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myself against his ambition to be yours, as
long as I possibly could; but fearing the impu-
tation of hiding my power in you out of mean
and selfish considerations, I am at last pre-
vailed upon to give you this trouble. Thus to
avoid the appearance of a greater fault, I
have put on this confidence. If you can for-
give this transgression of modesty in behalf of
a friend, receive this gentleman into your
interests and friendship, and take it from me 10 torments, it finally hardens.
that he is an honest and a brave man."

all the conflicts wherein he received them. Let sighs and tears, and fainting under the lightest strokes of adverse fortune, be the portion of those unhappy people whose tender minds a 5 long course of felicity has enervated: while such, as have passed through years of calamity, bear up, with a noble and immovable constancy, against the heaviest. Uninterrupted misery has this good effect, as it continually

Henry St. John, Viscount
Bolingbroke

1678-1751

FROM REFLECTIONS UPON EXILE

(1716)

Such is the language of philosophy: and happy is the man who acquires the right of holding it. But this right is not to be acquired by pathetic discourse. Our conduct can alone 15 give it us; and therefore, instead of presuming on our strength, the surest method is to confess our weakness, and, without loss of time, to apply ourselves to the study of wisdom. This was the advice which the oracle gave to 20 Zeno, and there is no other way of securing our tranquillity amidst all the accidents to which human life is exposed. Philosophy has, I know, her Thrasos, as well as war: and among her sons many there have been, who, while

something less. The means of preventing this danger are easy and sure. It is a good rule to examine well before we addict ourselves to any sect: but I think it is a better rule, to ad

Dissipation of mind, and length of time, are the remedies to which the greatest part of mankind trust in their afflictions. But the first of these works a temporary, the second 25 they aimed at being more than men, became a slow, effect: and both are unworthy of a wise man. Are we to fly from ourselves that we may fly from our misfortunes, and fondly to imagine that the disease is cured, because we find means to get some moments of respite 30 dict ourselves to none. Let us hear them all, from pain? Or shall we expect from time, the physician of brutes, a lingering and uncertain deliverance? Shall we wait to be happy till we can forget that we are miserable, and owe to the weakness of our faculties a tranquillity 35 which ought to be the effect of their strength? Far otherwise. Let us set all our past and our present afflictions at once before our eyes. Let us resolve to overcome them, instead of flying from them, or wearing out the sense of them by 40 when we have laid aside the wonderful and long and ignominious patience. Instead of palliating remedies, let us use the incisionknife and the caustic, search the wound to the bottom, and work an immediate and radical

cure.

with a perfect indifferency, on which side the truth lies: and, when we come to determine, let nothing appear so venerable to us as our own understandings. Let us gratefully accept the help of every one who has endeavoured to correct the vices, and strengthen the minds of men; but let us choose for ourselves, and yield universal assent to none. Thus, that I may instance the sect already mentioned,

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surprising sentences, and all the paradoxes of the Portique, we shall find in that school such doctrines as our unprejudiced reason submits to with pleasure, as nature dictates, and as 45 experience confirms. Without this precaution, we run the risk of becoming imaginary kings,

The recalling of former misfortunes serves to fortify the mind against latter. He must blush to sink under the anguish of one wound, who surveys a body seamed over with the scars of many, and who has come victorious out of 50

1 Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, wit, politician, and philosopher, the friend of Pope, the political ally of Swift, and the political antagonist of Walpole, was one of the most brilliant figures in the England of Queen Anne. Shortly before the Queen's death, he was prominent in an intrigue to secure the succession of the Stuarts, and after the triumph of the house of Hanover, in 1715, he was compelled to take refuge in France. It was during this enforced residence abroad, after the collapse of his political schemes that, endeavoring, or perhaps affecting to console himself with philosophy, he wrote his Reflections Upon Exile.

2 A Greek stoic philosopher of the third century. Upon Zeno's consulting the oracle, what course was fittest for a man to take that intended to regulate and govern his life after the best manner? the Deity returned for answer that he should keep consortship with the dead. Upon which he fell to reading the lives of the ancients. "Life of Zeno," in Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers.

