vers and the lying awake at nights,
with all the changes he will ring on pain, are of his own choosing? For
my part I cannot see what difference it makes, provided it is one and
the same bare back which receives the stripes, whether the whipping be
self-appointed or unasked for; nor indeed does it concern my body in
general, provided it be my body, whether I am beleaguered by a whole
armament of such evils (22) of my own will or against my will--except
only for the folly which attaches to self-appointed suffering.

(21) Cf. below, IV. ii. 11; Plat. "Statesm." 259 B; "Euthyd." 291 C;
K. Joel, op. cit. p. 387 foll. "Aristippus anticipates Adeimantus"
("Rep." 419), W. L. Newman, op. cit. i. 395.

(22) Cf. "suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

Soc. What, Aristippus, does it not seem to you that, as regards such
matters, there is all the difference between voluntary and involuntary
suffering, in that he who starves of his own accord can eat when he
chooses, and he who thirsts of his own free will can drink, and so for
the rest; but he who suffers in these ways perforce cannot desist from
the suffering when the humour takes him? Again, he who suffers hardship
voluntarily, gaily confronts his troubles, being buoyed on hope
(23)--just as a hunter in pursuit of wild beasts, through hope of
capturing his quarry, finds toil a pleasure--and these are but prizes of
little worth in return for their labours; but what shall we say of their
reward who toil to obtain to themselves good friends, or to subdue their
enemies, or that through strength of body and soul they may administer
their households well, befriend their friends, and benefit the land
which gave them birth? Must we not suppose that these too will take
their sorrows lightly, looking to these high ends? Must we not suppose
that they too will gaily confront existence, who have to support them
not only their conscious virtue, but the praise and admiration of the
world? (24) And once more, habits of indolence, along with the fleeting
pleasures of the moment, are incapable, as gymnastic trainers say, of
setting up (25) a good habit of body, or of implanting in the soul any
knowledge worthy of account; whereas by painstaking endeavour in the
pursuit of high and noble deeds, as good men tell us, through endurance
we shall in the end attain the goal. So Hesiod somewhere says: (26)

Wickedness may a man take wholesale with ease, smooth is the way