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

SECT. XVII. Only what may be gloried in is good.

NOW the same is thus further concluded. Neither is there any thing to be proclaim'd or boasted of in a miserable Life, nor in that which is neither miserable nor happy; but there is in some Life somewhat to be proclaim'd, gloried in, and openly avow'd; as Epaminondas;

(a) Under our conduct Spartas Pride is shav'd.

As Africanus;

From farthest East, beyond the Scythian Tracts, None may compare with Scipio's mighty Acts.

Now if a Life be Happy, it is to be avow'd, proclaim'd and glory'd in; for there is nothing else to be proclaim'd and glory'd in. Upon these Premises you know what follows; and in truth unless that Life be Happy, which is also Honest, there must needs be somewhat better than a Happy Life; for what is Honest, they will certainly con∣fess to be better; so will somewhat come to be better than an Happy Life, which is the greatest Absurdity can be spoken. What? when they con∣fess, that vitiousness is sufficient to render the Life unhappy; must not it be confess'd, that Vertue hath the same Power to render it Happy; for contrary causes produce contrary effects. In this

place, I enquire, what imports that Ballance of Critolaus? Who having cast the goods of the mind into one Scale; those of the Body and Fortune into the other, thinks that the Scale of former good does so far out∣weigh, that it would fetch up Sea and Land if it were thrown in to the opposite towards making even weight.

(a) Under our conduct Spartas Pride is shav'd.] Part of the Epitaph on Epaminondas, who had over-run Sparta for five hundred years untouch'd. As a Virgin led into Capti∣vity, and shav'd for Bondage; he Peopled Messina with a Colony, Fortify'd Thebes, and left Greece in full Freedom.