age (it is, of course, well known that most men die as children, as youths, or in middle age), they are themselves to blame, since, by excesses, or by neglect of the natural demands of life, they have undermined their own health and that of their children, and have hastened their death.
4. The examples of men who, before middle age, have reached a point to which others could not attain in the course of a long life, prove that a short lifetime (i.e. one of fifty, forty, or thirty years) is sufficient to realise the highest aims, if only it be properly used. Alexander the Great died when he was thirty-three years old, and he was not only a master of all the sciences, but also conqueror of the world, which he had subdued less by sheer force than by the wisdom of his plans, and the rapidity with which he put them into execution. Giovanni Pico Mirandola,24 who was even younger than Alexander when he died, attained by his philosophical studies such proficiency in all the departments of human knowledge, that he was considered the marvel of his age.
5. To take one more example, Jesus Christ, our Lord, remained only thirty-four years on earth, and in that time completed the task of Redemption. This He undoubtedly did to prove (for with Him every event has a mystic meaning) that whatever length of life a man may enjoy, it is sufficient to serve him as a preparation for eternity.
6. I cannot leave this question without quoting a golden saying of Seneca (out of his ninety-fourth letter): “I have,” he says, “found many men who are just in their dealings with men, but few who are just in their dealings with God. We daily lament our fate; but what does it matter how soon we quit this world, since we must certainly quit it one day or other? Life is long if it be full, and it becomes full if the spirit exert its power on itself; if it learn the secret of self-control.” And again: “I entreat of you, my Lucilius! let us strive that our lives, like earthly jewels, may be, not of great bulk, but of great weight”; and a little farther on: “Let us, therefore, deem that man one of the blest, who has used well the time allotted to him, no matter how
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