Most people grumble about everything, and have a feeling that everything
which happens to them contrary to their expectations is brought about
through the spite of Fortune and the divine powers. Therefore they wail at
everything, and groan, and curse their luck. To them one might say in
retort:
God is no bane to you ; 'tis you
yourself,1
you and your foolish and distorted notions due
to your lack of education. It is because of this fallacious and deluded
notion that men cry out against any sort of death. If a man die while on a
journey, they groan over him and say :
Wretched his
fate ; not for him shall his father or much revered mother Close his
dear eyelids in death.2
But if he die in his own land with his parents
at his bedside, they deplore his being snatched from their arms and leaving
them the memory of the painful sight. If he die in silence without uttering
a word about anything, they say amid their tears :
No, not a word did you say to me, which for the weight of its meaning
Ever might dwell in my mind.3
But if he talked a little at the
time of his death, they keep his words always before their mind as a sort of
kindling for their grief. If he die suddenly, they deplore his death,
saying, ‘He was snatched away’ ;
4
[p. 189] but if he lingered long, they complain that he wasted
away and suffered before he died. Any pretext is sufficient to arouse grief
and lamentations. This movement the poets initiated, and especially the
first of them, Homer,
5 who says :
E'en as a father laments as the pyre of
his dead son he kindles, Wedded not long; by his death he brought woe to his
unhappy parents. Not to be told is the mourning and grief that he caused for
his parents.
And yet so far it is not evident that the father is justified
in bewailing thus. But note this next line :
Only and darlingest son, who is
heir to his many possessions.6
