with the
conservation and the interests of the particular society of which he is
a member, and of the whole human race. To live conformably to such a
rule, a man must use his rational faculties in order to discern clearly
the consequences and full effect of all his actions and of the actions
of others: he must not live a life of contemplation and reflection only,
though he must often retire within himself to calm and purify his soul
by thought,[A] but he must mingle in the work of man and be a fellow
laborer for the general good.

[A] Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo.--_Persius_, iv.
21.

A man should have an object or purpose in life, that he may direct all
his energies to it; of course a good object (ii. 7). He who has not one
object or purpose of life, cannot be one and the same all through his
life (xi. 21). Bacon has a remark to the same effect, on the best means
of "reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate; which is, the
electing and propounding unto a man's self good and virtuous ends of his
life, such as may be in a reasonable sort within his compass to attain."
He is a happy man who has been wise enough to do this when he was young
and has had the opportunities; but the emperor seeing well that a man
cannot always be so wise in his youth, encourages himself to do it when
he can, and not to let life slip away before he has begun. He who can
propose to himself good and virtuous ends of life, and be true to them,
cannot fail to live conformably to his own interest and the universal
interest, for in the nature of things they are one. If a thing is not
good for the hive, it is not good for the bee (vi. 54).

One passage may end this matter. "If the gods have determined about me
and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well,
for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and as
to doing me harm, why should they have any desire towards that? For what
advantage would result to them from this or to the whole, which is the
special object of their providence? But if they have not determined
about me individually, they have certainly determined about the whole at
least; and the things which happen by way of sequence in this general
arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and to be content with them.
But if they determine about nothing--which it is wicked to believe, or
if we do believe it, let us neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear by
them, nor do an