Consolatio ad Apollonium

Yes, we may say, but an untimely death from many doth extort groans and passionate complaints. But the way to dry up these sorrows is so expedite and easy, that every vulgar poet hath prescribed it. Consider what consolation a comedian puts in the mouth of one who comforts another upon so sad an occasion:—

1. If this with certainty thou could’st have known,
2. That Fortune always would have kindness shown,
3. That nothing but what’s good would him befall,
4. His death thou justly might’st untimely call.
5. But if calamities were imminent,
6. And Death the fatal mischief did prevent,
7. To give to things the character that’s due,
8. Death was the most obliging of the two.

It therefore being uncertain whether it was for his advantage that he departed this life and was freed from all the miseries that attend it, we had thereby lost all that we fancied we could enjoy in him whilst he was living. And Amphiaraus in the poet doth not do amiss when he consoles the mother of Archemorus, who was even sick with grief for the untimely death of her infant son. He speaks.:—

1. There is no man whom sorrow doth not seize;
2. Our children die while others we beget.
3. At last we die ourselves, and mortals grieve
4. As they give dust to dust; but human life
5. Must needs be reaped like a full crop of corn.
6. One man must live, another die: why weep
7. For this, which by necessity must be?
8. There is no hardship in necessity.[*](From the Hypsipyle of Euripides.)

In general, every one should meditate seriously with himself, and have the concurrence of other men’s opinions with his own, that it is not the longest life which is the best, but that which is the most virtuous. For that musician is not to be commended who plays upon varietyof instruments, nor that orator that makes multiplicity of speeches, nor the pilot that conducts many ships, but he of each faculty that doth one of them well; for the beauty of a thing doth not

consist in length of time, but in the virtue and seasonable moderation wherewith it is transacted. This is that which is called happy and grateful to the Gods. And for this reason it is that poets celebrate those who have died before they have become old, and propose them for examples, as the most excellent men and of divine extraction, as him for instance,

1. Beloved by Jove and him who gilds the skies,
2. Yet short his date of life.[*](Odyss. XV. 245.)

And we see in every thing that preference is not given so much to age as to maturity. For amongst trees and plants, those are accounted the most generous which bring forth abundance of fruit, and that early ripe. And amongst living creatures too, those are the most valued which supply us with the accommodations of life in a short time. Be sides, if we compare the space of our life with eternity we shall find no difference betwixt long and short; for according to Simonides, thousands and millions of years are but as a point to what is infinite, or rather the smallest part of that point. They report that about Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die. Dost thou not think that if these had the soul and reason of a man, they would be so affected, and that things would happen to them after the same manner as to us?—that those who died before the meridian would be lamented with tears and groans?—and that we should call them happy who lived their day out? For the measure of a man’s life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

But such exclamations as this, the young man ought not to be taken off so abruptly in the vigor of his years, are very frivolous, and proceed from a great weakness of mind; for who is it that can say what a thing ought to be?

But things have been, are, and will be done, which somebody or other will say ought not to be done. But we do not come into this life to be dogmatical and prescribe to it; but we must obey the dictates of the Gods who govern the world, and submit to the establishments of Fate and Providence.