absolutely and completely,[1] of his victory (which was of great importance to their affairs), in order not to incur the ill-fortune of the foregoing instance; and, in order not to lose a few dead bodies of his friends which were floating on the sea, he allowed a multitude of living enemies to sail away unharmed, who afterward made them pay dear for that ill-timed superstition.
Quæris quo jaceas, post obitum, loco?
Quo non nata jacent.[2]
These other verses restore the sense of repose to a body without a soul: —
Neque sepulchrum, quo recipiat, habeat portum corporis,
Ubi, remissa humana vita, corpus requiescat a malis;[3]
just as nature shows us that many dead things have still occult relations with life. Wine becomes different in the cellar, in accordance with some variations of the seasons of the wine; and the flesh of the deer changes its condition and taste in the salting-house, according to the laws that govern living flesh, so it is said.
CHAPTER IV
HOW THE SOUL VENTS ITS EMOTIONS ON FALSE OBJECTS WHEN TRUE ONES ARE LACKING
The title indicates the theme of this short Essay; it opens by declaring that “the mind when disturbed and excited” must have “some object to seize and work upon”; and thus we quarrel with even inanimate things — not only with inanimate things, but with the gods, with God himself. Man, and also the brute beasts, when inwardly moved, direct themselves to definite objects; and if circumstances do not furnish the emotions with a true object for their exercise, they create for themselves
- ↑ Perdit le fruit tout net et contant.
- ↑ You ask where you will be after death? Where the unborn are. — Seneca, Troades, Act II, ll. 30, 31 (400, 401).
- ↑ He has no tomb to receive him, no refuge for his body, where, released from human life, it may repose from ills. — Ennius, quoted in Cicero, Tusc. Disp., I, 44.
