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Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum.
Pænæ autem vehemens, ac multo fævior illis,
Quas et Cæditius gravis invenit aut Rhadamanthus,
Nocte dieque fuum geftare in pectore teftem.
But why must thofe be thought to 'fcape, that feel
Thofe rods of fcorpions, and thofe whips of freel
Which confcience shakes, when she with rage controuls;

And Spreads amazing terrors through their fouls ?
Not Sharp Revenge, nor Hell itself can find

A fiercer torment than a guilty mind;

Which day and night will dreadfully accufe;

Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews.—Creech.

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Virtue and Philofophy confer Nobility.

Do you still make yourself fo little, Lucilius, as to complain, that

Nature first used you hardly, and then Fortune? I am aftonished at fuch language; when it is in your own power, not only to raise yourfelf above the vulgar, but to afcend the highest step of human felicity. This good, if any, we owe to philofophy, that it pays no peculiar regard to geneaólgy. If we look back into the origin of mankind, we shall find that all are alike defcended from the gods (a). You are a Roman knight, and your own industry hath advanced you to this honour: this however is an honour few can boaft: the Court or Senate admits not every one; and even the Camp, that calls men to toil and danger, is very nice in its choice of officers (b): but Virtue opens her doors to all: in this respect all are alike noble. Philofophy makes no diftinction of perfons, but finds fufficient splendour for all. Socrates was no patrician; Cleanthes worked at the well, and earned his living by watering gardens; philofophy did not find Plato noble (c), but made him fo. Why should you defpair of being equal to thefe great men? They were all your ancestors, if you behave worthy of them: and you will fo behave, if you can perfuade yourfelf that no one excels you in nobility:

and why not; fince so many have gone before us, that every one's origin is loft, beyond the reach of memory? Plato faith, there is no King but who (in all probability) is defcended from a flave, and no flave but who may be defcended from a King (d). Such is the confufion of things in procefs of time; and fo various the perpetual exercise of Fortune.

Who then is noble? He who hath a natural difpofition to virtue. This is the chief thing to be considered; otherwise there is no one, but who may carry his claim back to the first principles of things (God and matter.) From the birth of the world to the present day, an alternate series of good and evil, hath rendered us either splendid or vile. The hall decorated with ftatues, black with age and smoke, makes not the nobleman: no one hath lived for our glory; nor have we any claim upon what was done before we were born: it is the mind that ennobleth a man (e); which as well from a cottage, as a palace, exalts him above the power of Fortune.

Suppose then you were not a Roman knight, but a plebeian, the fon of a freed-man; you may yet attain the honour of being the only free man among many of the best-born. Do you ask by what means? By distinguishing good and evil, not according to vulgar estimation; you must confider, not from whence they spring, but whither they tend; not what they are in themselves, but in their confequences. Whatever can make life truly happy, is abfolutely good in its own right, because it cannot be warped into evil. From whence then comes error? In that, while all men wish for a happy life, they mistake the means for the thing itself; and, while they fancy themselves in pursuit of it, they are flying from it: for, when the sum of happiness consists in folid tranquillity, and an unembarraffed confidence therein, they are ever collecting caufes of difquiet, and not only carry burthens, but drag them painfully along, through the rugged and deceitful path of life: fo that they still withdraw themselves from the good effect propofed; the more pains they take, the more bufinefs they have upon their hands: instead of advancing they are retrograde; and as it happens in a labyrinth, their very speed puzzles and confounds them.

ANNO

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(b) As to the Roman levies; every tribe being called out by lot, was ordered to divide into their proper centuries; out of each century were foldiers cited by name, with respect had to their state and clafs; for this purpose there were tables ready at hand, in which, the name, age, and wealth, of every perfon was exactly defcribed, &c. See Kennet. Lipf. Milit. 1. 1.

e) This is contradicted by Laertius, as Arifto was faid to have been his father, and Perictione the daughter of Glaucus his mother: which spake his nobility on both fides; as his father was defcended, through Codrus, from Neptune himself, and his mother's family from the wifeft of men, Solon. And Apulius remarks that when Plato was a boy, he wore gold rings in his ears, the token of nobility.Be that as it will, it was philofophy and learning that truly ennobled and rendered him famous. (d) If Plato has any where faid this, he likewise says, Kings defcended from Kings may be traced up to Jupiter. Though the former may certainly be true in the circle and courfe of things. (e) According to Euripides,

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Of Books. The Mind is to be employed on Things and not on Words. The happy Man.

