are of the same kind with myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I
shall rather direct myself to the things which are of the same kind with
myself, and I shall turn all my efforts to the common interest, and
divert them from the contrary. Now, if these things are done so, life
must flow on happily, just as thou mayest observe that the life of a
citizen is happy, who continues a course of action which is advantageous
to his fellow citizens, and is content with whatever the state may assign
to him.

7. The parts of the whole, everything, I mean, which is naturally
comprehended in the universe, must of necessity perish; but let this be
understood in this sense, that they must undergo change. But if this is
naturally both an evil and a necessity for the parts, the whole would not
continue to exist in a good condition, the parts being subject to change
and constituted so as to perish in various ways, For whether did Nature
herself design to do evil to the things which are parts of herself, and
to make them subject to evil and of necessity fall into evil, or have
such results happened without her knowing it? Both these suppositions,
indeed, are incredible. But if a man should even drop the term Nature [as
an efficient power], and should speak of these things as natural, even
then it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time that the parts of
the whole are in their nature subject to change, and at the same time to
be surprised or vexed as if something were happening contrary to nature,
particularly as the dissolution of things is into those things of which
each thing is composed. For there is either a dispersion of the elements
out of which everything has been compounded, or a change from the solid
to the earthy and from the airy to the aerial, so that these parts are
taken back into the universal reason, whether this at certain periods is
consumed by fire or renewed by eternal changes. And do not imagine that
the solid and the airy part belongs to thee from the time of generation.