er has disposed them?
And he has appointed summer and winter, and abundance and scarcity, and
virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole;
and to each of us he has given a body, and parts of the body, and
possessions, and companions.

What then remains, or what method is discovered of holding commerce with
them? Is there such a method by which they shall do what seems fit to
them, and we not the less shall be in a mood which is conformable to
nature? But you are unwilling to endure, and are discontented; and if
you are alone, you call it solitude; and if you are with men, you call
them knaves and robbers; and you find fault with your own parents and
children, and brothers and neighbors. But you ought when you are alone
to call this condition by the name of tranquillity and freedom, and to
think yourself like to the gods; and when you are with many, you ought
not to call it crowd, nor trouble, nor uneasiness, but festival and
assembly, and so accept all contentedly.

What then is the punishment of those who do not accept? It is to be what
they are. Is any person dissatisfied with being alone? Let him be alone.
Is a man dissatisfied with his parents? Let him be a bad son, and
lament. Is he dissatisfied with his children? Let him be a bad father.
Cast him into prison. What prison? Where he is already, for he is there
against his will; and where a man is against his will, there he is in
prison. So Socrates was not in prison, for he was there willingly. Must
my leg then be lamed? Wretch, do you then on account of one poor leg
find fault with the world? Will you not willingly surrender it for the
whole? Will you not withdraw from it? Will you not gladly part with it
to him who gave it? And will you be vexed and discontented with the
things established by Zeus, which he, with the Moirae (fates) who were
present and spinning the thread of your generation, defined and put in
order? Know you not how small a part you are compared with the whole. I
mean with respect to the body, for as to intelligence you are not
inferior to the gods nor less; for the magnitude of intelligence is not
measured by length nor yet by height, but by thoughts.

* * * * *

HOW EVERYTHING MAY BE DONE ACCEPTABLY TO THE GODS.--When some one asked,
How may a man eat acceptably to the gods, he answered: If he can eat
justly and contentedly, and with equanimity, and temperately, and
orderly, will it no