ther all these various kinds of consolations, for
people are differently affected; as I have done myself in my book on
Consolation: for as my own mind was much disordered, I have attempted in
that book to discover every method of cure. But the proper season is as
much to be attended to in the cure of the mind, as of the body; as
Prometheus in AEschylus, on its being said to him,

I think, Prometheus, you this tenet hold,
That all men's reason should their rage control;

answers,

Yes, when one reason properly applies;
Ill-timed advice will make the storm but rise.(97)

XXXII. But the principal medicine to be applied in consolation, is to
maintain either that it is no evil at all, or a very inconsiderable one:
the next best to that is, to speak of the common condition of life, having
a view, if possible, to the state of the person whom you comfort
particularly. The third is, that it is folly to wear oneself out with
grief which can avail nothing. For the comfort of Cleanthes is suitable
only for a wise man, who is in no need of any comfort at all; for could
you persuade one in grief, that nothing is an evil but what is base, you
would not only cure him of grief, but folly. But the time for such
precepts is not well chosen. Besides, Cleanthes does not seem to me
sufficiently aware that affliction may very often proceed from that very
thing which he himself allows to be the greatest misfortune. For what
shall we say? When Socrates had convinced Alcibiades, as we are told, that
he had no distinctive qualifications as a man different from other people,
and that in fact there was no difference betwixt him, though a man of the
highest rank, and a porter; and when Alcibiades became uneasy at this, and
entreated Socrates, with tears in his eyes, to make him a man of virtue,
and to cure him of that mean position; what shall we say to this,
Cleanthes? Was there no evil in what afflicted Alcibiades thus? What
strange things does Lycon say? who, making light of grief, says that it
arises from trifles, from things that affect our fortune or bodies, not
from the evils of the mind. What, then--did not the grief of Alcibiades
proceed from the defects and evils of the mind? I have already said enough
of Epicurus's consolation.

XXXIII. Nor is that consolation much to be relied on, though it is
frequently practised, and sometimes has some effect, namely, "That you are
not alone in this."--It has its effect, as