_,)--as, then, this
is the ultimate point, to live in a manner suitable to and harmonising
with nature; it follows of necessity that all wise men do always live
happily, perfectly, and fortunately; that they are hindered by nothing,
embarrassed by nothing; that they are in want of nothing. And that which
holds together not more that school of which I am speaking than our lives
and fortunes, that is to say, the principle of accounting what is
honourable to be the sole good, may indeed easily be embellished and
enlarged upon at great length, with great richness of illustration, with
great variety of carefully chosen expressions, and with the most pompous
sentiments in a rhetorical manner; but I prefer the brief, acute,
conclusive arguments of the Stoics. Now their conclusions are arrived at
in this manner: "Everything which is good is praiseworthy; but everything
which is praiseworthy is honourable;--therefore, everything which is good
is honourable." Does not this appear properly deduced? Undoubtedly;--for
the result which was obtained from the two premises which were assumed,
you see was contained in them. But of the two premises from which the
conclusion was inferred it is only the major one which can be
contradicted--if you say that it is not the case, that everything which is
good is praiseworthy: for it is granted that whatever is praiseworthy is
honourable. But it is utterly absurd to say, that there is anything good
which is not to be sought for; or, that there is anything which ought to
be sought for which is not pleasing; or, that if it is pleasing it ought
not likewise to be loved. Then it ought also to be approved of. Then it is
praiseworthy. But what is praiseworthy is honourable. And so the result
is, that whatever is good is also honourable. In the next place, I ask,
who can boast of a life which is miserable; or avoid boasting of one which
is happy?--therefore men boast only of a life which is happy. From which
the consequence follows, that a happy life deserves to be boasted of; but
this cannot properly be predicated of any life which is not an honourable
one. From this it follows, that a happy life must be an honourable one.
And since the man to whom it happens to be deservedly praised has some
eminent qualities tending to credit and glory, so that he may rightly be
called happy on account of such important qualities; the same thing is
properly predicated of the life of such a man. And so, if a happy life i