should act ignorantly? Is not the error really thine own in not
foreseeing that such an one would do as he did? If thou hadst but taken
thought thou wouldst have known he would be prone to err, and it is only
because thou hast forgotten to use thy Reason that thou art surprised at
his deed. Above all, when thou condemnest another as untruthful, examine
thyself closely; for upon thee rests the blame, in that thou dost trust
to such an one to keep his promise. If thou didst bestow upon him thy
bounty, thine is the blame not to have given it freely, and without
expectation of good to thee, save the doing of the act itself. What more
dost thou wish than to do good to man? Doth not this suffice,--that thou
hast done what conforms to thy true nature? Must thou then have a
reward, as though the eyes demanded pay for seeing or the feet for
walking? For even as these are formed for such work, and by co-operating
in their distinctive duty come into their own, even so man (by his real
nature disposed to do good), when he hath done some good deed, or in any
other way furthered the Commonweal, acts according to his own nature,
and in so doing hath all that is truly his own. (Book ix., §42.)

O Man, thou hast been a citizen of this great State, the Universe! What
matters what thy prescribed time hath been, five years or three? What
the law prescribes is just to every one.

Why complain, then, if thou art sent away from the State, not by a
tyrant or an unjust judge, but by Nature who led thee thither,--even as
the manager excuses from the stage an actor whom he hath employed?

"But I have played three acts only?"

True. But in the drama of thy life three acts conclude the play. For
what its conclusion shall be, He determines who created it and now ends