Therefore to be sad, even to an indisposition, for the
death of a son proceeds from a principle of nature, and it is
out of our power to prevent it. I dislike those who boast
so much of hard and inflexible temper which they call apathy, it being a disposition which never happens and never
could be of use to us; for it would extinguish that sociable love we ought to have for one another, and which it is
so necessary above all things to preserve. But to mourn
excessively and to accumulate grief I do affirm to be
altogether unnatural, and to result from a depraved opinion
we have of things; therefore we ought to shun it as destructive in itself, and unworthy of a virtuous man; but to
be moderately affected by grief we cannot condemn. It
were to be wished, saith Crantor the Academic, that we
could not be sick at all; but when a distemper seizeth
us, it is requisite we should have sense and feeling in case
any of our members be plucked or cut off. For that talkedof apathy can never happen to a man without great detriment; for as now the body, so soon the very mind would
be wild and savage.
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