sound eye ought to view without pain all visible objects, and not to say," that it can look on nothing but what is green;" for that is like one who has weak eyes. The sound ear also, and the sense of smelling, ought to be ready to listen to any sounds, and to receive any smells, which are the objects of those senses. And an healthy stomach should be equally prepared for all kinds of food, as a mill is to grind every sort of grain. In like manner, a sound mind ought to be prepared for every event that comes to pass. But he who is always importunately wishing," that Heaven would preserve his children," or solicitous "that every one should applaud his actions," is like the eye that can look on nothing but green, or the teeth that can eat nothing but what is soft and tender. 34. There is no man

so fortunate in his intercourse with the world, but that, when he dies, some of his neighbours will congratulate themselves on the event. Though he was ever so good and wise, will not there be some one at last ready to say to himself, "Well, I shall now be relieved from this troublesome pedagogue! He was not very severe in his beha haviour towards any of us; but I could perceive that he secretly condemned us." This will be said even of a good man.

my

But, in my case, how many other things are there, for which many of friends would not be sorry to be freed from my presence! If you reflect on this at your death, you will depart with the less. eluctance; when you consider that you are leav

ing a world, where the very partners of your fortune, for whom you have undergone so many toils, whom you have been so anxious to serve, the constant subjects of your good wishes, these very people wish to have you gone; hoping, perhaps, to be more easy and happy without you. Why then should any one wish for a longer abode in such a world as this? Yet do not, on that account, depart with less good will towards them; but still preserve your own consistent character, and be friendly, benevolent, and at peace with all mankind.

25

On the

other hand, do not depart as if dragged out of life by force; but as when a man dies an easy death, the soul quits the body almost insensibly, such ought your departure from your friends to be. For nature has indeed connected and united you with them, but now dissolves the union. I separate myself from them, therefore, as from relations; yet not by force, but voluntarily for this separation is one or those things which are according to nature. 35. In the actions

of other people, which come under your observation, accustom yourself, as far as it is practicable, to discover what they propose by them; yet your first attention ought to be directed to your own conduct. 36. Remember that it is some latent passion or opinion, that actuates and impels you different ways, as the wires do a puppet. This has the force of eloquence; this gives a colour to your life; this, in short, if I may so speak, is really the man. Never confound

in your ideas with this ruling part, that vessel of clay which surrounds it; nor its material instruments or members which adhere to it; for they are no more than the tools of a mechanick, with this only difference, that these members are united to the body. Though they are of no more use, without the cause that actuates them or checks their motion, than the shuttle to the weaver, the pen to the writer, or the whip to the cha

rioteer.

END OF THE TENTH BOOK.

MEDITATIONS.

§.

BOOK XI.

HE privileges of the rational soul are

8.1. THE

Tthese it contemplates itself, it regu

lates itself, and renders itself such as it wishes to be. The fruits' which it produces, itself enjoys: whereas others enjoy the product of trees, or of domestick animals, and the like.

The ra

tional soul likewise obtains its end, at whatever period the termination of life approaches: contrary to what happens in a dance, (suppose) or a dramatick performance on the stage, where, if any thing interrupts it, the whole action is rendered incomplete. But the soul, in whatever part of the drama it is surprised by death, has performed what is past to perfection, and without any defect, and can truly say, "I have obtained all that is really my own." Moreover, it ranges over this universal system, and the void spaces which surround it, and extends its views into the boundless gulph of duration, and comprehends and surveys in imagination, the periodical renovation of all things; and discovers, that our successors will see nothing new, as our predecessors saw nothing more than what we have seen. But he who has lived forty years, if he is a man of any observation, (such is

the uniformity of events) may be said to have seen every thing past or to come. It is likewise the property of the rational soul to love those who stand in any near relation to it, to have a regard to truth and modesty, and to reverence her own authority beyond all things; which is also the property of the law, or the rule of justice. So that right reason and the rule of justice really coincide, and are the same thing.

2. If you find yourself too much captivated with an agreeable song, a dance, or the diversions of the amphitheatre, you will learn to be indifferent toward them, by dividing the melodious voice into its distinct notes, and asking yourself, in regard to every one separately, "Is it this or that single note that thus transports or subdues me?" For you will then be ashamed of your folly."

If you act in the like manner with respect to each particular movement or attitude in the dance, and the same with respect to the exercises in the amphitheatre, and, in short, to every thing else except virtue and its duties, by running over their several distinct parts, you will bring yourself not to estimate things beyond their real importance. Apply this method of proceeding to all the other parts and to the whole of life.

3. How happy is that soul, which is always prepared, if necessary, to depart immediately from the body; and either to be extinguished or dispersed in air, or to continue longer in existence. But then this readiness to depart should proceed from its proper judgment of things, (and not