[To THE EDITOR Or TIM "Srscrwroa.1 SrD,—In connection with the
quotation from Spenser cited by Mr. Montgomery in the Spectator of February 1st, it is well to note that this metaphor of "quitting the ranks Without orders," as applied to suicide and the fear of death, is much earlier than Spenser. There is one famous passage in the " Apology " in which Socrates refers forcibly to his own campaigns in talking of the fear of death. But perhaps the most remarkable passage dealing with the whole subject is to be found in the memorable "Discourses" of-
" That halting slave, who in Nicopolis Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son Cleared Rome of what most shamed him."
"My friends," he says (I quote from Dean Farrar's transla- tion), "wait God's good time till He gives you the signal and dismisses you from His service ; then dismiss yourself to go to Him. But for the present restrain yourselves, inhabiting the spot which He has at present assigned you." The passage is all the more remarkable as coming from the noblest of the Stoics, most of whom made such a glorification of suicide.—
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