Πραμυθητικὸς πρὸς Ἀπολλώνιον

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İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

26 We should therefore often hold converse with ourselves after this fashion and say: What ? Shall we some day cease grieving, or shall we consort with unceasing misery to the very end of our life ? For to regard our mourning as unending is the mark of the most extreme foolishness, especially when we observe how those who have been in the deepest grief and greatest mourning often become most cheerful under the influence of time, and at the very tombs where they gave violent expression to their grief by wailing and beating their breasts, they arrange most elaborate banquets with musicians and all the other forms of diversion. It is accordingly the mark of a madman thus to assume that he shall keep his mourning permanently. If, however, men should reason that mourning will come to an end after some particular event, they might go on and reason that it will come to an end when time, forsooth, has produced some effect; for not even God can undo what has been done. So, then, that which in the present instance has come to pass contrary to our expectation and contrary to our opinion has only demonstrated what is wont, through the very course of events, to happen in the case of many men. What then ? Are we unable, through reason, to learn this fact and draw the conclusion, that Full is the earth now of evils, and full of them too is the ocean,Hesiod, Works and Days, 101; cf. 105 E supra. and also this: Such woes of woes for mortal men, And round about the Fates throng close; There is no vacant pathway for the air ?From an unknown lyric poet; Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 689.