EPISTLE LXVII.
desirable which come to us amid pleasure and ease, and which we bedeck our doors to welcome?[1] There are certain goods whose features are forbidding. There are certain prayers which are offered by a throng, not of men who rejoice, but of men who bow down reverently and worship. 12. Was it not in this fashion, think you, that Regulus prayed that he might reach Carthage? Clothe yourself with a hero’s courage, and withdraw for a little space from the opinions of the common man. Form a proper conception of the image of virtue, a thing of exceeding beauty and grandeur; this image is not to be worshipped by us with incense or garlands, but with sweat and blood. 13. Behold Marcus Cato, laying upon that hallowed breast his unspotted hands, and tearing apart the wounds which had not gone deep enough to kill him! Which, pray, shall you say to him: “I hope all will be as you wish,” and “I am grieved,” or shall it be “Good fortune in your undertaking!”?
14. In this connexion I think of our friend Demetrius, who calls an easy existence, untroubled by the attacks of Fortune, a “Dead Sea.”[2] If you have nothing to stir you up and rouse you to action, nothing which will test your resolution by its threats and hostilities; if you recline in unshaken comfort, it is not tranquillity; it is merely a flat calm. 15. The Stoic Attalus was wont to say: “I should prefer that Fortune keep me in her camp rather than in the lap of luxury. If I am tortured, but bear it bravely, all is well; if I die, but die bravely, it is also well.” Listen to Epicurus; he will tell you that it is actually pleasant.[3] I myself shall never apply an effeminate word to an act so honourable and austere. If I go
- ↑ Donaria at the doors of temples signified public rejoicing; cf. Tibullus, i. 15 f.
Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona
Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores.
Myrtle decorated the bridegroom’s house-door; garlands heralded the birth of a child (Juvenal, ix. 85). - ↑ Cf. Pliny, N. H. iv. 13. Besides the Dead Sea of Palestine, the term was applied to any sluggish body of water.
- ↑ Cf. Ep. lxvi. 18.
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