3i. e., her men like Thrasos, a blustering, braggart, captain in one of Terence's comedies. Cf. thrasonical, boasting, vain-glorious.

4i. e., the Portico, or the Porch. The school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Cyprus, was called Stoic. from the Greek word Stoa, a porch, because Zeno taught in a famous portico in Athens, known as the "Painted Porch," or "the Porch." Hence paradores of the Portique paradoxes of the stoics, or of the philosophers of the Porch.

and real slaves. With it we may learn to assert our native freedom, and live independent on fortune.

dained. But the greatest part of their ordinances are abrogated by the wise.

Rejecting therefore the judgment of those who determine according to popular opinions, 5 or the first appearances of things, let us examine what exile really is. It is then, a change of place; and, lest you should say that I diminish the object, and conceal the most shocking parts of it, I add, that this change of place

In order to which great end, it is necessary that we stand watchful, as sentinels, to discover the secret wiles and open attacks of this capricious goddess, before they reach us. Where she falls upon us unexpected, it is hard to resist; but those who wait for her, will repel her with ease. The sudden invasion of an 10 is frequently accompanied by some or all of enemy overthrows such as are not on their guard; but they who foresee the war, and prepare themselves for it before it breaks out, stand, without difficulty, the first and the

the following inconveniences: by the loss of the estate which we enjoyed, and the rank which we held; by the loss of that consideration and power which we were in possession

friends; by the contempt which we may fall into; by the ignominy with which those who have driven us abroad, will endeavour to sully the innocence of our characters, and to justify the injustice of their own conduct.

Banishment, with all its train of evils, is so far from being the cause of contempt, that he who bears up with an undaunted spirit against them, while so many are dejected by

fiercest onset. I learned this important lesson 15 of; by a separation from our family and our long ago, and never trusted to fortune even while she seemed to be at peace with me. The riches, the honours, the reputation, all the advantages which her treacherous indulgence poured upon me, I placed so, that she might 20 snatch them away without giving me any disturbance. I kept a great interval between me and them. She took them, but she could not tear them from me. No man suffers by bad fortune, but he who has been deceived 25 them, erects on his very misfortunes a trophy by good. If we grow fond of her gifts, fancy that they belong to us, and are perpetually to remain with us, if we lean upon them, and expect to be considered for them; we shall sink into all the bitterness of grief, as soon as 30 these false and transitory benefits pass away, as soon as our vain and childish minds, unfraught with solid pleasures, become destitute even of those which are imaginary. But if we do not suffer ourselves to be transported 35 tyrants, and he took off ignominy from the

by prosperity, neither shall we be reduced by adversity. Our souls will be of proof against the dangers of both these states: and, having explored our strength, we shall be sure of it;

to his honour: for such is the frame and temper of our minds, that nothing strikes us with greater admiration than a man intrepid in the midst of misfortunes. Of all ignominies an ignominious death must be allowed to be the greatest; and yet where is the blasphemer who will presume to defame the death of Socrates? This saint entered the prison with the same countenance with which he reduced thirty

place: for how could it be deemed a prison when Socrates was there? Phocion was led to execution in the same city. All those who met the sad procession, cast their eyes to the ground,

for in the midst of felicity, we shall have tried 40 and with throbbing hearts bewailed, not the how we can bear misfortune.

innocent man, but Justice herself, who was in him condemned. Yet there was a wretch found, for monsters are sometimes produced in contradiction to the ordinary rules of nature, who spit in his face as he passed along. Phocion wiped his cheek, smiled, turned to the magistrate, and said, Admonish this man not to be so nasty for the future."

