supposition that our souls survive our bodies. But we should likewise consider not only the multitude of human bodies thus buried in the earth, but those also of other animals daily eaten by us, or devoured by wild beasts. For what a num. ber is thus consumed, and as it were buried in our stomachs; yet there is sufficient room for them, as they are converted into blood or changed into fire or air, those elements of which they were at first composed. Whatever is agreeable and consonant to thy system, O Universe! is so to me. Nothing is either premature or too late, in my apprehension of things, which is seasonable to Nature, and conducive to the good of the whole. I esteem every thing as advantageous to me which the seasons of Nature produce. Every thing is from her, subsists by her power, and returns into her again. "O city, beloved of Cecrops!" says the poet, speaking of Athens. And why may not we say, O thou favorite city of Jupiter! when we speak of the Universe. Upon the whole, life is short; make the best of the present opportunity with prudence and justice; and even in your amusements, be upon your guard, and act with vigilance and sobriety. This world is either the effect of design, or it is a confused fortuitous mass; yet it is a beautiful system. Can you discern a symmetry and order in your own person, and yet believe, that the Universe is a mere chaos, where every thing is thus harmonized and conducive to the good of the whole? He is a mere excrescence of the world, and separates himself from the general system of Nature, who complains of the common accidents of life. For the same universal Nature or First Cause which produced him, produced also the event which he complains of. In short, he is a kind of voluntary exile from the community, who sets up a separate interest from the society of rational beings. I see one man, a philosopher, without a coat, another without books, nay another half naked. "I have not bread to eat," says one, "yet I will remain firm to the dictates of reason. "I do not get a livelihood by my lectures on philosophy," says another, "yet I persist in my profession." Let me then persevere in the noble art in which I have been instructed, acquiesce in it, and be happy. All things subsist by change; and that Nature delights in nothing more than to renew the face of the world by such transmutations. The things which now exist are, as it were, the seeds and prolific causes of future existences. (I will not suppose you so ignorant, as to imagine there are no seeds but those which are sown in the womb of the earth.) The world or Universe is one animated system, including one material substance and one spirit, and that all things have a reference to this one spirit, which pervades and actuates the whole. You should reflect, also, that all Nature acts with an united force, and all things concur reciprocally in producing all things; and lastly, what connection and dependence subsists between them. As to your being, “It is a living soul, that bears about with it a lifeless carcass," as Epictetus expresses it. : Consider how many physicians have died, after having with contracted eye-brows and great solemnity pronounced the death of so many patients :-how many astrologers, who thought it a great matter to foretell the fate of others :how many philosophers, after all their disputes about death and immortality :-how many heroes, renowned for slaugh ter:-how many tyrants, after exercising their power of life and death with the most ferocious insolence, as if they themselves were immortal! Nay, how many cities (if I may be allowed the expression) are dead and buried in their own ruins! Helice, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, and others without number. A wise man should stand as firm as the promontory, against which the waves are continually dashing, yet it remains unmoved, and resists and composes the rage of the ocean that swells around it. "Unhappy as I am,' 99 cries one, "to be exposed to such an accident." By no means; you should rather say, "How happy am I, who, in spite of such an accident, remain unconcerned, neither dejected by the present, nor apprehensive of the future." Always go the shortest way to the end proposed. Now the most compendious road to our chief end is that prescribed by Nature. In all your words and actions therefore pursue the plain direct path, and that will secure you from the trouble and the necessity of using stratagems, temporizing, craft, and dissimulation. Know your own consequence, and be not ashamed to say or do any think which you thing agreeable to Nature and reason; and be not deterred from acting properly, on every occasion, by the censure or remarks of other people. But whatever appears to you fit and honorable to be said or done, do not demean yourself by shrinking from the performance. For my own part, I will proceed, in every instance, conformably to Nature, till my frail body sinks down to rest : and when I thus expire, I will return my breath to that air, from whence I daily draw it in; and my body to that earth, which has supplied my parents with their animal substance, and my nurse with her milk, and me, for so many years, with my daily food. Let the man, then, who has done a beneficent action, not look for applause; but repeat it the first opportunity; as the vine again yields its fruit at the proper season. We ought therefore to imitate those worthies, who bestow their benefactions unobserved, and almost unconscious to themselves of their good deeds. The whole Universe is one harmonious system: and as, from the various material bodies united into one, this world is framed; so, from the concurrence of the various second causes, is formed that supreme, universal cause, which we call Fate. Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor fret, if you do not always succeed in acting conformably to your good principles. But, though repulsed, renew the charge, and perform with complacency all the duties of humanity; and do not return with reluctance to your philosophy, like a boy to school. Philosophy exacts nothing of you but what Nature requires; though you yourself are always inclined to thwart and act contrary to Nature. But which of these is most friendly to our real interests? does not pleasure itself often impose upon us, under the very pretence of being agreeable to Nature? But consider with yourself, whether any thing can be more delightful than magnanimity, freedom of soul, simplicity, candor, and sanctity of manners. Indeed what can be more friendly to our interest than the cardinal virtue of prudence? which, by furnishing us with knowledge, founded on just principles, secures us from error, and renders the course of our lives prosperous, and free from disappointment. My whole being consists of an active principle, and a material substance; that is, of a soul and body: neither of which can be annihilated, or reduced to nothing, as they were not produced from nothing. Every part of me, therefore, will again take its place, after a certain change, as some part of the Universe; and that again will be transferred to another part of the system: and thus in an infinite succession. From the like change, I myself came into existence, and my parents before me; and so on backwards to all eternity. For thus, I think, we may speak; though the world be really limited to certain fixed periods and stated revolu Reason is a faculty which is sufficient for its own purposes. Its operations originate from itself, and proceed directly to the end proposed; whence those actions, which are directed by this faculty of reason, are called right actions, as expressive of that rectitude and simplicity with which they are performed. tions. As you intend to live, if you could retire from public life, it is equally in your power to live, in your present situation. But if any unavoidable impediments prevent this, it is at least in your power entirely to quit this life; yet without considering what you suffer in this world or your departing out of it, as any real evil. The room smokes, and I leave it: why should you deem this a matter of any moment? In the mean time, as nothing can compel me to act thus, I still maintain my freedom; and no one can prevent me from doing what I please. In what a short space of time will you be reduced to ashes, or to a mere skeleton; and a name only (perhaps not that) survive you! And what is a name? a mere sound, and an echo! Indeed, all those things which are so highly valued in the world are empty, transient, and unimportant; and the contests about them like the snarling of puppy-dogs, or the quarrels of children at play; one moment laughing, the next moment crying, on the most trifling occasions. : It might check the appetite of a luxurious epicure, to consider the dishes which are set before him, as undisguised by cookery that this, for instance, is the carcass of a fish or of a bird; this, some part of a dead pig. Again, that this wine, which we call Falernian, or by any other fine name, is only the juice squeezed from a grape; this purple robe, the wool of a sheep, tinged with the blood of a shell-fish. And that even the commerce of the sexes, so highly exalted by fancy, is a mere animal function of the lowest kind. This sort of reflection penetrates beyond the surface to the very essence of things, and exhibits them in their native sim plicity, and in their true colors. He who respects rational Nature, as such, and in its social capacity, will pay little attention to any thing else, but to preserve his own mind in its rational and social state, and to cooperate with that being who presides over the Universe, and to whom he himself is by Nature allied. Some things are rushing into existence, others hastening to dissolution; and of those which now exist, some parts are already flown off and vanished. The world is renewed by continual change and fluctuation, as time is by perpetual succession. Who then would set any great value on things thus floating down the stream, and of which we cannot for a moment secure the possession? One might as well fall in love with a sparrow, which flies by us, and is instantly gone out of sight. Such is the life of every man: a mere vapor exhaled from the blood, a momentary breath of air drawn in by the lungs. And as our life consists in thus drawing in and breathing out the air by respiration, which we incessantly perform; so death is no more than restoring that power of breathing, which we received at our birth, to the source from whence we derived it. Alexander of Macedon, and his groom, after their deaths, were reduced to the same level; for they were either resorbed into the prolific soul of the Universe, or were dispersed amongst the elementary atoms without distinction. It is a species of cruelty not to suffer men to pursue those means which they think conducive to their pleasure or advantage. This you are in some measure guilty of, when you are angry with a man for acting foolishly, for he acts thus under a notion, that what he does will conduce in some sense to his interest. "But," you will say, "it is not really So. Do you therefore inform him better, and show him his error, but without anger or ill-humor. Now, as the Emperor Antoninus, Rome is my city, and my country, but, as a man, I am the citizen of the world. For this world, though comprehending all things, is but |