BOOK VII
the Sage: All things by Law, but in very truth only elements. And it suffices to remember that all things are by law: there thou hast it briefly enough.[1]
32. Of Death: Either dispersion if atoms; or, if a single Whole, either extinction or a change of state.[2]
33. Of Pain: When unbearable it destroys us, when lasting, it is bearable,[3] and the mind safeguards its own calm by withdrawing itself, and the ruling Reason takes no hurt. As to the parts that are impaired by the pain, let them say their say about it as they can.[4]
34. Of Glory: Look at the minds of its votaries, their characteristics, ambitions, antipathies.[5] Remember too that, as the sands of the sea drifting one upon the other bury the earlier deposits, so in life the earlier things are very soon hidden under what comes after.
35. [From Plato.][6] Dost thou think that the life of man can seem any great matter to him who has true grandeur of soul and a comprehensive outlook on all Time and all Substance? "It cannot seem so," said he. Will such a man then deem death a terrible thing? "Not in the least."
- ↑ The reading and meaning are uncertain. The Sage is Democritus, and we should expect atoms rather than elements to be mentioned. Leopold aptly quotes Sext. Emp. vii. 35: νόμῳ γλυκὺ καὶ νόμῳ πικρόν, νόμῳ θερμόν νόμῳ ψυχρόν . . . ἐτεῇ δὲ ἄτομα και κένον. Fournier cleverly makes a hexameter of the words πάντα νομίστ', έτεῇ δὲ μόνα στοιχεία <κένον τε>.
- ↑ Sen. Ep. 65 ad fin.: Mors aut finis aut transitus.
- ↑ vii. 16, 64. cp. Aesch. Frag. 310: θάρσει πόνου γὰρ ἄκρον οὐκ ἔχει χρόνον; Diog. Laert. Epicurus xxxi. 4.
- ↑ vii. 14; viii. 40.
- ↑ vi. 59.
- ↑ Rep. 486 A.
