us by the gods for the
purpose of unhappiness and misery, that we may pass our lives in
wretchedness and lamentation? Must all persons be immortal and must no
man go abroad, and must we ourselves not go abroad, but remain rooted
like plants; and if any of our familiar friends goes abroad, must we sit
and weep; and on the contrary, when he returns, must we dance and clap
our hands like children?

But my mother laments when she does not see me. Why has she not learned
these principles? and I do not say this, that we should not take care
that she may not lament, but I say that we ought not to desire in every
way what is not our own. And the sorrow of another is another's sorrow;
but my sorrow is my own. I then will stop my own sorrow by every means,
for it is in my power; and the sorrow of another I will endeavor to stop
as far as I can; but I will not attempt to do it by every means; for if
I do, I shall be fighting against God, I shall be opposing Zeus and
shall be placing myself against him in the administration of the
universe; and the reward (the punishment) of this fighting against God
and of this disobedience not only will the children of my children pay,
but I also shall myself, both by day and by night, startled by dreams,
perturbed, trembling at every piece of news, and having my tranquillity
depending on the letters of others. Some person has arrived from Rome. I
only hope there is no harm. But what harm can happen to you, where you
are not? From Hellas (Greece) some one is come; I hope that there is no
harm. In this way every place may be the cause of misfortune to you. Is
it not enough for you to be unfortunate there where you are, and must
you be so even beyond sea, and by the report of letters? Is this the way
in which your affairs are in a state of security? Well then suppose that
my friends have died in the places which are far from me. What else have
they suffered than that which is the condition of mortals? Or how are
you desirous at the same time to live to old age, and at the same time
not to see the death of any person whom you love? Know you not that in
the course of a long time many and various kinds of things must happen;
that a fever shall overpower one, a robber another, and a third a
tyrant? Such is the condition of things around us, such are those who
live with us in the world; cold and heat, and unsuitable ways of living,
and journeys by land, and voyages by sea, and winds, and various
circum