" Certainly," some The may answer, " in so far as their happiness is lasting."But antiquity and our times too are Page 68full of examples of the contrary; examples of men whose happiness as kings has been exchanged for disaster.What wonderful power, which is found to be powerless even for its own preservation! But if this kingly power is really a source of happiness, surely then, if it fail in any way, it lessens the happiness it brings, and equally causes unhappiness.However widely human empires may extend, there must be still more nations left, over whom each king does not reign.And so, in whatever direction this power ceases to make happy, thereby comes in powerlessness, which makes men unhappy; thus therefore there must be a greater part of unhappiness in every king's estate.That tyrant 1 had learnt well the dangers of his lot, who likened the fear which goes with kingship to the terror inspired by a sword ever hanging overhead.What then is such a power, which cannot drive away the bite of cares, nor escape the stings of fear?
'Yet these all would willingly live without fear, but they cannot, and yet they boast of their power.Think you a man is powerful when you see that he longs for that which he cannot bring to pass? Do you reckon a man powerful who walks abroad with dignity and attended by servants?
A man who strikes fear into his subjects, yet fears them more himself?
Damocles, what it was to be a tyrant, by setting him in his own seat at a sumptuous banquet,' but hung a sword above him by a hair.Page 69A man who must be at the mercy of those that serve him, in order that he may seem to have power?
'Need I speak of intimacies with kings when kingship itself is shewn to be full of weakness? Not only when kings' powers fall are their friends laid low, but often even when their powers are intact.Nero compelled his friend and tutor, Seneca,l to choose how he would die.Papinianus, 2 for a long while a powerful courtier, was handed over to the soldiers'
swords by the Emperor Antoninus.Yet each of these was willing to surrender all his power.Seneca even tried to give up all his wealth to Nero, and to seek retirement.But the very weight of their wealth and power dragged them down to ruin, and neither could do what he wished.
'What then is that power, whose possessors fear it? in desiring to possess which, you are not safe, and from which you cannot escape, even though you try to lay it down? What help are friends, made not by virtue but by fortune? The friend gained by good fortune becomes an enemy in ill-fortune.And what plague can more effectually injure than an intimate enemy?
'The man who would true power gain, must needs subdue his own wild thoughts: never 69:1 -- Seneca, the philosopher and wise counsellor of Nero, was by him compelled to commit suicide, A.D.65.
69:2 -- Papinianus, the greatest lawyer of his time, was put to death by the Emperor Antoninus Caracalla, A.D.212.Page 70must he let his passions triumph and yoke his neck by their foul bonds.
For though the earth, as far as India's shore, tremble before the laws you give, though Thule bow to your service on earth's farthest bounds, yet if thou canst not drive away black cares, if thou canst not put to flight complaints, then is no true power thine.
'How deceitful is fame often, and how base a thing it is!
Justly did the tragic poet cry out, 1 "O Fame, Fame, how many lives of men Of naught hast thou puffed up! " For many men have got a great name from the false opinions of the crowd.-And what could be baser than such a thing? For those who are falsely praised, must blush to hear their praises.And if they are justly won by merits, what can they add to the pleasure of a wise man's conscience? For he measures his happiness not by popular talk, but by the truth of his conscience.If it attracts a man to make his name widely known, he must equally think it a shame if it be not made known.But I have already said that there must be yet more lands into which the renown of a single man can never come; wherefore it follows that the man, whom you think famous, will seem to have no such fame in the next quarter of the earth.
'Popular favour seems to me to be unworthy even of mention under this head, for it comes not by any judgment, and is never constant.
70:1 -- Euriped, Andromache,.319-320.Page 71'Again, who can but see how empty a name, and how futile, is noble birth? For if its glory is due to renown, it belongs not to the man.For the glory of noble birth seems to be praise for the merits of a man's forefathers.But if praise creates the renown, it is the renowned who are praised.Wherefore, if you have no renown of your own, that of others cannot glorify you.But if there is any good in noble birth, I conceive it to be this, and this alone, that the highborn seem to be bound in honour not to show any degeneracy from their fathers' virtue.
'From like beginning rise all men on earth, for there is one Father of all things; one is the guide of everything.'Tis He who gave the sun his rays, and horns unto the moon.'Tis He who set mankind on earth, and in the heavens the stars.He put within our bodies spirits which were born in heaven.And thus a highborn race has He set forth in man.Why do ye men rail on your forefathers? If ye look to your beginning and your author, which is God, is any man degenerate or base but he who by his own vices cherishes base things and leaves that beginning which was his?
'And now what am I to say of the pleasures of the body?
The desires of the flesh are full of cares, their fulfilment is full of remorse.What terrible diseases, what unbearable griefs, Page 72truly the fruits of sin, do they bring upon the bodies of those who enjoy them! I know not what pleasure their impulse affords, but any who cares to recall his indulgences of his passions, will know that the results of such pleasures are indeed gloomy.If any can shew that those results are blest with happiness, then may the beasts of the field be justly called blessed, for all their aims are urged toward the satisfying of their bodies'
