which we possess.

But the tyrant will chain--what? The leg. He will take away--what? The
neck. What then will he not chain and not take away? The will. This is
why the ancients taught the maxim, Know thyself. Therefore we ought to
exercise ourselves in small things, and beginning with them to proceed
to the greater. I have pain in the head. Do not say, Alas! I have pain
in the ear. Do not say alas! And I do not say that you are not allowed
to groan, but do not groan inwardly; and if your slave is slow in
bringing a bandage, do not cry out and torment yourself, and say, Every
body hates me; for who would not hate such a man? For the future,
relying on these opinions, walk about upright, free; not trusting to the
size of your body, as an athlete, for a man ought not to be invincible
in the way that an ass is.

* * * * *

HOW WE SHOULD BEHAVE TO TYRANTS.--If a man possesses any superiority, or
thinks that he does when he does not, such a man, if he is uninstructed,
will of necessity be puffed up through it. For instance, the tyrant
says, I am master of all! And what can you do for me? Can you give me
desire which shall have no hindrance? How can you? Have you the
infallible power of avoiding what you would avoid? Have you the power of
moving towards an object without error? And how do you possess this
power? Come, when you are in a ship, do you trust to yourself or to the
helmsman? And when you are in a chariot, to whom do you trust but to the
driver? And how is it in all other arts? Just the same. In what, then,
lies your power? All men pay respect to me. Well, I also pay respect to
my platter, and I wash it and wipe it; and for the sake of my oil-flask,
I drive a peg into the wall. Well, then, are these things superior to
me? No, but they supply some of my wants, and for this reason I take
care of them. Well, do I not attend to my ass? Do I not wash his feet?
Do I not clean him? Do you not know that every man has regard to
himself, and to you just the same as he has regard to his ass? For who
has regard to you as a man? Show me. Who wishes to become like you? Who
imitates you, as he imitates Socrates? But I can cut off your head. You
say right. I had forgotten that I must have regard to you, as I would to
a fever and the bile, and raise an altar to you, as there is at Rome an
altar to fever.

What is it then that disturbs and terrifies the multitude? Is it the
tyrant and his guards? (B