itself a
happy life. What we are inquiring, however, is not what it is, but whence
it is derived. The opinions of Pyrrho, Aristo, and Herillus, have long ago
been exploded and discarded, as what can never be applicable to this
circle of discussion to which we limit ourselves, and which had no need to
have been ever mentioned; for as the whole of this inquiry is about the
chief, and what I may call the highest good and evil, it ought to start
from that point which we call suitable and adapted to nature, and which is
sought of itself for itself. Now this is wholly put out of the question by
those who deny that in those things in which there is nothing either
honourable or dishonourable, there is any reason why one thing should be
preferred to another, and who think that there is actually no difference
whatever between those things. And Herillus, if he thought that nothing
was good except knowledge, put an end to all reason for taking counsel,
and to all inquiry about duty. Thus, after we have got rid of the opinions
of the rest, as there can be no other, this doctrine of the ancients must
inevitably prevail.

IX. Therefore, after the fashion of the ancients, which the Stoics also
adopt, let us make this beginning:--Every animal loves itself, and as soon
as it is born labours to preserve itself, because this is the first desire
given to it by nature, to regulate its whole life, to preserve itself, and
to be so disposed as it best may in accordance with nature. At the
beginning it has such a confused and uncertain kind of organization that
it can only just take care of itself, whatever it is; but it does not
understand either what it is, or what its powers are, or what its nature
is. But when it has advanced a little, and begins to perceive how far
anything touches it, or has reference to it, then it begins gradually to
improve, and to comprehend itself, and to understand for what cause it has
that appetite of the mind which I have spoken of; and begins also to
desire those things which it feels to be suited to its nature, and to keep
off the contrary. Therefore, in the case of every animal, what it wishes
is placed in that thing which is adapted to its nature. And so the chief
good is to live according to nature, with the best disposition and the
most suitable to nature that can be engendered.

But since every animal has his own peculiar nature, it is plain that the
object of each must be to have his nature satisfied. For