n as
to what that consists in, we had better employ the division of Carneades,
which our friend Antiochus prefers, and usually adopts. He therefore saw
not only how many different opinions of philosophers on the subject of the
chief good there were, but how many there could be. Accordingly, he
asserted that there was no art which proceeded from itself; for, in truth,
that which is comprehended by an art is always exterior to the art. There
is no need of prolonging this argument by adducing instances; for it is
evident that no art is conversant about itself, but that the art itself is
one thing, and the object which is proposed to be attained by the art
another. Since, therefore, prudence is the art of living, just as medicine
is of health, or steering of navigation, it follows unavoidably that that
also must have been established by, and must proceed from, something else.
But it is agreed among almost all people, that that object with which
prudence is conversant, and which it wishes to arrive at, ought to be
fitted and suited to nature, and to be of such a character as by itself to
invite and attract that desire of the mind which the Greeks call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}. But
as to what it is which causes this excitement, and which is so greatly
desired by nature from its first existence, it is not agreed; and, indeed,
there is a great dissension on the subject among philosophers whenever the
chief good is the subject of investigation: for the source of this whole
question which is agitated as to the chief good and evil, when men inquire
what is the extreme and highest point of either, must be traced back, and
in that will be found the primitive inducements of nature; and when it is
found, then the whole discussion about the chief good and evil proceeds
from it as from a spring.

VII. Some people consider the first desire to be a desire of pleasure, and
the first thing which men seek to ward off to be pain: others think that
the first thing wished for is freedom from pain, and the first thing
shunned, pain; and from these men others proceed, who call the first goods
natural ones; among which they reckon the safety and integrity of all
one's parts, good health, the senses unimpaired, freedom from pain,
strength, beauty, and other things of the same sort, the images of which
are the first things in the mind, like the spark