For this reason also it is ridiculous to say, Suggest something to me (tell me what to do).  What should I suggest to you?  Well, form my mind so as to accommodate itself to any event.  Why that is just the same as if a man who is ignorant of letters should say, Tell me what to write when any name is proposed to me.  For if I should tell him to write Dion, and then another should come and propose to him not the name of Dion but that of Theon, what will be done? what will he write?  But if you have practised writing, you are also prepared to write (or to do) anything that is required.  If you are not, what can I now suggest?  For if circumstances require something else, what will you say, or what will you do?  Remember then this general precept and you will need no suggestion.  But if you gape after externals, you must of necessity ramble up and down in obedience to the will of your master.  And who is the master?  He who has the power over the things which you seek to gain or try to avoid.

* * * * *

How magnanimity is consistent with care.—­Things themselves (materials) are indifferent; but the use of them is not indifferent.  How then shall a man preserve firmness and tranquillity, and at the same time be careful and neither rash nor negligent?  If he imitates those who play at dice.  The counters are indifferent; the dice are indifferent.  How do I know what the cast will be?  But to use carefully and dexterously the cast of the dice, this is my business.  Thus then in life also the chief business is this:  distinguish and separate things, and say:  Externals are not in my power:  will is in my power.  Where shall I seek the good and the bad?  Within, in the things which are my own.  But in what does not belong to you call nothing either good or bad, or profit or damage or anything of the kind.

What then?  Should we use such things carelessly?  In no way:  for this on the other hand is bad for the faculty of the will, and consequently against nature; but we should act carefully because the use is not indifferent, and we should also act with firmness and freedom from perturbations because the material is indifferent.  For where the material is not indifferent, there no man can hinder me or compel me.  Where I can be hindered and compelled, the obtaining of those things is not in my power, nor is it good or bad; but the use is either bad or good, and the use is in my power.  But it is difficult to mingle and to bring together these two things—­the carefulness of him who is affected by the matter (or things about him), and the firmness of him who has no regard for it; but it is not impossible:  and if it is, happiness is impossible.  But we should act as we do in the case of a voyage.  What can I do?  I can choose the master of the ship, the sailors, the day, the opportunity.  Then comes a storm.  What more have I to care for? for my part is done.  The business belongs to another,