164 THE TUSCULAN DISPUTATIONS.also with trembles and uneasinesses, peculiarly their own. But here I correct myself for forming my judgment of the power of virtue more from the weakness of others, or of myself perhaps, than from virtue itself : for she herself (provided there is such a thing as virtue; and your uncle Brutus has removed all doubt of it) has everything that can befall mankind in subjection to her ; and by disre garding such things, she is far removed from being at all O O O 7 O concerned at human accidents ; and, being free from ev ery imperfection, she thinks that nothing which is exter nal to herself can concern her. But we, who increase ev ery approaching evil by our fear, and every present one by our grief, choose rather to condemn the nature of things than our own errors. II. But the amendment of this fault, and of all our other vices and offences, is to be sought for in philosophy : and as my own inclination and desire led me, from my earliest youth upward, to seek her protection, so, under my pres ent misfortunes, I have had recourse to the same port from whence I set out, after having been tossed by a violent tempest. O Philosophy, thou guide of life ! thou discov erer of virtue and expeller of vices ! what had not only I myself, but the whole life of man, been without you ? To you it is that we owe the origin of cities ; you it was who called together the dispersed race of men into social life ; you united them together, first, by placing them near one another, then by marriages, and lastly, by the communica tion of speech and languages. You have been the inven- tress of laws ; you have been our instructress in morals and discipline ; to you we fly for refuge; from you we im plore assistance; and as I formerly submitted to you in a great degree, so now I surrender up myself entirely to you. For one day spent well, and agreeably to your precepts, is preferable to an eternity of error. Whose assistance, then, can be of more service to me than yours, when you have bestowed on us tranquillity of life, and removed the fear of death ? But Philosophy is so far from being praised as much as she has deserved by mankind, that she is whol ly neglected by most men, and actually evil spoken of by many. Can any person speak ill of the parent of life, and

dare to pollute himself thus with parricide, and be so im-