502 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



narrower bounds, his "plain living and high thinking/' are 

 we not reminded of the hut of the old slave-philosopher 

 at Nicopolis, with its straw pallet, its one lamp, and its 

 sublime contentment? Not that we should follow the 

 extreme bareness of either the freedman or the weaver. 

 That is scarcely possible, and would not be desirable. But 

 it would be well for us to perceive, believe, and act on the 

 belief of how much healthier and happier we should be if 

 we imitated more their severe and rational simplicity. 



John Duncan's style of life, its uncommon bareness 

 and satisfaction with lowly things, were a surprise even to 

 his poor neighbours, who pitied and in many cases laughed 

 at him in consequence ; and it is to be feared that many of 

 us will be amongst the pitiful though not the scornful,, 

 let us hope even after all we have read. But to such he 

 might have replied, in the words of Epictetus he certainly 

 acted on them-" / secretly laugh at those who pity me. I 

 am poor, but I have right principles concerning poverty. 

 What is it to me, then, if people pity me for my poverty ? 

 I am neither hungiy, nor thirsty, nor cold ; but because 

 they are hungry and thirsty for superfluities, they suppose 

 me to be so too." 



Another part of the secret of John's happiness un- 

 doubtedly consisted, like that of the good Epictetus, in 

 subordinating the " externals," the things without us, our 

 surroundings, and keeping and using them in their due 

 place and rank ; and in cultivating the " internals," the 

 things within us, of the head and heart knowing, as 

 Marcus Aurelius, the imperial disciple of the philosophic 

 slave, explains, that "the external things reach not the 

 soul, but stand without, still and motionless, and that all 



