xxxn CONSOLATION AGAINST DEATH 267 



not nor fear, nor draw back as if starting to 

 face some peril. Nature, who bore you, waits 

 your coming to a place better and safer than 

 earth. There is no earthquake there, friend, no 7 

 winds clashing with loud noise of cloudy sky, no 

 fires to waste province and city, no fear of ship- 

 wreck swallowing up whole fleets, no armies ar- 

 rayed with opposing banners, or common fury of 

 hosts prepared for mutual destruction, no plague, 

 no pyres lit up around the promiscuous resting- 

 place of slaughtered nations. If death is a light 

 affair, why fear it ? If it is heavy, then rather let it 

 fall once for all than be always hanging over us. 

 Should / fear to perish when earth must perish s 

 before me, when the powers that shake are shaken, 

 when they hasten to our destruction only through 

 their own? The sea received Helice and Buris 

 entire ; shall I fear for one poor body ? Ships 

 sail over the site of two towns, aye, towns that 

 we know well, that the record preserved by letters 

 has brought to our intimate knowledge. How 

 many others have been sunk in other places ? how 

 many nations has either earth or sea engulfed? 

 Shall I rebel against my end when I know that 9 

 I am not endless? nay, when I am fully assured 

 that all things come to an end, shall I fear my 

 latest sigh ? 



Wherefore steel yourself, Lucilius, with all 

 your might against fear of death. This fear it is 

 that drags us down ; this it is that torments and 

 destroys the life it tries to preserve. It magnifies 

 all those dangers, earthquakes and lightnings, and 

 the rest. You will be able to bear them all 

 resolutely if you but reflect that short and long 

 in life make no difference. It is but hours we lose. 10 



