If, however, death is really a complete destruction and dissolution of both body and soul (for this was the third of Socrates’ conjectures), even so it is not an evil. For, according to him, there ensues a sort of insensibility and a liberation from all pain and anxiety. For just as no good can attach to us in such a state, so also can no evil; for just as the good, from its nature, can exist only in the case of that which is and has substantiality, so it is also with the evil. But in the case of that which is not, but has been removed from the sphere of being, neither of them can have any real existence. Now those who have died return to the same state in which they were before birth; therefore, as nothing was either good or evil for us before birth, even so will it be with us after death. And just as all events before our lifetime were nothing to us, even so will all events subsequent to our lifetime be nothing to us. For in reality No suffering affects the dead, From the Philoctetes of Aeschylus; Cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Aeschylus, No. 255. since Not to be born I count the same as death. Euripides, Trojan Women , 636. For the condition after the end of life is the same as that before birth. But do you imagine that there is a difference between not being born at all, and being born and then passing away? Surely not, unless you assume also that there is a difference in a house or a garment of ours after its destruction, as compared with the time when it had not yet been fashioned. But if there is no difference in these cases, it is evident that there is no difference in the case of death, either, as compared with the condition before birth. Arcesilaus puts the matter neatly: This that we call an evil, death, is the only one of the supposed evils which, when present, has never caused anybody any pain, but causes pain when it is not present but merely expected. As a matter of fact, many people, because of their utter fatuity and their false opinion regarding death, die in their effort to keep from dying. Cf. 107, A supra. Excellently does Epicharmus Cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker , i. p. 122. put it: To be and not to be hath been his fate; once more Gone is he whence he came, earth back to earth, The soul on high. What here is evil ? Naught. Cresphontes in some play of Euripides, The Cresphontes; cf . Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Euripides, No. 450. speaking of Heracles, says: For if he dwells beneath the depths of earth ’Mid lifeless shades, his vigour would be naught. This you might rewrite and say, For if he dwells beneath the depths of earth ’Mid lifeless shades, his dolour would be naught. Noble also is the Spartan song Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 662. : Here now are we; before us others throve, and others still straightway, But we shall never live to see their day; and again: Those who have died and who counted no honour the living or dying, Only to consummate both nobly were honour for them. Ibid. iii. p. 516; Cf. Plutarch, Life of Pelopidas . chap. i. (p. 278 A). Excellently does Euripides Suppliants , 1109. say of those who patiently endure long illnesses: I hate the men who would prolong their lives By foods and drinks and charms of magic art, Perverting nature’s course to keep off death; They ought, when they no longer serve the land, To quit this life, and clear the way for youth. And Merope Referred to the Cresphontes of Euripides; Cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Euripides, No. 454. stirs the theatres by expressing manly sentiments when she speaks the following words: Not mine the only children who have died, Nor I the only woman robbed of spouse; Others as well as I have drunk life’s dregs. With this the following might be appropriately combined: Where now are all those things magnificentGreat Croesus, lord of Lydia ? Xerxes, too, Who yoked the sullen neck of Hellespont ? Gone all to Hades and Oblivion’s house, Author unknown; cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Adespota, No. 372, and Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 739. and their wealth perished with their bodies. True, it may be said, but an untimely death moves most people to mourning and lamentation. Yet, even for this, words of consolation are so readily found that they have been perceived by even uninspired poets, and comfort has been had from them. Observe what one of the comic poets Cf. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 429, Adespota, No. 116. says on this subject to a man who is grieving for an untimely death: Then if you knew that, had he lived this life, Which he did not live, Fate had favoured him, His death was not well timed; but if again This life had brought some ill incurable, Then Death perhaps were kindlier than you. Since, then, it is uncertain whether or not it was profitable for him that he rested from his labours, forsaking this life and released from greater ills, we ought not to bear it so grievously as though we had lost all that we thought we should gain from him. Not ill considered, evidently, is the comfort which Amphiaraus in the poem offers to the mother of Archemorus, who is greatly affected because her son came to his end in his infancy long before his time. For he says: There is no man that does not suffer ill; Man buries