was not necessary:  hence suppose that at that time the things which you did not need were non-existent or else that those of which you are not in want are now here.  Most of them were not yours by inheritance that you should be particularly exercised about them, but were furnished you by your own tongue and by your words,—­the same causes that effected their loss.  Accordingly, you should not take it hard that just as things were acquired, so they have been lost.  Sea-captains are not greatly disturbed when they suffer great reverses.  They understand, I think, how to look at it sensibly,—­that the sea which gives them wealth takes it away again.

[-21-] “This is enough on one point.  I think it should be enough for a man’s happiness to possess a sufficiency and to lack nothing that the body requires, and I hold that everything in excess brings anxieties and trouble and jealousies.  But as for your saying there is no enjoyment in physical blessings unless one have corresponding spiritual advantages, the statement is true:  it is impossible if the spirit is in poor condition that the body should fail to partake of the sickness.  However, I think it much easier for one to care for mental than for physical vigor.  The body, being of flesh, contains many paradoxical possibilities and requires much assistance from the higher power:  the intellect, of a nature more divine, can be easily trained and prompted.  Let us look to this, therefore, to discover what spiritual blessing has abandoned you and what evil has come upon you that you cannot shake off.

[-22-] “First, then, I see that you are a man of the greatest intellectual gifts.  The proof is that you nearly always persuaded both the senate and the people in cases where you gave them any advice and helped private citizens very greatly in cases where you acted as their advocate.  And second that you are a most just man.  Indeed you have contended everywhere for your country and for your friends and have arrayed yourself against those who plotted against them.  Yes, this very misfortune which you have suffered has befallen you for no other reason than that you continued to speak and act in everything for the laws and for the government.  Again, that you have attained the highest degree of temperance is shown by your very habits.  It is not possible for a man who is a slave to sensual pleasures to appear constantly in public and to go to and fro in the Forum, making his deeds by day witnesses of those by night.  And because this is so I thought you were the bravest of men, enjoying, as you did, so great strength of intellect, so great power in speaking.  But it seems that you, startled out of yourself by having failed contrary to your hope and deserts, have been drawn back a little from the goal of real bravery.  This loss, however, you will recover immediately, and as your circumstances are such, with a good physical state and a good spiritual, I cannot see what there is to distress you.”