contained many times in it. Of what importance, then, can
it be to lengthen that which, however much you add to it, will never
be much more than nothing? We can only make our lives long by one
expedient, that is, by being satisfied with their length: you may tell
me of long-lived men, whose length of days has been celebrated by
tradition, you may assign a hundred and ten years apiece to them: yet
when you allow your mind to conceive the idea of eternity, there will
be no difference between the shortest and the longest life, if you
compare the time during which any one has been alive with that during
which he has not been alive. In the next place, when he died his life
was complete; he had lived as long as he needed to live: there was
nothing left for him to accomplish.

III

TO NERO ON CLEMENCY[82]

You, Caesar, can boldly say that everything which has come into your
charge has been kept safe, and that the state has neither openly nor
secretly suffered any loss at your hands. You have coveted a glory
which is most rare, and which has been obtained by no emperor before
you, that of innocence. Your remarkable goodness is not thrown away,
nor is it ungratefully or spitefully undervalued. Men feel gratitude
toward you: no one person ever was so dear to another as you are to
the people of Rome, whose great and enduring benefit you are. You
have, however, taken upon yourself a mighty burden: no one any longer
speaks of the good times of the late Emperor Augustus, or the first
years of the reign of Tiberius, or proposes for your imitation any
model outside yourself: yours is a pattern reign. This would have been
difficult had your goodness of heart not been innate, but merely
adopted for a time; for no one can wear a mask for long, and
fictitious qualities soon give place to true ones. Those which are
founded upon truth, become greater and better as time goes on.

The Roman people were in a state of great hazard as long as it was
uncertain how your generous disposition would turn out: now, however,
the prayers of the community are sure of an answer, for there is no
fear that you should suddenly forget your own character. Indeed,
excess of happiness makes men greedy, and our desires are never so
moderate as to be bounded by what they have obtained: great successes
become the stepping-stones to greater ones, and those who have
obtained more than they hoped, entertain even more extravagant hopes
than before; yet by