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

ON PROVIDENCE, in. 11-14is harassed less by what he suffers than by the reasonfor his suffering. Surely the human race has notcome so completely under the sway of vice as tocause a doubt whether, if Fate should give thechoice, more men would rather be born a Regulusthan a Maecenas ; or if there shoxild be one boldenough to say that he would rather have been borna Maecenas than a Regulus, the fellow, although hemay not admit it, would rather have been born aTerentia " !Do you consider that Socrates was ill-used becausehe drank doAvn that draught ^ which the state hadbrewed as if it were an ehxir of immortal life, andup to the point of death discoursed on death ? Washe ill-treated because his blood grew cold, and, asthe chill spread, gradually the beating of his pulsesstopped ? How much more should we envy himthan those who are served in cups of precious stone,whose wine a catamite—a tool for anything, anunsexed or sexless creature—dilutes \vith snow heldabove in a golden vessel ! They will measure outafresh all their drink in vomit, with WTy faces tastingin its stead their own bile ; but he will quaff thepoison gladly and with good cheer.Touching Cato, enough has been said, and it willbe granted by the consensus of mankind that thatgreat man reached the pinnacle of happiness,—hewhom Nature chose tobe the one with whom herdread power should clash. " The enmity of thepowerful," said she, " is a hardship ; then let himmatch himself at one and the same time againstPompey, Caesar, and Crassus. It is a hardship tobe outstripped by an inferior in the candidacy forofl&ce ; then let him be defeated by Vatinius." It is23