ther: as
some of the Academics are said to have laid it down, that the highest good
and the chief duty of a wise man is to resist appearances, and firmly to
withhold his assent from them.

Now people often make very lengthy replies to each of these assertions;
yet what is very clear ought not to be long. But what is more evident
than, if there be no selection made, discarding those things which are
contrary to nature, and selecting those which are according to nature, all
that prudence which is so much sought after and extolled would be done
away with? If, then, we discard those sentiments which I have mentioned,
and all others which resemble them, it remains that the chief good must be
to live, exercising a knowledge of those things which happen by nature,
selecting what is according to nature, and rejecting any which are
contrary to nature; that is to say, to live in a manner suitable and
corresponding to nature.

But in other arts, when anything is said to have been done according to
the rules of art, there is something to be considered which is subsequent
and follows upon such compliance; which they call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}. But
when we say in any matter that a thing has been done wisely, that same
thing is from the first said also to have been done most properly; for
whatever proceeds from a wise man must at once be perfect in all its
parts: for in him is placed that quality which we say is to be desired.
For as it is a sin to betray one's country, to injure one's parents, to
plunder temples, which are all sins of commission; so it is likewise a sin
to be afraid, to grieve, to be under the dominion of lust, even if no
overt act follows these feelings. But, as these are sins, not in their
later periods and consequences, but at once from the first moment; so
those actions which proceed from virtue are to be considered right at the
first moment that they are undertaken, and not only when they are
accomplished.

X. But it may be as well to give an explanation and definition of the word
good, which, has been so often employ