which are in our power? Is not health then a good thing, and soundness
of limb, and life, and are not children and parents and country? Who
will tolerate you if you deny this?

Let us then transfer the notion of good to these things. Is it possible,
then, when a man sustains damage and does not obtain good things, that
he can be happy? It is not possible. And can he maintain towards society
a proper behavior? He can not. For I am naturally formed to look after
my own interest. If it is my interest to have an estate in land, it is
my interest also to take it from my neighbor. If it is my interest to
have a garment, it is my interest also to steal it from the bath. This
is the origin of wars, civil commotions, tyrannies, conspiracies. And
how shall I be still able to maintain my duty towards Zeus? For if I
sustain damage and am unlucky, he takes no care of me. And what is he to
me if he cannot help me? And further, what is he to me if he allows me
to be in the condition in which I am? I now begin to hate him. Why then
do we build temples, why setup statues to Zeus, as well as to evil
demons, such as to Fever; and how is Zeus the Saviour, and how the giver
of rain, and the giver of fruits? And in truth if we place the nature of
Good in any such things, all this follows.

What should we do then? This is the inquiry of the true philosopher who
is in labor. Now I do not see what the good is nor the bad. Am I not
mad? Yes. But suppose that I place the good somewhere among the things
which depend on the will; all will laugh at me. There will come some
greyhead wearing many gold rings on his fingers, and he will shake his
head and say: "Hear, my child. It is right that you should philosophize;
but you ought to have some brains also; all this that you are doing is
silly. You learn the syllogism from philosophers; but you know how to
act better than philosophers do." Man why then do you blame me, if I