[27] On this melancholy truth compare Montaigne’s Essais.
[28] Ep. xxv. Lipsius here quotes Lucan “still more a philosopher than a poet”:—
“Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam,
Et quantum natura petat.
. . Satis est populis fluviusque Ceresque.”
“Learn by how little life may he sustained, and how much nature requires. The gifts of Ceres and water are sufficient nourishment for all peoples.”—(Pharsalia.)
Also Euripides:—
“Ἐπεὶ τί δεῖ βροτοῖσι . . . .
. . . πλὴν δύοιν μόνον,
Δημητρὸς ἀκτῆς, πώματος θ’ ὑδρηχόου,