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Page 29
2. We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the
things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing
and attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split
at the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain
fashion contrary to the purpose of the baker's art, are beautiful in a
manner, and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And again,
figs, when they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe olives the
very circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a peculiar
beauty to the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion's
eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and
many other things,--though they are far from being beautiful if a man
should examine them severally,--still, because they are consequent upon
the things which are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they
please the mind; so that if a man should have a feeling and deeper
insight with respect to the things which are produced in the universe,
there is hardly one of those which follow by way of consequence which
will not seem to him to be in a manner disposed so as to give pleasure.
And so he will see even the real gaping jaws of wild beasts with no less
pleasure than those which painters and sculptors show by imitation; and
in an old woman and an old man he will be able to see a certain maturity
and comeliness; and the attractive loveliness of young persons he will
be able to look on with chaste eyes; and many such things will present
themselves, not pleasing to every man, but to him only who has become
truly familiar with Nature and her works.
3. Hippocrates, after curing many diseases, himself fell sick and died.
The Chaldaei foretold the deaths of many, and then fate caught them too.
Alexander and Pompeius, and Caius Caesar, after so often completely
destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten
thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from
life. Heraclitus, after so many speculations on the conflagration of the
universe, was filled with water internally and died smeared all over
with mud. And lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates.
What means all this? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou
art come to shore; get out. If indeed to another life, there is no want
of gods, not even there; but if to a state without sensation, thou wilt
cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the
vessel, which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior:+
for the one is intelligence and deity; the other is earth and
corruption.
4. Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when
thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For
thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such
thoughts as these,--What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he
saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and
whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of
our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our
thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of
all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use
himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly
ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? with perfect openness thou
mightest immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it
should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and
such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts
about pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy
and suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou
shouldst say that thou hadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such,
and no longer delays being among the number of the best, is like a
priest and minister of the gods, using too the [deity] which is planted
within him, which makes the man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by
any pain, untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the
noblest fight, one who cannot be overpowered by any passion, dyed deep
with justice, accepting with all his soul everything which happens and
is assigned to him as his portion; and not often, nor yet without great
necessity and for the general interest, imagining what another says, or
does, or thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that he makes
the matter for his activity; and he constantly thinks of that which is
allotted to himself out of the sum total of things, and he makes his own
acts fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. For the lot
which is assigned to each man is carried along with him and carries him
along with it.+ And he remembers also that every rational animal is his
kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man's nature; and
a man should hold on to the opinion not of all, but of those only who
confessedly live according to nature. But as to those who live not so,
he always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from
home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men
they live an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all the
praise which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with
themselves.
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