If, on the other hand, we should have no notice given us of this decree, yet let us cultivate such a disposition as to look on that formidable hour of death as happy for us, though shocking to our friends; and let us never imagine anything to be an evil which is an appointment of the immortal Gods, or of nature, the common parent of all.

For it is not by hazard or without design that we have been born and situated as we have.

On the contrary, beyond all doubt there is a certain power which consults the happiness of human nature; and this would neither have produced nor provided for a being which, after having gone through the labors of life, was to fall into eternal misery by death.

Let us rather infer that we have a retreat and haven prepared for us, which I wish we could crowd all sail and arrive at; but though the winds should not serve, and we should be driven back, yet we shall to a certainty arrive at that point eventually, though somewhat later.

But how can that be miserable for one which all must of necessity undergo?
I have given you a peroration, that you might not think I had overlooked or neglected anything.
_A._ I am persuaded you have not; and, indeed, that peroration has confirmed me.
_M._ I am glad it has had that effect.