Diogenes, who was sent as a scout before you, made a different report to us.  He says that death is no evil, for neither is it base; he says that fame (reputation) is the noise of madmen.  And what has this spy said about pain, about pleasure, and about poverty?  He says that to be naked is better than any purple robe, and to sleep on the bare ground is the softest bed; and he gives as a proof of each thing that he affirms his own courage, his tranquillity, his freedom, and the healthy appearance and compactness of his body.  There is no enemy near, he says; all is peace.  How so, Diogenes?  “See,” he replies, “if I am struck, if I have been wounded, if I have fled from any man.”  This is what a scout ought to be.  But you come to us and tell us one thing after another.  Will you not go back, and you will see clearer when you have laid aside fear?

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On the same.—­If these things are true, and if we are not silly, and are not acting hypocritically when we say that the good of man is in the will, and the evil too, and that everything else does not concern us, why are we still disturbed, why are we still afraid?  The things about which we have been busied are in no man’s power; and the things which are in the power of others, we care not for.  What kind of trouble have we still?

But give me directions.  Why should I give you directions?  Has not Zeus given you directions?  Has he not given to you what is your own free from hindrance and free from impediment, and what is not your own subject to hindrance and impediment?  What directions then, what kind of orders did you bring when you came from him?  Keep by every means what is your own; do not desire what belongs to others.  Fidelity (integrity) is your own, virtuous shame is your own; who then can take these things from you? who else than yourself will hinder you from using them?  But how do you act?  When you seek what is not your own, you lose that which is your own.  Having such promptings and commands from Zeus, what kind do you still ask from me?  Am I more powerful than he, am I more worthy of confidence?  But if you observe these, do you want any others besides?  “Well, but he has not given these orders,” you will say.  Produce your praecognitions ([Greek:  prolaepseis]), produce these proofs of philosophers, produce what you have often heard, and produce what you have said yourself, produce what you have read, produce what you have meditated on; and you will then see that all these things are from God.

If I have set my admiration on the poor body, I have given myself up to be a slave; if on my poor possessions, I also make myself a slave.  For I immediately make it plain with what I may be caught; as if the snake draws in his head, I tell you to strike that part of him which he guards; and do you be assured that whatever part you choose to guard, that part your master will attack.  Remembering this, whom will you still flatter or fear?