laei.

4. Have I done something for the general interest? Well then, I have
had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop
[doing such good].

5. What is thy art? To be good. And how is this accomplished well except
by general principles, some about the nature of the universe, and others
about the proper constitution of man?

6. At first tragedies were brought on the stage as means of reminding
men of the things which happen to them, and that it is according to
nature for things to happen so, and that, if you are delighted with what
is shown on the stage, you should not be troubled with that which takes
place on the larger stage. For you see that these things must be
accomplished thus, and that even they bear them who cry out,[A] "O
Cithaeron." And, indeed, some things are said well by the dramatic
writers, of which kind is the following especially:--

"Me and my children if the gods neglect,
This has its reason too."[B]

And again,--

"We must not chafe and fret at that which happens."

And,--

"Life's harvest reap like the wheat's fruitful ear."

And other things of the same kind.

After tragedy the old comedy was introduced, which had a magisterial
freedom of speech, and by its very plainness of speaking was useful in
reminding men to beware of insolence; and for this purpose too Diogenes
used to take from these writers.

[A] Sophocles, Oedipus Rex.

[B] See vii. 41, 38, 40.

But as to the middle comedy, which came next, observe what it was, and
again, for what object the new comedy was introduced, which gradually
sank down into a mere mimic artifice. That some good things are said
even by these writers, everybody knows: but the whole plan of such
poetry and dramaturgy, to what end does it look?

7. How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life
so well suited for philosophizing as this in which thou now happenest to
be.

8. A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut
off from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from
another man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a
branch, another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself
from his neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does
not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole
social system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed
society, f