more fubtile than flame, takes its flight through every pore of the body. From whence arifeth a question concerning immortality: and this, you may be affured of, Lucilius, that, if it furvives the body, it can by no means perish, because it is not perishable: fince no immortality admits an exception, nor can any thing destroy what is naturally eternal (f) VOL. I. Dd ANNO (c) Crypta Neapolitana.] A dark way, cut through the mountain Poftlypo; by whom, or at what time is unknown: it is now about a mile long, leading to Naples. The windows, if there were any, might have been stopped up, by time and neglect in Seneca's days; but Alphonfus I. king of Navarre and Arragon, Ann. 1105, cut two new ones, and smoothed the road. (d) See this whole affair elegantly treated of in Agell. xix. 1. and more fully in Lipf. Manusu. iii. 7. Ep. 85. 116. (e) Lipfius does not recollect meeting with this ftoical pofition any where else but in Statius (Theb. VI.) where speaking of a miner, whom the earth fell in upon, and crufhed to death, he elegantly, as in general, fays, - jacet intus Obrutus; ac penitus fractum obductumque cadaver Indignantem animam propriis non reddidit aftris. Nor fuffer the indignant foul to rife From the deep load, and claim her native fkies. M. } The fame opinion was held concerning a perfon's being drowned. When (Virg. Æn. I. 95.) Eneas terrified at the approach of a dreadful storm at fea, fighed, not, as Servius obferves, for fear of death merely, but of fuch a death, as prevented the foul from making her escape and surviving the body for being of the fame quality with fire, it must neceffarily be extinguished by the furrounding Thus Homer, (Od. d. 511) defcribing the death of Ajax Oiliades, fays waters. And Seneca himself, (de ira iii. 19.) fpeaking of that haughty and moft inhuman tyrant, Caius Caligula, feems to lament the case of those, who were profcribed, more bitterly, forafmuch as Caius ordered all their mouths to be ftopped, at the execution, with a spunge, or part of their own clothes; What horrid cruelty! fays he, not to give the foul the liberty of departing, freely and naturally from the leathfome carcafe! but thefe are vulgar notions, built on too weak a foundation, to impofe upon the wifdom of Seneca; as is manifest from what follows,-they who advance this doctrine, &c. (f) Hoc quidem certè habe, fi (animus) superstes eft corpori, propter hoc illum nullo genere poffe perire, propter quod non perit. But various are the readings here; Lipfius is for discarding the fatter propter, or changing it for the adverb, propterea; whence Gronovius only strikes out the propter hoc ; and alludes to the foregoing opinion of fome Stoics, which Seneca thinks abfurd, unless it could be proved that the soul is mortal. Here we see our author, Seneca, like the greateft men among the ancients before him, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, &c. ftill wavering in his opinion concerning a future fate; yet they all feemed inclined to believe the affirmative; no wonder; for though the immateriality of the foul, (which none but a rank rank Atheist, or a modern P―y, would deny) is certainly a good argument for its immortality; as having no divisible parts, no contrary qualities, no principles of death and corruption in it, as our bodies, and other material compofitions have: yet this argument, ftrong as it is, is still subject to objections; as indeed all arguments are in these abstruse points, when drawn merely from the light of unaffisted reason: and this ferves greatly to enhance the Christian's obligation to his blessed Saviour; who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. As before mentioned, Ep. 54 (N. d.) EPISTLE LVIII. On the Poverty of the Latin Tongue. Of Genus, Species, Ideas, Being, and other Logical Terms. I NEVER yet well understood, before to-day, the great poverty of our language, and extreme want of words (a). There are a thousand things, Lucilius, when we are talking of Plato, which require names, but have them not; and fome which had names, but have now lost them, through a fcrupulous difguft: but who will allow disgust in a case of neceffity? the gad-fly, for inftance, which drives the cattle madding about the fields, and difperfeth them through the woods, was called by the Greeks, Oeftram, and by our ancestors Afilum, as appears from Virgil (G. 3. 147.) Eft lucos Silari juxta, ilicibufque virentem About th' Alburnian groves, with holly green Dd 2 This This flying plague to mark its quality, A fierce loud-buzzing breeze; their flings draw blood, And drive the cattle gadding through the wood. Dryden. I think he understood this word to be now loft. And not to detain you long, there were fome fimple words in ufe, as Cernere ferro (b), in Virgil, for which we now use the compound, decernere; and the use of the fimple feems to be loft; (12.709)-Stupet ipfe Latinus Ingentes genitos diverfis partibus orbis Inter fe coiïffe viros et cernere ferro. So they formerly faid, Juo (c), instead of Juffero: and in this likewife I would have you believe Virgil rather than take my bare word for it-Cætera qua Juffo, mecum manus inferat arma. 11. 467. I fay not this with an intention to fhew you, how converfant I am with the Grammarians, but that you may understand from hence, how many words, made ufe of by Ennius and Attius, are now grown obfolete; when even from Virgil, who is daily in the hands of every one, some word or other is continually loft. What means, you fay, this preamble? whither does it tend? I will tell you. I defire to make ufe of the word, Effentia (d), (Effence), whether it does or does not offend your ear: I have the authority of Cicero for it; and I think you will not dispute that being a rich one: but if you require a more modern example, I can produce you Fabian (f); that eloquent and graceful orator, fometimes fo very nice in the choice of his words, as to create difguft. For what must we do, my Lucilius? How otherwise fhall I exprefs the Greek word na, (i) fomething neceffary, comprehending nature, and the foundation of all things? I beg your permiffion therefore to ufe this word; and I will endeavour to be as fparing as poffible of fuch permiffion, and perhaps be contented with that alone. But be as kind, and eafy as you will, what will it fignify, if, after all, I cannot fufficiently exprefs the word in Latin, and therefore have started this quarrel with our tongue? And you will condemn the scantiness of it the more, when I tell you there is a word of one |