friend Crito, that, when I take my departure suddenly from these abodes, no part of me will be left behind. But nevertheless, my Crito, if you shall be able to overtake me, or should get possession of me at any place, bury me as you please. But, believe me, no one of you will come up with me when I shall have departed hence." This was noble in him to give this permission to his friend, and at the same time to show that he was entirely unconcerned about the whole matter.

Diogenes, hardier still, and he too having the same opinion, but as a cynic expressing it more roughly, ordered his body to be cast forth, unburied. Then his friends said, "What! to the birds and beasts?" "By no means," he said; "but place a staff by me, with which to drive them away." "How can you?" said they, "for you will have no sensation." "Why, then, should I fear to be torn by wild beasts, if I shall feel nothing?" Famous, also, is the saying of Anaxagoras, who, when he was dying at Lampsacus, and his friends inquiring, if it came to the worst, if he wished to be carried to Clazomene, his native country, answered, "It is not necessary; for all paths lead alike to the infernal regions." One idea must be allowed in this whole question of burial, that it relates only to the body; whether the soul perish, or live. But it is plain, that the body retains no sensation when the soul is extinguished, or has passed

away.

Achilles drags the body

XLIV. But errors are universal. of Hector bound to his chariot, and I believe he thinks he is pained by it, and is sensible of suffering; and in this way he thinks he has his revenge. And she (his wife) mourns this as the most bitter fate; "I have seen, what filled me with the most cruel anguish to see, Hector dragged along by a fourhorse chariot." What Hector? or how long will he be Hector? Accius speaks more to the purpose, and Achilles is sometimes wise, "Yes, truly, I have returned the body to Priam, and taken away Hector." "You did not, then, drag Hector, but the body which was Hector's." Behold another arises out of the earth, who will not permit his mother to sleep; "I call thee, Oh mother, who assuagest thy cares with sleep, without pity for me; arise, and bury thy son, - when these verses are chanted in a deep and mournful measure, which brings a feeling of sadness over the whole theatre, it is difficult not to think, that they who are unburied are miserable before the beasts and birds tear them," (he fears, it seems, lest his

lacerated limbs should suffer indignity, he does not fear to have them burned,) "neither permit my remains, the flesh torn from the bones, and polluted with offensive gore, foully to be scattered." (I do not understand what he fears, when he pours out such good verses of seven feet to the accompaniment of the pipe.) It is to be maintained, then, that we should have no anxiety for what may happen after death, although many would punish their enemies, even when dead. Thyestes, according to Ennius, cursing in very smooth verses, wishes, first, that Atreus may perish by shipwreck, truly a hard fate, for such a death is not without keen suffering. But what follows is unmeaning; "May he be impaled on high on the sharp rocks, his bowels hanging out as he is suspended by his side, sprinkle the cliffs with putrid gore, with clotted and black blood." The rocks themselves were not more destitute of sensation than he, whom he would torture thus, hanging by his side. Such things would be hard to bear, if he could feel them; but the dead are without sensation. What follows is very idle; "Nor let him have a sepulchre, a grave to receive him, where, human life being finished, he may rest from his sufferings." You see in what an error these verses turn; he thinks the body has a port, and that the dead rest in a sepulchre. Pelops was greatly to blame, that he did not teach and inform his son how far anything was to be cared for.

XLV. But why should I observe upon the opinions of individuals, when we can review the various errors of nations? The Egyptians embalm their dead, and keep them in their houses. The Persians, also, bury them covered with wax, that the bodies may last as long as possible. It is a custom of the Magi not to bury in the earth the bodies of their friends, except they are first torn to pieces by wild beasts. In Hyrcania, the people rear dogs for public use; the rich private ones. We know that is a noble race of dogs. But each man prepares, according to his ability, those by which he is to be torn to pieces; and they think this the best sepulture. Chrysippus, who is curious in all history, has collected many other anecdotes; but many of them are so disgusting, that my discourse avoids and flees them. Therefore this whole matter must be disregarded as far as we are concerned, but not neglected in the case of our friends; but cared for in such manner as if we living thought the bodies of the dead destitute of sensation. However, let the living give as much attention to it, as is due to custom and pro

priety, but at the same time bearing in mind, that none of these things affect the dead.

Certainly, death is then undergone with the greatest equanimity, when declining life can console itself with thoughts of praiseworthy deeds. No one has lived too short a life, who has discharged a perfect duty of perfect virtue. Many periods of my own life have seemed favorable for dying, when I wish I could have departed; for nothing more was to be acquired; the burthens of life were increased, and wars with fortune only remained. Wherefore, if reason itself shall not succeed in persuading us that we may neglect death, yet passed life may make us seem to have lived enough, and more than enough. For, although sensation may have left them, the dead are not without the just and proper rewards of fame and glory, though they are unconscious of them. And, though glory has nothing in itself worthy to be desired, yet it follows virtue like its shadow. The true verdict of the multitude concerning honorable deeds, whenever it is rendered, is to be applauded, although it can bring no happiness to the actors of them.

