The Complete Essays (24 page)

[C] When a soldier of Caesar’s guard, broken and worn out, came up to him in the street and begged leave to kill himself, Caesar looked at his decrepit bearing and said with a smile: ‘So you think you are still alive, then?’
⁴⁰

[B] If any of us were to be plunged into old age all of a sudden I do not think that the change would be bearable. But, almost imperceptibly, Nature leads us by the hand down a gentle slope; little by little, step by step, she engulfs us in that pitiful state and breaks us in, so that we feel no jolt when youth dies in us, although in essence and in truth that is a harsher death than the total extinction of a languishing life as old age dies. For it is not so grievous a leap from a wretched existence to non-existence as it is from a sweet existence in full bloom to one full of travail and pain.

[A] When our bodies are bent and stooping low they have less strength for supporting burdens. So too for our souls: we must therefore educate and train them for their encounter with that adversary, death; for the soul can find no rest while she remains afraid of him. But once she does find assurance she can boast that it is impossible for anxiety, anguish, fear or even the slightest dissatisfaction to dwell within her. And that almost surpasses our human condition.

[B]
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida, neque Auster
Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ,
Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus
.

[Nothing can shake such firmness: neither the threatening face of a tyrant, nor the South Wind (that tempestuous Master of the Stormy Adriatic) nor even the mighty hand of thundering Jove.]
⁴¹

[A] She has made herself Mistress of her passions and her lusts, Mistress of destitution, shame, poverty and of all other injuries of Fortune. Let any of us who can gain such a superiority do so: for here is that true and sovereign freedom which enables us to cock a snook at force and injustice and to laugh at manacles and prisons:

in manicis, et
Compedibus, sævo te sub custode tenebo.
Ipse Deus simul atque volam, me solvet: opinor,
Hoc sentit, moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est
.

[‘I will shackle your hands and feet and keep you under a cruel gaoler.’ – ‘God himself will set me free as soon as I ask him to.’ (He means, I think, ‘I will die’: for death is the last line of all.)]
⁴²

Our religion has never had a surer human foundation than contempt for life; rational argument (though not it alone) summons us to such contempt: for why should we fear to lose something which, once lost, cannot be regretted? And since we are threatened by so many kinds of death is it not worse to fear them all than to bear one?
⁴³
[C] Death is inevitable: does it matter when it comes? When Socrates was told that the Thirty Tyrants had condemned him to death, he retorted, ‘And nature, them!’
⁴⁴

How absurd to anguish over our passing into freedom from all anguish. Just as our birth was the birth of all things for us, so our death will be the death of them all. That is why it is equally mad to weep because we shall not be alive a hundred years from now and to weep because we were not alive a hundred years ago. Death is the origin of another life. We wept like this and it cost us just as dear when we entered into this life, similarly stripping off our former veil as we did so. Nothing can be grievous which occurs but once; is it reasonable to fear for so long a time something which lasts so short a time? Living a long life or a short life are made all one by death:
long
and
short
do not apply to that which is no more. Aristotle says that there are tiny creatures on the river Hypanis whose life lasts one single day: those which die at eight in the morning die in youth; those which die at five in the evening die of senility.
⁴⁵
Which of us would not laugh if so momentary a span counted as happiness or unhappiness? Yet if we compare our own span against eternity or even against the span of mountains, rivers, stars, trees or, indeed, of some animals, then saying
shorter
or
longer
becomes equally ridiculous.

[A] Nature drives us that way, too:
⁴⁶
‘Leave this world,’ she says, ‘just as you entered it. That same journey from death to life, which you once made without suffering or fear, make it again from life to death. Your death is a part of the order of the universe; it is a part of the life of the world:

[B]
inter se mortales mutua vivunt…
Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt
.

[Mortal creatures live lives dependent on each other; like runners in a relay they pass on the torch of life.]
⁴⁷
–

[A] Shall I change, just for you, this beautiful interwoven structure! Death is one of the attributes you were created with; death is a part of you; you are running away from yourself; this
being
which you enjoy is equally divided between death and life. From the day you were born your path leads to death as well as life:

Prima, quae vitam dedit, hora, carpsit
.
[Our first hour gave us life and began to devour it.]
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet
.

[As we are born we die; the end of our life is attached to its beginning.]
⁴⁸

 

[C] All that you live, you have stolen from life; you live at her expense. Your life’s continual task is to build your death. You are
in
death while you are
in
life: when you are no more
in
life you are after death. Or if you prefer it thus: after life you are dead, but during life you are dying: and death touches the dying more harshly than the dead, in more lively a fashion and more essentially.

[B] ‘If you have profited from life, you have had your fill; go away satisfied:

Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis?
[Why not withdraw from life like a guest replete?]

