r minds. The cynic Demetrius,
who in my opinion was a great man even if compared with the greatest
philosophers, had an admirable saying about this, that one gained more
by having a few wise precepts ready and in common use than by learning
many without having them at hand. "The best wrestler," he would say, "is
not he who has learned thoroughly all the tricks and twists of the art,
which are seldom met with in actual wrestling, but he who has well and
carefully trained himself in one or two of them, and watches keenly for
an opportunity of practising them. It does not matter how many of them
he knows, if he knows enough to give him the victory; and so in
this subject of ours there are many points of interest, but few of
importance. You need not know what is the system of the ocean tides,
why each seventh year leaves its mark upon the human body, why the more
distant parts of a long portico do not keep their true proportion,
but seem to approach one another until at last the spaces between the
columns disappear, how it can be that twins are conceived separately,
though they are born together, whether both result from one, or each
from a separate act, why those whose birth was the same should have such
different fates in life, and dwell at the greatest possible distance
from one another, although they were born touching one another; it will
not do you much harm to pass over matters which we are not permitted to
know, and which we should not profit by knowing. Truths so obscure may
be neglected with impunity. [Footnote: The old saying, 'Truth lurks deep
in a well (or abyss).'] Nor can we complain that nature deals hardly
with us, for there is nothing which is hard to discover except those
things by which we gain nothing beyond the credit of having discovered
them; whatever things tend to make us better or happier are either
obvious or easily discovered. Your mind can rise superior to the
accidents of life, if it can raise itself above fears and not greedily
covet boundless wealth, but has learned to seek for riches within
itself; if it has cast out the fear of men and gods, and has learned
that it has not much to fear from man, and nothing to fear from God; if
by scorning all those things which make life miserable while they adorn
it, the mind can soar to such a height as to see clearly that death
cannot be the beginning of any trouble, though it is the end of many;
if it can dedicate itself to righteousness and think any p