Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/419

Rh made Pleasure, and Pain, the Standard of Good, and Evil.

XXXV. He that likes no Time so well as that fixt by Providence, he that's indifferent whether he has room for a long Progress in Reason, and Regularity or not, or whether he has a few or a great many Years to view the World in; a Person thus qualified will never be afraid of dying.

XXXVI. Heark ye Friend; you have been a Burgher of this Great City; what's matter tho' you have lived in't but a few Years; if you have observ'd the Laws of the Corporation, the length or shortness of the Time, makes no difference. Where's the Hardship then, if Providence that planted you here, orders your Removal? You can't say you are sent off by a Tyrannical, and Unrighteous Sentence; No, you quit the Stage as fairly as a Player does that has his Discharge from the Master of the Revels : But I have only gone through three Acts, and not held out to the End of the Fifth. You say well; but in Life three Acts make the Play entire. He that appoints the Entertainment is the best Judge of the length on't; and as he ordered the opening of the first Scene, so now he gives the sign for