curing the whole body, attend to
even the most insignificant part of the body which is at all disordered,
so does philosophy act, after it has removed grief in general, (still if
any other deficiency exists, should poverty bite, should ignominy sting,
should banishment bring a dark cloud over us, or should any of those
things which I have just mentioned appear,)--there is for each its
appropriate consolation: which you shall hear whenever you please. But we
must have recourse again to the same original principle, that a wise man
is free from all sorrow, because it is vain, because it answers no
purpose, because it is not founded in nature, but on opinion and
prejudice, and is engendered by a kind of invitation to grieve, when once
men have imagined that it is their duty to do so. When then we have
subtracted what is altogether voluntary, that mournful uneasiness will be
removed; yet some little anxiety, some slight pricking will still remain.
They may indeed call this natural, provided they give it not that horrid,
solemn, melancholy name of grief, which can by no means consist with
wisdom. But how various, and how bitter, are the roots of grief! Whatever
they are, I propose, after having felled the trunk, to destroy them all;
even if it should be necessary, by allotting a separate dissertation to
each, for I have leisure enough to do so, whatever time it may take up.
But the principle of every uneasiness is the same, though they may appear
under different names. For envy is an uneasiness; so are emulation,
detraction, anguish, sorrow, sadness, tribulation, lamentation, vexation,
grief, trouble, affliction, and despair. The Stoics define all these
different feelings, and all those words which I have mentioned belong to
different things, and do not, as they seem, express the same ideas; but
they are to a certain extent distinct, as I shall make appear perhaps in
another place. These are those fibres of the roots, which, as I said at
first, must be traced back and cut off, and destroyed, so that not one
shall remain. You say it is a great and difficult undertaking:--who denies
it? But what is there of any excellency which has not its difficulty?--Yet
philosophy undertakes to effect it, provided we admit its superintendence.
But enough of this: the other books, whenever you please, shall be ready
for you here, or any where else.

Book IV. On Other Perturbations Of The Mind.

I. I have often wondered, Brutus, on ma