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will lend him his extraordinary Hand; he shall exalt himself, by abandoning and renouncing his own proper Means, and by suffering himself to be raised and elevated by Means purely Celestial: It belongs to our Christian Faith, and not to Seneca's Stoical Virtues, to pretend to this divine and

miraculous Metamorphofis.

W

CHAP. XIII.

Of judging of the Death of another.

HEN we judge of another's Courage in Death. which, without Doubt, is the most remarkable Action of human Life, we are to take Notice of one Thing, which is, that Men very hardly believe themselves to be arrived to that Period. Few Men die with an Affurance that it is their last Hour, and there is nothing wherein the Flattery of Hope does more delude us. never ceases to whisper in our Ears, Others No very refo• have been much ficker without dying; my lute Assurance • Condition is not so desperate as 'tis thought,

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and, at the worst, God has wrought other of Death. • Miracles.' This happens, by reason that we fet too much Value upon ourselves. It seems, to us, as if the Universality of Things were, in some Measure, to fuffer by our Annihilation, and that it did commiferate our Condition. Forasmuch as our depraved Sight represents Things to itself after the fame manner, and that we are of Opinion, they stand in as much Need of us, as we do of them; like People at Sea, to whom Mountains, Fields, Cities, Heaven and Earth are tossed at the fame Rate as they are :

Provehimur portu, terræque urbesque recedunt.

i. e.

Out of the Port, with a brisk Gale we speed,
Advancing, while the Shores and Towns recede.

Æneid. lib. iii. v. 72.

Who

Who ever saw an old Man, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present Time, laying the Fault of his Misery and Discontent upon the World, and the Manners

of Men?

:

Famque caput quassans grandis fufpirat arator,
Et cum tempora, temporibus præfentia confert
Præteritis, laudat fortunas fæpe parentis,

Et crepat antiquum genus ut pietate repletum.

i. e.

Now the old Ploughman sighs, and shakes his Head, And, present Times comparing with those fled,

His Predecessors Happiness does praise,

And the great Piety of that old Race.

1

We draw all Things along with us; whence it follows, The important that we confider our Death as a very great Confequences Thing, and that does not so eafily pass, nor Men are apt to without the folemn Consultation of the Stars: afcribe to their Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos; as if Death. there was a Rout among fo many of the

Gods about the Life of one Man, and the more we value ourselves, the more we think fo. • What! shall fo much • Knowledge be loft, with so much Damage to the World, ' without a particular Concern of the Destinies? Does so

rare and exemplary a Soul cost no more the killing, ' than one that is vulgar, and of no Ufe to the Public ? 'This Life that protects so many others, upon which fo 4 many other Lives depend, that imploys so vast a Num'ber of Men in his Service, and that fills so many Places; ' shall it drop off like one that hangs but by its own fin* gle Thread?' None of us lays it enough to Heart, that we are but one. Thence proceeded these Words of Cæfar to his Pilot, more tumid than the Sea that threatened him.

-Italiam fi calo authore recusas,...
Me pete: Sola tibi caufa hæc est justa timoris,
Vectorem non nosse tuum, perrumpe procellas
Tutela fecure mei

+ Lucrets lib. ii. v. 1164. u Lucan. lib. v. v. 579.

i. e.

If thou to fail to Italy decline
Under the Gods Protection, trust to mine;
The only just Cause that thou hast to fear,
Is that thou dost not know thy Passenger;
But I being now aboard, tho' Neptune raves,
Fear not to cut thro' the tempestuous Waves.

And these,

- credit jam digna pericula Cæfar
Fatis effe fuis: Tantusque evertere (dixit)
Me fuper labor est, parvâ quem puppe sedentem,
Tam magno petiere mari —".

i. e.

These Dangers, worthy of his Destiny,
Cafar did now believe, and then did cry,
What, is it for the Gods a Task so great
To overthrow me, that, to do the Feat,
In a poor little Bark they must be fain
Here to surprise me on the swelling Main ?

The Sun's

And that idle Fancy of the Public, that the Mourning for
Sun mourned for his Death a whole Year;

Ille etiam extincto miseratus Cæfare Romam,
Cùm caput obfcurâ nitidum ferrugine texit *.

i. e.

the Death of
Cæfar.

