the facrifice. frugality and temperance are, no doubt, the great prefervatives of old age; which, as I think it is not greatly to be coveted, is not to be refused (x): it is pleasant to dwell as long as poffible with one's felf; especially when a man has rendered himself worthy of selfenjoyment. Therefore let us examine this point (y): whether it be right to disdain the extremities of old age, and not wait the issue, but forcibly clofe the scene. He is not far from a coward, who chufes to linger out his fate; as a man must be a fot, who drains the pitcher, and drinks up the very dregs; yet this muft likewife be enquired into; whether the laft stage of life can properly be called the dregs (x); and whether it may not be the most pure, and clearest part of it, at least if the intellect hath received no injury; and the fenfes, ftill perfect, entertain the mind; or the body hath no paralytic disorder, or other extraordinary defect: but there is fome difference between a man's prolonging his life, or his death: for if the body is become useless, and incapable of its functions, why should any one defire to retain the reluctant foul? Perhaps it ought to be let loofe, before it comes to this pass, left you should not then be able to do it, when you were fo inclined. If there is greater danger of living wretchedly than of dying foon, I should think him a filly man, who would not ftand the chance of fo great a benefit, at the expence of a few days. Few come to their death-bed, even in very old age, without having received fome injury: a liftlefs indolence of no fervice to itself or others hath affected many: how then can you think it hard or cruel to lofe fomething of life, were it to be put an end to? Hear me not with regret, as if this my opinion had any reference to you; but weigh well what I fay. I will not quarrel with, or forfake, my old age, fo long as it preferves me whole to myfelf; I mean whole in that better part of me, the mind. But if it hath begun to impair my understanding, and to dull my fenfes; if it hath fcarce left any life, but a foul only, I fhould gladly leap out of fuch a rotten and ruinous tenement (aa): neither would I feek death, to efcape a difeafe, provided it were curable, and not prejudicial to the mind: nor fhould pain alone, make me have recourfe to violence; for, fo to die would be to own myfelf myfelf conquered; but if I know I must for ever suffer such a violent disease (bb); I should desire to go, not on account of the disease, but because it proved a let or hindrance to the enjoyment of every thing for which we live. He is a weak man and a coward who dies for fear of pain; and he is a fool, who chufes to live in the certain fufferance of it. But I grow tedious; tho' I have matter enough on this fubject to fpin out the whole day. And how can he pretend to talk of putting an end to his life who knows not how to put an end to an epiftle? So, farewell. Which I fancy you had rather read, than a discourse concerning nothing but death. ANNOTATIONS, &c. (a) Quanta verborum nobis paupertas, imò egeftas fit. So Pliny (Ep. IV. 18.) Inopiâ ac potius ut Lucretius ait, hac egeftate patrii fermonis,-And by the want, or rather the poverty of our native tongue. Orrery. Where I would chufe, by his Lordship's leave, to transpose the words want and poverty; as the former is by much the ftronger word. Ep. 17. Non est quod paupertas nos a philofophiâ revocet, nec egeftas quidem. A man may be poor, and yet not in want. Non eft paupertas, Neftor, habere nihil. Martial. The words referred to in Lucretius are, Nunc et Anaxagoræ fcrutemur Homœomeriam By copious Greece, term'd Homcomery ; For which our Latin language, poor in words, The like in III. 260— Abstrahit invitum patrii fermonis egeftas. Fain would I give the caufe, was not my song } (b) Cernere ferro. Servius acknowledgeth, and confirms this reading; and Muretus proves the ufe of the word cernere from Attius and Plautus. Pierius, however, and some moderns contend for decernere; abfurdly enough! (was the verfe to have continued found) against the teftimony of Servius, and even this of Seneca himself. * The Roman King beholds with wond'ring fight (c) So, (c) So, capfis, for capueris. Cic. (de Leg. II.) noxit for nocuerit. Lucilius, &c. See Turneb.. Adverf. XV. 15. (d) Effentiam.] It feems we owe this word to the fagacity of Muretus, all the books before having it quid fentiam. (e) Sidon. Apoll. Lecturus es hîc novum verbum effentiam; fed fcias hoc ipfum dixiffe Cice ronem. (f) Fabian.] The fame whom Fabius means by Flavius ;-Usiam, quam Flavius Effentiam vocat. His name was, Serv. Flavius Papinius Fabianus. (g) All things fpring from Ousía (Ufia) i. e. God and Nature. Lipf.-Perionius thought the word Natura would fufficiently exprefs the Greek Ousia, which, if fuitable in fome inftances, can never be allowed in philofophical difputations, as Ousia and pues, ftrictly speaking, fignify very different things. Nor would it be better expressed by the word Subftantia: for when rightly diftinguished raps, i. e. Subftantia, and Ousía, (vai and ùrape) have a feveral meaning. No Latin word therefore feems more proper to exprefs the Gr. Ousía than Effentia. Muret. (b) Homo genus eft] Nay, rather the most special species. dos dix@Tatov. For neither are thefe, here mentioned, Greeks, Romans, Parthians, different species of men; nor does the difference of individuals confift in a difference of fpecies, but of number.. Seneca therefore we must own is fomewhat deficient in thefe niceties; nor indeed were the writings of Ariftotle, who alone is exquifitely accurate in these points fo generally known, or ftudied, in those days as they have been fince. Muret.. And Lipfius thinks that Seneca moft probably here follows the logic of Chryfippus; which is now quite out of date. (i) Neither is the fpecies properly faid to be feen: but this horfe or this dog. (k) Cicero (in topicis)—Homerus' propter excellentiam, commune poetarum nomen effecit