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Crantor saith, To be innocent is the greatest comfort
in afflictions. I assent to him, and affirm that it is the
noblest remedy. Besides, the indication of our love to the
deceased consists not in grieving ourselves for him, but in
paying respect to his fame by honorable remembrance.
For no good man deserves elegies, but panegyrics; and we
should rather celebrate his loss by an honorable remembrance, than lament it; and offer up rather first-fruits of
joy to the Gods, and not tears which sorrow extorts from
us. For he who ceaseth to be amongst men becomes partaker of a divine life, is free from the servitude of the body,
and all those solicitous cares which they who are embarrassed with a mortal life of necessity must undergo till they
have finished the course which Providence hath marked
out for them; and this life Nature hath not given us as a
perpetual possession, but hath clogged it with restrictions
and conditions of fate.
[p. 325]
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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