seek to be paid for it? just as
if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking.
For as these members are formed for a particular purpose, and by working
according to their several constitutions obtain what is their own;[A] so
also as man is formed by nature to acts of benevolence, when he has done
anything benevolent or in any other way conducive to the common
interest, he has acted conformably to his constitution, and he gets what
is his own.

[A] [Greek: Apechei to idion]. This sense of [Greek: apechein]
occurs in xi. 1, and iv. 49; also in St. Matthew, vi. 2,
[Greek: apechousi ton misthon], and in Epictetus.

X.

Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked,
more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy
an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and
without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring
anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures?
nor yet desiring time wherein thou shalt have longer enjoyment, or
place, or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom thou mayst live
in harmony? but wilt thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and
pleased with all that is about thee, and wilt thou convince thyself that
thou hast everything, and that it comes from the gods, that everything
is well for thee, and will be well whatever shall please them, and
whatever they shall give for the conservation of the perfect living
being,[A] the good and just and beautiful, which generates and holds
together all things, and contains and embraces all things which are
dissolved for the production of other like things? Wilt thou never be
such that thou shalt so dwell in community with gods and men as neither
to find fault with them at all, nor to be condemned by them?

[A] That is, God (iv. 40), as he is defined by Zeno. But the
confusion between gods and God is strange.

2. Observe what thy nature requires, so far as thou art governed by
nature only: then do it and accept it, if thy nature, so far as thou art
a living being, shall not be made worse by it. And next thou must
observe what thy nature requires so far as thou art a living being. And
all this thou mayst allow thyself, if thy nature, so far as thou art a
rational animal, shall not be made worse by it. But the rational animal
is consequently also a political [social] animal. Use these rules, then,
a