n, but dwell with pleasure
and delight on the recollection of good fortune. But when with eager and
attentive minds we dwell on what is past, the consequence is, that
melancholy ensues, if the past has been unprosperous; but joy, if it has
been fortunate.

XVIII. Oh what a splendid, and manifest, and simple, and plain way of
living well! For as certainly nothing could be better for man than to be
free from all pain and annoyance, and to enjoy the greatest pleasures of
both mind and body, do you not see how nothing is omitted which can aid
life, so as to enable men more easily to arrive at that chief good which
is their object! Epicurus cries out--the very man whom you pronounce to be
too devoted to pleasure--that man cannot live agreeably, unless he lives
honourably, justly, and wisely; and that, if he lives wisely, honourably,
and justly, it is impossible that he should not live agreeably. For a city
in sedition cannot be happy, nor can a house in which the masters are
quarrelling. So that a mind which disagrees and quarrels with itself,
cannot taste any portion of clear and unrestrained pleasure. And a man who
is always giving in to pursuits and plans which are inconsistent with and
contrary to one another, can never know any quiet or tranquillity.

But if the pleasure of life is hindered by the graver diseases of the
body, how much more must it be so by those of the mind? But the diseases
of the mind are boundless and vain desires of riches, or glory, or
domination, or even of lustful pleasures. Besides these there are
melancholy, annoyance, sorrow, which eat up and destroy with anxiety the
minds of those men who do not understand that the mind ought not to grieve
about anything which is unconnected with some present or future pain of
body. Nor is there any fool who does not suffer under some one of these
diseases. Therefore there is no fool who is not miserable. Besides these
things there is death, which is always hanging over us as his rock is over
Tantalus; and superstition, a feeling which prevents any one who is imbued
with it from ever enjoying tranquillity. Besides, such men as they do not
recollect their past good fortune, do not enjoy what is present, but do
nothing but expect what is to come; and as that cannot be certain, they
wear themselves out with grief and apprehension, and are tormented most
especially when they find out, after it is too late, that they have
devoted themselves to the pursuit of money