ture of things. If there were a principle of evil
([Greek: arche]) in the constitution of things, evil would no longer be
evil, as Simplicius argues, but evil would be good. Simplicius (c. 34,
[27]) has a long and curious discourse on this text of Epictetus, and it
is amusing and instructive.

One passage more will conclude this matter. It contains all that the
emperor could say (ii. 11): "To go from among men, if there are gods, is
not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil;
but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human
affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid
of providence? But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human
things, and they have put all the means in man's power to enable him not
to fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was anything evil,
they would have provided for this also, that it should be altogether in
a man's power not to fall into it. But that which does not make a man
worse, how can it make a man's life worse? But neither through
ignorance, nor having the knowledge but not the power to guard against
or correct these things, is it possible that the nature of the universe
has overlooked them; nor is it possible that it has made so great a
mistake, either through want of power or want of skill, that good and
evil should happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But death
certainly and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these
things equally happen to good and bad men, being things which make us
neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil."

The Ethical part of Antoninus' Philosophy follows from his general
principles. The end of all his philosophy is to live conformably to
Nature, both a man's own nature and the nature of the universe. Bishop
Butler has explained what the Greek philosophers meant when they spoke
of living according to Nature, and he says that when it is explained, as
he has explained it and as they understood it, it is "a manner of
speaking not loose and undeterminate, but clear and distinct, strictly
just and true." To live according to Nature is to live according to a
man's whole nature, not according to a part of it, and to reverence the
divinity within him as the governor of all his actions. "To the rational
animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason"[A]
(vii. 11). That which is done contrary to reason is a