CHAPTER 3
What things we should exchange for other things
Keep this thought in readiness, when you lose anything external,
what you acquire in place of it; and if it be worth more, never say,
"I have had a loss"; neither if you have got a horse in place of an
ass, or an ox in place of a sheep, nor a good action in place of a bit
of money, nor in place of idle talk such tranquillity as befits a man,
nor in place of lewd talk if you have acquired modesty. If you
remember this, you will always maintain your character such as it
ought to be. But if you do not, consider that the times of opportunity
are perishing, and that whatever pains you take about yourself, you
are going to waste them all and overturn them. And it needs only a few
things for the loss and overturning of all, namely a small deviation
from reason. For the steerer of a ship to upset it, he has no need
of the same means as he has need of for saving it: but if he turns
it a little to the wind, it is lost; and if he does not do this
purposely, but has been neglecting his duty a little, the ship is
lost. Something of the kind happens in this case also: if you only
fall to nodding a little, all that you have up to this time
collected is gone. Attend therefore to the appearances of things,
and watch over them; for that which you have to preserve is no small
matter, but it is modesty and fidelity and constancy, freedom from the
affects, a state of mind undisturbed, freedom from fear, tranquillity,
in a word, "liberty." For what will you sell these things? See what is
the value of the things which you will obtain in exchange for these.
"But shall I not obtain any such thing for it?" See, and if you do
in return get that, see what you receive in place of it. "I possess
decency, he possesses a tribuneship: be possesses a praetorship, I
possess modesty. But I do not make acclamations where it is not
becoming: I will not stand up where I ought not; for I am free, and
a friend of God, and so I obey Him willingly. But I must not claim
anything else, neither body nor possession, nor magistracy, nor good
report, nor in fact anything. For He does not allow me to claim
them: for if He had chosen, He would have made them good for me; but
He has not done so, and for this reason I cannot transgress his
commands." Preserve that which is your own good in everything; and
as to every other thing, as it is permitted, and so far as to behave
consistently with reason in respect to them, content with this only.
If you do not, you will be unfortunate, you will fall in all things,
you will be hindered, you will be impeded. These are the laws which
have been sent from thence; these are the orders. Of these laws a
man ought to be an expositor, to these he ought to submit, not to
those of Masurius and Cassius.
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