XLVI. But I cannot say, in whatever manner it will be received, that Lycurgus and Solon are deprived of the glory of their laws, and public instruction; Themistocles and Epaminondas of their warlike virtue. For Neptune shall overwhelm Salamis itself, before the memory of the Salaminian trophies; and Boeotian Leuctra will perish before the glory of the Leuctrian battle. More slowly still will fame leave such names as Curius, Fabricius, Calatinus, the two Scipios, the two Africani, Maximus, Marcellus, Paulus, Cato, Lælius, and innumerable others; any resemblance to whom, he, who attains, measuring himself not by the breath of popular rumor, but by the just praise of good men, may, if it should so happen to him, approach death with a trustful heart, in which we have seen there is the highest good, or no evil. Even in prosperity, one may wish to die; for no accumulation of good things can give so much pleasure, as to make amends for the pain of losing them. That saying of a Spartan seems to signify this opinion, who, when Diagoras, the Rhodian, a noble victor at the Olympic games, had seen, in one day, his two sons victors at Olympia, approached the old man, and having congratulated him, said; "Die now, oh Diagoras, for you cannot attain a higher happiness. "These are great things, the Greeks, perhaps, think, or rather they thought too lightly of them; and he who made this

remark to Diagoras, thinking it a very wonderful thing, that three Olympic victors should spring from one family, esteemed it a useless business for him to remain longer in life, exposed to the changes of fortune.

But I had, indeed, answered you, as I thought, sufficiently, in few words; for you had granted, that the dead do not exist in pain, but on that account I went on to multiply words, because this idea is a great consolation in bereavement and sorrow. For we ought to bear the loss of our friends, a loss which chiefly affects ourselves, with moderation, lest we seem to love ourselves too much. But the suspicion would fill us with intolerable anguish, if we thought that they, of whom we are bereaved, had any sensation of those sufferings, which men commonly suppose. I have, on my own account, endeavored to shake this opinion at the foundation, and, perhaps, for that reason, have protracted my discourse.

XLVII. A. Do you say you have spoken too much at length? Not for me, indeed. For the first part of your discourse made me desirous of dying; the last not only willing to die, but has removed all anxiety upon the subject. At any rate, from your whole argument, I am convinced that death is not an evil.

M. Shall we now regard, in our discussion, the epilogue of the rhetoricians, or leave out such a technicality?

A. You cannot, with justice, neglect the rules of an art, which you have always adorned; and which, to speak the truth, has gained you so much reputation. But what is the epilogue? for I desire to hear it, whatever it is.

M. The decisions of the immortal gods are accustomed to be introduced, concerning death, in the schools, nor are they mere fictions, but rest upon the authority of Herodotus, and many others. First, the sons of the Grecian priestess, Cleobis and Biton, are rehearsed. The story is well known. For when it became necessary, that she should be drawn in a chariot to the temple, at some distance from the city, to perform a solemn and stated ceremony, the beasts were wanting; then these young men, whom I have just named, taking off their garments, and anointing their bodies with oil, approached the yoke. So the priestess was carried to the temple; and since her chariot was drawn by her sons, she is said to have supplicated the goddess to give them, as a reward for their piety, the best gift that can be bestowed by the gods upon mortals. The

young men, having feasted with their mother, retired to sleep, and in the morning were found dead. Trophonius and Agamedes are said to have made a similar petition, when they had built the temple of Apollo, at Delphi; for prostrating themselves before the god, they asked no small reward for their work and labor, but without specifying what it should be, but wishing that which might be best for mortals. Apollo promised them that he would grant their prayer three days from that time; and when that day dawned they were found dead. This, they say, was the decision of a god, and of that god, too, to whom the other gods had granted the highest power of divination.

XLVIII. A story is also told of Silenus, who, being taken captive by Midas, is said to have done the king this service for his liberation; he taught him that not to be born is by far the best fate for man, and next to this, to die as soon as possible. Which idea Euripides makes use of in Cresphontis: "For it is proper that forming an assembly we should mourn for our house, when any one is born to this light, considering the various ills of human life; but when he has finished his severe trials by death, for his friends to follow his remains with praise and joy." There is something like this in the consolation of Crantor. For he says that a certain Elysius Terinæus, severely afflicted by the death of his son, came to the place of necromancy to inquire the cause of his great calamity, when these three verses were given to him upon tablets :

In life men err by the ignorance of their minds.
Euthynous died by the decision of the fates.

It was better for him and for thee that he should die.

These, and like authors, strengthen an opinion confirmed by facts, decided by the immortal gods. A certain Alcidemus, an ancient rhetorician of the very noblest, also wrote in praise of death, which he supported by enumerating the ills of human life. And to him were wanting those arguments so ingeniously collected by philosophers; nevertheless, he failed not in copiousness of language. Those celebrated instances of death undergone for one's country seemed to the rhetoricians not only glorious, but happy. They begin with Erechtheus, whose daughters even eagerly sought death to save the lives of their fellow citizens; and Codrus who, that he might not be recognised in his royal apparel, put on the dress of a servant, and