Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
In vain they’d teach us, at the latest breath
To smile serene amid the pangs of death:
Immortal Zeno’s self would trembling see
Inexorable fate beneath the lee;
And Epictetus at the sight, in vain
Attempt his stoic firmness to retain;
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue famed,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaimed,
Spectator of such various horrors been,