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mixt without any composition of different or dissimilar parts, it cannot therefore be divided; and if not divided, it cannot be dissolved and die. This seems also to be an argument for the pre-existence of souls, and that they were endued with knowlege, before they entered on this stage; that children so readily apprehend things altogether new to them in this life, learn many difficult arts, and take the notions of things as if they were natural to them, and they were not now learning any thing new, but were only recollecting what they had known before. Thus Plato argues.

And in Xenophon,* Cyrus the elder, in his last discourse to his children, expresses himself thus: Do not, my dear children, imagine, that when I leave you, I shall be no more; for in the time I have been with you, you could never see my mind, but only knew by my actions, that it was lodged in this body. Be you therefore persuaded, that though you no longer see its lodging, yet it still as surely exists as before. For even the fame and honors of illustrious men, could not, as we see they do, continue after death, unless, their souls, by their existence, in some measure contributed to their duration. I never indeed could persuade myself, that souls confined in these mortal bodies, can be properly said to live, and that when they leave them, they die; or that they lose all sense when parted from these vehicles: but, on the contrary, when the mind is wholly freed from all corporeal mixture, and begins to be purified, and recover itself again; then, and then only, it becomes truly knowing and wise. Further, when the body is dissolved by death, it is evident what becomes of all the several parts of it; for every thing we see returns to the elements of which it was formed: but the mind alone is never to be seen, neither while it is actuating the body, nor after it leaves it.-You may further observe, that nothing so much resembles death, as sleep: but the soul in sleep, above all other times, give proofs of its divine nature: for when free and disengaged from the immediate service of

* In his Cyropædia, book 8.

the body, it has frequently a foresight of things to come: from whence we may more clearly conceive what will be its state, when intirely freed from this bodily prison. Now, if the case be thus, you are then to consider and honor me, as a knowing spins but if my mind should also die away with my body, let it be your care, first to pay all reverence to.. the gods, who support and govern this mighty frame; and also, with a due and pus respect for my name, keep me always in your remembrance. Thus Cyrus on his death

bed.

And now, to mention some of our own people. No man, Scipio, shall ever prevail on me to believe, that either your father Paulus, or two grandfathers Paulus and Africanus, or Africanus's father and his uncle, or divers other illustrious men, whom I need not name, would have undergone such vast fatigues, to achieve those glorious actions which are consecrated to the remembrance of all posterity, if they had not clearly discerned, that they themselves had an interest, and a kind of right and property in posterity, by their still continuing to exist, and to be sharers as well as witnesses of their fortune. Do you imagine, that even I (for as I am an old man, I must talk a little of myself;) I say, that I would have undertaken such hazardous attempts, and undergone such fatigues by day, such toils by night, at home and abroad, if I had supposed the glory of my actions must terminate with my life, and all my sense of it end with my being here? For if I had no further views, might it not have been more eligible to me, to have past away my days in quiet and ease, free from toils and care, and without labor or contention ? But my spirit rousing in itself, I know not how, had futurity always so much in view, as if it were assured, that as soon as it quitted this life, it would then truly live, and not before. And were it not really so, that our souls are immortal, why is it that the greatest of men so ardently aspire to immortal glory? Or why are the wisest ever the most easy and con

* Mentioned in notes 24, 8, and 97,55

tent to die, and the weak and foolish the most unwilling? Is it not, think you, because the most knowing perceive they are going to change for a happier state, of which the more stupid and ignorant are incapable of being sensible? For my part, I have a passionate desire to see your fathers again, whom I loved and honored while here; and I not only long to meet those I knew and loved, but those illustrious souls also, of whom I have heard and read, and have with pleasure mentioned them in my writings. Nor would I now, on any terms, agree to be stopt in my passage to them; no, not on condition to be restored to the bloom and vigor of youth again: or should any heavenly power grant me the privilege of turning back, if I pleased, from this age to infancy, and to set out again from my cradle, I would absolutely refuse it; for as I have now got well nigh to the end of my race, I should be extremely unwilling to be called back, and obliged to start again. For, if we consider things aright, what is there in life to make us fond of it? or that we can on solid judgment pronounce truly valuable? Or who is there, or ever has been, who has not at some time or other met with trouble and anxiety sufficient to make him weary of it? This comfort however attends the thought, that the more the satiety grows upon us, the nearer we approach to its end. I am therefore far from being of the mind of some, and amongst them we have known of men of good learning, who lament and bewail the condition of human life, as if it were a state of real misery: for I am not at all uneasy that I came into, and have so far passed my course in this world; because I have so lived in it, that I have reason to believe, I have been of some use to it; and when the close comes, I shall quit life as I would an inn, and not as a real home. For nature appears to me to have ordained this station here for us, as a place of sojournment, a transitory abode only, and not as a fixed settlement or permanent habitation. But, Oh, the glorious day! when freed from this troublesome rout, this heap of confusion and corruption below, I shall repair to that divine assembly, that heavenly congregation of souls! and not only

