Cuivis dolori remedium est patientia.
Honestus rumor alterum est patrimonium.
Tam deest avaro quod habet quam quod non habet.
O vita misero longa—felici brevis!”
This last sentiment has been beautifully, but somewhat diffusely expressed by Metastasio:
“Perchè tarda è mai la morte
Quando è termine al martir?
A chi vive in lieta sorte
E sollecito il morir.”—Artaserse.
The same idea is thus expressed by La Bruyere: “La vie est courte pour ceux qui sont dans les joyes du monde: Elle ne paroit longue qu’a ceux qui languissent dans l’affliction. Job se plaint de vivre long temps, et Salomon craint de mourir trop jeune.” La Bruyere, indeed, has interspersed a vast number of the maxims of the Roman Mime in his writings,—expanding, modifying, or accommodating them to the manners of his age [pg 334]and country, as best suited his purpose. One of them only, he quotes to reprehend: