The Tusculan Disputations

 Introduction.

 Book 1. On The Contempt Of Death.

 A. I now recollect the Greek, but since you have obliged me to grant that the dead are not miserable, proceed to convince me that it is not miserable

 He is challenging the reward of glory from those men whose ancestors he himself had ennobled by his poetry. And in the same spirit he says in another

 Why do I mention poets? the very mechanics are desirous of fame after death. Why did Phidias include a likeness of himself in the shield of Minerva, w

 and the error prevailed so much, though indeed at present it seems to me to be removed, that although men knew that the bodies of the dead had been bu

 And they must needs have these appearances speak, which is not possible without a tongue, and a palate, and jaws, and without the help of lungs and si

 or those who have seen the straits of the ocean,

 What kind of sight do you imagine that will be, when the whole earth is laid open to our view? and that, too, not only in its position, form, and boun

 And does it become a philosopher to boast that he is not afraid of these things, and that he has discovered them to be false? And from this we may per

 the other, towards the south pole, is unknown to us but is called by the Greeks ἀντίχθονα: the other parts are uncultivated, because they are either

 then the multitude of cattle, fit part for food, part for tilling the ground, others for carrying us, or for clothing us and man himself, made as it

 would he then have been taken from good or from evil? It would indeed, at that time, have appeared that he was being taken away from good yet surely,

 As if anything better could have happened to him at that time, than to lose his life in that manner but yet, if it had befallen him sooner, it would

 But because there is nothing beyond old age, we call that long all these things are said to be long or short, according to the proportion of time the

 What was it that Leonidas, their general, said to them? March on with courage, my Lacedæmonians to-night, perhaps, we shall sup in the regions below

 What Hector? or how long will he be Hector? Accius is better in this, and Achilles, too, is sometimes reasonable -

 It was not Hector that you dragged along, but a body that had been Hector's. Here another starts from underground, and will not suffer his mother to s

 When these verses are sung with a slow and melancholy tune, so as to affect the whole theatre with sadness, one can scarce help thinking those unhappy

 I do not understand what he could fear who could pour forth such excellent verses to the sound of the flute. We must, therefore, adhere to this, that

 The rocks themselves were not more destitute of feeling than he who was hanging to them by his side though Thyestes imagines he is wishing him the gr

 You see under what mistaken notions all this is said. He imagines the body has its haven, and that the dead are at rest in their graves. Pelops was gr

 There is something like this in Crantor's Consolation for he says, that Terinæus of Elysia, when he was bitterly lamenting the loss of his son, came

 On these and similar authorities they affirm that the question has been determined by the Gods. Nay more Alcidamas, an ancient rhetorician of the ver

 But the wise Solon says -

 But let us, if indeed it should be our fate to know the time which is appointed by the Gods for us to die, prepare ourselves for it, with a cheerful a

 Epist. I. xix. 25.

 This was Livius Andronicus: he is supposed to have been a native of Tarentum, and he was made prisoner by the Romans, during their wars in Southern It

 Which Roscommon translates -

 Epicharmus was a native of Cos, but lived at Megara, in Sicily, and when Megara was destroyed, removed to Syracuse, and lived at the court of Hiero, w

 Plato is supposed to have learnt some of his views from him, and Aristotle to nave borrowed from him every idea of the Categories.

 Which may be translated, perhaps -

 This is alluded to by Juvenal -

 Pompey's second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar she died the year before the death of Crassus, in Parthia. Virgil speaks of Cæsar and Po

 This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:-

 The epitaph in the original is -

 This was expressed in the Greek verses -

 which by some authors are attributed to Homer.

 The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch -

 This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune, whose assistance the Eleusinians had called in against the Athenians, had been slain

 Book 2. On Bearing Pain.

 it is not every mind which has been properly cultivated that produces fruit - and to go on with the comparison, as a field, although it may be natura

 And therefore he cries out, desiring help, and wishing to die,

 It is hard to say that the man who was obliged to cry out in this manner, was not oppressed with evil, and great evil too.

 Can we, then, despise pain, when we see Hercules himself giving vent to his expressions of agony with such impatience?

 And therefore it scarcely seems possible to avoid calling a man who is suffering, miserable and if he is miserable, then pain is an evil.

 I do not deny pain to be pain for were that the case, in what would courage consist? but I say it should be assuaged by patience, if there be such a

 And in these laborious exercises pain interferes sometimes they are thrown down, receive blows, have bad falls, and are bruised, and the labour itsel

 XVII. This is certainly Eurypylus himself. What an experienced man! - Whilst his friend is continually enlarging on his misfortunes, you may observe t

 Patroclus, I suppose, will lead him off to his chamber to bind up his wounds, at least if he be a man: but not a word of that he only inquires how th

 Pacuvius is better in this than Sophocles, for in the one Ulysses bemoans his wounds too vehemently for the very people who carried him after he was

 The wise poet understood that custom was no contemptible instructor how to bear pain. But the same hero complains with more decency, though in great p

 He begins to give way, but instantly checks himself:-

 Do you observe how he constrains himself not that his bodily pains were less, but because he checks the anguish of his mind? Therefore, in the conclu

 And so that soft place in his soul obeys his reason, just as an abashed soldier does his stern commander.