The Sun, when Cafar fell, was touch'd for Rome

With tender Pity, and bewail'd its Doom.

and a thousand of the like kind, wherewith the World suffers itself to be so easily imposed upon, believing, that our Interests alter the Heavens, and that they are concerned at our minute Actions. Non tanta Cælo focietas nobiscum est, ut nostro fato mortalis fit illi quoque fiderum fulgor. There is no such Partnership betwixt us and Heaven, that the Brightness of the Stars should decay by our Death.

Now,

w Lucan. lib. v. v. 653, . Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. ii. c. 8.

* Virg. Georg. lib. i. v. 460,

i

What we ought

Now, to judge of the Constancy and Resolution of a Man, that does not yet believe himself to be certainly in Danger, tho' he really is, is no Reafon; and 'tis not enough, that he dies in this Proceeding, unless he did purposely put himself upon it for this End. It commonly

to judge of the Fortitude of many who have

put themselves

to Death.

falls out, in most Men, that they fet a good Face upon the Matter, and speak big, to acquire a Reputation, which they hope also, whilst living, to enjoy. Of all that I have feen die, Fortune has disposed their Countenances, and not their Design; and even of those who, in ancient Times, have dispatched themselves, 'tis much to be noticed, whether it were a sudden, or a lingering Death. That cruel Roman Emperor, would say of his Prisoners, That he would make them feel Death; and if any one killed himself in Prison, That Fellow, faid he, has escaped from me. He was prolonging Death, and making it felt by Torments.

Vidimus et toto quamvis in corpore caso,
Nil anime lethale datum moremque nefande
Durum sevitia, pereuntis parcere morti".

i. e.

And in tormented Bodies we have seen,
Amongst those Wounds none that have mortal been ;
Inhuman Method of dire Cruelty,
That means to kill, yet will not let Men die!

In plain Truth, it is no such great Matter, for a Man in Health, and in a fettled Frame of Mind, to resolve to kill himself; it is very easy to boaft before one comes to the Push: Infomuch that Heliogabalus, the most effeminate Man in the World, amongst his most sensual Pleafures, contrived to make himself die delicately, when he should be forced to it. And, 'that his Death might not

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give the Lye to the rest of his Life, had purposely built • a sumptuous Tower, the Front and Base whereof was ' covered and laid with Planks enriched with Gold and • precious Stones, thence to precipitate himself; and alfo • caused • caused Cords, twisted with Gold and Crimson Silk, to • be made, wherewith to strangle himself; and a Sword, • with the Blade of Gold, to be hammered out to fall upon; and kept Poison in Vessels of Emerald and Topaz, • wherewith to poison himself, according as he should like

z Lucan. lib. ii. v. 178, &c.

* Æl. Lamprid. p. 112, 113. Hift. Auguft.

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to chuse either of these Ways of Dying.'

Impiger, et fortis virtute coatta.

i. e.

By a forc'd Valour refolute and brave.

Yet, as for this Person, the Effeminacy of his Preparations makes it more likely, that his Heart would have failed him, had he been put to the Test. But in those who, with great Resolution, have determined to dispatch themselves, we must examine, whether it were with one Blow which took away the Leisure of feeling the Effect : For it is to be questioned, whether perceiving Life, by little and little, to steal away, the Sentiment of the Body mixing itself with that of the Soul, and the Means of repenting being offered, whether, I say, Constancy and Obstinacy, in so dangerous a Will, is to be found.

The Cowardice
of Domitius,
and others,
who seemed re-
folved to put
themselves to
Death.

In the Civil Wars of Cafar, Lucius Domitius, being taken in Abruzzo, and thereupon poisoning himself, afterwards repented of it. It has happened, in our Time, that a certain Perfon being refolved to dispatch himself, and not having gone deep enough at the first Thrust, the Sensibility of the Flesh repulsing his Arm, he gave himself three or four Wounds more, but could never prevail upon himself to thrust home. Whilst & Plantius Sylvanus was upon his Trial, Virgulantia, his Grandmother, sent him a Poniard, with which, not being able to kill himself, he made his Servants to cut his Veins. • Albucilla, in Tiberius's Time,

having, to kill himself, struck with too much Tenderness, gave

Lucan. lib. iv. v. 798. Edit. Grov. in Octavo.

Plutarch in the Life of Julius Cafar, C. 10.

Tacit. Annal. lib. iv.

• Idem, ibid. lib. vi.

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