they have but the courage to go and in person to enjoy them. The Emperor Julian said yet further, "That a philosopher and a brave man ought not so much as to breathe;" that is to say, not to allow any more to bodily necessities than what we cannot refuse, keeping the soul and body still intent and busy about honourable, great, and virtuous things. He was ashamed if any one in public saw him spit or sweat (which is said also of the Lacedemonian young men, and by Xenophon of the Persians), forasmuch as he conceived that exercise, continual labour, and sobriety, ought to have dried up all those superfluities. What Seneca says will not be inapt for this place, that the ancient Romans kept their youth always standing. They taught them nothing, says he, that they were to learn sitting. 2 The desire of making a useful "Tis a generous desire to wish to die usefully and like a man, but the effect lies not so much in our resolution as in good fortune. A thousand have proposed to themselves in battle, either exit is laudable, though the thing be not in our power. to overcome or die, who have failed both in the one and the other; wounds and imprisonment crossing their design, and compelling them to live against their will. There are diseases that overthrow even our desires and our knowledge. Fortune was not bound to second the vanity of the Roman legions, who bound themselves by oath either to overcome or die; Victor, Marce Fabi, revertar ex acie: si fallo, Jovem patrem, Gradivumque Martem, aliosque iratos invoco Deos. "I will return, Marcus Fabius, a conqueror from the army. If I fail, I invoke the indignation of Father Jove, Mars, and the other offended gods, upon me." The Portuguese say that, in a certain place of their conquest of the Indies, they met with soldiers who had condemned themselves with horrible execrations to enter into no composition, but either to cause themselves to be slain, or to remain vic 1 Zonaras, Life of Julian, towards the end. 2 Cyropædia, i. 2, 16. 8 Seneca, Epist. 88. torious; and had their heads and beards shaved in token of this vow. 'Tis to much purpose to hazard ourselves and to be obstinate; it seems as if blows avoided those that present themselves too briskly to danger, and do not willingly fall upon those who too willingly seek them, but defeat them of their design. Such there have been who, after having tried all ways, not having been able, with all their endeavour, to obtain the favour of dying by the hand of the enemy, have been constrained, to make good their resolution of bringing home the honour of victory, or of losing their lives, to kill themselves even in the heat of battle. Of which there are other examples; but this is one :-Philistus, general of the naval army of Dionysius the Younger against those of Syracuse gave them battle, which was sharply disputed, their forces being equal; in which engagement he had the better at first, through his own valour; but, the Syracusans drawing about his galley to environ him, after having done great things in his own person to disengage himself, hoping for no relief, with his own hand he took away that life he had so liberally and in vain exposed to the fury of the enemy.1 Muley Moluch, king of Fez, who had just won, against Sebastian, king of Portugal, that battle so famous for the death of three kings, and by the transmission of that great kingdom to the crown of Castile, was extremely sick when the Portuguese entered in an hostile manner into his dominions; and from that day forward grew worse and worse, still drawing nearer to and foreseeing his end. Yet never did man employ himself more vigorously and bravely than he did upon this occasion. He found himself too weak to undergo the pomp and ceremony of entering into his camp, which after their manner is very magnificent, and full of action; and therefore resigned that honour to his brother; but that was also all of the office of a general that he resigned; all the rest useful and necessary he most exactly and laboriously performed in his own person; his body lying 1 Plutarch, Life of Dion, c. 8. upon a couch, but his judgment and courage upright and firm to his last gasp, and in some sort beyond it. He might have worn out his enemy, indiscreetly advanced into his dominions, without striking a blow; and it was a very unhappy occurrence that, for want of a little life, or somebody to substitute in the conduct of this war, and in the affairs of a troubled state, he was compelled to seek a doubtful and bloody victory, having another, by a better and surer way, already in his hands; notwithstanding, he wonderfully managed the continuance of his sickness in consuming the enemy, and in drawing them a long way from the naval army and the maritime places they had on the coast of Africa, even till the last day of his life, which he designedly reserved for this