17. If a thing is in thy own power, why dost thou do it? but if it is in
the power of another, whom dost thou blame,--the atoms [chance] or the
gods? Both are foolish. Thou must blame nobody. For if thou canst,
correct [that which is the cause]; but if thou canst not do this, correct
at least the thing itself; but if thou canst not do even this, of what
use is it to thee to find fault? for nothing should be done without a
purpose.

18. That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here,
it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are
elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they
murmur not.

19. Everything exists for some end,--a horse, a vine. Why dost thou
wonder? Even the sun will say, I am for some purpose, and the rest of the
gods will say the same. For what purpose then art thou,--to enjoy
pleasure? See if common sense allows this.

20. Nature has had regard in everything no less to the end than to the
beginning and the continuance, just like the man who throws up a ball.
What good is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it to come
down, or even to have fallen? and what good is it to the bubble while it
holds together, or what harm when it is burst? The same may be said of a
light also.

21. Turn it [the body] inside out, and see what kind of thing it is; and
when it has grown old, what kind of thing it becomes, and when it is
diseased.

Short lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and