"Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem
Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest."

["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more
bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.]

'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to
evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path,
for the greatest storm that blows:

"Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."

["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush
a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.]

For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to
this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth:

"Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?"

["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for fear
of dying?"--Martial, ii. 80, 2.]

like those who, from fear of a precipice, throw themselves headlong into
it;

"Multos in summa pericula misfit
Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est,
Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent,