knows when it ought to employ
itself and when not? what faculty is it which opens and closes the eyes,
and turns them away from objects to which it ought not to apply them and
does apply them to other objects? Is it the faculty of vision? No, but
it is the faculty of the will. What is that faculty which closes and
opens the ears? what is that by which they are curious and inquisitive,
or on the contrary unmoved by what is said? is it the faculty of
hearing? It is no other than the faculty of the will. Will this faculty
then, seeing that it is amidst all the other faculties which are blind
and dumb and unable to see anything else except the very acts for which
they are appointed in order to minister to this (faculty) and serve it,
but this faculty alone sees sharp and sees what is the value of each of
the rest; will this faculty declare to us that anything else is the
best, or that itself is? And what else does the eye do when it is opened
than see? But whether we ought to look on the wife of a certain person,
and in what manner, who tells us? The faculty of the will. And whether
we ought to believe what is said or not to believe it, and if we do
believe, whether we ought to be moved by it or not, who tells us? Is it
not the faculty of the will?

But if you ask me what then is the most excellent of all things, what
must I say? I cannot say the power of speaking, but the power of the
will, when it is right ([Greek: orthae]). For it is this which uses the
other (the power of speaking), and all the other faculties both small
and great. For when this faculty of the will is set right, a man who is
not good becomes good: but when it fails, a man becomes bad. It is
through this that we are unfortunate, that we are fortunate, that we
blame one another, are pleased with one another. In a word, it is this
which if we neglect it makes unhappiness, and if we carefully look after
it, makes happiness.

What then is usually done? Men generally act as a traveller would do on
his way to his own country, when he enters a good inn, and being pleased
with it should remain there. Man, you have forgotten your purpose: you
were not travelling to this inn, but you were passing through it. But
this is a pleasant inn. And how many other inns are pleasant? and how
many meadows are pleasant? yet only for passing through. But your
purpose is this, to return to your country, to relieve your kinsmen of
anxiety, to discharge the duties of a citizen, t