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What is the matter on which A good man should be employed, and in what we ought chiefly to practise ourselves.—­The material for the wise and good man is his own ruling faculty:  and the body is the material for the physician and the aliptes (the man who oils persons); the land is the matter for the husbandman.  The business of the wise and good man is to use appearances conformably to nature:  and as it is the nature of every soul to assent to the truth, to dissent from the false, and to remain in suspense as to that which is uncertain; so it is its nature to be moved towards the desire for the good, and to aversion from the evil; and with respect to that which is neither good nor bad it feels indifferent.  For as the money-changer (banker) is not allowed to reject Caesar’s coin, nor the seller of herbs, but if you show the coin, whether he chooses or not, he must give up what is sold for the coin; so it is also in the matter of the soul.  When the good appears, it immediately attracts to itself; the evil repels from itself.  But the soul will never reject the manifest appearance of the good, any more than persons will reject Caesar’s coin.  On this principle depends every movement both of man and God.

Against (or with respect to) this kind of thing chiefly a man should exercise himself.  As soon as you go out in the morning, examine every man whom you see, every man whom you hear; answer as to a question, What have you seen?  A handsome man or woman?  Apply the rule.  Is this independent of the will, or dependent?  Independent.  Take it away.  What have you seen?  A man lamenting over the death of a child.  Apply the rule.  Death is a thing independent of the will.  Take it away.  Has the proconsul met you?  Apply the rule.  What kind of a thing is a proconsul’s office?  Independent of the will or dependent on it?  Independent.  Take this away also; it does not stand examination; cast it away; it is nothing to you.

If we practised this and exercised ourselves in it daily from morning to night, something indeed would be done.  But now we are forthwith caught half asleep by every appearance, and it is only, if ever, that in the school we are roused a little.  Then when we go out, if we see a man lamenting, we say, He is undone.  If we see a consul, we say, He is happy.  If we see an exiled man, we say, He is miserable.  If we see a poor man, we say, He is wretched; he has nothing to eat.