Eclogue II. — From the Greek. A Pythagorean Reflection on the Difficulty of Choosing one's Lot in Life

What path in life shall I pursue? The courts are full of uproar; the home is vexed with cares; home troubles follow us abroad; the merchant always has fresh losses to expect and the dread of base poverty forbids his rest; the husbandman is worn out with toil; frightful shipwreck lends the sea a grim name; the unwedded life has its sore troubles but sorer is the futile watch and ward which jealous husbands keep; to serve Mars is a bloody trade; the tarnished gains of interest and swift-mounting usury slaughter the needy. Every stage of life has its troubles and no man is content with his own age: the infant at the breast lacks understanding; boys have hard lessons to afflict them and youths the rash folly of their kind. Hazards still plague the full-grown man of war or sea or anger, or deceit or the long chain of toils to be exchanged for ever heavier. Old age itself, long looked-for and desired with mean-hearted prayers, exposes the poor body to be torn by diseases beyond number. With one accord we all scorn our present lot: some ('tis well known) care not to become as gods. Juturna cries out in protest: "Wherefore did Jove give me eternal life? Why has the lot of death been taken from me?" Likewise Prometheus, beneath the Caucasian crags, calls upon Saturn's son and ceases not to chide Jove by name, because an endless life was given him. Consider, too, the affections of the mind. Thus, mark you, chaste Hippolytus was destroyed by disastrous care for his own chastity. And on the other hand, he who delights to spend a life stained with loose pleasures, should consider how sinful kings are punished, as incestuous Tereus or effeminate Sardanapalus. Faithlessness the three Punic Wars warn us to avoid, yet the destruction of Saguntum forbids us to keep faith. Live your life and always practise friendship: that was the very charge which destroyed the learned college of the Pythagorean sages. Fearing this end, then, make no friendships: that was the very charge on which Timon was stoned of old in Athens, dear to Pallas. Conflicting wishes ever beset and distract our hearts, nor is it enough for a man that things are as he wished; for what he once longed to have, he now refuses. His heart is set on rank and dignities, but presently he regrets his wish: he is content to obey, that he may command one day: he rises to high station, and straightway is exposed to envy. Learning costs sleepless nights of toil; yet ignorance lacks all that makes life fair. Become a pleader and defend the accused: you will find it rare to get a thankful client. Well, be a client then: you cannot bear your patron's domineering ways. A man prays earnestly to become a father: soon, harsh cares and anxieties steal upon him. Yet, on the other hand, childless old age is scorned; and he who lacks heirs is the fortune-hunter's prey. Should you live sparingly, people will tear your character to rags for a miser. Be prodigal, and you will incur a heavier charge. All paths in life confront you with unfavourable issues. Therefore the opinion of the Greeks is wisest; for they say that it is good for a man not to be born at all, or, being born, to die quickly.

But on the other hand, read what follows now, and learn what a follower of another system teaches to refute this.

"Therefore, since we have nothing in this life to love, and yet it is wrong for us to believe that we were born in vain, if we believe the Giver of our life is true, 'tis for another life we must prepare by living for Him, that after this life we may be able to live with Him. Let those, indeed, make haste to go down to the Stygian shades, who, following the foolish doctrine of the Pythagoreans, would rather not be born than, when once born, to live."