Dost thou not know the state of human things?
A faithful monitor thy instruction brings.
Inevitable death hangs o’er our head,
And threatens falling by a doubtful thread.
There’s no man can be certain over night,
If he shall live to see to-morrow’s light.
Life without any interruption flows,
And the results of fate there’s no man knows.[153]
If then the condition of human life is such as they speak of, why do we
not rather applaud their good fortunes who are freed from the drudgery
of it, than pity and deplore them, as some men’s folly prompts them to
do?
12. Socrates said that death was like either to a very deep sleep, or
to a journey taken a great way and for a long time, or else to the
utter extinction of soul and body; and if we examine each of these
comparisons, he said, we shall find that death is not an evil upon any
account. For if death is sleep, and no hurt happens to those who are in
that innocent condition, it is manifest that neither are the dead ill
dealt with. To what purpose should I talk of that which is so tritely
known amongst all, that the most profound sleep is always the sweetest?
Homer[154] particularly attests it:—
His senses all becalmed, he drew his breath,
His sleep was sound, and quiet like to death.