the baseness [of deserting his post].

46. But, my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good is
not something different from saving and being saved; for as to a man
living such or such a time, at least one who is really a man, consider if
this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts: and there must be
no love of life: but as to these matters a man must intrust them to the
Deity and believe what the women say, that no man can escape his destiny,
the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.

47. Look around at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along
with them; and constantly consider the changes of the elements into one
another, for such thoughts purge away the filth of the terrene life.

48. This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men
should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some higher
place; should look at them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural
labors, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts of
justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts,
lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things and an orderly combination
of contraries.

49. Consider the past,--such great changes of political supremacies; thou
mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will certainly be
of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the
order of the things which take place now; accordingly to have
contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have
contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?

50.