It is much harder to examine and judge, than to take up opinions on trust; and therefore the far greatest part of the world borrow, from others, those which they entertain con- 45 cerning all the affairs of life and death. Hence it proceeds that men are so unanimously eager in the pursuit of things, which, far from having any inherent real good, are varnished over with a specious and deceitful gloss, and contain 50 for virtue is in every condition the same, and

Ignominy then can take no hold on virtue;

challenges the same respect. We applaud the world when she prospers; and when she falls into adversity we applaud her. Like the temples of the gods, she is venerable even in

nothing answerable to their appearances. Hence it proceeds, on the other hand, that, in those things which are called evils, there is nothing so hard and terrible as the general cry of the world threatens. The word exile comes 55 her ruins. After this must it not appear a indeed harsh to the ear, and strikes us like a melancholy and execrable sound, through a certain persuasion which men have habitually concurred in. Thus the multitude has or

5 An Athenian statesman and soldier, who helped to defeat the Spartans in a sea-fight off Naxos, and who repulsed on land the army of Philip of Macedon. Coming, later, into opposition to Demosthenes, he was falsely accused of treason and executed at Athens, B. C. 317.

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degree of madness to defer one moment acquiring the only arms capable of defending us against attacks which at every moment we are exposed to? Our being miserable, or not miserable, when we fall into misfortunes, depends on the manner in which we have enjoyed prosperity. If we have applied ourselves betimes to the study of wisdom, and to the practice of virtue, these evils become indifferent; but if we have neglected to do so, they become necessary. In one case they are evils, in the other they are remedies for greater evils than themselves. Zeno rejoiced that a shipwreck had thrown him on the Athenian coast: and he owed to the loss of his fortune 15 the Portique would have borne a fit of the the acquisition which he made of virtue, of wisdom, of immortality. There are good and bad airs for the mind, as well as for the body. Prosperity often irritates our chronical distempers, and leaves no hopes of finding any 20 specific but in adversity. In such cases banishment is like change of air, and the evils we suffer are like rough medicines applied to inveterate diseases. What Anacharsis said of the vine, may aptly enough be said of pros- 25 perity. She bears the three grapes of drunkenness, of pleasure, and of sorrow: and happy it is if the last can cure the mischief which the former work. When afflictions fail to have their due effect, the case is desperate. They 30 mad, than not to live! If banishment there

pitch of nature and truth. A spirit of opposition to another doctrine, which grew into great vogue while Zeno flourished, might occasion this excess. Epicurus 10 placed the sovereign 5 good in pleasure. His terms were wilfully, or accidentally mistaken. His scholars might help to pervert his doctrine, but rivalship enflamed the dispute; for in truth there is not so much difference between stoicism reduced to reasonable intelligible terms, and genuine orthodox epicurism, as is imagined. The felicis animi immota tranquillitas,11 and the voluptas of the latter, are near enough a-kin: and I much doubt whether the firmest hero of

stone, on the principles of Zeno, with greater magnanimity and patience than Epicurus did on those of his own philosophy. However, Aristotle took a middle way, or explained himself better, and placed happiness in the joint advantages of the mind, of the body, and of fortune. They are reasonably joined; but certain it is, that they must not be placed on an equal foot. We can much better bear the privation of the last, than of the others; and poverty itself, which mankind is so afraid of, per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes,12 is surely preferable to madness, or the stone, though Chrysippus1s thought it better to live

fore, by taking from us the advantages of fortune, cannot take from us the more valuable advantages of the mind and the body, when we have them; and if the same accident is able to

pray for? When we pray against misfortunes, 35 restore them to us, when we have lost them,

are the last remedy which indulgent Providence uses: and if they fail, we must languish and die in misery and contempt. Vain men! how seldom do we know what to wish or to

and when we fear them most, we want them most. It was for this reason that Pythagoras forbid his disciples to ask anything in particular of God. The shortest and the best prayer

banishment is a very slight misfortune to those who are already under the dominion of reason, and a very great blessing to those who are still plunged in vices which ruin the health

which we can address to him, who knows our 40 both of body and mind. It is to be wished for, wants, and our ignorance in asking, is this: "Thy will be done."

Tully says, in some part of his works, that as happiness is the object of all philosophy,

in favour of such as these, and to be feared by none. If we are in this case, let us second the designs of Providence in our favour, and make some amends for neglecting former

so the disputes among philosophers arise from 45 opportunities by not letting slip the last. Si

their different notions of the sovereign good. Reconcile them in that point, you reconcile them in the rest. The school of Zeno placed this sovereign good in naked virtue, and wound the principle up to an extreme beyond the 50

Zeno of Cyprus, the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.

