Book 3
In what manner we ought to bear illness.
10
We should have all our principles ready for use on every occasion,—at dinner, such as relate to dinner; in the bath, such as relate to the bath; in the bed, such as relate to the bed. Let not the stealing god of sleep surprise, Nor creep in slumbers on thy weary eyes, Ere every action of the former day Strictly thou dost, and righteously survey. What have I done? In what have I transgressed? What good, or ill, has this day’s life expressed? Where have I failed in what I ought to do? If evil were thy deeds, repent and mourn; If good, rejoice. Pythagoras, Golden Verses, 40-44.This is Rowe’s translation, as quoted by Mrs. Carter, but not precisely as given in Dacier’s Pythagoras (London, 1707), p. 165.—H.
10
We should retain these verses so as to apply them to our use; not merely to say them by rote, as we do with verses in honor of Apollo.
