BOOK VII
49. Behold the past, the many changes of dynasties; the future, too, you are able to foresee, for it will be of like fashion, and it is impossible for the future to escape from the rhythm of the present. Therefore to study the life of man for forty years is no different from studying it for a hundred centuries. For what more will you see?
50. 'The earth-born parts return to earth again,
But what did blossom of ethereal seed
Returns again to the celestial pole.'
Or else this: an undoing of the interlacement of the atoms and a similar shattering of the senseless molecules.
51. 'With gifts of meat and drink and magic charms
Turning aside the current not to die.'
'Man must endure whatever wind doth blow
From God, and labour still without lament.'
52. 'A better man at wrestling': but not more sociable or more modest or better trained to meet occasion or kinder to the faults of neighbours.
53. Where work can be accomplished according to the reason which is common to gods and men, there is nothing to fear; for where it is possible to obtain benefit
