“Idem est beate vivere, et secundum naturam,” says Seneca. This was the great rule of the Stoic philosophy, and may likewise be applied to Christian lovers. Tranquil wedded bliss appears to be its consummation. This living according to Nature will, of course, be varied in its interpretation, according to each man’s individual temperament. “Tot sensus, quot capita,” says Tertullian. And the decision of Protagoras will find too many adherents, who conceived himself to be the only standard of what was right and proper, and believed all things good which seemed so to him. Christianity happily gets rid of the evanescent and impalpable vagueness of the ancient philosophy, which slipt through the fingers like the statues of Dædalus, and comes to our aid with positive precept. In illustration of this vagueness the advocates of the atomic theory as an adjunct of their system made the chief part of man’s happiness consist in pleasure, which an Epicurean would interpret literally to signify the enjoyments of sense, and a Platonist would expound, properly understood, to mean the exercise of virtue. Yet both in their philosophizing would be probably theoretical, and their practice, as in most instances, would be the result of temperament and impulse; for “every man calleth that which pleaseth, and is delightful to himself, good; and evil that which displeaseth him.” (Hobbes, Treatise on Human Nature, c. vii.)
XXXIV. “With old Hidalgo lavishment.”
Que un hidalgo no debe á otro que a Dios y al Rei nada.
(Mendoza, Lazarillo de Tormes.)
“An Hidalgo owes nothing, except to God and the King.” Such were the ideas of justice, which prevailed amongst the noble class in Old Spain. The funds which were denied to creditors were squandered in largesses.
“To aid his daughter when the sky was dark.”
Die hand die uns durch dieses dunkel führt.—Wieland.
“The hand that leads us through this darkness.”
XL. “Earth’s hidden fires the globe cannot confine.”
Nè sì scossa giammai trema la terra,