philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and that I did
not waste my time on writers [of histories], or in the resolution of
syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances in
the heavens; for all these things require the help of the gods and
fortune.

Among the Quadi at the Granua. [Footnote: 3]




BOOK II.


Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody,
the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things
happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But
I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the
bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is
akin to me, not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it
participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the
divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on
me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we
are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the
rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another, then, is
contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and
to turn away.

2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the
ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not