change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to
nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.

This in Carnuntum.




BOOK III.


1. We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and
a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into
the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain
whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the
comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which
strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he
shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and
imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will
not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the
measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and
considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else
of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,--all this is
already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are
daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the
understanding of them cease first.

2. We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the
things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing
and attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split at