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it must be acknowledged, that, in such Souls as these, there is fome Transport, some Fury, be it ever so divine. When we come to these Stoical Sallies, I had rather be mad than merry; a Saying of || Antisthenes, Μανείην μᾶλλον ἢ ἡθείην. When Sextius tells us, that he had rather be chained to Pain than Pleasure: When Epicurus, under Pretence to be fond of the Gout, and refusing Health and Ease, gaily defies Evils, despising the lesser Pains, as disdaining to contend and struggle with them, he defires and calls out for those that are acute, violent, and worthy of him:

Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis
Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem *

i. e.

Impatiently he views the feeble Prey,
Wishing fome nobler Beast to cross his Way;
And rather waits the furious Boar to wound,
Or fee the tawny Lion from the Hills rush down.

Who would not think that they are pushed on by a Cou-
rage broke loose from its Hold? Our Soul cannot reach fo
high from her own Seat; she must of Neceffity quit it,
raise herself up, and pushing on, right or wrong, transport
her Man fo far out of his Latitude, that afterwards he him-
self shall be astonished at what he has done. As in War
the Heat of the Battle often pushes the brave Soldiers upon
such hazardous Exploits, that, when they come to recol-
Man Sometimes lect them, they are the first who are aftonished
raised above at them: As also Poets are often struck with
himself by a Admiration at their own Works, and know
kind of Enthu- not where again to find the Track in which
fiafm.
they performed so happy a Career, which is
alfo, in them, called Rage and Rapture: And, as Plato
says, † that it is to no Purpose for a fedate Man to knock at
the Gates of Poetry: And, as Aristotle, that there is no
great Wit without a Mixture of Madness, fo all Sallies,
how commendable soever, which furpass our own Judg-
ment and Reason, may well be called Folly; forasmuch as
Wisdom

Aul. Gell. lib. ix. c. 5. and Diog. Laert. in Vita Antisthenis, lib. vi. * Æneid. lib. iv. v. 158, 159. † Seneca de Tranquillitate

fect. 3. Animi.

2

Wisdom is a regular Management of our Mind, which it conducts by Rule and Measure, and is responsible for it to itself. Plato * argues thus, that, the Gift of Prophecy being above our Reach, we must be out of our Senses when we meddle with it, and our Prudence must be clouded either by Sleep, or some Disease, or lifted from its Place by fome celestial Rapture.

CHAP. III.

The Custom of the Isle of Cea, in the Ægean Sea, or Archipelago.

I

F to philosophize be, as they say, to doubt, much more ought my frolicksome and fanciful Speculations to be termed Doubting; for 'tis for Learners to inquire and debate, and for those in the Chair to determine. My Moderator is the Authority of the Divine Will, which regulates us without Contradiction, and which is superior to such human and vain Disputes. Philip being Accidents worfe entered, with an armed Force, into Peloponne- 10 fuffer than fus, some-body faid to Damindas, that the La- Death. cedemonians were like to fuffer a great deal, if they did not regain his Favour. You Poltroon, faid he, what can + they fuffer that are not afraid of Death? The Question being also put to Agis, How a Man might live free? By § despising Death, said he. These and a thousand other Sayings, that are to be met with to the fame Purpose, plainly hint something more than a patient waiting for Death till it comes, for there are several Accidents in Life that are more intolerable than Death; witness the Lacedemonian Lad, that was taken by Antigonus, and fold for a Slave, who being commanded by his Master to do something that was very mean, Thou shalt fee, faid the Boy, whom || thou hast bought; it would be a Scandal for me to be a Slave, when my Liberty is C 4

)

in

* In Timæus, v. 543. + See the notable Sayings of the Lacedemonians, collected by Plutarch, under the Word Damirdas. ibid. under the Name of Agis. || Plutarch, in the notable Sayings of the Lacedemonians.

in my Power; and, when he had so said, he threw himself
from the Top of the House. Antipater threatening the La-
cedemonians severely, in order to force them to comply with
a certain Demand of his: If thou* dost threaten us with worse
than Death, faid they, we shall be the more willing to die. And
when Philip wrote Word to them, that he would frustrate
all their Enterprises: What! said they, wilt thou also hin-
der us from dying? This is the Meaning of that Saying,
That the wife Man lives as long as he ought, not as long + as
be can; and that the most obliging Present which Nature
has made us, whereby we are deprived of any Colour to
Several Ways complain of our present Condition, is in hav-
to get rid of ing left us the Key to flip away. She has or-
Life.
dered but one Passage into Life, but a hundred
thousand Ways out. We may be straitened for Earth to
live upon, but Earth sufficient to die upon we can never
want, as Boiocalus || made Answer to the Romans. Why dost
thou complain of this World? It does not detain thee :
If thou livest in Pain, thy own Cowardice is the Cause
of it; there remains no more to die but to be willing to
do it:

Ubique mors eft: optime boc cavit Deus,
Eripere vitam nemo non homini poteft :
At nemo mortem : mille ad hanc aditus patenttt.

i. e.

