2J4 OP THE PROLONGATION- 



Dervife. This is not to be wondered at. The true 

 pbiiofopher, in general, wonders at nothing. He bears 

 with patience fuch as, from ignorance, deem all things 

 impoffible which their fhallow intellect cannot compre- 

 hend. His way of thinking is far above that of com- 

 mon mortals. Whole generations fpring up and pafs 

 away before his eyes, without earning any emotion in him. 

 He, whenever he will, can procure himfelf more 

 riches than are found in the treafuries of the greateft 

 monarchs : but it is too mean an object for him to be 

 heaping up wealth, and through that' magnanimity 

 which he pofTefles, with his voluntary poverty, no ac - 

 cident can alter his repofe. — 



Paul Lucas, [ Interrupting him ] Beautiful fe ntiment ! 

 Splendid dream ! With all this, the philofopher like- 

 wife dies, frequently after a very fhort life. What 

 does it avail him then, that he was wife ? Had it not 

 been better for him to have enjoyed that life which he 

 now rnuft quit ? 



Dervife, I clearly fee that you have never known 

 any real philofopher. The wife man of whom I fpeak, 

 dies indeed (for that is a law of nature from which no 

 one is excepted) but he knows a method of prolonging 

 his life to feveral hundred years. This mean is called 

 the philofopher' s {lone, which is not, as the half-learn- 

 ed believe, a nonexiftence, but actually does exifr. 

 This fee ret is, however, known only to a very few, and 

 from its nature, cannot be known to many. The ge- 

 nerality of men die of the effects of covetoufnefs or 

 of extravagance, or they fhorten their lives by an inor- 

 dinate love of themfelves. 



P. Lucas,. 



