perplex yourself and me with a question, which it is more prudent to defpife than to folve? It is for one who is idle, and can make a mistake without much detriment, to enquire into these minute things. As when the alarm is given, and the foldier is commanded to march; neceffity obliges him to quit the fardels he had collected in the time of peace; and with proper accoutrements to take the field: I have no leifure to fift the meaning of doubtful words, or to try my skill in unriddling them.

Afpice qui coeunt populi, quæ mænia claufis
Ferrum acuant portis.-(Virg. 8, 385.)

[Behold what nations join, and shut their gates

'Gainft me and mine!]

The horrid din of war refounding on every fide must be attended to with great prefence of mind; I should justly be thought a madman if, when even the women and old men were piling up ftones to fortify the wall; when the young men within were expecting or demanding an order to fally out; when hoftile weapons fhook the gates, and the ground under foot trembled, by being dug and undermined; I should then fit idle and at ease propounding questions of this sort:

What you have not loft, you have got,

But you have not loft horns,

Therefore you have horns.

Or inventing others conftructed in the form of this acute dotage. Nor should I feem lefs mad, was I now to bestow my time upon fuch trash; for I am even now befieged: in the former cafe I was threatened only with danger from without; and was defended from the enemy by strong walls; but my present danger is from within, even the danger of death; I am not at leisure therefore to trifle; I have a great work in hand. What shall I do?

Death pursues me; life is fleeting; inftruct me with regard to these points; teach me something, that I may not fly from death, nor life from me (e): exhort me, against these difficulties, to put on æquanimity; ftrengthen me with conftancy, against these inevitable evils; make me content with the time I have to live; teach me that the good of life, confifts not in the duration, but in the right use of it. That

it is poffible, nay, that it often happens, for a man, who hath been long in the world, to have lived but a little time. Remind me, as I am going to fleep, that it may be I shall wake no more; or rather, when I awake that I shall sleep no more. Tell me when I go out, that poffibly

I

may not return; and, when I return, it may be I fhall go out no more. You are mistaken, if you think that upon the wide and dangerous feas only, there is the smallest line or interval between life and death; it is the fame in all places; Death indeed does not fhew himself every where fo near, yet every where he is as near. Take away this darkness from me (f), and you will the more easily discover to me these things, for which I am prepared.

Nature hath endowed us with fufficient docility: and though as yet our reafon may be imperfect, it is what may be perfected. Let us confer together concerning justice, piety, frugality, and particularly chastity; both that which teaches me from violating the body of another, and that which inftructs me in the due care of my own. If you would not lead me into any by-path, I fhall fooner attain to the wifh'd-for end of my journey. For as the Tragedian faith, The Speech of truth is ever plain and fimple (g). It should not therefore be rendered intricate or obfcure; nor can any thing be more difagreeable than fuch wily and fubtle craftiness, to a generous mind that hath great things in view.

ANNOTATIONS, &c.

(a) Eufeb. Chron. (extremis Augufti annis) Sotio philofophus Alexandrinus, præceptor Seneca, clarus habetur. At the end of the reign of Augustus flourished Sotio, the philofopher of Alexandria, tutor to Seneca.-See Ep. 24.

Thofe hours which lately fmil'd, where are they now?

Pallid to thought, and ghaftly! drown'd, all drown'd,
In that great deep, which nothing difembogues!
The rest are on the wing-how fleet their flight!
Already has the fatal train took fire:

A moment, and the world's blown up to thee,
The fun is darkness, and the stars are duft.-Young.

Time in advance behind him hangs his wings,
And seems to creep, decrepit with his age.
Behold him when past by, what then is seen,
But his broad pinions, fwifter than the winds!
And all mankind in contradiction strong,
Rueful, aghaft! cry out on his career.-Id.

(d) Quia admoveri lineas fentio.

Linea was a trench drawn round the Arena to mark the course for those who entered the lifts. Admoveri lineas, is the fame with decrepitos et extrema tangentes, Ep. 26. Upon the laft ftage of life.

Or metaphorically for the laft line on the chefs-board, as Hor. Ep. I. 16, ult.-Mors ultima linea

rerum eft.

Death is that goal the poet here intends,

The utmost courfe, where human nature bends.

This does not mean that Death is an end of all things, but of all our misfortunes. Rerum for rerum malarum, as in Virgil, fefsi rerum,-funt lacrymæ rerum,-trepidæ rerum.

- Επ ̓ ἄκραν ἥκομεν γραμμὴν κακῶν. Eur. Antig.

Reduced to the laft extremity.

Μή μοι, τὸ πρῶτον βῆμ ̓ ἔαν δράμη καλῶς,

Νικᾶν δόκειται τὴν δίκην, πρὶν ἄν πελας

Γραμμῆς ίκηται και τέλος καμψη βίν. Id. Elect. 954.

