Kitap 1
29
No. But make allowance for the ignorant, and say, This poor man. advises me to what he thinks good for himself. I excuse him; for Socrates, too, excused the jailer, who wept when he was to drink the poison, and said, How heartily he sheds tears for us! Was it to him that Socrates said, For this reason we sent the women out of the way? No, but to his friends,—to such as were capable of hearing it; while he humored the other, as a child.
Weapons ready for difficult occasions.
30
When you are going before any of the great, remember that there is another who sees from above what passes, and whom you ought to please, rather than man. He therefore asks you,—
30
In the schools, what did you use to call exile, and prison, and chains, and death, and calumny?
30
I? Indifferent things.
30
What, then, do you call them now? Are they at all changed?
30
No.
30
Are you changed, then? No.
30
Tell me, then, what things are indifferent. Things not dependent on our own will. What is the inference?
30
Things not dependent on my own will are nothing to me.
30
Tell me, likewise, what appeared to be the good of man.
30
Rectitude of will, and to understand the appearances of things.
30
What his end?
30
To follow Thee. Do you say the same things now, too? Yes. I do say the same things, even now.
