SS/1 } $ CIVIL AND MORAL. 95 



fame that he cunningly gave out, how Grsar s own soldiers loved him 

 not ; and being wearied with the wars, and laden with the spoils of 

 Gaul, would forsake him as soon as he came into Italy. Livia settled 

 all things for the succession of her son Tiberius, by continual giving 

 out that her husband Augustus was upon recovery and amen hnent. 

 And it is an usual thing with the bashaws, to conceal the death of the 

 Great Turk from the janizaries and men of war, to save the sacking of 

 Constantinople and other towns, as their manner is. Thcmistocles 

 made Xerxes, King of Persia, post apace out of Grecia, by giving out 

 that the Grecians had a purpose to break his bridge of ships which he 

 had made athwart the Hellespont. There be a thousand such like 

 examples, and the more they are, the less they need to be related, 

 because a man mectcth with them every where : therefore let all wise 

 governors have as great a watch and care over fames, as they have of 

 the actions and designs themselves. 



AN ESSAY ON DEATH. 



I have often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils. 

 All that whirh is past is as a dream ; and he that hoj&amp;gt;es or depends 

 upon time coming, dreams waking. So much of our life as we have 

 discovered is already dead ; and all those hours which we share, even 

 from the breasts of our mother, until we return to our grand-mother 

 the earth, are part of our dying days ; whereof even this is one, and 

 those that succeed are of the same nature, for we die daily ; and as 

 others have given place to us, so we must in the end give way to 

 others. 



Physicians, in the name of death, include all sorrow, anguish, 

 disease, calamity, or whatsoever can fall in the life of man, either 

 grievous or unwelcome : but these things are familiar unto us, and we 

 suffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older since I 

 affirmed it. 



I know many wise men that fear to die; for the change is bitter, 

 and flesh would refuse to prove it : besides, the expectation brings 

 terror, and that exceeds the evil. I Jut I do not believe that any man 

 fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death : and such arc my IIOJKJS, 

 that if heaven be pleased, and nature renew but my lease for twenty- 

 one years more, without asking longer days, I shall be strong enough 

 to acknowledge without murmuring that I was begotten mortal. 

 Virtue walks not in the highway, though she go per afta ; this is 

 strength and the blood to virtue, to condemn things that be desired, 

 and to neglect that which is feared. 



Why should man be in love with his fetters, though of gold ? Aft 

 thou drowned in security? Then I say thou art i&amp;gt;crfcctly dead. For 

 though thou movest, yet thy soul is buried within thce, and thy good 

 angel cither forsakes his guard or sleeps. There is nothing under 

 heaven, saving a true friend, who cannot be counted within the number 

 of movcablcs, unto which my heart doth lean. And this dear freedom 

 hath begotten me this peace, that I mourn not for that end which 