great contest. He ordered his battle in a circular form, environing the Portuguese army on every side, which circle coming to close in the wings, and to draw up close together, did not only hinder them in the conflict (which was very sharp, through the valour of the young invading king), considering they were every way to make a front; but prevented their flight after the defeat, so that finding all passages possessed and shut up by the enemy, they were constrained to close up together again; coacervanturque non solum cæde, sed etiam fuga, and there they were slain in heaps upon one another, leaving to the conqueror a very bloody and entire victory. Dying, he caused himself to be carried and hurried from place to place where most need was; and passing through the files encouraged the captains and soldiers one after another; but, a corner of his battle being broken, he was not to be held from mounting on horseback sword in hand; he did his utmost to break from those about him, and to rush into the thickest of the battle, they all the while withholding him, some by the bridle, some by his robe, and others by his stirrups. This last effort totally overwhelmed the little life he had left; they again lay him upon his bed. Coming to himself again, and starting out of his swoon, all other faculties failing, to give his people notice that they were to conceal his death (the most necessary command he had then to give, that his soldiers might not be discouraged with the news), he expired with his finger upon his mouth, the ordinary sign of keeping silence.1 Whoever lived so long and so far in death? Whoever died more like a man? The extreme degree of courageously treating death, and the most natural, is to look upon it not only without astonishment, but without care, continuing the wonted course of life even into it, as Cato did, who entertained himself in study, and went to sleep, having a violent and bloody one in his head and heart, and the weapon in his hand. CHAPTER XXII. is 2 OF RIDING POST. I HAVE been none of the least able in this exercise, which proper for men of my pitch, short and well knit; but I give it over; it shakes us too much to continue it long. I was just now reading that King Cyrus, the better Post-horses first to have news brought him from all parts of the set up by Cyrus. empire, which was of a vast extent, caused it to be tried how far a horse could go in a day without baiting; and at that distance appointed stages and men, whose business it was to have horses always in readiness to mount those who were dispatched to them. And some say that this swift way of posting is equal to that of the flight of cranes. 1 De Thou, book lxv. observes that it was said Charles de Bourbon gave the same signal, when he was expiring at the foot of the walls of Rome, which his troops took by storm just after his death. 6, 9. In the Cyropædia of Xenophon, viii. Cæsar says that Lucius Vibullius Rufus, being in great haste to carry intelligence to Pompey, rid day and night, still taking fresh horses for the greater diligence and speed;1 (and he himself, as Suetonius reports, travelled a hundred miles a day in a hired coach;) but he was a furious courier; for where the rivers stopped his way he always passed them by swimming, without turning out of his road to look for either bridge or ford. Tiberius Nero, going to see his brother Drusus, who was sick in Germany, travelled two hundred miles in four and twenty hours, having three coaches. In the wars the Romans had against King Antiochus, T. Sempronius Gracchus, says Livy, Per dispositos equos propè incredibili celeritate ab Amphissa tertio die Pellam pervenit: "upon horses purposely laid on, he, by an almost incredible speed, rid in three days from Amphissa to Pella:" and it appears, from this place, that they were established posts, and not purposely laid on upon this occasion. Cecina's invention to send back news to his family was much more quick; for he took swallows along with him from home, and turned them out towards their nests when he would send back any news, setting a mark of some colour upon them, to signify his meaning, according to what he and his people had before agreed upon." carry letters. At the theatre at Rome masters of families carried pigeons Pigeons taught to in their bosoms, to which they tied letters, when they had a mind to send any orders to their people at home; and the pigeons were trained up to bring back answer. D. Brutus made use of the same bird when besieged in Mutina, and others elsewhere have done the same. 6 In Peru they rid post upon men's shoulders, who took them upon their shoulders in a certain kind of litter made for that purpose, and ran with such agility that at their full 1 De Bello Civili, iii. 11. 4 Livy, xxxvii. 7. 6 Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 24. • Id. ib. 77. |