ing some fables of Æsop into verse. "Tell Evenus this," he says, "and bid him be of good cheer; say that I would have him come after me, if he be a wise man, and not tarry; and that to-day I am likely to be going, for the Athenians say I must." Then he considers the question—"Why, in a case where death is better than life, a man should not hasten his own end?" He finds the answer to be, Because man is a prisoner, and has no right to release himself, being, in fact, a sort of possession of the gods, who will summon him at their pleasure.[1]
"Then," says Cebes, one of the party, "the wise man will sorrow and the fool rejoice at leaving his masters the gods, and passing out of life."
"Not so," is the reply; "for I am persuaded that I am going to other gods, who are wise and good, and also (I trust) to men departed, who are better than those I leave behind; therefore I do not grieve, as otherwise I might, for I have good hope that there is yet something awaiting the dead, and, as has been said of old, some far better lot for the good than for the wicked."
He then explains the grounds on which he builds this hope of immortality. Death, he says, is the happy release of the soul from the body. In this life our highest and purest thoughts are distracted by cares and lusts, and diseases inherent in the flesh. He is wisest who keeps himself pure till the hour when the Deity Himself is pleased to release him. "Then shall
- ↑ We may compare the argument used by Despair, and the answer of the Red Cross Knight, in Spenser (Fairy Queen, I. ix, 40, 41).
