act with so much propriety, or at least with so much spirit and undaunted reso|lution, as still to command our esteem. Is not the unfortunate magnanimity of Cato, Brutus, and Leonidas, as much the object of admiration, as that of the successful Caesar or Alexander? To a generous mind, therefore, ought it not to be as much the object of envy? If a more dazzling splen|dor seems to attend the fortunes of suc|cessful conquerors, it is because they join together the advantages of both situations, the lustre of prosperity to the high admi|ration which is excited by dangers en|countered, and difficulties surmounted, with intrepidity and valour.
It was upon this account that, accord|ing to the stoical philosophy, to a wise man all the different conditions of life were equal. Nature, they said, had re|commended some objects to our choice, and others to our disapprobation. Our primary appetites directed us to the pur|suit of health, strength, ease, and perfec|tion, in all the qualities of mind and body▪ and of whatever could promote or secure these, riches, power, authority: and the same original principle taught us to avoid
