gave his Adversaries Opportunity to imprison, and put him to Death their own way. And that great Leader Demosthenes, after his Rout in Sicily, did the same; and C. Pembria', having struck himself too weakly, intreated his Servant to kill him outright. On the contrary, & Oftorius, who could not make Ufe of his own Arm, disdained to imploy that of his Servant to any other Ufe, but only to hold the Poniard straight and firm, whilst he run his Neck full drive against it, so that it pierced thro' his Throat. 'Tis, in Truth, a Morsel that is to be swallowed without chewing, and requires the Palate of an Oftridge; and yet Adrian, the Emperor, made his Physician mark and incircle, in his Pap, the very Place wherein the Man he had ordered to kill him, was to give the Stab. For this Reason it was, that Cafar, being asked, 'What Death he ' thought to be the most defired?' Made Answer, The • least premeditated, and the shortest ".' If Cæfar dared to say it, it is no Cowardice in me to believe it. A short • Death, says Pliny, is the Sovereign Happiness of Hu man Life.' They do not much care to own it: No one can fay, that he is refolved for Death, who boggles at it, and cannot undergo it with his Eyes open. They that we fee, in exemplary Punishments, run to their Death, hasten and press their Execution, do it not out of Resolution, but they will not give themselves Leisure to confider it; it does not trouble them to be dead, but to die. * Emori nolo, fed me effe mortuum nibili estimo '. i. e. To be dead is nothing to me; but I fear to die. 'Tis a Degree of Constancy, to which I know, by Experience, that I could arrive, like those who plunge themselves into Dangers, as into the Sea, with their Eyes shut. f Plutarch in the Life of Nicias, C. 10. Tacit. Annal. lib. xvi. Suet. in J. Cæfare, sect. 87. Nat. Hift. lib. vii. c. 53. There * Epicharmus, the Greek Philosopher, was the Author of the Verse, here translated, by Cicero, into Latin Profe. 1 Cic. Tufc. lib. i. c. 8. crates. There is nothing, in my Opinion, more illustrious, in the Life of Socrates, than that he had thirty The conftant whole Days wherein to ruminate upon the and refolute Sentence of his Death; to have digested it, Death of Soall that Time, with a most assured Hope, without Emotion, and without Alteration, and with Words and Actions rather careless and indifferent, than any Way stirred or discomposed by the Weight of such a Thought. That Pomponius Atticus, to whom Cicero writes The Death of so oft, being fick, caused Agrippa, his Son-in- Pomponius law, and two or three more of his Friends, to Atticus, by be called to him, and told them, ، That Fasting. having found all Means practised upon him, for his Recovery, to be in vain, and that all he did to prolong his Life, did also prolong and augment his Pain; he was • refolved to put an End both to one and the other, de firing them to approve of his Deliberation, or, at least, ' not to lose their Labour in endeavouring to diffuade ' him.' Now, having chosen to destroy himself by Abstinence, his Disease was accidentally so cured, and the Remedy he made Use of to kill himself, restored him to Health. His Physicians and Friends rejoicing at so happy an Event, and, coming to congratulate him, were, nevertheless, very much deceived, it being impossible for them to make him alter his Purpose; he telling them, • That, be it as it would, he must, one Day, die, ⚫ and that, being now so far on his Way, he would save ⚫ himself the Labour of beginning again another Time." This Man, having surveyed Death at Leisure, was not only not discouraged at meeting it, but fully bent on it : For being fatisfied, that he had engaged in the Combat, he thought he was obliged, in Honour, to see the End on't. 'Tis far beyond not fearing Death, to defire to taste and relish it. Cleanthes's The Story of the Philosopher Cleanthes is very like this. ■ He having his Gums swelled and rotten, • his Physicians advised him to great Abstinence: Having fasted two Days, he was VOL. II. ، Corn. Nepos, in the Life of Atticus. Cc Diog. Laert. in the Life of Cleanthes, lib. viii, sect, 176. die. fo 4 so much, that they pronounced him cured, and per'mitted him to return to his ordinary Course of Diet: • He, on the contrary, already tasting some Sweetness in this Faintness of his, would not be perfuaded to go ' back, but refolved to proceed, and to finish the Course he had fo far advanced in.' Tullius Marcellinus, a young Man of Rome, having a The refolute mind to anticipate the Hour of his Deftiny, Death of a in order to be rid of a Disease that was more young Roman. Trouble to him, than he was willing to endure; tho' his Physicians assured him of a certain, tho' not fudden Cure, called a Council of his Friends, to confult about it : Some, fays Seneca, gave him the Coun' fel, which, from