children, teachers, to those who looked after thy infancy, to thy
friends, kinsfolk, to thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved
to all in such a way that this may be said of thee,--

"Never has wronged a man in deed or word."

And call to recollection both how many things thou hast passed through,
and how many things thou hast been able to endure, and that the history
of thy life is now complete and thy service is ended; and how many
beautiful things thou hast seen; and how many pleasures and pains thou
hast despised; and how many things called honorable thou hast spurned;
and to how many ill-minded folks thou hast shown a kind disposition.

32. Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and
knowledge? What soul then has skill and knowledge? That which knows
beginning and end, and knows the reason which pervades all substance,
and though all time by fixed periods [revolutions] administers the
universe.

33. Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a
name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things
which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and
[like] little dogs biting one another, and little children quarreling,
laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and
justice and truth are fled

Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth.
HESIOD, _Works, etc_. v. 197.

What then is there which still detains thee here, if the objects of
sense are easily changed and never stand still, and the organs of
perception are dull and easily receive false impressions, and the poor
soul itself is an exhalation from blood? But to have good repute amid
such a world as this is an empty thing. Why then dost thou not wait in
tranquillity for thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another
state? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else
than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to
practise tolerance and self-restraint;[A] but as to everything which is
beyond the limits of the poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is
neither thine nor in thy power.

[A] This is the Stoic precept [Greek: anechou kai apechou]. The
first part teaches us to be content with men and things as they
are. The second part teaches us the virtue of self-restraint,
or the government of our passions.

34. Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow o