Roman Stoicism / being lectures on the history of the Stoic philosophy with special reference to its development within the Roman Empire

by Edward Vernon Arnold

Blind with the gloom of a prison, discerns not the heavenly light.

Nor, when life at last leaves them, do all sad ills, that belong

Unto the sinful body, depart; still many survive

Lingering within them, alas! for it needs must be that the long

Growth should in wondrous fashion at full completion arrive. 15

So due vengeance racks them, for deeds of an earlier day

Suffering penance; and some to the winds hang viewless and thin,

Searched by the breezes; from others the deep infection of sin

Swirling water washes, or bright fire purges, away.

Each in his own sad ghost we endure; then, chastened aright, 20