They understand, I think, how to look at it sensibly,--that the sea
which gives them wealth takes it away again.

[-21-] "This is enough on one point. I think it should be enough for a
man's happiness to possess a sufficiency and to lack nothing that the
body requires, and I hold that everything in excess brings anxieties and
trouble and jealousies. But as for your saying there is no enjoyment in
physical blessings unless one have corresponding spiritual advantages,
the statement is true: it is impossible if the spirit is in poor
condition that the body should fail to partake of the sickness. However,
I think it much easier for one to care for mental than for physical
vigor. The body, being of flesh, contains many paradoxical possibilities
and requires much assistance from the higher power: the intellect, of a
nature more divine, can be easily trained and prompted. Let us look to
this, therefore, to discover what spiritual blessing has abandoned you
and what evil has come upon you that you cannot shake off.

[-22-] "First, then, I see that you are a man of the greatest
intellectual gifts. The proof is that you nearly always persuaded both
the senate and the people in cases where you gave them any advice and
helped private citizens very greatly in cases where you acted as their
advocate. And second that you are a most just man. Indeed you have
contended everywhere for your country and for your friends and have
arrayed yourself against those who plotted against them. Yes, this very
misfortune which you have suffered has befallen you for no other reason
than that you continued to speak and act in everything for the laws and
for the government. Again, that you have attained the highest degree of
temperance is shown by your very habits. It is not possible for a man
who is a slave to sensual pleasures to appear constantly in public and
to go to and fro in the Forum, making his deeds by day witnesses of