Let no one dream of victory,

Howe'er fuccessful his firft round,

'Till be bath reach'd the goal, and end of life.

(e) i. e. live in indolence, and doing nothing to the purpose of being. (ƒ) Has tenebras difcute.

Through this opaque of nature and of foul,

This double night, tranfmit one pitying ray,
To brighten and to chear.-Young.

(3) Απλᾶς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ. Eur. Phæn. 472.

EPISTLE L.

Tender Minds are the more easily wrought upon, but it is not impoffible to get the better of an inveterate Habit.

AFTER fome months, Lucilius, I have received the letter you sent me: I therefore thought it of little avail to enquire of the perfon who brought it, any news relating to you: for he must have had a good memory to have recollected every thing. And yet I hope you live so, as in whatever place you are, I may be informed of what you are doing: but what else can you be doing, than ftudying every day, to make yourself a better man? cafting off some error or other; and particularly learning that your vices are your own, and not to be imputed to circum

stances;

ftances; for fome we afcribe to times and places; but wherever we go, they are such as still follow us.

The fimpleton, Harpaste, that attends my wife, hath continued an hereditary burthen in my family; for I own I am much disgusted at fuch prodigies. If I would divert myself with a fool, I have not far to look for one; I laugh at myself. This filly girl went blind on a fudden; and what I tell you, is very strange, but true: fhe does not seem to know, that fhe is blind: fhe often afks her governess to walk out; for she says, the house is so dark she cannot fee (a). Now tho' we are apt to laugh at her, we all lie under the fame predicament: no one will own himself covetous; no one, luftful: yet the blind desire a guide; but we still wander on without a guide, and say, "I am really not ambitious, but no one can live otherwife at Rome. I am not expensive, but it is impoffible to be penurious while we live in the city: it is not my fault that I am paffionate; for I have not yet fixed upon a certain rule of life: it is the failing of youth." Why do we thus deceive ourselves? The evil that infects us comes not from without; it is internal, it refides in the very breast: and therefore it is the more difficult to be reftored to health, because we know not, or pretend not to know, that we are fick.

fo

Were we to undertake a cure, how long would it be before that of many pains and diseases could be effected? But we do not fo much as feek a physician; who certainly would have much lefs trouble was he to be called in, upon the first symptoms. Young and tender minds are foon prevailed upon to attend to those, who seriously point out to them the right path: no one is brought back with difficulty to the standard of Nature, but fuch as have quite deferted her: but the misfortune is, we are ashamed to learn wifdom; we seem to think it difgraceful to look out for a master in this refpect; and yet we can never hope fo great a good will flow in upon us merely by chance: fome pains must be taken; and to say the truth, no great pains are required, if, as I before observed, we only begin to correct and reform the mind before it is too harden'd in depravity; nor, be it harden'd as it will, fhould I quite defpair.

despair. There is nothing but what perfeverance, affiduity, and diligent care may overcome (b). The hardest oak, however bent, may be made ftreight; heat will unbend the crooked beam; and things, however defigned by Nature for other purposes, are applied to such services as our ufe requires. How much eafier will the mind take any form you please? it is flexible, and more pliant than either air or water; for what is the mind, but a certain indwelling fpirit? And a fpirit is the more eafily worked upon than matter, as it is more fine and fubtile.

There is no reason then, my Lucilius, that you should entertain the less hopes of any one, because the malignity of evil hath laid hold of him, and had him long in poffeffion: no one learns virtue before he hath unlearned vice: in this refpect we are all pre-engaged (d): but we ought to apply ourselves more strenuously to amendment; because the poffeffion of good is everlasting. No one that hath once learned virtue, can forget it (e): for, the contrary evils are of foreign growth, and therefore may eafily be extirpated and expelled. Such things as are in their proper place, abide there conftantly: Virtue is according to Nature (f); Vice is ever her foe, and ever prejudicial. But as virtues once truly received into the breaft, cannot again depart; and confequently the conservation of them is eafy; fo the first entrance upon them is arduous; because it is the common part of a weak and fick mind, to dread what it has not yet experienced. Therefore the mind must be compelled to make a first effay; and then the medicine will not prove difagreeable, when it gives delight at the time it effects a cure: the pleafure of the remedies is feldom tafted before health is procured; but philofophy is at the fame time both falutary and pleasant.

(a) Muretus (in his Note) makes mention of a friend of his under the like delusion, though a fenfible and learned man: he was grown deaf with age, being near fourscore; but would not acknowledge his infirmity: he fancied every one fpoke in a lower tone than they ufed to do formerly; and whispered, that he might not hear them.

(6) This is a principal maxim of the Stoics, that, virtue is to be acquired by erudition: Nemo enim per fe fatis valet, ut emergat, &c. Ep. 52. No one is fufficient of himself to emerge, &c. Vid. Lipf. Manud. II. Diff. X.

(c) Thus