to those I mentioned, but also to my dear Cato, than whom a more virtuous soul was never born, nor did ever any exceed him in piety and affection. His body I committed to the funeral pile, which he, alas! ought to have lived to do by mine: yet his soul did not forsake me, but keeping me still in view, removed to those abodes, to which he knew, I was in a little time to follow. I bore the affliction indeed with the fortitude that became me, to outward view, though inwardly I severely felt the pangs of it; but in this I have supported myself, that I knew our parting was to be neither far nor long, and that the time is but short till we shall happily meet again.

Now, these, my friends, are the means (since it was these you wanted to know) by which I make my old-age sit easy and light on me; and thus I not only disarm it of every uneasiness, but render it even sweet and delightful. But if I should be mistaken in this belief, that our souls are immortal, I am however pleased and happy in my mistake; nor while I live, shall it ever be in the power of man, to beat me out of an opinion, that yields me so solid a comfort, and so durable a satisfaction. And if, when dead, I should (as some minute philosophers imagine) be deprived of all further sense, I am safe at least in this, that those blades themselves will have no opportunity beyond the grave to laugh at me for my opinion. But whether immortal or not, or whatever is to be our future state; as nature has set limits to all its other productions, it is certainly fit our frail bodies also should, at their proper season, be gathered, or drop into their grave. And as the whole course of life but too much resembles a farce, of which old age is the last act; when we have enough of it, it is most prudent to retire, and not to make a fatigue of what we should endeavor to make only an entertainment. This is what I had to say of old age; which I wish you also may live to attain, that you may from your own experience, witness the truth of the several things I have now delivered you in this conversa

APPENDIX.

The numerals which commence the paragraphs, refer to the numerals in the text. The numbers which precede the paragraphs, refer to the pages of this volume, in which the matters referred are to noted.

Page 251.

1 TITUS Pomponius Atticus, to whom this discourse is addressed, was of an ancient family of Rome, of the equestrian order, the second in dignity amongst the Romans. Of all Cicero's friends he appears to have been the most intimate and the most esteemed: for of the thirty-six books now extant of Tully's epistles, there are no less than sixteen, composing a distinct tome, directed to Atticus alone. His character in life, as left us by his intimate friend Cornelius Nepos, may be justly accounted the most beautiful we have received from antiquity of either Greek or Roman. Nor does it appear to have been paralleled in any age: for though he lived in the times of the greatest factions and divisions in Rome, as those of Sylla, Marius and Cinna, Cæsar and Pompey, Brutus aud Cassius, with Anthony, Lepidus, and Octavius (afterwards Augustus,) he conducted himself with such consummate prudence and integrity, that though caressed by all, he neither joined with, nor offended any of them. But being possessed of a vast estate, neither acquired on his part, nor improved by any lucrative measures whatsoever; for his patrimony was about the value of eight hundred thousand dollars; and by the will of a surly uncle, whom none besides could please, he received about four millions of dollars more, with many other legacies from his friends and admirers: of this vast estate, I say, besides his annual expence on a genteel and hospitable, yet frugal table, he spent the greatest part in relieving the distressed of every party (as each had their turns, Octavius excepted) without any other distinction than that of their worth and wants; and without any conditions or expectation of retribution. In his youth, to avoid being engaged by his friends in the contentions with Sylla, he retired to Athens, where he spent most of his time in study, and the income of his estate in public and private benefactions ;

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