more jealously than the familiar shape and figure, the character and features of the soul. Not that I would forbid images fashioned of marble or of brass; but, as the countenance of man, so the likeness of his countenance is frail and perishable. The form of the mind endures for ever, and each for himself, without the help of alien material or borrowed art, may embrace and show it forth in his life. Whatever in Agricola we have loved or admired abides, and most surely will abide, in the minds of men through neverending time, while mighty deeds have voice to speak. For while oblivion falls on many of old, mingling them with the ignoble and obscure, Agricola, preserved to after ages in tale and history, will still have a place among the living.

ROMAN STOICISM

A.-SENECA.

I.

OF THE GODS.

1. The names of God.

But do you you are but

It is Nature (says one,) who gives me these things. not understand that in speaking after this manner Changing the name of God? for what else is Nature but God and Gud's reason residing in the entire Universe, and in each part thereof? You may call him as often as you like by other names, the Author of our world, or Jupiter most mighty and most good, or the Lord of Thunder. You may properly style him too as the Stayer,

Upholder, who had this name given him not (as historians say) because in answer to vows he stayed the flight of the Roman ar

, but because it is by his goodness that all things stand and are established.

Yu would not be wrong, if you gave him also the name of stiny; for what is Destiny but a closely-linked chain of causes, the first of which, whereon all the rest depend, is God? You fitly apply to Him whatever names you please, provided that they signify the force and working of heavenly things; his names, in fact, may be as numerous as his attributes and his gifts.

2. The presence of God in man.

We need not lift our hands to Heaven, nor beseech the sacrista for permission to approach the idol's ear, as though we should. be heard the better for that.

No! God is near you, with you, in you.

There dwells within us (believe me) a holy spirit, the watcher and guardian of all we do, good or bad. According as we deal with him, so he deals with us. No one is virtuous without God's

influence, and no one without his aid can rise superior to fortune: he it is from whom all high and noble counsels proceed.

3. The eye of God.

So must we live as under the eye of One; so must we think as though One could look into our inmost heart. For what is the good of hiding anything from man, when from God no secrets are hid? He is present to our minds; he enters into the very core of our thoughts.

So should we live with our fellow-men as in the sight of God; so should we speak to God, as within the hearing of man.

4. The gifts of God.

Will you say that God does not bestow all benefits upon us? Whence then do you derive all these things which you possess, or give, or refuse, or preserve, or seize? Whence come the numberless objects that charm the eye, the ear, the mind? Whence that abundance that feeds even our luxury? for not only are our needs provided for, but we are indulged even to pampering.

Think, e. g., of the numerous trees, bearing sundry and savoury fruits-so many wholesome herbs-such variety of meats regulated according to each season of the year, that even the sluggard may find casual sustenance from the earth.

Whence, too, come all the different kinds of animals, some bred on dry ground, some in the water, while others range throughout the air, to the end that there might not be any part of Nature but what paid some tribute or other to us.

Look at the rivers too-here environing the plains with their delightful meanderings, there opening a channel for commerce on their spacious and navigable bosoms. . . . Whence, moreover, have you the very breath you draw? or the light, whereby you regulate and dispose the several actions of your life, or the blood by the motion of which the vital heat is maintained?

It is the same God who has taught us not only to play on a reed, and adapt to it, each after a particular measure, wild and simple strains, but has invented for us so many arts and such a variety of voices, and tones, some by means of our own breath, others by aid of the outward air framed to give forth music. For we can no more call the things we have invented our own, than we can call it our own doing that we grow, or that our bodies have their particular functions answering to determinate stages of time. First we lose our milk-teeth; anon we pass into manhood; as

years go on and settle us into a stronger and solider form, complete dentition crowning our advancing youth. In short, the seeds. of all ages, and all arts and sciences are planted in us from our birth, and God, the great master, draws forth our faculties from their hidden womb..... Yes! the immortal Gods have always held, and do hold, us men most dear, and have conferred upon us the greatest honour they could, viz., that of ranking next to themselves. Much have we received; of more we were not capable.

5. The discipline of God.

Those whom God approves and loves, he examines, tries, and hardens; such as he appears to favour and to spare, only become effeminate, and are reserved by him for evil to come.

For it is a mistake to suppose that any one is exempt from ills; however long his prosperity may have lasted, his share will come at length. It may seem to have been remitted; it is but deferred. Why does God visit the best of men with ill-health, or affliction, or troubles of other kinds? On the same principle that in war the Fravest soldiers have the hazardous enterprises entrusted to them, and it is the picked men whom the general sends to a nightattack, to reconnoitre a road, or storm a fortress. In their case Done thinks of saying, "My general has dealt hardly with me," but rather, "He must have thought highly of me;" such should be the language of those, who are called to suffer what none but cowards and weaklings grieve at. It just comes to this, that God has deemed us worthy subjects whereon to try how much human nature could bear.

6. His liberality to the evil as well as to the good.

It is objected that the Gods bestow their gifts often on the unthankful and the evil. Yes! but those gifts were designed primarily for the gd, and it is only because no separation is possible, that they fall to the bad as well. And surely it is better that wicked men should gain for the sake of the good than that the good should lose for the demerits of the wicked. Accordingly such gifts as those of the light and the san, the periods of winter and summer, the temperate intervals of spring and autumn, the rains and supplies of springwater, together with the periodical currents of the winds-these the Gods provided for the benefit of the whole; they could not make exceptions of indviduals. True! it is only the worthy that receive honours from a vereign; but even the unworthy are not denied the dole. The state-allowance of corn is given alike to the perjurer, adulterer and tf, to any one in fact, irrespective of character, who happens

to be inscribed on the roll; and whatever there is given away to anyone in his character as citizen and not as good man, is shared equally by good and bad.

God has in like manner bestowed certain gifts on the whole race of mankind, and from a share in these none is excluded. For it would not be possible so to arrange, that good men should always find the winds favourable, and bad men find them adverse; whereas it is an universal blessing that men should have free intercourse by sea, and the dominion of the human race be spread far and wide. Neither again could any law be ordained for the rain that it should fall only on the good, and not water the fields of the unrighteous and the evil. In short there are certain blessings that could never come into the hands of particular individuals, had they not been bestowed for the universal good. No objection consequently can be raised on the score of these; they form a common banquet, to which all are invited. As for what my judgment tells me is due to any one person in particular, I will see it be not given to such as I know to be unthankful.

7. His worship.

How the Gods are to be worshipped, must (as usual) be taught our youth. Let us forbid all lighting of lamps on Sabbaths and holidays; for the Gods are in no need of light, and lamp smoke is disagreeable even to men. Let us prohibit, moreover, early visits and devotions at the temple-doors; it is only man's vanity that takes delight in such ceremonies. We worship God by knowing him. Again let us not allow the offering of towels and flesh-brushes to Jupiter, or the holding of a mirror before the image of Juno. God does not ask to be ministered to; how should he, seeing that he himself ministers to the human race, and is present everywhere and to all? The young should be instructed what limits to observe in their offerings, and how far to keep clear from offensiveness and superstition. Worship will never be satisfactory till a right conception has been formed of God as possessing all things, and bestowing all things freely in love. To believe in the Gods is the first step in worship, the next is to ascribe to them their proper majesty, and, what is essential to majesty, the attribute of goodness; and then to feel that it is the Gods who govern the world, who guide all things by their power, who exercise guardianship over the human race while not neglecting the individual. They neither inflict, nor are susceptible of, harm; though offenders they correct, coerce, condemn, and sometimes visit with punishment in the form of blessing.