ho gave it hath demanded it again? While He gives you to
possess it, take care of it, but as of something not your own, like a
passenger in an inn.

_IV.--OF TRANQUILLITY AND THE MEANS THERETO_

If you would improve, lay aside such reasonings as prevent tranquillity.
It is better to die with hunger, exempt from grief and fear, than to
live in affluence with perturbation. It is better your servant should be
bad than you unhappy. Is a little oil spilt? A little wine stolen? Say
to yourself, "This is the purchase paid for peace, for tranquillity, and
nothing is to be had for nothing." When you call your servant, consider
it possible he may not come at your call; or if he doth, that he may not
do what you would have him do. He is by no means of such importance that
it should be in his power to give you disturbance.

Be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to externals and
unessentials. Do not wish to be thought to know. And though you appear
to others to be somebody, distrust yourself. For be assured it is not
easy at once to preserve your faculty of choice in a state conformable
to nature, and to secure externals, since while you are careful of the
one you will neglect the other.

Behave in life as at an entertainment. Is anything brought round to you?
Put out your hand and take your share, with moderation. Doth it pass by
you? Do not stop it. Is it not yet come? Do not stretch forth your
desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Thus do with regard to
children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will be, some
time or other, a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you do
not so much as take the things set before you, but are able even to
despise them, then you will not only be a partner of the gods' feasts,
but of their empire.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the Author
pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If
it be His pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or
a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your
business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is
another's.

To me all the portents are lucky, if I will. For, whatever happens, it
is in my power to derive advantage from it.

Remember that not he who gives ill language or a blow affronts, but the
principle which represents these things as affronting. When, therefore,
anyone provokes you, be assu