ind, thinking ourselves like men who are
delivered from a jail, and released from their fetters, for the purpose
of going back to our eternal habitation, which may be more emphatically
called our own; or else to be divested of all sense and trouble. If, on
the other hand, we should have no notice given us of this decree, yet
let us cultivate such a disposition as to look on that formidable hour
of death as happy for us, though shocking to our friends; and let us
never imagine anything to be an evil which is an appointment of the
immortal Gods, or of nature, the common parent of all. For it is not by
hazard or without design that we have been born and situated as we
have. On the contrary, beyond all doubt there is a certain power which
consults the happiness of human nature; and this would neither have
produced nor provided for a being which, after having gone through the
labors of life, was to fall into eternal misery by death. Let us rather
infer that we have a retreat and haven prepared for us, which I wish we
could crowd all sail and arrive at; but though the winds should not
serve, and we should be driven back, yet we shall to a certainty arrive
at that point eventually, though somewhat later. But how can that be
miserable for one which all must of necessity undergo? I have given you
a peroration, that you might not think I had overlooked or neglected
anything.

_A._ I am persuaded you have not; and, indeed, that peroration has
confirmed me.

_M._ I am glad it has had that effect. But it is now time to consult
our health. To-morrow, and all the time we continue in this Tusculan
villa, let us consider this subject; and especially those portions of
it which may ease our pain, alleviate our fears, and lessen our
desires, which is the greatest advantage we can reap from the whole of
philosophy.

* * * * *

BOOK II.

ON BEARING PAIN.

I. Neoptolemus, in Ennius, indeed, says that the study of philosophy
was expedient for him; but that it required limiting to a few subjects,
for that to give himself up entirely to it was what he did not approve
of. And for my part, Brutus, I am perfectly persuaded that it is
expedient for me to philosophize; for what can I do better, especially
as I have no regular occupation? But I am not for limiting my
philosophy to a few subjects, as he does; for philosophy is a matter in
which it is difficult to acquire a little knowledge without acquaint