h it were your last. Have neither insincerity nor
self-love. Man has to gain but few points in order to live a happy and
godlike life. And what, after all, is there to be afraid of in death? If
the gods exist, you can suffer no harm; and if they do not exist, or
take no care of us mortals, a world without gods or Providence is not
worth a man's while to live in. But the being of the gods, and their
concern in human affairs, is beyond dispute; and they have put it in
every man's power not to fall into any calamity properly so called.
Living and dying, honour and infamy, pleasure and pain, riches and
poverty--all these are common to the virtuous and the depraved, and are
therefore intrinsically neither good nor evil. We live but for a moment;
our being is in a perpetual flux, our faculties are dim, our bodies tend
ever to corruption; the soul is an eddy, fortune is not to be guessed
at, and posthumous fame is oblivion. To what, then, may we trust? Why,
to nothing but philosophy. This is, to keep the interior divinity from
injury and disgrace, and superior to pleasure and pain, and to acquiesce
in one's appointed lot.

_BOOK III_

Observe that the least things and effects in Nature are not without
charm and beauty, as the little cracks in the crust of a loaf, though
not intended by the baker, are agreeable and invite the appetite. Thus
figs, when they are ripest, open and gape; and olives, when they are
near decaying, are peculiarly attractive. The bending of an ear of corn,
the frown of a lion, the foam of a boar, and many other like things, if
you take them singly, are far from beautiful; but seen in their natural
relations are characteristic and effective. So if a man have but
inclination and thought to examine the product of the universe, he will
find that the most unpromising appearances have their own appropriate
charm.

Do not spend your thoughts upon other people, nor pry into the talk,
fancies and projects of another, nor guess at what he is about, or why
he is doing it. Think upon nothing but what you could willingly tell
about, so that if your soul were laid open there would appear nothing
but what was sincere, good-natured, and public-spirited. A man thus
qualified is a sort of priest and minister of the gods, and makes a
right use of the divinity within him. Be cheerful; depend not at all on
foreign supports, nor beg your happiness of another; don't throw away
your legs to stand upon crutches.

If, in