about things. If death surprises me when I am busy about these things,
it is enough for me if I can stretch out my hands to God and say:
"The means which I have received from Thee for seeing Thy
administration and following it, I have not neglected: I have not
dishonoured Thee by my acts: see how I have used my perceptions, see
how I have used my preconceptions: have I ever blamed Thee? have I
been discontented with anything that happens, or wished it to be
otherwise? have I wished to transgress the relations? That Thou hast
given me life, I thank Thee for what Thou has given me: so long as I
have used the things which are Thine, I am content; take them back and
place them wherever Thou mayest choose; for Thine were all things,
Thou gavest them to me." Is it not enough to depart in this state of
mind, and what life is better and more becoming than that of a man who
is in this state of mind? and what end is more happy?
But that this may be done, a man must receive no small things, nor
are the things small which he must lose. You cannot both wish to be
a consul and to have these things, and to be eager to have lands and
these things also; and to be solicitous about slaves and about
yourself. But if you wish for anything which belongs to another,
that which is your own is lost. This is the nature of the thing:
nothing is given or had for nothing. And where is the wonder? If you
wish to be a consul, you must keep awake, run about, kiss hands, waste
yourself with exhaustion at other men's doors, say and do many
things unworthy of a free man, send gifts to many, daily presents to
some. And what is the thing that is got? Twelve bundles of rods, to
sit three or four times on the tribunal, to exhibit the games in the
Circus and to give suppers in small baskets. Or, if you do not agree
about this, let some one show me what there is besides these things.
In order, then, to secure freedom from passions, tranquillity, to
sleep well when you do sleep, to be really awake when you are awake,
to fear nothing, to be anxious about nothing, will you spend nothing
and give no labour? But if anything belonging to you be lost while you
are thus busied, or be wasted badly, or another obtains what you ought
to have obtained, will you immediately be vexed at what has
happened? Will you not take into the account on the other side what
you receive and for what, how much for how much? Do you expect to have
for nothing things so great? And how can you? One work has no
community with another. You cannot have both external things after
bestowing care on them and your own ruling faculty: but if you would
have those, give up this. If you do not, you will have neither this
nor that, while you are drawn in different ways to both. The oil
will be spilled, the household vessels will perish: but I shall be
free from passions. There will be a fire when I am not present, and
the books will be destroyed: but I shall treat appearances according
to nature. "Well; but I shall have nothing to eat." If I am so
unlucky, death is a harbour; and death is the harbour for all; this is
the place of refuge; and for this reason not one of the things in life
is difficult: as soon as you choose, you are out of the house, and are
smoked no more. Why, then, are you anxious, why do you lose your sleep,
why do you not straightway, after considering wherein your good is and