“Italiam si coelo auctore recusas,
               Me pete:  sola tibi causa est haec justa timoris,
               Vectorem non nosce tuum; perrumpe procellas,
               Tutela secure mea.”

["If you decline to sail to Italy under the God’s protection, trust to mine; the only just cause you have to fear is, that you do not know your passenger; sail on, secure in my guardianship.”  —­Lucan, V. 579.]

And these: 

              “Credit jam digna pericula Caesar
               Fatis esse suis; tantusne evertere, dixit,
               Me superis labor est, parva quern puppe sedentem,
               Tam magno petiere mari;”

["Caesar now deemed these dangers worthy of his destiny:  ‘What!’ said he, ’is it for the gods so great a task to overthrow me, that they must be fain to assail me with great seas in a poor little bark.’”—­Lucan, v. 653.]

and that idle fancy of the public, that the sun bore on his face mourning for his death a whole year: 

              “Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam,
               Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit:” 

["Caesar being dead, the sun in mourning clouds, pitying Rome,
clothed himself.”—­Virgil, Georg., i. 466.]

and a thousand of the like, wherewith the world suffers itself to be so easily imposed upon, believing that our interests affect the heavens, and that their infinity is concerned at our ordinary actions: 

“Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est, ut nostro
fato mortalis sit ille quoque siderum fulgor.”

     ["There is no such alliance betwixt us and heaven, that the
     brightness of the stars should be made also mortal by our death.” 
     —­Pliny, Nat.  Hist., ii. 8.]

Now, to judge of constancy and resolution in a man who does not yet believe himself to be certainly in danger, though he really is, is not reason; and ’tis not enough that he die in this posture, unless he purposely put himself into it for this effect.  It commonly falls out in most men that they set a good face upon the matter and speak with great indifference, to acquire reputation, which they hope afterwards, living, to enjoy.  Of all whom I have seen die, fortune has disposed their countenances and no design of theirs; and even of those who in ancient times have made away with themselves, there is much to be considered whether it were a sudden or a lingering death.  That cruel Roman Emperor would say of his prisoners, that he would make them feel death, and if any one killed himself in prison, “That fellow has made an escape from me”; he would prolong death and make it felt by torments: 

              “Vidimus et toto quamvis in corpore caeso
               Nil anima lethale datum, moremque nefandae,
               Durum saevitix, pereuntis parcere morti.”

["We have seen in tortured bodies, amongst the wounds, none that
have been mortal, inhuman mode of dire cruelty, that means to kill,
but will not let men die.”—­Lucan, iv. i. 78.]