ng, which he calls {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}; and, on
the other hand, something not estimable, which is the contrary of the
preceding. The first principles, therefore, being laid down, that those
things which are according to nature are to be chosen for their own sakes,
and those which are contrary to it are in like manner to be rejected; the
first duty (for that is how I translate the word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}) is, for a man to
preserve himself in his natural condition; next to that, to maintain those
things which are in accordance with nature, and reject what is opposite to
it; and when this principle of selection and rejection has been
discovered, then follows selection in accordance with duty; and then that
third kind, which is perpetual, and consistent to the end, and
corresponding to nature, in which there first begins to be a proper
understanding of what there is which can be truly called good. For the
first attraction of man is to those things which are according to nature.
But as soon as he has received that intelligence, or perhaps I should say,
notion, which they call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, and has seen the order and, if I may so
say, the harmony in which things are to be done, he then estimates it at a
higher value than all the things which he loved at first; and by this
knowledge, and by reasoning, he comes to such a conclusion that he decides
that the chief good of man, which deserves to be praised and desired for
its own sake, is placed in what the Stoics call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, and we
agreement, if you approve of this translation of the term; as therefore it
is in this that that good is placed to which all things [which are done
honourably] are to be referred, and honour itself, which is reckoned among
the goods, although it is only produced