ldst love thy nature and her will. But those who
love their several arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed
and without food; but thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner
values the turning art, or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of
money values his money, or the vain-glorious man his little glory. And
such men, when they have a violent affection to a thing, choose neither
to eat nor to sleep rather than to perfect the things which they care
for. But are the acts which concern society more vile in thy eyes and
less worthy of thy labor?

2. How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is
troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity.

3. Judge every word and deed which are according to nature to be fit for
thee; and be not diverted by the blame which follows from any people,
nor by their words, but if a thing is good to be done or said, do not
consider it unworthy of thee. For those persons have their peculiar
leading principle and follow their peculiar movement; which things do
not thou regard, but go straight on, following thy own nature and the
common nature; and the way of both is one.

4. I go through the things which happen according to nature until I
shall fall and rest, breathing out my breath into that element out of
which I daily draw it in, and falling upon that earth out of which my
father collected the seed, and my mother the blood, and my nurse the
milk; out of which during so many years I have been supplied with food
and drink; which bears me when I tread on it and abuse it for so many
purposes.

5. Thou sayest, Men cannot admire the sharpness of thy wits.--Be it so:
but there are many other things of which thou canst not say, I am not
formed from 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