be good
or evil which provokes lust, but the lust itself is to be removed; so that
whether whatever is honest is the chief good, or whether it consists in
pleasure, or in both these things together, or in the other three kinds of
goods, yet should there be in any one too vehement an appetite for even
virtue itself, the whole discourse should be directed to the deterring him
from that vehemence. But human nature, when placed in a conspicuous point
of view, gives us every argument for appeasing the mind, and to make this
the more distinct, the laws and conditions of life should be explained in
our discourse. Therefore, it was not without reason that Socrates is
reported, when Euripides was exhibiting his play called Orestes, to have
repeated the first three verses of that tragedy--

What tragic story men can mournful tell,
Whate'er from fate or from the gods befel,
That human nature can support----(101)

But, in order to persuade those to whom any misfortune has happened, that
they can and ought to bear it, it is very useful to set before them an
enumeration of other persons who have borne similar calamities. Indeed,
the method of appeasing grief was explained in my dispute of yesterday,
and in my book on Consolation, which I wrote in the midst of my own grief;
for I was not myself so wise a man as to be insensible to grief, and I
used this, notwithstanding Chrysippus's advice to the contrary, who is
against applying a medicine to the agitations of the mind while they are
fresh; but I did it, and committed a violence on nature, that the
greatness of my grief might give way to the greatness of the medicine.

XXX. But fear borders upon grief, of which I have already said enough; but
I must say a little more on that. Now, as grief proceeds from what is
present, so does fear from future evil; so that some have said that fear
is a certain part of grief: others have called fear the harbinger of
trouble, which, as it were, introduces the ensuing evil. Now, the reasons
that make what is present supportable, make what is to come very
contemptible; for, with regard to both, we should take care to do nothing
low or grovelling, soft or effeminate, mean or abject. But,
notwithstanding we should speak of the inconstancy, imbecility, and levity
of fear itself, yet it is of very great service to speak contemptuously of
those very things of which we are afraid. So that it fell out very well,
whether it was by accident o