Is there then nothing for which men shall pray? If you will take advice, you will allow the deities themselves to determine what may be expedient for us, and suitable to our condition. For instead of pleasant things, the gods will give us all that is most fitting. Man is dearer to them than to himself. We, led on by the impulse of our minds, by blind and headstrong passions, pray for wedlock, and issue by our wives; but it is known to them what our children will prove; of what character our wife will be! Still, that you may have somewhat to pray for, and vow to their shrines the entrails and consecrated mincemeat[680] of the white porker, your prayer must be that you may have a sound mind in a sound body. Pray for a bold spirit, free from all dread of death; that reckons the closing scene of life among Nature's kindly boons;[681] that can endure labor, whatever it be; that deems the gnawing cares of Hercules,[682] and all his cruel toils, far preferable to the joys of Venus, rich banquets, and the downy couch of Sardanapalus. I show thee what thou canst confer upon thyself. The only path that surely leads to a life of peace lies through virtue. If _we_ have wise foresight, _thou_, Fortune, hast no divinity.[683] It is we that make thee a deity, and place thy throne in heaven![684] FOOTNOTES: [550] _Gadibus._ Gades, now Cadiz, and Ganges were the western and eastern boundaries of the then known world. [551] _Nebulâ._ Cf. Plat., Alcib., ii., τῆς ψυχῆς ἀφελόντα τὴν ἀχλύν; from which many ideas in this Satire, particularly toward the close, are borrowed. "As treacherous phantoms in the mist delude, Shuns fancied ills, or chases, airy good." Johnson's imitation. [552] _Evertere._ These are almost Cicero's own words. "Cupiditates non modo singulos homines sed _universas familias evertunt_," de Fin., i. Cf. Shakspeare: "We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good: so find we profit By losing of our prayers." [553] _Torrens._ "Some who the depths of eloquence have found, In that unnavigable stream were drown'd." Dryden. [554] _Viribus._ Roscommon, as Gifford says, tells his history in two lines: "Remember Milo's end, Wedged in the timber which he strove to rend." Cf. Ovid, Ib., 609, "Utque Milon robur diducere fissile tentes, nec possis captas inde referre manus." [555] _Balæna Britannica._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. xiv., 47, "Te _belluosus_ qui remotis obstrepit Oceanus Britannis." There is probably an allusion here to the large sums which Seneca had out at interest in Britain, where his rigor in exacting his demands occasioned a rebellion. [556] _Tota cohors._ "Illo propinquâ vesperâ, tribunus venit, et villam _globus militum_ sepsit." Tac., Ann., xv., 60. [557] _Longinum._ Cassius Longinus was charged with keeping among his Imagines one of Cassius, Cæsar's murderer; and allowed an hour to die in. Suet., Ner., 37.