Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/179

 none can outwit it. You see that I, a sovereign, I whose violence the testimony of all men proves, can not overcome it—not though the men of this time proclaimed me more formidable still; no severity that I can inflict will set it aside; when the hour of my destined end is upon me, I shall go. Would that fate gave me sovereignty upon such terms, not that I might thrust death away from myself, (men may say perhaps that I at any rate deserve to die before my time, and even I myself do not controvert this judgement) but that I might keep back the end of the good who deserve the longest life. Since, however, experience shows that fate is lord over us, and not we over fate, we must be resigned, not only because there is no purpose in lamentations, but also because it is natural that it should vex her spirit to see you thus pining, natural that she who gave her husband so much happiness, and found her pleasure in his joys, should be troubled even in death; not indeed only because you have been bereaved of such a wife, but because she too has lost such a husband. You are not the first, you are not the only man who has suffered such a calamity; let reflection then help you to bear