s
this Life in it? nay, rather, what Pain has it not? But if there were
not, there would be undoubtedly in it Satiety or Trouble. I am not for
bewailing my past Life as a great many, and learned Men too, have done,
nor do I repent that I have liv'd; because, I have liv'd so, that I am
satisfy'd I have not liv'd in vain. And when I leave this Life, I leave
it as an Inn, and not as a Place of Abode. For Nature has given us our
Bodies as an Inn to lodge in, and not to dwell in. O! glorious Day will
that be, when I shall leave this Rabble-rout and Defilements of the
World behind me, to go to that Society and World of Spirits!_ Thus far
out of _Cato_. What could be spoken more divinely by a Christian? I wish
all the Discourses of our Monks, even with their holy Virgins, were such
as the Dialogue of this aged Pagan, with the Pagan Youths of his Time.

_Eu._ It may be objected, that this Colloquy of _Tully_'s was but a
Fiction.

_Ch._ It is all one to me, whether the Honour of these Expressions be
given to _Cato_, who thought and spoke them, or to _Cicero_, whose Mind
could form such divine Things in Contemplation, and whose Pen could
represent such excellent Matter in Words so answerable to it; though
indeed I am apt to think that _Cato_, if he did not speak these very
Words, yet that in his familiar Conversation he us'd Words of the very
same Import. For indeed, _M. Tully_ was not a Man of that Impudence, to
draw _Cato_ otherwise than he was. Beside, that such an Unlikeness in a
Dialogue would have been a great Indecorum, which is the thing chiefly
to be avoided in this Sort of Discourse; and especially, at a Time when
his Character was fresh in the Memories of all Men.

_Th._ That which you say is very likely: But I'll tell you what came
into my Mind upon your Recital. I have often admired with myself, that
considering that all Men wish for long Life, and are afraid of Death;
that yet, I have scarce found any Man so happy, (I don't speak of old,
but of middle-aged Men); but that if the Question were put to him,
whether or no, if it should be granted him to grow young again, and run
over the same good and ill Fortune that he had before, he would not make
the same Answer that _Cato_ did; especially passing a true Reflection
upon the Mixture of Good and Ill of his past Life. For the Remembrance
even of the pleasantest Part of it is commonly attended with Shame, and
Sting of Conscience, insomuch that the Memory of past Deligh