children, and begets yet more, And dies himself. Men are distressed at this, Committing earth to earth. But Fate decrees That life be garnered like the ripened grain, That one shall live and one shall pass from life. What need to grieve at this, which Nature says Must be the constant cycle of all life ? In what must be there’s naught that man need dread. From the Hypsipyle of Euripides; cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Euripides, No. 757. In general everyone ought to hold the conviction, if he seriously reviews the facts both by himself and in the company of another, that not the longest life is the best, but the most efficient. For it is not the man who has played the lyre the most, or made the most speeches, or piloted the most ships, who is commended, but he who has done these things excellently. Excellence is not to be ascribed to length of time, but to worth and timely fitness. For these have come to be regarded as tokens of good fortune and of divine favour. It is for this reason, at any rate, that the poets have traditionally represented those of the heroes who were preeminent and sprung from the gods as quitting this life before old age, like him Who to the heart of great Zeus and Apollo was held to be dearest, Loved with exceeding great love; but of eld he reached not the threshold. Homer, Od. xv. 245. For we everywhere observe that it is a happy use of opportunity, rather than a happy old age, that wins the highest place. Cf. Marcus Antoninus, 24. 1, and Seneca, Epist. 93. 2. For of trees and plants the best are those that in a brief time produce the most crops of fruit, and the best of animals are those from which in no long time we have the greatest service toward our livelihood. The terms long and short obviously appear to lose their difference if we fix our gaze on eternity. For a thousand or ten thousand years, according to Simonides, are but a vague second of time, or rather the smallest fraction of a second. Take the case of those creatures which they relate exist on the shores of the Black Sea, Aristotle, Hist. animal. v. 19. 3f. (copied by Pliny, Natural History , xi. 36 (43)). Cf. Aelian, De nat. animal. v. 43; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations , i. 39 (94). and have an existence of only one day, being born in the morning, reaching the prime of life at mid-day, and toward evening growing old and ending their existence; would there not be in those creatures this same feeling which prevails with us, if each of them had within him a human soul and power to reason, and would not the same relative conditions obviously obtain there, so that those who departed this life before mid-day would cause lamentation and tears, while those who lived through the day would be accounted altogether happy ? The measure of life is its excellence, not its length in years. We must regard as vain and foolish such exclamations as these: But he ought not to have been snatched away while young ! For who may say what ought to be ? Many other things, of which one may say they ought not to have been done, have been done, and are done, and will be done over and over again. For we have come into this world, not to make laws for its governance, but to obey the commandments of the gods who preside over the universe, and the decrees of Fate or Providence. But do those who mourn for the untimely dead, mourn on their own account or on account of the departed ? If on their own account, because they have been cut off from some gratification or profit or comfort in old age, which they might have expected from the dead, then is their excuse for grieving wholly selfish; for it will be plain that they mourn, not for them, but for their services. But if they mourn on account of the dead, then if they will fix their attention on the fact that the dead are in no evil state, they will rid themselves of grief by following that wise and ancient admonition to magnify the good and to minimize and lessen the evil. If, then, mourning is a good, we ought to enlarge and magnify it in every way. But if, as the truth is, we admit it to be an evil, we ought to minimize and reduce it, and as far as possible to efface it. That this is easy is plainly to be seen from the following sort of consolation. They say that one of the ancient philosophers visited Arsinoë, the queen, who was mourning for her son, and made use of this story, Cf . Moralia 609 F, where the idea is attributed to Aesop. saying that at the time Zeus was distributing to the deities their honours. Mourning did not happen to be present, but arrived after the distribution had been made. But when she said it was only right that some honour be given to her also, Zeus, being perplexed, since all the honours had been used up, finally gave her that honour which is paid in the case of those who have died—tears and griefs. Just as the other deities, therefore, are fond of those by whom they are honoured, so also is Mourning. Therefore, Madame, if you treat her with disrespect, she will not come near you; but if she is strictly honoured by you with the honours which were conceded to her, namely griefs and lamentations, she will love you and affectionately will be ever with you, provided only she be constantly honoured by you. Admirably, it appears, he succeeded, by this story, in convincing the woman and in alleviating her mourning and lamentations.