finally, when he rises in the morning, if he observes and keeps these rules, bathes as a man of fidelity, eats as a modest man; in like manner, if in every matter that occurs he works out his chief principles ([Greek:  ta proaegoumena]) as the runner does with reference to running, and the trainer of the voice with reference to the voice—­this is the man who truly makes progress, and this is the man who has not travelled in vain.  But if he has strained his efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this, and has travelled for this, I tell him to return home immediately, and not to neglect his affairs there; for this for which he has travelled is nothing.  But the other thing is something, to study how a man can rid his life of lamentation and groaning, and saying, Woe to me, and wretched that I am, and to rid it also of misfortune and disappointment, and to learn what death is, and exile, and prison, and poison, that he may be able to say when he is in fetters, Dear Crito, if it is the will of the gods that it be so, let it be so; and not to say, Wretched am I, an old man:  have I kept my gray hairs for this?  Who is it that speaks thus?  Do you think that I shall name some man of no repute and of low condition?  Does not Priam say this?  Does not Oedipus say this?  Nay, all kings say it!  For what else is tragedy than the perturbations ([Greek:  pathae]) of men who value externals exhibited in this kind of poetry?  But if a man must learn by fiction that no external things which are independent of the will concern us, for my part I should like this fiction, by the aid of which I should live happily and undisturbed.  But you must consider for yourselves what you wish.

What then does Chrysippus teach us?  The reply is, to know that these things are not false, from which happiness comes and tranquillity arises.  Take my books, and you will learn how true and conformable to nature are the things which make me free from perturbations.  O great good fortune!  O the great benefactor who points out the way!  To Triptolemus all men have erected temples and altars, because he gave us food by cultivation; but to him who discovered truth and brought it to light and communicated it to all, not the truth which shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of you for this reason has built an altar, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who worships God for this?  Because the gods have given the vine, or wheat, we sacrifice to them; but because they have produced in the human mind that fruit by which they designed to show us the truth which relates to happiness, shall we not thank God for this?

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Against the academics.—­If a man, said Epictetus, opposes evident truths, it is not easy to find arguments by which we shall make him change his opinion.  But this does not arise either from the man’s strength or the teacher’s weakness; for when the man, though he has been confuted, is hardened like a stone, how shall we then be able to deal with him by argument?