 Book 3. On Grief Of Mind.

 he reasons thus: Is the hand as it should be, when it is affected with a swelling? or is it possible for any other member of the body, when swollen or

 Will you condemn yourself, Thyestes, and deprive yourself of life, on account of the greatness of another's crime? What do you think of that son of Ph

 O foolish Æetes, these are evils which you yourself have been the cause of, and are not occasioned by any accidents with which chance has visited you

 XIV. Therefore, this ruminating beforehand upon future evils which you see at a distance, makes their approach more tolerable and on this account, wh

 But Euripides says that of himself, which Theseus said he had heard from some learned man, for the poet had been a pupil of Anaxagoras, who, as they r

 XV. Therefore, as Terence has so well expressed what he borrowed from philosophy, shall not we, from whose fountains he drew it, say the same thing in

 Now, should any one, as the same author says, find his spirits sink with the loss of his fortune, he must apply to those grave philosophers of antiqui

 What! to ease his grief, must we mix him a cup of sweet wine, or something of that kind? Lo! the same poet presents us with another sentiment somewher

 You know what should follow, and particularly this:-

 O excellent poet! though despised by those who sing the verses of Euphorion. He is sensible that all things which come on a sudden are harder to be bo

 Admirable poetry! There is something mournful in the subject, as well as in the words and measure. We must drive away this grief of her's: how is that

 He would not allow a speech of this kind to avail at all to the cure of our grief, for he said it was a lamentable case itself, that we were fallen in

 And thus Niobe is feigned to have been turned into stone, from her never speaking, I suppose, in her grief. But they imagine Hecuba to have been conve

 XXVII. Now all these things are done in grief, from a persuasion of their truth, and propriety, and necessity and it is plain, that those who behave

 He determines to be miserable: and can any one determine on anything against his will?

 Therefore it is in our own power to lay aside grief upon occasion and is there any opportunity (seeing the thing is in our own power) that we should

 As, then, the frequent bearing of misery makes grief the lighter, we must necessarily perceive that the cause and original of it does not lie in the c

 Now when they urge these things, their endeavour is to prove that nature is absolutely and wholly irresistible and yet the same people allow that we

 answers,

 XXXII. But the principal medicine to be applied in consolation, is to maintain either that it is no evil at all, or a very inconsiderable one: the nex

 I have given Pope's translation in the text.

 Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.

 This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle -

 Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας. - Il. x. 15.

 Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤυατα πάντα πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο? ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνησι, νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας

 This is only a fragment preserved by Stobæus -

 Ωκ. Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι. Πρ. ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσση κέαρ καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βίᾳ.

 Book 4. On Other Perturbations Of The Mind.

 XXII. But we see Ajax in Homer advancing to meet Hector in battle cheerfully, without any of this boisterous wrath. For he had no sooner taken up his

 Shall we say, then, that madness has its use?

 But, in order to persuade those to whom any misfortune has happened, that they can and ought to bear it, it is very useful to set before them an enume

 but that of the character in Trabea another:- The kind procuress, allured by my money, will observe my nod, will watch my desires, and study my will.

 An excellent corrector of life this same poetry, which thinks that love, the promoter of debauchery and vanity, should have a place in the council of

 Now, supposing them chaste, which I think is hardly possible, they are uneasy and distressed, and the more so because they contain and refrain themsel

 He thinks that the whole world ought to apply itself to help his love: he excludes Venus alone as unkind to him.

 Now is not this inconstancy and mutability of mind enough to deter any one by its own deformity? We are to demonstrate, as was said of every perturbat

 You know what follows: for abuses are thrown out by these brothers, with great bitterness, in every other verse: so that you may easily know them for

 Now what were these inventions? Hear Thyestes.

 To what length now will not anger go? even as far as madness. Therefore we say properly enough, that angry men have given up their power, that is, the

 But Melmoth (Note on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, book ii. Let. 23) rightly accuses Cicero of having misunderstood Homer, who by no means represen

 But there is a great difference, as Dr. Clarke remarks, between θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν and καρδίη ἔξω στηθέων ἔθρωσκεν, or τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γ

 This passage is from the Eunuch of Terence, Act i. sc. 1, 14.

 Book 5. Whether Virtue Alone Be Sufficient For A Happy Life.

 If, then, there is such a thing as a happy life, it is to be gloried in, spoken of, and commended by the person who enjoys it: for there is nothing ex

 But such a man, as I have said, will be defeated and not only defeated, but made a slave of. But we would have virtue always free, always invincible

 What less than this, says Aristotle, could be inscribed on the tomb, not of a king but an ox?

 Hieronymus was a Rhodian, and a pupil of Aristotle, flourishing about 300 b.c.