take money and then saying, "I have determined." As in a distempered
body, subject to defluxions, the humor inclines sometimes to these
parts and then to those, so too a sickly soul knows not which way to
incline: but if to this inclination and movement there is added a
tone, then the evil becomes past help and cure.

CHAPTER 16

That we do not strive to use our opinions about good and evil

Where is the good? In the will. Where is the evil? In the will.
Where is neither of them? In those things which are independent of the
will. Well then? Does any one among us think of these lessons out of
the schools? Does any one meditate by himself to give an answer to
things as in the case of questions? Is it day? "Yes." Is it night?
"No." Well, is the number of stars even? "I cannot say." When money is
shown to you, have you studied to make the proper answer, that money
is not a good thing? Have you practiced yourself in these answers,
or only against sophisms? Why do you wonder then if in the cases which
you have studied, in those you have improved; but in those which you
have not studied, in those you remain the same? When the rhetorician
knows that he has written well, that he has committed to memory what
he has written, and brings an agreeable voice, why is he still
anxious? Because he is not satisfied with having studied. What then
does he want? To be praised by the audience? For the purpose, then, of
being able to practice declamation, he has been disciplined: but
with respect to praise and blame he has not been disciplined. For when
did he hear from any one what praise is, what blame is, what the
nature of each is, what kind of praise should be sought, or what
kind of blame should be shunned? And when did he practice this
discipline which follows these words? Why then do you still wonder if,
in the matters which a man has learned, there he surpasses others, and
in those in which he has not been disciplined, there he is the same
with the many. So the lute player knows how to play, sings well, and
has a fine dress, and yet he trembles when he enters on the stage; for
these matters he understands, but he does not know what a crowd is,
nor the shouts of a crowd, nor what ridicule is. Neither does he
know what anxiety is, whether it is our work or the work of another,
whether it is possible to stop it or not. For this reason, if he has
been praised, he leaves the theatre puffed up, but if he has been
ridiculed, the swollen bladder has been punctured and subsides.
This is the case also with ourselves. What do we admire?
Externals. About what things are we busy? Externals. And have we any
doubt then why we fear or why we are anxious? What, then, happens when
we think the things which are coming on us to be evils? It is not in
our power not to be afraid, it is not in our power not to be
anxious. Then we say, "Lord God, how shall I not be anxious?" Fool,
have you not hands, did not God make them for you, Sit down now and
pray that your nose may not run. Wipe yourself rather and do not blame
him. Well then, has he given to you nothing in the present case? Has