offended and to hate, and these words which the many utter: "These
accursed and odious fellows." How have you been made so wise at once?
and how are you so peevish? Why then are we angry? Is it because we
value so much the things of which these men rob us? Do not admire your
clothes, and then you will not be angry with the thief. Consider this
matter thus: you have fine clothes; your neighbor has not; you have a
window; you wish to air the clothes. The thief does not know wherein
man's good consists, but he thinks that it consist in having fine
clothes, the very thing which you also think. Must he not then come and
take them away? When you show a cake to greedy persons, and swallow it
all yourself, do you expect them not to snatch it from you? Do not
provoke them; do not have a window; do not air your clothes. I also
lately had an iron lamp placed by the side of my household gods; hearing
a noise at the door, I ran down, and found that the lamp had been
carried off. I reflected that he who had taken the lamp had done nothing
strange. What then? To-morrow, I said, you will find an earthen lamp;
for a man only loses that which he has. I have lost my garment. The
reason is that you had a garment. I have a pain in my head. Have you any
pain in your horns? Why then are you troubled? For we only lose those
things, we have only pains about those things, which we possess.

But the tyrant will chain--what? The leg. He will take away--what? The
neck. What then will he not chain and not take away? The will. This is
why the ancients taught the maxim, Know thyself. Therefore we ought to
exercise ourselves in small things, and beginning with them to proceed
to the greater. I have pain in the head. Do not say, Alas! I have pain
in the ear. Do not say alas! And I do not say that you are not allowed
to groan, but do not groan inwardly; and if your slave is slow in
bringing a bandage, do not cry out and torment yourself, and say, Every
body hates me; for who would not hate such a man? For the future,