ver he may be,
appropriately, not with any affectation: use plain discourse.

31. Augustus' court, wife, daughter, descendants, ancestors, sister,
Agrippa, kinsmen, intimates, friends; Areius,[A] Maecenas, physicians,
and sacrificing priests,--the whole court is dead. Then turn to the
rest, not considering the death of a single man [but of a whole race],
as of the Pompeii; and that which is inscribed on the tombs,--The last
of his race. Then consider what trouble those before them have had that
they might leave a successor; and then, that of necessity some one must
be the last. Again, here consider the death of a whole race.

[A] Areius ([Greek: Areios]) was a philosopher, who was
intimate with Augustus; Sueton. Augustus, c. 89; Plutarch,
Antoninus, 80; Dion Cassius, 51, c. 16.

32. It is thy duty to order thy life well in every single act; and if
every act does its duty as far as is possible, be content; and no one is
able to hinder thee so that each act shall not do its duty.--But
something external will stand in the way. Nothing will stand in the way
of thy acting justly and soberly and considerately.--But perhaps some
other active power will be hindered. Well, but by acquiescing in the
hindrance and by being content to transfer thy efforts to that which is
allowed, another opportunity of action is immediately put before thee in
place of that which was hindered, and one which will adapt itself to
this ordering of which we are speaking.

33. Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to
let it go.

34. If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, or a head, lying
anywhere apart from the rest of the body, such does a man make himself,
as far as he can, who is not content with what happens, and separates
himself from others, or does anything unsocial. Suppose that thou hast
detached thyself from the natural unity,--for thou wast made by nature a
part, but now thou hast cut thyself off,--yet here there is this
beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God
has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut
asunder, to come together again. But consider the kindness by which he
has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be
separated at all from the universal; and when he has been separated, he
has allowed him to return and to be united and to resume his place as a
part.

35. As the nature of the universal has given t