e, said he, was not Quintus Metellus, who saw
three of his sons consuls, one of whom was also censor and celebrated a
triumph, and a fourth praetor; and who left them all in safety behind him,
and who saw his three daughters married, having been himself consul,
censor and augur, and having celebrated a triumph; was he not, I say, in
your opinion, (supposing him to have been a wise man,) happier than
Regulus, who being in the power of the enemy, was put to death by
sleeplessness and hunger, though he may have been equally wise?

XXVIII. Why do you ask me that? said I; ask the Stoics. What answer, then,
said he, do you suppose they will make? They will say that Metellus was in
no respect more happy than Regulus. Let us, then, said he, hear what they
have got to say. But, said I, we are wandering from our subject; for I am
not asking what is true, but what each person ought to say. I wish,
indeed, that they would say that one man is happier than another: you
should see the ruin I would make of them. For, as the chief good consists
in virtue alone, and in honourableness; and as neither virtue, as they
say, nor honourableness is capable of growth, and as that alone is good
which makes him who enjoys it necessarily happy, as that in which alone
happiness is placed cannot be increased, how is it possible that one
person can be happier than another? Do you not see how all these things
agree together? And, in truth, (for I must avow what I feel,) the mutual
dependence of all these things on one another is marvellous: the last part
corresponds to the first, the middle to each extremity, and each extremity
to the other. They see all that follows from, or is inconsistent with
them. In geometry, if you grant the premises the conclusion follows. Grant
that there is nothing good except what is honourable, and you must grant
that happiness is placed in virtue alone. Try it the other way. If you
grant this conclusion, you must grant the premises; but this is not the
case with the arguments of your school. There are three kinds of goods.
The assertions go trippingly on: he comes to the conclusion: he sticks
fast: he is in a difficulty; for he wishes to say, that nothing can be
wanting to a wise man to complete his happiness--a very honourable
sentiment, one worthy of Socrates, or even of Plato. Well, I do venture to
assert that, says he. It is impossible, unless you remodel your premises:
if poverty is an evil, no beggar can be happy be he