Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON ANGER, III. x\'. 3-xvi. ithose whose lot is cast in this sort of life and who areinvited to the board of kings. So must they eat inthat company, so must they drink, so must theyanswer, so must they mock at the death of theirdear ones. Whether the hfe is worth the price weshall see ; that is another question. We shall notcondole with such a chain-gang of prisoners sowretched, we shall not urge them to submit to thecommands of their butchers ; we shall show that inany kind of ser\'itude the way lies open to libert}'.If the soul is sick and because of its o\\ti imperfectionunhappy, a man may end its sorrows and at the sametime himself. To him to whom chance has given aking that aims his shafts at the breasts of his friends,to him who has a master that gorges fathers withthe flesh of their cliildren, I would say :" Madman,why do you moan ? Why do you wait for someenemy to avenge you by the destruction of yournation, or for a mighty king from afar to fly to yourrescue ? In whatever direction you may turn youreyes, there lies the means to end your woes. See youthat precipice ? Down that is the way to liberty.See you that sea, that river, that well ? There sitsliberty—at the bottom. See you that tree, stunted,bUghted, and barren ? Yet from its branches hangsliberty. See you that throat of yours, your gullet,your heart ? They are ways of escape from servitude.Are the ways of egress I show you too toilsome, dothey require too much courage and strength ? Doyou ask what is the highway to libertv' ? Any veiiT"in your body !So long indeed as there shall be no hardship sointolerable in our opinion as to force us to abandonlife, let us, no matter what our station in hfe may295