the
multitude; and indeed it seems to me to be pretty much the same case with
those who consider beforehand as with those who derive their remedies from
time, excepting that a kind of reason cures the one, and the other remedy
is provided by nature; by which we discover (and this contains the whole
marrow of the matter) that what was imagined to be the greatest evil, is
by no means so great as to defeat the happiness of life. And the effect of
this is, that the blow is greater by reason of its not having been
foreseen, and not, as they suppose, that when similar misfortunes befal
two different people, that man only is affected with grief whom this
calamity has befallen unexpectedly. So that some persons, under the
oppression of grief, are said to have borne it actually worse for hearing
of this common condition of man, that we are born under such conditions as
render it impossible for a man to be exempt from all evil.

XXV. For this reason Carneades, as I see our friend Antiochus writes, used
to blame Chrysippus for commending these verses of Euripides,--

Man, doom'd to care, to pain, disease, and strife,
Walks his short journey thro' the vale of life:
Watchful attends the cradle and the grave,
And passing generations longs to save:
Last, dies himself: yet wherefore should we mourn?
For man must to his kindred dust return;
Submit to the destroying hand of fate,
As ripen'd ears the harvest-sickle wait.(90)

He would not allow a speech of this kind to avail at all to the cure of
our grief, for he said it was a lamentable case itself, that we were
fallen into the hands of such a cruel fate; and that a speech like that,
preaching up comfort from the misfortunes of another, was a comfort
adapted only to those of a malevolent disposition. But to me it appears
far otherwise; for the necessity of bearing what is the common condition
of humanity forbids your resisting the will of the Gods, and reminds you
that you are a man; which reflection greatly alleviates grief; and the
enumeration of these examples is not produced with a view to please those
of a malevolent disposition, but in order that any one in affliction may
be induced to bear what he observes many others have previously borne with
tranquillity and moderation. For they who are falling to pieces, and
cannot hold together through the greatness of their grief, should be
supported by all kinds of assistance. From whence Chrysippus