. Apply the
rule. Death is a thing independent of the will. Take it away. Has the
proconsul met you? Apply the rule. What kind of a thing is a proconsul's
office? Independent of the will or dependent on it? Independent. Take
this away also; it does not stand examination; cast it away; it is
nothing to you.

If we practised this and exercised ourselves in it daily from morning to
night, something indeed would be done. But now we are forthwith caught
half asleep by every appearance, and it is only, if ever, that in the
school we are roused a little. Then when we go out, if we see a man
lamenting, we say, He is undone. If we see a consul, we say, He is
happy. If we see an exiled man, we say, He is miserable. If we see a
poor man, we say, He is wretched; he has nothing to eat.

We ought then to eradicate these bad opinions, and to this end we should
direct all our efforts. For what is weeping and lamenting? Opinion. What
is bad fortune? Opinion. What is civil sedition, what is divided
opinion, what is blame, what is accusation, what is impiety, what is
trifling? All these things are opinions, and nothing more, and opinions
about things independent of the will, as if they were good and bad. Let
a man transfer these opinions to things dependent on the will, and I
engage for him that he will be firm and constant, whatever may be the
state of things around him. Such as is a dish of water, such is the
soul. Such as is the ray of light which falls on the water, such are the
appearances. When the water is moved, the ray also seems to be moved,
yet it is not moved. And when then a man is seized with giddiness, it is
not the arts and the virtues which are confounded, but the spirit (the
nervous power) on which they are impressed; but if the spirit be
restored to its settled state, those things also are restored.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS.--When some person asked him how it happened that since
reason has been more cultivated by the men of the present age, the
progress made in former times was greater. In what respect, he answered,
has it been more cultivated now, and in what respect was the progress
greater then? For in that in which it has now been more cultivated, in
that also the progress will now be found. At present it has been
cultivated for the purpose of resolving syllogisms, and progress is
made. But in former times it was cultivated for the purpose of
maintaining the governing faculty in a