EPIST. LXI.
Let vs studie to be amended and changed. Let vs thinke on death, as if alwaies immi∣nent, and addressed to lay hold on vs.
LEt vs desist to will that which we would, for mine own•• part, as old as I am, I endeuour my selfe not to will that which I would, when I was a child. In this one thing employ I all my dayes and nights, this is my onely labour, this my care, to be able to bring mine old euils to an end. I endeauour that one day may bee to me as much as my whole life. And to speake truth, I take it not us yet as if it were the last, but I regard it, as if it might bee last of all my dayes that I am to liue. I write vnto thee this letter with such an apprehension, as if death should call mee, whilest I am writing of it. I am addressed and ready to depart; and therefore by securitie enioy I life, because I am not much troubled how long it shall last. Before••age I tooke care that I might liue in mine old yeares, that I might die well; and to die well•• is to die willingly. Labour with thy selfe that thou doe nothing vnwillingly, whatsoeuer is necessarie will come to passe, necessitie is but to him that refuseth, and not to him that willeth. There is no necessitie for him that hath a will. I auerre it, that he who willingly submitteth himselfe to another mans command, hath fled the most vnseasonable and cru∣ellest part of seruitude, that is to say, to doe that which he would not doe. Not he that vpon any command doth any thing, is a miserable man, but he that doth it against his will. In such sort therefore let vs compose our mindes, that we will that which necessitie requireth to be done: and aboue all things let vs thinke vp∣on our end, without any shew of heauinesse. We must sooner prepare our selues to death, then to life. Life hath but ouer-much to entertaine the same, but we are they that long after these instruments, that entertaine the same. Wee thinke, and so shall wee alwayes suppose, that wee want somewhat; neither yeares nor daies shall bring to passe that wee haue liued sufficiently, but the minde. I haue liued, my dearest Lucilius, as much as sufficeth, I expect death, as one glutted with life.