But if you have never learned how to use life, if life is useless to you, what does it matter if you have lost it? What do you still want it for?

Cur amplius addere quæris
Rursum quod pereat male, et ingratum occidat omne?

[Why seek to add more, just to lose it again, wretchedly, without joy?]
⁴⁹

[C] Life itself is neither a good nor an evil: life is where good or evil find a place, depending on how you make it for them.
⁵⁰

[A] ‘If you have lived one day, you have seen everything. One day equals all days. There is no other light, no other night. The Sun, Moon and Stars, disposed just as they are now, were enjoyed by your grandsires and will entertain your great-grandchildren:

[C]
Non alium videre patres: aliumve nepotes
Aspicient
.

[Your fathers saw none other: none other shall your progeny discern.]
⁵¹

[A] And at the worst estimate the division and variety of all the acts of my play are complete in one year. If you have observed the vicissitude of my four seasons you know they embrace the childhood, youth, manhood and old age of the World. Its [C] play [A] is done.
⁵²
It knows no other trick but to start all over again. Always it will be the same.

[B]
Versamur ibidem, atque insumus usque;
[We turn in the same circle, for ever;]
Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus
.
[And the year rolls on again through its own traces.]

[A] I have not the slightest intention of creating new pastimes for you.

Nam tibi præterea quod machiner, inveniamque
Quod placeat, nihil est, eadem sunt omnia semper

[For there is nothing else I can make or discover to please you: all things are the same forever.]
⁵³

Make way for others as others did for you. [C] The first part of equity is equality. Who can complain of being included when all are included?
⁵⁴

[A] ‘It is no good going on living: it will in no wise shorten the time you will stay dead. It is all for nothing: you will be just as long in that state which you fear as though you had died at the breast;

licet, quod vis, vivendo vincere secla,
Mors æterna tamen nihilominus illa manebit
.

[Triumph over time and live as long as you please: death eternal will still be waiting for you.]

[B] ‘And yet I shall arrange that you have no unhappiness:

In vera nescis nullum fore morte alium te,
Qui possit vivus tibi te lugere peremptum,
Stansque jacentem
.

[Do you not know that in real death there will be no second You, living to lament your death and standing by your corpse.]

“You” will not desire the life which now you so much lament.

Nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requirit…
Nec desiderium nostri nos afficit ullum
.

[Then no one worries about his life or his self;… we feel no yearning for our own being.]

Death is less to be feared than nothing – if there be anything less than nothing:

multo mortem minus ad nos esse putandum
Si minus esse potest quam quod nihil esse videmus
.

[We should think death to be less – if anything is ‘less’ than what we can see to be nothing at all.]
⁵⁵

[C] ‘Death does not concern you, dead or alive; alive, because you are: dead, because you are no more.

[A] ‘No one dies before his time; the time you leave behind you is no more yours than the time which passed before you were born;
⁵⁶
[B] and does not concern you either:

Respice enim quam nil ad nos ante acta vetustas
Temporis æterni fuerit
.

[Look back and see that the aeons of eternity before we were born have been nothing to us.]

[A] ‘Wherever your life ends, there all of it ends. [C] The usefulness of living lies not in duration but in what you make of it. Some have lived long and lived little. See to it while you are still here. Whether you have lived enough depends not on a count of years but on your will.

[A] ‘Do you think you will never arrive whither you are ceaselessly heading? [C] Yet every road has its end. [A] And, if it is a relief to have company, is not the whole world proceeding at the same pace as you are?

[B]
Omnia te vita perfuncta sequentur
.
[All things will follow you when their life is done.]
⁵⁷

[A] Does not everything move with the same motion as you do? Is there anything which is not growing old with you? At this same [C] instant [A] that you die
⁵⁸
hundreds of men, of beasts and of other creatures are dying too.

[B]
Nam nox nulla diem, neque noctem aurora sequuta est,
Quæ non audierit mistos vagitibus ægris
Ploratus, mortis comites et funeris atri
.

[No night has ever followed day, no dawn has ever followed night, without hearing, interspersed among the wails of infants, the cries of pain attending death and sombre funerals.]
⁵⁹

[C] ‘Why do you pull back when retreat is impossible? You have seen cases enough where men were lucky to die, avoiding great misfortunes by doing so: but have you ever seen anyone for whom death turned out badly? And it is very simple-minded of you to condemn something which you have never experienced either yourself or through another. Why do you complain of me
⁶⁰
or of Destiny? Do we do you wrong? Should you
govern us or should we govern you? You may not have finished your stint but you have finished your life. A small man is no less whole than a tall one. Neither men nor their lives are measured by the yard. Chiron refused immortality when he was told of its characteristics by his father Saturn, the god of time and of duration.
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