A saying of Heraclitus runs: “Τῳ ουν βιῳ ονομα μεν βιος, εργον δε θανατος.” (_Vitæ nomen quidem est vita, opus autem mors. Etymologicum magnum, voce_ Βιος; also _Eustath. ad Iliad._, i. p. 31.) The beautiful lines of the “Theogony” are famous:— “Αρχην μεν μη φυναι επιχθονιοισιν αριστον, Μηδ᾽ εισιδειν αυγας οξεος ἡελιου; Φυντα δ᾽ ὁπως ωκιστα πυλας Αϊδαο περησαι, Και κεισθαι πολλην γην επαμησαμενον.” (_Optima sors homini natum non esse, nec unquam._ _Adspexisse diem, flammiferumque jubar._ _Altera jam genitum demitti protinus Orco,_ _Et pressum multa mergere corpus humo._) Sophocles, in “Œdipus Colonus” (1225), has the following abbreviation of the same:— “Μη φυναι τον ἁπαντα νικα λογον; το δ᾽ επει φανῃ, βηναι κειθεν, ὁθεν περ ἡκει, πολυ δευτερον, ὡς ταχιστα.” (_Natum non esse sortes vincit alias omnes: proxima autem est, ubi quis in lucem editus fuerit, eodem redire, unde venit, quam ocissime._) Euripides says:— “Πας δ᾽οδυνηρος βιος ανθρωπων, Κ᾽ουκ εστι πονων αναπαυσις.” (_Omnis hominum vita est plena dolore,_ _Nec datur laborum remissio._) —HIPPOL, 189. And Homer already said:— “Ου μεν γαρ τι εστιν οϊζυρωτερον ανδρος Παντων, ὁσσα δε γαιαν επι πνεει τε και ἑρπει.” (_Non enim quidquam alicubi est calamitosius homine_ _Omnium, quotquot super terram spirantque et moventur._) —II. xvii. 446. Even Pliny says: “_Quapropter hoc primum quisque in remediis animi sui habeat, ex omnibus bonis, quæ homini natura tribuit, nullum melius esse tempestiva morte_” (_Hist. Nat._ 28, 2). Shakspeare puts the words in the mouth of the old king Henry IV.:— “O heaven! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolution of the times, ... how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration With divers liquors! O, if this were seen, The happiest youth,—viewing his progress through, What perils past, what crosses to ensue,— Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.” Finally, Byron:— “Count o’er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o’er thy days from anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been, ’Tis something better not to be.” Baltazar Gracian also brings the misery of our existence before our eyes in the darkest colours in the “Criticon,” Parte i., Crisi 5, just at the beginning, and Crisi 7 at the end, where he explicitly represents life as a tragic farce. Yet no one has so thoroughly and exhaustively handled this subject as, in our own day, Leopardi. He is entirely filled and penetrated by it: his theme is everywhere the mockery and wretchedness of this existence; he presents it upon every page of his works, yet in such a multiplicity of forms and applications, with such wealth of imagery that he never wearies us, but, on the contrary, is throughout entertaining and exciting. Chapter XLVII.(43) On Ethics.