take care of his own citizens that they may be happy like himself. But
these things are not lawful nor right to think of: and if Ulysses
did weep and lament, he was not a good man. For who is good if he
knows not who he is? and who knows what he is, if he forgets that
things which have been made are perishable, and that it is not
possible for one human being to be with another always? To desire,
then, things which are impossible is to have a slavish character and
is foolish: it is the part of a stranger, of a man who fights
against God in the only way that he can, by his opinions.
"But my mother laments when she does not see me." Why has she not
learned these principles? and I do not say this, that we should not
take care that she may not lament, but I say that we ought not to
desire in every way what is not our own. And the sorrow of another
is another's sorrow: but my sorrow is my own. I, then, will stop my
own sorrow by every means, for it is in my power: and the sorrow of
another I will endeavor to stop as far as I can; but I will not
attempt to do it by every means; for if I do, I shall be fighting
against God, I shall be opposing and shall be placing myself against
him in the administration of the universe; and the reward of this
fighting against God and of this disobedience not only will the
children of my children pay, but I also shall myself, both by day
and by night, startled by dreams, perturbed, trembling at every
piece of news, and having my tranquillity depending on the letters
of others. Some person has arrived from Rome. "I only hope that
there is no harm." But what harm can happen to you, where you are not?
From Hellas some one is come: "I hope that there is no harm." In
this way every place may be the cause of misfortune to you. Is it
not enough for you to be unfortunate there where you are, and must you
be so even beyond sea, and by the report of letters? Is this the way
in which your affairs are in a state of security? "Well, then, suppose
that my friends have died in the places which are far from me." What
else have they suffered than that which is the condition of mortals?
Or how are you desirous at the same time to live to old age, and at
the same time not to see the death of any person whom you love? Know
you not that in the course of a long time many and various kinds of
things must happen; that a fever shall overpower one, a robber
another, and a third a tyrant? Such is the condition of things
around us, such are those who live with us in the world: cold and
heat, and unsuitable ways of living, and journeys by land, and voyages
by sea, and winds, and various circumstances which surround us,
destroy one man, and banish another, and throw one upon an embassy and
another into an army. Sit down, then, in a flutter at all these
things, lamenting, unhappy, unfortunate, dependent on another, and
dependent not on one or two, but on ten thousands upon ten thousands.
Did you hear this when you were with the philosophers? did you learn
this? do you not know that human life is a warfare? that one man
must keep watch, another must go out as a spy, and a third must fight?
and it is not possible that all should be in one place, nor is it
better that it be so. But you, neglecting neglecting to do the
commands of the general, complain when anything more hard than usual