d in one hour, and would you possess
the fruit of a man's mind in so short a time and so easily? Do not
expect it, even if I tell you.

* * * * *

THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO BE ANGRY WITH THE ERRORS (FAULTS) OF OTHERS.--Ought
not then this robber and this adulterer to be destroyed? By no means say
so, but speak rather in this way: This man who has been mistaken and
deceived about the most important things, and blinded, not in the
faculty of vision which distinguishes white and black, but in the
faculty which distinguishes good and bad, should we not destroy him? If
you speak thus you will see how inhuman this is which you say, and that
it is just as if you would say, Ought we not to destroy this blind and
deaf man? But if the greatest harm is the privation of the greatest
things, and the greatest thing in every man is the will or choice such
as it ought to be, and a man is deprived of this will, why are you also
angry with him? Man, you ought not to be affected contrary to nature by
the bad things of another. Pity him rather; drop this readiness to be
offended and to hate, and these words which the many utter: "These
accursed and odious fellows." How have you been made so wise at once?
and how are you so peevish? Why then are we angry? Is it because we
value so much the things of which these men rob us? Do not admire your
clothes, and then you will not be angry with the thief. Consider this
matter thus: you have fine clothes; your neighbor has not; you have a
window; you wish to air the clothes. The thief does not know wherein
man's good consists, but he thinks that it consist in having fine
clothes, the very thing which you also think. Must he not then come and
take them away? When you show a cake to greedy persons, and swallow it
all yourself, do you expect them not to snatch it from you? Do not
provoke them; do not have a window; do not air your clothes. I also
lately had an iron lamp placed by the side of my household gods; hearing
a noise at the door, I ran down, and found that the lamp had been
carried off. I reflected that he who had taken the lamp had done nothing
strange. What then? To-morrow, I said, you will find an earthen lamp;
for a man only loses that which he has. I have lost my garment. The
reason is that you had a garment. I have a pain in my head. Have you any
pain in your horns? Why then are you troubled? For we only lose those
things, we have only pains about those things,