things external, scarcely any man denies.  It remains for you philosophers to answer what is the best.  What shall we say to men?  Is the flesh the best? and was it for this that Maximus sailed as far as Cassiope in winter (or bad weather) with his son, and accompanied him that he might be gratified in the flesh?  When the man said that it was not, and added, Far be that from him.  Is it not fit then, Epictetus said, to be actively employed about the best?  It is certainly of all things the most fit.  What then do we possess which is better than the flesh?  The soul, he replied.  And the good things of the best, are they better, or the good things of the worse?  The good things of the best.  And are the good things of the best within the power of the will or not within the power of the will?  They are within the power of the will.  Is then the pleasure of the soul a thing within the power of the will?  It is, he replied.  And on what shall this pleasure depend?  On itself?  But that cannot be conceived; for there must first exist a certain substance or nature ([Greek:  ousia]) of good, by obtaining which we shall have pleasure in the soul.  He assented to this also.  On what then shall we depend for this pleasure of the soul? for if it shall depend on things of the soul, the substance (nature) of the good is discovered; for good cannot be one thing, and that at which we are rationally delighted another thing; nor if that which precedes is not good, can that which comes after be good, for in order that the thing which comes after may be good, that which precedes must be good.  But you would not affirm this, if you are in your right mind, for you would then say what is inconsistent both with Epicurus and the rest of your doctrines.  It remains then that the pleasure of the soul is in the pleasure from things of the body; and again that those bodily things must be the things which precede and the substance (nature) of the good.

Seek for doctrines which are consistent with what I say, and by making them your guide you will with pleasure abstain from things which have such persuasive power to lead us and overpower us.  But if to the persuasive power of these things, we also devise such a philosophy as this which helps to push us on towards them and strengthens us to this end, what will be the consequence?  In a piece of toreutic art which is the best part? the silver or the workmanship?  The substance of the hand is the flesh; but the work of the hand is the principal part (that which precedes and leads the rest).  The duties then are also three:  those which are directed towards the existence of a thing; those which are directed towards its existence in a particular kind; and third, the chief or leading things themselves.  So also in man we ought not to value the material, the poor flesh, but the principal (leading things, [Greek:  ta proaegoumena]).  What are these?  Engaging in public business, marrying, begetting children, venerating God, taking