ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other
things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself
when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the
intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In
the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered
by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says
anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its
own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything
thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that
even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of
rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient
city and polity.

17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux,
and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to
putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame
a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which
belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream
and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after--fame
is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing,
and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within
a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures,
doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not
feeling the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and
besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming
from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally,
waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a
dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.
But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually
changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the