The five days debate at Cicero's house in Tusculum between master and sophister.

SECT. XVII. This Moderation to be peculiar to the wise man.

HE therefore, call him by what name you will, who through Moderation and Constancy, hath quiet of mind, and is at Peace with himself; so as neither to fret out of Discontent, nor to be confounded with Fear, who neither is inflam'd with an impatient longing after any thing, nor ra∣vish'd out of himself into the Fools Paradice of an empty Mirth; this is the wise man, after whom we are in quest; this the Happy man, to whom no occurrent of Life can seem either so afflictive, as to deject his Spirit, or so satisfactory as to elate it; for what, in this transitory Scene of Mortality, can he judge great, who hath Eternity in prospect, and under Survey the extent of the Universe? Can any thing, I pray, either in Humane Policys, or in this span of Life, seem great to a wise man, who so stands always upon his guard, that nothing new, nothing unexpected can befall him; nothing against which he is not already provided; and who still walks with such Vigilance and Circumspection, that he always provides himself a retreat and Sanctu∣ary, of living without disquiet and perplexity, so that whatever change, Fortune shall bring upon him, he may bear it readily and with ease. He that shall do this, will not only be free from Dis∣content, but also from all other inordinate Affecti∣ons. Now this dispassionate mind renders men per∣fectly

and compleatly Happy; whereas if that be di∣sturb'd and withdrawn from right and stedfast Reason, it loseth not only its Constancy, but also its Health. Wherefore the Opinion and Doctrin of the Peripateticks must be counted Lasche and Effeminate, who maintain the Passions to be ne∣cessary, but prefix certain bounds, beyond which they must not pass. Will you prescribe bounds to Vice or is it no Vice to disobey Reason? or doth n•• Reason sufficiently dictate that not to be good which you either eagerly covet, or grow haught upon the Acquisition of it? nor that again to be evil under the weight of which you either ly•• over-whelm'd, or are ready to run distracted, le•••• you should be over-whelm'd by it; and that a•••• those accidents come to be either over-sad, o•• over-joyous through mistake in Opinion; which misapprehension of it, abate in Fools upon leng•••• of time, so that the object continuing the same yet they bear it in one sort, when it is become old and in another, whilst it was yet fresh, that it should not at all affect the Wise. Now what can those bounds be? for let us enquire after the bounds of Grief, upon which subject the most labour is laid out. It is Recorded in Fannius, (c) that P. Ra∣tilius laid to heart his Brothers repulse when he stood to be Consul. But he is judg'd to have ex∣ceeded due bounds, for he so far resented it, a•• that it cost him his Life; he should therefore have bore it more moderately. Suppose, then, he had taken that with Moderation, and upon it, the death of Children had fallen in, a new Grief would have arisen, but that moderate; yet the Addition would have been great: what, if, upon that, had follow'd grievous Pains of Body, if loss of Estate if Blindness, if Banishment, if, upon every parti∣cular

Misfortune, Griefs were to be added, the Sum would be inflam'd, so as to become intoler∣able.

(c) That P. Rutilius laid to heart.] P. Rutilius a man of exemplary Conversation, stood against Scaurus, and lost the Consulship; his Brother at that time labouring under some slight Distemper, laid it so much to heart, that it heighten'd his Disease, of which he dy'd.