thyself? what misfortune is befallen me?  Is it because I am not so bald, crooked, old, rotten, as thou art?  What have I lost, some of your good cheer, gay clothes, music, singing, dancing, kissing, merry-meetings, thalami lubentias, &c., is that it?  Is it not much better not to hunger at all than to eat:  not to thirst than to drink to satisfy thirst:  not to be cold than to put on clothes to drive away cold?  You had more need rejoice that I am freed from diseases, agues, cares, anxieties, livor, love, covetousness, hatred, envy, malice, that I fear no more thieves, tyrants, enemies, as you do.” [3923]_Ad cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos_?  “Do they concern us at all, think you, when we are once dead?” Condole not others then overmuch, “wish not or fear thy death.” [3924] Summum nec optes diem nec metuas; ’tis to no purpose.

       “Excessi e vitae aerumnis facilisque lubensque
        Ne perjora ipsa morte dehinc videam.”

       “I left this irksome life with all mine heart,
        Lest worse than death should happen to my part.”

[3925]Cardinal Brundusinus caused this epitaph in Rome to be inscribed on his tomb, to show his willingness to die, and tax those that were so both to depart.  Weep and howl no more then, ’tis to small purpose; and as Tully adviseth us in the like case, Non quos amisimus, sed quantum lugere par sit cogitemus:  think what we do, not whom we have lost.  So David did, 2 Sam. xxii., “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; but being now dead, why should I fast?  Can I bring him again?  I shall go to him, but he cannot return to me.”  He that doth otherwise is an intemperate, a weak, a silly, and indiscreet man.  Though Aristotle deny any part of intemperance to be conversant about sorrow, I am of [3926]Seneca’s mind, “he that is wise is temperate, and he that is temperate is constant, free from passion, and he that is such a one, is without sorrow,” as all wise men should be.  The [3927]Thracians wept still when a child was born, feasted and made mirth when any man was buried:  and so should we rather be glad for such as die well, that they are so happily freed from the miseries of this life.  When Eteoneus, that noble young Greek, was so generally lamented by his friends, Pindarus the poet feigns some god saying, Silete homines, non enim miser est, &c. be quiet good folks, this young man is not so miserable as you think; he is neither gone to Styx nor Acheron, sed gloriosus et senii expers heros, he lives for ever in the Elysian fields.  He now enjoys that happiness which your great kings so earnestly seek, and wears that garland for which ye contend.  If our present weakness is such, we cannot moderate our passions in this behalf, we must divert them by all means, by doing something else, thinking of another subject.  The Italians most part sleep away care and grief, if it unseasonably seize upon them, Danes, Dutchmen, Polanders and Bohemians drink it down, our countrymen