LIX CALMNESS AND COURAGE 105 



lightning ? Rather, say I, confront all the more 

 resolutely the threats of the heavens, and when the 

 universal world is in flames around you, consider 

 that in such a mighty mass you have nothing to 

 lose. But if you can bring yourself to believe that 10 

 that wreck of heaven, that conflict of the stormy 

 winds, is aimed at you, if it is on your account 

 that the clouds are piled up and collide and roar, if 

 it is for your destruction that such a mass of fire is 

 scattered abroad, then you may surely regard it as 

 some consolation that your death has cost so dear ! 

 But there will then be no room for such a reflection. 

 The fate of one struck by lightning removes all 

 fear. Among other advantages it includes this, that 

 it anticipates your expectation ; no man ever was 

 afraid of lightning except one who had escaped it. 



