Fortunatae Insulae, are spoken of by the Greek and Roman writers.  They were the abode of Heroes, like Achilles and Diomedes, as we see in the Scolion of Harmodius and Aristogiton.  Sertorius heard of the islands at Cadiz from some sailors who had been there; and he had a wish to go and live in them and rest from his troubles (Plutarch, Sertorius, c. 8).  In the Odyssey, Proteus told Menelaus that he should not die in Argos, but be removed to a place at the boundary of the earth where Rhadamanthus dwelt (Odyssey, iv. 565):—­

       “For there in sooth man’s life is easiest: 
       Nor snow nor raging storm nor rain is there
       But ever gently breathing gales of Zephyr
       Oceanus sends up to gladden man.”

It is certain that the writer of the Odyssey only follows some old legend, without having any knowledge of any place which corresponds to his description.  The two islands which Sertorius heard of may be Madeira and the adjacent island.  Compare Pindar, Ol. ii. 129.

9.  Mimi,[A] war, astonishment, torpor, slavery, will daily wipe out those holy principles of thine. + How many things without studying nature dost thou imagine, and how many dost thou neglect?[B] But it is thy duty so to look on and so to do everything, that at the same time the power of dealing with circumstances is perfected, and the contemplative faculty is exercised, and the confidence which comes from the knowledge of each several thing is maintained without showing it, but yet not concealed.  For when wilt thou enjoy simplicity, when gravity, and when the knowledge of every several thing, both what it is in substance, and what place it has in the universe, and how long it is formed to exist, and of what things it is compounded, and to whom it can belong, and who are able both to give it and take it away?

    [A] Corais conjectured [Greek:  misos] “hatred” in place of
    Mimi, Roman plays in which action and gesticulation were all or
    nearly all.

    [B] This is corrupt.  See the addition of Schultz.

10.  A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians.  Are not these robbers, if thou examinest their opinions?[A]

11.  Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise thyself about this part [of philosophy].  For nothing is so much adapted to produce magnanimity.  Such a man has put off the body, and as he sees that he must, no one knows how soon, go away from among men and leave everything here, he gives himself up entirely to just doing in all his actions, and in everything else that happens he resigns himself to the universal nature.  But as to what any man shall say or think about him or do against him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with these two things—­with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him; and he lays aside all distracting and busy pursuits, and desires nothing else than to accomplish the straight course through the law[B] and by accomplishing the straight course to follow God.