omes to us; but these things remain immovable, and it is we
ourselves who produce the judgments about them, and, as we may say,
write them in ourselves, it being in our power not to write them, and it
being in our power, if perchance these judgments have imperceptibly got
admission to our minds, to wipe them out; and if we remember also that
such attention will only be for a short time, and then life will be at
an end. Besides, what trouble is there at all in doing this? For if
these things are according to nature, rejoice in them and they will be
easy to thee: but if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to thy
own nature, and strive towards this, even if it bring no reputation; for
every man is allowed to seek his own good.

17. Consider whence each thing is come, and of what it consists, + and
into what it changes, and what kind of a thing it will be when it has
changed, and that it will sustain no harm.

18. [If any have offended against thee, consider first]: What is my
relation to men, and that we are made for one another; and in another
respect I was made to be set over them, as a ram over the flock or a
bull over the herd. But examine the matter from first principles, from
this. If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all
things: if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the
superior, and these for the sake of one another (ii. 1; ix. 39; v. 16;
iii. 4).

Second, consider what kind of men they are at table, in bed, and so
forth; and particularly, under what compulsions in respect of opinions
they are; and as to their acts, consider with what pride they do what
they do (viii. 14; ix. 34).

Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be
displeased: but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so
involuntarily and in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly
deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power
of behaving to each man according to his deserts. Accordingly men are
pained when they are called unjust, ungrateful, and greedy, and in a
word wrong-doers to their neighbors (vii. 62, 63; ii. 1; vii. 26; viii.
29).

Fourth, consider that thou also doest many things wrong, and that thou
art a man like others; and even if thou dost abstain from certain
faults, still thou hast the disposition to commit them, though either
through cowardice, or concern about reputation, or some such mean
motive, thou dost abstain from such f