YOU complain, Lucilius, that, where you at prefent refide you want books it matters not, how many you have, but how good they are. Reading, with fome point in view, profits a man; but variety only amufeth *. He that hath fixed upon the end of his journey, muft purfue one path, and not wander out of his way: this would not be called a journey, but rambling. You had rather, you fay, I fhould give you books than counfel. Such as I have I am ready to fend you, and even my whole ftock; nay, I would, if poffible, tranfport myself to you;

and

and indeed did I not expect that you foon will have fulfilled your commiffion, old as I am, I fhould have undertaken the voyage: nor would Charybdis, Scylla, or any fabulous ftories relating to this fea, have deterred me from it. I would have fwam over it, inftead of being carried; to have enjoyed your prefence, and learned what progress you have made in the accomplishments of the mind. But as for your defiring me to fend you my books, I think myself not a whit the more ingenious, than I fhould think myfelf handsome, because you defired my picture. I know you make this request more out of complaifance than judgment; but if it be from judgment, I must tell you, your complaifance hath impofed upon you. However, fuch as they are, I will fend them; and ́entreat you to read them, as the writings of one, who is still seeking after Truth; not prefuming to have found it; and feeking it with earneftness and refolution: for I have not given myself up to any particular mafter; I have not enlifted myself folemnly in any fect: I trust indeed much to the judgment of great men, but at the fame time despise not my own. They have still left us many things for future investigation; and perhaps might have fupplied us with many things neceffary, had they not attached themselves to things vain and fuperfluous: they lost much time in cavilling about words, and in captious disputations, which serve only to exercise and amuse vain minds. They start knotty questions, and then folve them, by the help of a few words of doubtful meaning: and have we leisure for all this? do we yet know how to live, or how to die? Thither fhould our utmost care and difcretion be directed, in order to be provided against being deceived by things, as by words: what avails it to perplex yourself and me, with the distinction of words of like found, when no one can be deceived by them but in fubtle dif putations ?

Things themselves deceive us: let us learn to distinguish them: we embrace evil for good; we wish for things contrary to what we wished for before; our vows impugn our vows; and our purposes thwart and oppose one another: how nearly does flattery resemble friendship? It not only imitates friendship, but feems to overcome and excel it (a); it is fucked in with favourable ears; defcends into the heart; and is then most grateful, when most pernicious: teach me to distinguish this likeVOL. I. X nefs;

nefs: a fawning enemy fometimes attacks me in the name of a friend: vice impofes upon us under the mafk of virtue; temerity lies concealed, under the title of valour; indolence is taken for moderation; and the coward for a cautious man. Now, error in this refpect is very dangerous; fet therefore a particular mark on these things: but was you to afk a man if he has got horns, no one would be fo foolish as to rub his brow for conviction; nor fo dull and ftupid as not to know, he has not got that which, by the most subtle inferences you would perfuade him he has. Thefe then deceive without any detriment; like the cups and balls of jugglers (6), in which the very fallacy delights us; make me to understand how the feat is done, and all the pleasure of it is loft: I may fay the fame of all idle questions, properly called Sophistry; which to be ignorant of is by no means prejudicial; nor is there any profit or delight in knowing them.

Throw afide the ambiguity of words, and teach us this important truth; that he is not the happy man, whom the vulgar efteem so, on account of his great wealth, but he whofe mind is all goodness; upright, and noble, trampling upon what the world holds in admiration; who fees no one, with whom he would change condition; who reckons a man happy, only in that he preferves the dignity of man; who takes Nature for his guide; conducts himself by her laws; and lives up to her prescriptions; whofe truly good poffeffions are fuch, as no external power can take away; who turns evil into good; fure and steady in point of judgment, without prejudice, without fear; whom no external force can disturb, though perchance it move him; whom, when Fortune hath pointed at him her sharpeft arrow, and with her whole ftrength, fhe only rakes, but cannot wound him; and that but feldom; for her other weapons, with which she affails mankind, rebound from him like the hailftones, which falling on our houses, without any inconvenience to the inhabitants, make a little rattling, and are diffolved (c).

Here then exert yourself, for why fhould you detain me with such ftuff as you yourself call pfeudomenon (i. e. fallacious reafoning:) and of which fo many idle books are compofed? Behold, the whole of life deceives

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