apud Græcos fuum. According to the name Ged Exod. III. 14. (1) For God alone is Пny ass Ts saias, the Fountain of all Being. is pleased to affume in Holy Writ, Fyŵ ei ô Dr. I am That I am. (m) Ep. 65. Hæc exemplaria rerum omnium Deus intra fe habet, &c. The exemplars of all things in the world God hath in his mind,—which Plato calls Ideas, immortal, immutable, indefatigable-Boethius (de Confol. III.) O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernas Terrarum cœlique fator,-Tu cunéta fuperno Mundum menté gerens, fimilique in imagine formans, O thou Father, Soveraine of heaven, And of erthes, that governeft this world By perdurable reafon-Thou that are older faireft, Bearing the fayre world in thy thought, Formedft this world to thy likeness fembable, Of that fayre world in thy thought; Thou draweft all things on thy foveraine enfemplar, And commandeft that this world perfectly ymakid, Have freely and abfolute his perfite parties. Chaucer. Ideas] Plato; Originales rerum fpecies Macrobius; Principales formas Claud. Mamertus dixit; et Aufonius datas formas, i. e. rebus a Deo impreffas. Vid. Lipf. Phyf. II. 3. (*) Plato in Cratylo. λέγει Που Ηρακλειτος, ότι παντα ῥῶ, και ουδὲν μένει κ. τ. λ. (o) See Ep. 1. 8. 24. (N. 1.) (1) And (p) And they that use this world as not abufing it ; for the fashion of this world paffeth away. I Cor. 7.41. While we look not at (q) Philofophy, viz. moral. Which is always meant by way of eminence. (r) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Col. iii. 2. the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. iv. 18. See Ep. 17. 65. (s) 'Twas an abfurd and wicked opinion of the ancients, that God of his goodness would have all things immortal, but that it was not in his power fo to do, on account of the perishable nature of the materials. As if that God who made all other things had not likewise created matter. More rightly therefore Lactantius, Idem materiæ fictor eft, et rerum materiâ conftantium; The fame God, who formed things of matter, formed likewife matter itself. Pf. 148. 1, 6. If. 40. 26, 42. 5. 43, 12, 1. 16. Rev. 10, 6. 19. (t) Thou fendeft forth thy fpirit, they are created, and thou reneweft the face of the earth. Pf. 104, 30. (z) He was before called by his grandfather's name, Ariftocles, but Plato from the Gr. IIλarus (broad) Epp. 47. Much the fame that is here faid of Plato, is recorded of Herodicus Selimbrianus by Plato himself, and by Ariftotle and Plutarch. And Muretus likewise tells us of one Alvifus Cornelius, a Venetian, who by temperance and fobriety restored his constitution, though miferably shattered by a loose and debauched life, and given over by his physicians; but by a steady resolution in the obfervation of a regular and moderate diet, gentle exercise, freedom from anxiety, chearful converfation with his friends, and other innocent amusements, he fo recovered as to outlive the physicians themselves, and to reach an extreme old age. But the most extraordinary instance of this kind is the famous Cornaro of the fame country; whofe history is well known. (w) Thurgelioris feptimo die, (May 7th) A. M. 3522.) al. February 7th. Plut. Sympos, viii. 1. (x) Happy is the man, who, by the bleffing of God, can fay, Experto credite. (y) See it more fully examined in Lips. Manud. III. 22, 23. And as Seneca here at least speaks doubtfully, but feems rather to reprove the falfe courage of the Stoic, in this refpect, than encourage it, we need not be apprehensive of any mischief: I shall referve what I have further to say on this fubject 'till we meet with fomething more flagrant, (Epp. 70. 78) in the mean while referring the reader to Epp. 24. q.) 26. (N. d.) 30. 50.. (z) See Ep. I. (N. m.) (aa) And who would not, if providence fo willed? The fame is quoted, both by Muretus and Lipfius, of Gorgias Leontinus in Stoba. Serm. cxviii. (66) But what mortal can know that? Who can tell what God, with whom nothing is impoffible, may be pleased to do for one, even in the last extremity? The Chriftian therefore would fcorn to make fuch a fuppofition. EPISTLE EPISTLE LIX. On Joy and Pleafure. A good Confcience the only true Joy. I RECEIVED great pleasure, Lucilius, from your epistle: for, give me leave to use the word in itscommon acceptation, without wrefting it to a ftoical sense; according to their doctrine indeed pleasure is vice: it may be fo; but the word is commonly used to fignify a chearful difpofition of the mind. I know, I fay, that the word pleasure, (if brought to our standard) is used in a bad fenfe, and joy only allowed to the wife man (a): for 'tis the elevation of a mind, that confides in its own superlative worth and strength: yet, vulgarly speaking, we say, we had great joy in fuch a one's being chofen conful, or in a marriage, or at the birth of a fon; which are fo far from deferving the constant name of joy, that they often prove the beginnings of forrow. It is the property of true joy, never to cease, or to be changed into the contrary. Therefore our Virgil, when he says,—Et mala mentis gaudia (b) may speak elegantly, but not very accurately, because there can be no joy in what is evil: he gave this name to certain pleasures, and hath expreffed what he intended; for he meant to fhew that fome men are joyous in their evil doings. I did not however speak improprely when I faid, I received pleasure from your epiftle. For tho' a plain fimple man may well rejoice occafionally, yet as this affection is irregular and changeable, I call it pleasure indeed, but such a one, as, being raised upon the opinion of imaginary good, may be immoderate, unreasonable. But to return: I will tell you what pleased me in your epiftle. You have words at your command; yet are not proud of fpeech, or apt to run on further than you defigned; there are many, who are induced to write more than they intended, being tempted by the elegance of fome pleafing phrafe: but it is not fo with you: all is clofe, and to the purpose: you |