thyself, as Socrates did. Do this, do not do that, else will I
cast thee into prision; this is not governing men like reasonable
creatures. Say rather, As God hath ordained, so do; else thou
wilt suffer chastisement and loss. Askest thou what loss? None
other than this: To have left undone what thou shouldst have
done: to have lost the faithfulness, the reverence, the modesty
that is in thee! Greater loss than this seek not to find!

XCII

"His son is dead."
What has happened?
"His son is dead."
Nothing more?
"Nothing."
"His ship is lost."
"He has been haled to prision."
What has happened?
"He has been haled to prision."

But that any of these things are misfortunes to him, is an
addition which every one makes of his own. But (you say) God is
unjust is this.--Why? For having given thee endurance and
greatness of soul? For having made such things to be no evils?
For placing happiness within thy reach, even when enduring them?
For open unto thee a door, when things make not for thy good?--
Depart, my friend and find fault no more!
XCIII

You are sailing to Rome (you tell me) to obtain the post of
Governor of Cnossus. You are not content to stay at home with
the honours you had before; you want something on a larger scale,
and more conspicuous. But when did you ever undertake a voyage
for the purpose of reviewing your own principles and getting rid
of any of them that proved unsound? Whom did you ever visit for
that object? What time did you ever set yourself for that? What
age? Run over the times of your life--by yourself, if you are
ashamed before me. Did you examine your principles when a boy?
Did you not do everything just as you do now? Or when you were a
stripling, attending the school of oratory and practising the art
yourself, what did you ever imagine you lacked? And when you were
a young man, entered upon public life, and were pleading causes
and making a name, who any longer seemed equal to you? And at
what moment would you have endured another examining your
principles and proving that they were unsound? What then am I to
say to you? "Help me in this matter!" you cry. Ah, for that I
have no rule! And neither did you, if that was your object, come
to me as a philosopher, but as you might have gone to a herb-seller
or a cobbler.--"What do philosophers have rules for,
then?"--Why, that whatever may betide, our ruling faculty may be