PART XIII.

EPICURUS.
j: Lurt,
hurt.
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that they are afFeSed with anger or favour, which, as I hinted formerly, imply imbecillity, fear and want of external alTiftance.
Neither need you fear, that this will make you efteemed impious ^ for he is impious indeed,not, who denies the vulgar Gods of the multitude, but he who aferibes to the Gods the opinions of the multitude. For thofe things which arc corfimonly delivered concerning the Gods, are not genuine prienotions, but falfe opinions.
By the fame reafon likewife, he is not pious, who out of fear to the Gods addrelTeth himfelf to every fl:one,to every Alter,befprinkles every Temple with the blood of Viftims f But he, who contemplating all things with a ferene and quiet ibul,conceivetharight of theGods,and wor- fhipping them in his mind, not induced there' to by hope or reward, but for their excellent Majefty and fupreme nature, obferves all kind of veneradon towards them, and ufeth exprefli- ons fuggefting fuch thoughts, as out of them a- ’rife no opinions repugna rc to veneration, and confequently, fulfereth not that which others futfer, in whofe minds, this contrariety caufeth an extraordinary perturbation.
' CHAP. XXI.
Of Fortitude^ as to fear of Death.
THat which next ftriketh greateft terrour into the minds of men isDeath^for that they expect, and fear, I know not what cverlafting ill, as Fables tell them, ( and which is ftrange, in the very privation of fenfe which then hap¬ pens, as if they fhould ftill have being, )not know¬ ing that all ftories concerning the infernal places (which we fpoke of formerly ,)and mere fidions of Poets i or if they contain any thing of trnth, it is made good in this life, by vain fears,fuper- fluous cares, infatiable defires,and other violent paflions, which torture unhappy men in fuch manner, that their life is worfe than hellifli.
That you may exempt yourfelf, therefore, from thefe terrours, accuftome your felfto this thought fthat death nothing concerns us'^ and to this argument. That all good or iU that happen, to us i/s with fenfe-, but death is a privation o/ye«/e,for death is a diflblution, and what is diflblved remains without fenfe.t So that death feems eafie to be contemn’d, becaufe it is an inefFedual Agent, and in vain threatens pain,when the patient is not.
Indeed the ordinary fort of men abhor death, be¬ caufe they look upon it fomtimes as the greateft of pains, fomtimes becaufe they apprehend it as the cef- fation of all things that we enjoy in life -, but without caufe is it, that not to live, or not to be, it fear'd • for when it comes to that, we /hall not have any fa¬ culty left whereby to know, that, not to live, is ill.
Hence we may conclude, that they are very toolilh who abhor, amongft other things, to think, that after death their Bodies fhould be torn by wild Beafts,burnt by fire, devoured by worms for, they do not confider, that then they fiiall not be, and not feel nor complain, that they are torn, burnt,devoured, turned in¬ to corruption; As alfo, thofe who arc trou¬ bled to think, that they fhall no longer enjoy the converfation of their Wives, Children,
Friends ; no longer do them good offices nor af- iift them i for thefe confider not, that they fhall have no defire of fuch things.
Death therefore, which is efteemedthe tmft hor¬ rid of Ills, doth { 05 J fatd, ) nothing concern us, becaufe while we are. Death is not -, and.when Death IS, we arc not : So that it concerns neither the living nor the dead ■, the living it toucheth not the -dead are not. ’
Now the affured knowledge that Death nothing
concerns us, makes us enjoy this mortal life, not ad¬ ding uncertain time to it, but cafting away the de- fire of immortality. For, in life, there can be no¬ thing of ill to him, who perfectly under ft ands that there can be nothing of ill in the privation of life.
Whence, as. we make choice not of the moft meat but of the beftfo fhould we covet, not the longed but moft pleafant life. ^ ’
Neither can he be, acquitted of folly, who fays he fears death, for that, when it comes, it brings not any trouble, but becaufe it affliiis the mind with grief before it comes ; For, that which brings notrou.- ble with it^ when it comes, ought not to make us fad with expeflation. Certainly, if there be any thing of inconvenience or fear in this bufinef3,it is the fault of him chat is dying, not of Death : Nor, is there any trouble in death, more than there is after it, and it is no iefs folly to fear death, than to fear old age, finceasoldage follows youth, fo death follows old age.
Moreover, we are to hope at leaft, that either we fhall feel no pain at the point of death ; or if any, fo fhorc, as the very confideration of than may comfort us-, for no great pain lafts long, and every man ought to believe, that, though the dilTolution of his Soul and body be accompanied with fome torment, yet that being paft’ he fhall feel no more pain.
He alfo who advifed young mart to live well, and old to dye well, was very ridiculous, for thefe are not to be parted the meditation of living well and of dy-Lasrti ing well is one and the fame^ feeing that a young • man may dye fuddenly, and an old man hath fomthing more of life behind Befides, the lait adtisa part, even the crown, of life.
Both young and old ought to confider, that though men may provide for their fecurity in o- ther things -, yet as to death itfelf, all men live as it were in a City without walls or bulwarks.
Befides, 'a young man may dye happy, if he confider, that he fhould find nothing more in a longer life, than what he hath already fecn and exppienc’d ; and an old man may live unhappy,
: f, like a veffel full of boles, he fuffer the goods of life only to run thorough him, and fo is ne¬ ver full of them, nor, as a fober gueft of Na»
:ure, after a plentiful feaft of life, is willing to go away* and take his repofe^
Think not any old man happy for dying old,
)ut for dying full and well fatisfi’d with goods.
Laftly, far more foolifh and ridiculous is he, who LaerU faith,It is good either not to be born at all -,or as foon as born to paft the gates of death. For, if he /peak this in earneft, why does he not prefently rid himjelf of life,it being very eafiefor him fo to doff he hath well deliberated upon it ? If in jeft, he is perfectly mad,hecaufe thefe are things that admit not ofjefting. jdgawy in life there is fomthing amiable in itfelf-, and therefore they are no Iefs to be reproved who defire death, than they who are. afraid
624
EPICURUS.