ll afraid? The things about
which we have been busied are in no man's power; and the things which
are in the power of others, we care not for. What kind of trouble have
we still?

But give me directions. Why should I give you directions? Has not Zeus
given you directions? Has he not given to you what is your own free from
hindrance and free from impediment, and what is not your own subject to
hindrance and impediment? What directions then, what kind of orders did
you bring when you came from him? Keep by every means what is your own;
do not desire what belongs to others. Fidelity (integrity) is your own,
virtuous shame is your own; who then can take these things from you? who
else than yourself will hinder you from using them? But how do you act?
When you seek what is not your own, you lose that which is your own.
Having such promptings and commands from Zeus, what kind do you still
ask from me? Am I more powerful than he, am I more worthy of confidence?
But if you observe these, do you want any others besides? "Well, but he
has not given these orders," you will say. Produce your praecognitions
([Greek: prolaepseis]), produce these proofs of philosophers, produce
what you have often heard, and produce what you have said yourself,
produce what you have read, produce what you have meditated on; and you
will then see that all these things are from God.

If I have set my admiration on the poor body, I have given myself up to
be a slave; if on my poor possessions, I also make myself a slave. For I
immediately make it plain with what I may be caught; as if the snake
draws in his head, I tell you to strike that part of him which he
guards; and do you be assured that whatever part you choose to guard,
that part your master will attack. Remembering this, whom will you still
flatter or fear?

But I should like to sit where the Senators sit. Do you see that you are
putting yourself in straits, you are squeezing yourself? How then shall
I see well in any other way in the amphitheatre? Man, do not be a
spectator at all, and you will not be squeezed. Why do you give yourself
trouble? Or wait a little, and when the spectacle is over, seat yourself
in the place reserved for the Senators and sun yourself. For remember
this general truth, that it is we who squeeze ourselves, who put
ourselves in straits; that is, our opinions squeeze us and put us in
straits. For what is it to be reviled? Stand by a stone and revile it,
and what will