7 A Scythian philosopher, who resided for some time in Athens. Diogenes Laertius reports him as saying "That the vine bears three sorts of clusters: the first, of pleasure, the second, of debauchery, and the third, of discontent and repentance."

This expression occurs in a prayer in the church of England service: "Almighty God, ... who knoweth our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking,” etc.

Cicero, whose full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero.

nolis sanus, curres hydropicus.14
We may
shorten the evils which we might have pre-
vented, and as we get the better of our dis-

10 Epicurus (342-270 B. C.) was the founder of the "Epicurean School" of philosophy. His teachings were almost directly opposed to those of Zeno and other Stoic philosophers.

11 The immovable serenity of the happy soul." Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, and the other Stoic philosophers, laid great stress on the attainment of a lofty tranquility of mind, which all earthly shocks or accidents would be powerless to disturb.

12"Flying poverty through the sea, through the rocks, through the flames."

13 A Stoic philosopher who resided in Athens, and lived about 200 B. C.

14 "If you are unwilling when well, you shall run when you are dropsical."

orderly passions, and vicious habits, we shall feel our anxiety diminish in proportion. All the approaches to virtue are comportable. With how much joy will the man, who improves his misfortunes in this manner, discover that those evils, which he attributed to his exile, sprung from his vanity and folly, and vanish with them! He will see that, in his former temper of mind, he resembled the effeminate prince15 who could drink no water 10 because they are common to all men: I say,

Rural amusements, and philosophical meditations, will make your hours glide smoothly on; and if the indulgence of Heaven has given you a friend like Lælius, 19 nothing is wanting 5 to make you completely happy.

but that of the river Choaspes; or the simple queen,1o in one of the tragedies of Euripides, who complained bitterly, that she had not lighted the nuptial torch, and that the river

These are some of those reflections which may serve to fortify the mind under banishment, and under the other misfortunes of life, which it is every man's interest to prepare for,

they are common to all men; because even they who escape them are equally exposed to them. The darts of adverse fortune are always levelled at our heads. Some reach us, some

Ismenus had not furnished the water at her 15 graze against us, and fly to wound our neigh

bours. Let us therefore impose an equal temper on our minds, and pay without murmuring the tribute which we owe to humanity. The winter brings cold, and we must freeze.

son's wedding. Seeing his former state in this ridiculous light, he will labour on with pleasure towards another as contrary as possible to it; and when he arrives there, he will be convinced by the strongest of all proofs, his own experi- 20 The summer returns with heat, and we must ence, that he was unfortunate because he was vicious, not because he was banished.

If I was not afraid of being thought to refine too much, I would venture to put some ad

melt. The inclemency of the air disorders our health, and we must be sick. Here we are exposed to wild beasts, and there to men more savage than the beasts; and if we escape the

earth, there are perils by water and perils by fire. This established course of things it is not in our power to change; but it is in our power to assume such a greatness of mind as becomes wise and virtuous men; as may enable us to encounter the accidents of life with fortitude, and to conform ourselves to the order of nature, who governs her great kingdom, the world, by continual mutations. Let

vantages of fortune, which are due to exile, 25 inconveniencies and dangers of the air and the into the scale against those which we lose by exile. If you are wise, your leisure will be worthily employed, and your retreat will add new lustre to your character. Imitate Thucydides in Thracia, or Xenophon in his little farm 30 at Scillus. In such a retreat you may sit down, like one of the inhabitants of Elis, who judged of the Olympic games, without taking any part in them. Far from the hurry of the world, and almost an unconcerned spectator 35 us submit to this order, let us be persuaded

that whatever does happen ought to happen, and never be so foolish as to expostulate with nature. The best resolution we can take is to suffer what we cannot alter, and to pursue,

of what passes in it, having paid in a public life what you owed to the present age, pay in a private life what you owe to posterity. Write as you live, without passion; and build your reputation, as you build your happiness, on 40 without repining, the road which Providence, the foundations of truth. If you want the talents, the inclination, or the necessary materials for such a work, fall not however into sloth. Endeavour to copy after the example of Scipio" at Linturnum. Be able to say to 45 orders with spirit and cheerfulness, and not yourself,

Innocuas amo delicias doctamque quietem.18

who directs everything, has marked out to us: for it is not enough to follow; and he is but a bad soldier who sighs, and marches on with reluctancy. We must receive the

endeavour to sink out of the post which is assigned us in this beautiful disposition of things, whereof even our sufferings make a necessary part. Let us address ourselves to

those admirable verses, which are going to lose part of their grace and energy in my translation of them.

