but there are many other things of which thou canst not say, I am not
formed for them by nature. Show those qualities then which are altogether
in thy power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, aversion to
pleasure, contentment with thy portion and with few things, benevolence,
frankness, no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, magnanimity.
Dost thou not see how many qualities thou art immediately able to
exhibit, in which there is no excuse of natural incapacity and unfitness,
and yet thou still remainest voluntarily below the mark? or art thou
compelled through being defectively furnished by nature to murmur, and to
be stingy, and to flatter, and to find fault with thy poor body, and to
try to please men, and to make great display, and to be so restless in
thy mind? No, by the gods; but thou mightest have been delivered from
these things long ago. Only if in truth thou canst be charged with being
rather slow and dull of comprehension, thou must exert thyself about this
also, not neglecting it nor yet taking pleasure in thy dulness.

6. One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it
down to his account as a favor conferred. Another is not ready to do
this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and
he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he
has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for
nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a horse when
he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made
the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for
others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on
to produce again the grapes in season.--Must a man then be one of these,
who in a manner act thus without observing it?--Yes.--But this very thing
is necessary, the observation of what a man is doing: for, it may be
said, it is characteristic of the social animal to perceive that he is
working in a social manner, and indeed to wish that his social partner