and ancient commonwealth. XV. The time of a man's life is
as a point; the substance of it ever flowing, the sense obscure;
and the whole composition of the body tending to corruption.
His soul is restless, fortune uncertain, and fame doubtful;
to be brief, as a stream so are all things belonging to the body;
as a dream, or as a smoke, so are all that belong unto
the soul. Our life is a warfare, and a mere pilgrimage.
Fame after life is no better than oblivion. What is it then
that will adhere and follow? Only one thing, philosophy.
And philosophy doth consist in this, for a man to preserve
that spirit which is within him, from all manner of contumelies
and injuries, and above all pains or pleasures; never to do
anything either rashly, or feignedly, or hypocritically:
wholly to depend from himself and his own proper actions:
all things that happen unto him to embrace contentedly,
as coming from Him from whom he himself also came; and above
all things, with all meekness and a calm cheerfulness,
to expect death, as being nothing else but the resolution
of those elements, of which every creature is composed.
And if the elements themselves suffer nothing by this their
perpetual conversion of one into another, that dissolution,
and alteration, which is so common unto all, why should
it be feared by any? Is not this according to nature?
But nothing that is according to nature can be evil.
whilst I was at Carnuntzim.

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THE THIRD BOOK