Pusillanimity, they would have taken ' themselves; others, out of Flattery, prescribed what ' they thought he would best like: But a Stoic faid * thus to him: P Do not teaze thyself, Marcellinus, as if ' thou didst deliberate of a Thing of Importance; 'tis ' no great Matter to live; thy Servants and Beasts live; ' but it is a great Thing to die handsomely, wisely, and ' with Fortitude: Do but think how long thou hast done ' the fame Thing; eat, drink, and sleep; drink, sleep, ' and eat. We are incessantly wheeled round in one and ' the fame Circle; not only ill and insupportable Acci dents, but even the Satiety of living, inclines a Man to ' defire to die.' Marcellinus did not stand in Need of a Man to advise, but of a Man to assist him; his Servants were afraid to meddle in the Business: But this Philofopher gave them to understand, 'That Domestics are fuf pected, even when it is in Doubt, whether the Death of * the Master were voluntary, or no; otherwise, that it ' would be of as ill Example to hinder him, as to kill * him; forafmuch as, Invitum qui fervat, idem facit occidenti . i. e. Who makes a Man to live against his Will, The • Senec. Ep. 77- P Idem, ib. Horat. in Art. Poet. v. 467. The Stoic afterwards told Marcellinus, 'That it would not ' be indecent, as what is left on our Tables, when we have ' dined, is given to the Waiters, so, Life being ended, to ' distribute something to those who have been our Ser' vants.' Now Marcellinus was of a free and liberal Spirit; he therefore divided a certain Sum of Money among his Attendants, and made them easy. As to the rest, he had no Need of Steel, nor of Blood: He was resolved to go out of this Life, and not to run out of it; not to efcape from Death, but to try it: And, to give himself Leifure to parly with it, having forsaken all manner of Nourishment, the third Day following, when he had caused himself to be sprinkled with warm Water, he fainted by Degrees, and not without fome kind of Pleasure, as he himself declared. In Earnest, such as have been acquainted with these Faintings, proceeding from Weakness, do say, that they are therein sensible of no manner of Pain, but rather feel a kind of Delight, as in a Paffage to Sleep and Rest: These are Deaths studied and digested. But, to the End that Cato only may furnish out the whole Example of Virtue, it seems as if his Death bravely good Destiny had put his ill one into his confronted by Hand, with which he gave himself the Blow; Cato. seeing he had the Leisure to confront and struggle with Death, reinforcing his Courage in the highest Danger, instead of slackening it. And, if I had been to represent him in his loftiest Station, I should have done it in the Posture of one tearing out his bloody Bowels, rather than with his Sword in his Hand, as did the Statuaries of his Time: For this second Murder would have been much more furious than the first. CHAP. XIV. رو T 4 How the Mind How the Mind bampers itself. IS a pleasant Imagination, to fancy a Mind exactly balanced betwixt two equal Defires : * For, doubtless, it can never pitch upon either, forasmuch as the Choice and Application would manifest an Inequality of Value; and were we fet betwixt the Bottle and the Ham, Things indiffe- with an equal Appetite to Drink and to Eat, there would, doubtless, be no Remedy, but to die for Thirst and Hunger. To provide against this Inconvenience, the Stoics, when they are asked, Whence 'this Election in the Soul, of two indifferent Things, ' does proceed, (fo as, out of a great Number of Crowns, rather to take one than another, there being no Rea* fon to incline us to fuch a Preference)' make Answer, That this Movement of the Soul is extraordinary and 'irregular; that it enters into us by a strange, acciden• tal, and fortuitous Impulse.' It might rather, methinks, be faid, that nothing presents itself to us wherein there is not fome Difference, how little foever; and that, either by the Sight or Touch, there is always fome Choice, which, tho' it be imperceptibly, tempts and attracts us. Whoever likewise shall presuppose a Packthread equally strong throughout, it is utterly impossible it should break; for, where will you have the Fracture to begin? And that it should break all together is not in Nature. Whoever also should hereunto join the Geometrical Propositions, that, by the Certainty of their Demonftrations, conclude the Contained to be greater than the Containing, the Center to be as great as the Circumference, and that should find out two Lines incessantly approaching each other, with no Possibility of their ever meeting; and the Philofopher's Stone, and the Quadrature of the Circle, where Reason and the Effect are so oppofite, might, peradventure, draw fome Argument to prove it, to sup is determined in its Choice betwixt two vent. port |