The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-04-05


ing himself deliberately on roll Of hay, " are
unknown to you. will tell you them. The
irst is, that this is not at all q case for mere
horsemanship, although it is not to DO denied
that horsemanship is necessary. Courage and
wit are more needfnl than any bodily adroit-
ness in reminding brutes that their master is
man. That il the first circumstance. The
second is, that my young master learnt his
riding among the Etolians, who arc not
matched in the world.
"Take sip of wine," said Lygdus, handing
him flask of hide.
after you," said the wary old freedman.
Lygdus drank little, wiped the mouth of
the flash with vine leaf, and rendered it once
moro to Philip, saying,
The first and second of your remarks seem
to me to be appropriate. although think the
Gaulish riders equal to the Etolans. Ishould
like to hear the third circumstance"
Philip slipped some of the wine, gave back
the vessel to the slave, and proceeded,
The third has relation to your phrase, Il
fear My master, Paulus Lepidus 1Emilins,
has been born and reared to fear death not
over much"
"Edepol" cried Lydgus; :" what is to be
feared more I"
"Well." said Philip, "ivarious things hefan-
cies. and 1 fancy so too. Considering that all
men must die, and can die only once, and that
it has become somehow, 1 suppose, by practice
and Decree as natural as to be born, and that
We have been doing nothing for thousands of
years but making way for each other in that
manner, it would be an error to look upon
death as the greatest evil. Why, man, should
e A.. ,.oI. I'm
greatest evil that any can incur"
"Edepol" exclaimed the slave again "you
are apparently right. Yet what can be con-
ceived worse than death 7 You mean immense
pain, long continuing in which case wise
man would put an end to himself"
Uise" returned Philip; "but it would be
useless to reason with such as you. You should
have heard, as I have heard him, Dionysius
the Athenian upon this topic. When you
make such reflections, is it your big toe, for
example, or your belly, or your elbow, or any
part of your body that makes them You
may put an end to your body, and We know
what becomes of it, When it is no longer fit,
as tho young Athenian says, to be the house of
that which thinks and reflects within it, this
last departs; for the body once dead ceases to
think or reflect, and as soon as the thinker does
thus depart, the body rots.
"But that other thing which kept the body
from rotting, that other thing which thinks
and reflects, and which is conscious that it is
always the same, that it always has been itself
that other thing which knows its own unal-
terable identity through all the changes of the
body, from squalling childhood to stiff-kneed
age-how can that other thing, which may
easily depart out of the body and leave it to
perish depart out Of itself' A thing may leave
another thing; but how can anything be left
by itselff When this thing, says Dionysius,
goes away from the body, tho body always
dies. 1t was, therefore, tho body's life. But
out of its own self this life cannot go (can
any thing go out of itself y and if it goes out
of the body unbidden, what will it say to ~ NJ
who had put it therein when he asks, Sentinel
why have you quilted your postf Servant,
why have you left your charged What brings
you hitherf 1 am angry with you! What
will this always conscious, always identical
thing, then replyf"
"You frighten me-" said Lygdus. "What
then, can be more feared by q reason able man
than death"
"My young master, for example," replied
Philip, $50 long, be it always understood, as
he is not his own murderer, would prefer to
die in honor than to live in shame. His father
the brave Roman tribune, used to say to him
| az boy, that o disgraced life was worse than
. useless life, and o useless life worse than a
| noble death. But who comes hither Z"
The interesting little child Caius Caligula
and the boy Herod Agrippa, entered the stable
as Philip spoke.
ooh! there is the big wild horse" cried the
sweet infant, who had only just arrived at the
use or his reason "but where is the young
man that is to DO eaten want to tell him
what will become of him, and then to watch
his face"
" He is, see, even now coming back" said
Philip sternly. He stood up, as he spoke, and
an instant afterward Paulus, who was attend
ed by the slave Claudius, bearing basket Of
provisions for old Philip, crossed the tbresb.
hold.
"Ah" said Caligula, "you are the person
are you not, who are to be first thrown off that