e it expressed by the Stoics themselves, was
laid down by Xenocrates and by Aristotle; and so that first arrangement of
the principles of nature, with which you also began, is explained by them
in almost these very words.

VII. All nature desires to be a preserver of itself, in order that it may
be both safe itself, and that it may be preserved in its kind. They say
that for this end arts have been invented to assist nature, among which
that is accounted one of the most important which is the art of living so
as to defend what has been given by nature, and to acquire what is
wanting; and, at the same time, they have divided the nature of man into
mind and body. And, as they said that each of these things was desirable
for its own sake, so also they said that the virtues of each of them were
desirable for their own sake. But when they extolled the mind with
boundless praises, and preferred it to the body, they at the same time
preferred the virtues of the mind to the goods of the body.

But, as they asserted that wisdom was the guardian and regulator of the
entire man, being the companion and assistant of nature, they said that
the especial office of wisdom was to defend the being who consisted of
mind and body,--to assist him and support him in each particular. And so,
the matter being first laid down simply, pursuing the rest of the argument
with more subtlety, they thought that the goods of the body admitted of an
easy explanation, but they inquired more accurately into those of the
mind. And, first of all, they found out that they contained the seeds of
justice; and they were the first of all philosophers to teach that the
principle that those which were the offspring should be beloved by their
parents, was implanted in all animals by nature; and they said, also, that
that which precedes the birth of offspring, in point of time,--namely, the
marriage of men and women,--was a bond of union suggested by nature, and
that this was the root from which the friendships between relations
sprang. And, beginning with these first principles, they proceeded to
investigate the origin and progress of all the virtues; by which course a
great magnanimity was engendered, enabling them easily to resist and
withstand fortune, because the most important events were in the power of
the wise man; and a life conducted according to the precepts of the
ancient philosophers was easily superior to all the changes and injuries
of fortune.

Bu