but give help [to all] according to thy ability and their fitness; and if
they should have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent, do not
imagine this to be a damage; for it is a bad habit. But as the old man,
when he went away, asked back his foster-child's top, remembering that it
was a top, so do thou in this case also.

When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man, what
these things are?--Yes; but they are objects of great concern to these
people--wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things? I was once a
fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.--But fortunate means that a
man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good
disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.




BOOK VI.


1. The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the
reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has
no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it.
But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.

2. Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold or warm, if
thou art doing thy duty; and whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with
sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying or doing
something else. For it is one of the acts of life, this act by which we
die: it is sufficient then in this act also to do well what we have in
hand (vi. 22, 28).