15 The water of the Choaspes "was so pure that the 50 God, who governs all, as Cleanthes20 did in Persian kings used to carry it with them in silver vessels when on foreign expeditions." The allusion in the text seems to have been suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Morals, in which, after declaring that we should be thankful for those restrictions which we impose on ourselves, Plutarch adds-" yet we mock the Persian Kings, for that (if it be true which is reported of them) they drink of all the water only of the river Choaspes," etc.

16 Jocaste, in The Phenician Virgins of Euripides. 17 Publius Cornelius Scipio, the conqueror of Hannibal, who gained the name of Africanus. In spite of his great services, he lost the popular favor, and was forced to retire to his country place at Liternum.

18 "I love harmless pleasures and learned quiet."

19 Gaius Lælius, whose wisdom gained for him the name of Sapius, a philosopher, orator, and lover of country life, and a close friend of Scipio Africanus, the younger. Laelius is given a prominent part in Cicero's dialogue on Friendship (De Amicitia).

20 A Stoic philosopher; disciple and successor of Zeno. His Hymn to Jupiter is all that remains of his numerous works.

Parent of nature! master of the world!
Where'er thy Providence directs, behold
My steps with cheerful resignation turn.
Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on.
Why should I grieve, when grieving I must
bear?

Or take with guilt, what guiltless I might share?

Thus let us speak, and thus let us act. Resignation to the will of God is true magnanimity. But the sure mark of a pusillanimous and base spirit, is to struggle against, to censure the order of Providence, and instead of mending our own conduct, to set up for correcting that of our Maker.

THE FORERUNNERS OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL

Thomas Parnell

1679-1718

A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH
(Published, 1721)

By the blue taper's trembling light,
No more I waste the wakeful night,
Intent with endless view to pore
The schoolmen and the sages o'er:
Their books from wisdom widely stray,
Or point at best the longest way.
I'll seek a readier path, and go
Where wisdom's surely taught below.
How deep yon azure dyes the sky,
Where orbs of gold unnumber'd lie,
While through their ranks in silver pride
The nether crescent seems to glide!
The slumbering breeze forgets to breathe,
The lake is smooth and clear beneath,
Where once again the spangled show
Descends to meet our eyes below.
The grounds which on the right aspire,
In dimness from the view retire:
The left presents a place of graves,
Whose wall the silent water laves.
That steeple guides thy doubtful sight
Among the livid gleams of night.
There pass, with melancholy state,
By all the solemn heaps of fate,
And think, as softly-sad you tread
Above the venerable dead,

"Time was, like thee they life possest, And time shall be, that thou shalt rest."

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Death's but a path that must be trod,
If man would ever pass to God;
A port of calms, a state of ease
From the rough rage of swelling seas.

"Why then thy flowing sable stoles,
Deep pendant cypress, mourning poles,
Loose scarfs to fall athwart thy weeds,
Long palls, drawn hearses, cover'd steeds,
And plumes of black, that, as they tread,
Nod o'er the scutcheons of the dead?

"Nor can the parted body know,
Nor wants the soul, these forms of woe.
As men who long in prison dwell,
With lamps that glimmer round the cell,
Whene'er their suffering years are run,
Spring forth to greet the glittering sun:
Such joy, though far transcending sense,
Have pious souls at parting hence.
On earth, and in the body plac'd,
A few and evil years they waste;
But when their chains are cast aside,
See the glad scene unfolding wide,
Clap the glad wing, and tower away,
And mingle with the blaze of day."

A HYMN TO CONTENTMENT (Published, 1721)

Lovely, lasting peace of mind! Sweet delight of human kind! Heavenly-born, and bred on high, To crown the favorites of the sky

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