To Death a Man can never want a Gate,
God has provided very well for that;
There's not a Man upon the Earth but may
Take any Fellow-creature's Life away;
And any Man that will, may yield his Breath;
There are a thousand Ways that lead to Death.

Nor is this a Recipe for one single Disease only; Death is the Cure of all Evils: 'Tis a most assured Port, which is fometimes to be fought, and never to be shunned. It comes all to one, whether a Man puts an End to himself, or fuffers it from § another; whether he runs off before his Day,

or

† Senec. Ep. 70.

* Plutarch, in the notable Sayings of the Lacedemonians. || Tacit. Annal. lib. xiii. †† Senec. Thebais, Act i. Sc. 1. v. 151, τ. Senec. Ep. 70.

Id. 69.

2

:

or whether he stays till it come. From what Quarter soever it come, he is still his own Master; in what Part soever the Thread breaks, 'tis all over, there's the End of the Clue.

ent on the

1

That is the best Death * which a Man chuses voluntarily, Life depends on the Will of another Person, Death dependDeath upon our own: In nothing ought we so much to please our own Humours as in Will. that. Reputation is not at all affected by such an Undertaking, and 'tis a Folly to have Regard to it. To live would be Bondage, were it not for the Liberty of Dying. The ordinary Methods of Cure are carried on at the Expence of Life. We are tormented with Caustics, Incifions, Amputations of our Members; our Food, nay, our very Blood is taken from us; one Step + farther, and we are cured indeed. Why is not the jugular Vein as much at our Disposal as the median Vein (of the Arm) ? Desperate Difeases require desperate Remedies. When Servius the Grammarian || had the Gout, he could think of no better Remedy than to make an Incision in his Feet, and to put Poifon into the Wound, not caring how gouty they were, provided they were insensible of Pain. God gives us Leave enough, when he reduces us to fuch a Condition that to live is worfe than to die. 'Tis a Weakness, indeed, to fuccumb under Infirmities, but 'tis Madness to nourish them. As I do not offend the Laws against Robbers, when I embezzle my own Money, and cut my own Purse; nor that against Incendiaries, when I burn my own Wood; so am I not under the Lash of those made against Murderers, for taking away my own Life. Hegefias ++ said, that the Condition of Death, as well as that of Life, ought to be subject to our own Choice. And Speusippus ** the Philofopher, who had been long afflicted with the Dropsy, and therefore used to be carried in a Litter, meeting Diogenes, bid him Good Morrow;

* Senec. Ep. 70.

+ Non opus eft vasto vulnere dividere præcordia. Scalpello aperitur ad illam magnam libertatem via; et puncto fecuritas conftat, Senec. Ep. 70.

Servius Claudius, of Rome, Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxv. c. 3. and Suetonius de

illuftribus Grammaticis, cap. 2. & 3.

++ Diog. Laert. in the Life of Aristippus, lib. ii. sect. 94.

** Idem, in the Life of Speusippus, lib. iv. fect. 3.

.

Morrow; but Diogenes faid, No Good Morrow to you, who can bear to live in fuch a State. 'Tis true, indeed, that, fome Time after, Speusippus put himself to Death, wearied out with fuch a painful Condition of Life.

But this does not pass without being controverted: For 'tis the Opinion of many, that we are not to quit the Garrison of the World without the express Command of him who has placed us in it: That it appertains to God alone, who has

Suicide probibited by God, and to be punished in the sther World.

fent us hither, not for our own Sakes only, but for his Glory, and the Service of our Fellow-creatures, to dismiss us when it shall best please him, and that we are not to dismiss ourselves: That we are not born for ourselves only, but for our Country also, to the Laws of which we are accountable, and by which there lies an Action against us for Murder: Or, if these fail to lay hold of us, we are to be punished in the other World, as Deferters from our Duty:

Proxima deinde tenent masti loca, qui fibi lethum
Infontes peperere manu, lucemque perofi

Projecere animas *.

i. e.

Next these the Bodies of those Men remain,
Who Innocent, by their own Hands were slain;
And, hating Light, to voluntary Death
Eclips'd their Eye-balls, and resign'd their Breath.

There is much more Constancy in wearing the Chain by which we are bound, than in breaking it; and Regulus gave a greater Proof of Fortitude than Cato. 'Tis Indiscretion and Impatience that hurry us out of the World. True Virtue turns its Back to no Accidents. It feeks for Misfortune and Pain, as its Aliment. The Menaces of Tyrants, Racks, and Tortures animate and rouze it :

Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus,
Nigra feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per cades, ab ipfo,
Ducit opes animumque ferrot.

* Virg. Æneid. lib. vi. v. 434s &c. + Hor. lib. iv. Ode 4. v. 57, 5.

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