is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of
what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou
wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several
arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but
thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art,
or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or
the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a
violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep rather
than to perfect the things which they care for. But are the acts which
concern society more vile in thy eyes and less worthy of thy labor?

2. How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is
troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity.

3. Judge every word and deed which are according to nature to be fit for
thee; and be not diverted by the blame which follows from any people nor
by their words, but if a thing is good to be done or said, do not
consider it unworthy of thee. For those persons have their peculiar
leading principle and follow their peculiar movement; which things do not
thou regard, but go straight on, following thy own nature and the common
nature; and the way of both is one.

4. I go through the things which happen according to nature until I shall
fall and rest, breathing out my breath into that element out of which I
daily draw it in, and falling upon that earth out of which my father
collected the seed, and my mother the blood, and my nurse the milk; out
of which during so many years I have been supplied with food and drink;
which bears me when I tread on it and abuse it for so many purposes.

5. Thou sayest, Men cannot admire the sharpness of thy wits.--Be it so: