For all this received its accretion only yesterday and the day before, as
one may say, from the food and the air which is inspired. This, then,
which has received [the accretion], changes, not that which thy mother
brought forth. Hut suppose that this [which thy mother brought forth]
implicates thee very much with that other part, which has the peculiar
quality [of change], this is nothing in fact in the way of objection to
what is said.

8. When thou hast assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a
man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that thou dost not change
these names; and if thou shouldst lose them, quickly return to them. And
remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating
attention to every several thing, and freedom from negligence; and that
Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned
to thee by the common nature; and that Magnanimity is the elevation of
the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the
flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, and death, and all such
things. If, then, thou maintainest thyself in the possession of these
names, without desiring to be called by these names by others, thou wilt
be another person and wilt enter on another life. For to continue to be
such as thou hast hitherto been, and to be torn in pieces and defiled in
such a life, is the character of a very stupid man and one over-fond of
his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with wild beasts who,
though covered with wounds and gore, still entreat to be kept to the
following day, though they will be exposed in the same state to the same
claws and bites. Therefore fix thyself in the possession of these few
names: and if thou art able to abide in them, abide as if thou wast
removed to certain islands of the Happy. But if thou shalt perceive that
thou fallest out of them and dost not maintain thy hold, go courageously
into some nook where thou shalt maintain them, or even depart at once