But when they mourn over those who die so untimely,
do they do it upon their own account, or upon that of the
deceased? If upon their own, because they have lost that
pleasure they thought they should have enjoyed in them, or
are deprived of that profit they expectedor that relief they
flattered themselves they should receive from them in their
old age, then self-love and personal interest prescribe the
measures of their sorrow; so that upon the result they do
net love the dead so much as themselves and their own
interest. But if they lament upon the account of the deceased, that is a grief easily to be shaken off, if they only
consider that by their very death they will be out of the
sphere of any evil that can reach them, and believe the
wise and ancient saying, that we should always augment
what is good, and extenuate the evil. Therefore if grief
is a good thing, let us enlarge and make it as great as we
can; but if it is numbered amongst the evils, as in truth it
ought to be, let us endeavor all we can to suppress it, make
it as inconsiderable as we can, and at last utterly efface it.
How easy this is to be done, I will make appear by an illustrious example of consolation. They say that an ancient
philcsopher came to the Queen Arsinoe, who was then sorrowful for the death of her son, and discoursed her after
this manner: ‘At the time that Jupiter distributed honors amongst his under-deities, it happened that Grief was
absent; but he came at last when all the dignities were
disposed of, and then desired that he might have some
share in the promotions. Jupiter, having no better vacancies left, bestowed upon him sorrow and funeral tears.’ He
[p. 320]
made this inference from the story: ‘Therefore,’ saith
he, ‘as other daemons love and frequent those who give
them hospitable reception, so sadness will never come near
you, if you do not give it encouragement; but if you
caress it with those particular honors which it challengeth
as its due, which are sighs and tears, it will have an unlucky
affection for you, and will always supply you with fresh
occasion that the observance may be continued.’ By this
plausible speech he seems in a wonderful manner to have
buoyed this great woman out of her tears, and to have made
her cast off her veil.
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