, indeed, when
I reflect on those troubles, with which I have been so severely exercised
by fortune, I begin to distrust this opinion; and sometimes even to dread
the weakness and frailty of human nature, for I am afraid lest, when
nature had given us infirm bodies, and had joined to them incurable
diseases, and intolerable pains, she perhaps also gave us minds
participating in these bodily pains, and harassed also with troubles and
uneasinesses, peculiarly their own. But here I correct myself, for forming
my judgment of the power of virtue more from the weakness of others, or of
myself perhaps, than from virtue itself: for she herself (provided there
is such a thing as virtue, and your uncle Brutus has removed all doubt of
it) has everything that can befal mankind in subjection to her; and by
disregarding such things, she is far removed from being at all concerned
at human accidents; and, being free from every imperfection, she thinks
that nothing which is external to herself can concern her. But we, who
increase every approaching evil by our fear, and every present one by our
grief, choose rather to condemn the nature of things, than our own errors.

II. But the amendment of this fault, and of all our other vices and
offences, is to be sought for in philosophy: and as my own inclination and
desire led me, from my earliest youth upwards, to seek her protection; so,
under my present misfortunes, I have had recourse to the same port from
whence I set out, after having been tossed by a violent tempest. O
Philosophy, thou guide of life! thou discoverer of virtue, and expeller of
vices! what had not only I myself, but the whole life of man been without
you? To you it is that we owe the origin of cities; you it was who called
together the dispersed race of men into social life; you united them
together, first, by placing them near one another, then by marriages, and
lastly, by the communication of speech and languages. You have been the
inventress of laws; you have been our instructress in morals and
discipline: to you we fly for refuge; from you we implore assistance; and
as I formerly submitted to you in a great degree, so now I surrender up
myself entirely to you. For one day spent well, and agreeably to your
precepts, is preferable to an eternity of error. Whose assistance, then,
can be of more service to me than yours, when you have bestowed on us
tranquillity of life, and removed the fear of death? But Philosophy is so