hat on the dissolution of the animal, all sense is lost; and what is
deprived of sense is, as he thinks, what we have no concern at all with.
And as to pain too, he has certain rules to follow then: if it be great,
the comfort is, that it must be short; if it be of long continuance, then
it must be supportable. What then? Do those grandiloquent gentlemen state
anything better than Epicurus, in opposition to these two things which
distress us the most? And as to other things, do not Epicurus and the rest
of the philosophers seem sufficiently prepared? Who is there who does not
dread poverty? And yet no true philosopher ever can dread it.

XXXII. But with how little is this man himself satisfied? No one has said
more on frugality. For when a man is far removed from those things which
occasion a desire of money, from love, ambition, or other daily
extravagance, why should he be fond of money, or concern himself at all
about it? Could the Scythian Anacharsis(118) disregard money, and shall
not our philosophers be able to do so? We are informed of an epistle of
his, in these words: "Anacharsis to Hanno, greeting. My clothing is the
same as that with which the Scythians cover themselves; the hardness of my
feet supplies the want of shoes; the ground is my bed, hunger my sauce, my
food milk, cheese, and flesh. So you may come to me as to a man in want of
nothing. But as to those presents you take so much pleasure in, you may
dispose of them to your own citizens, or to the immortal gods." And almost
all philosophers, of all schools, excepting those who are warped from
right reason by a vicious disposition, might have been of this same
opinion. Socrates, when on one occasion he saw a great quantity of gold
and silver carried in a procession, cried out, "How many things are there
which I do not want!"

Xenocrates, when some ambassadors from Alexander had brought him fifty
talents, which was a very large sum of money in those times, especially at
Athens, carried the ambassadors to sup in the Academy; and placed just a
sufficiency before them, without any apparatus. When they asked him, the
next day, to whom he wished the money which they had for him to be paid:
"What?" said he, "did you not perceive by our slight repast of yesterday,
that I had no occasion for money?" But when he perceived that they were
somewhat dejected, he accepted of thirty minae, that he might not seem to
treat with disrespect the king's generosity. But Diogen