But fate forbids, the Stygian floods oppose,
And with nine circling streams the captive souls inclose.”
(Dryden.)
[9] Macc. i. 6.
[10] There is something sublime in the stern copiousness with which the stoics dwelt particularly on the facility with which suicide may be committed. “Ante omnia cavi, ne quis vos teneret invitos: PATET EXITUS. Si pugnare non vultis, licet fugere. Ideoque ex omnibus rebus, quas esse vobis necessarias volui, nihil feci facilius, quam mori. Attendite modo et videbitis quam brevis ad libertatem et quam expedita ducat via. Non tam longas in exitu vobis quam intrantibus, moras posui,” &c.—Seneca de Providentia, in fine. Vide epistle lxx.
[11] Epistles xii. and lxx.; and De Irâ, lib. iii.
[12] Corpus Juris Civilis, lib. xlviii. tit. xxi. parag. 3.
[13] Vide Potter’s Antiquities.
[14] Universal Geography, vol. iii. p. 155.
[15] It is generally believed that Rousseau killed himself by taking arsenic; but this has been denied. Judging from the character and disposition of the man, we should feel disposed to credit the statement respecting his voluntary death. Rousseau always maintained that the following stanza of Tasso had a direct application to him, and accurately described his feelings and position in the world—