selves dearer than all else beside.




XXXVIII

"How shall my brother cease to be wroth with me?"

Bring him to me, and I will tell him. But to thee I have nothing to say
about his anger.




XXXIX

When one took counsel of Epictetus, saying, "What I seek is this, how
even though my brother be not reconciled to me, I may still remain as
Nature would have me to be," he replied: "All great things are slow of
growth; nay, this is true even of a grape or of a fig. If then you say
to me now, I desire a fig, I shall answer, It needs time: wait till it
first flower, then cast its blossom, then ripen. Whereas then the fruit
of the fig-tree reaches not maturity suddenly nor yet in a single hour,
do you nevertheless desire so quickly, and easily to reap the fruit of
the mind of man?--Nay, expect it not, even though I bade you!"