ath easy which
leads to it; if, being a gregarious creature, and born for the common
good, it regards the world as the universal home, if it keeps its
conscience clear towards God and lives always as though in public,
fearing itself more than other men, then it avoids all storms, it stands
on firm ground in fair daylight, and has brought to perfection its
knowledge of all that is useful and essential. All that remains serves
merely to amuse our leisure; yet, when once anchored in safety, the mind
may consider these matters also, though it can derive no strength, but
only culture from their discussion."

II. The above are the rules which my friend Demetrius bids him who would
make progress in philosophy to clutch with both hands, never to let
go, but to cling to them, and make them a part of himself, and by daily
meditation upon them to bring himself into such a state of mind, that
these wholesome maxims occur to him of their own accord, that wherever
he may be, they may straightway be ready for use when required, and
that the criterion of right and wrong may present itself to him without
delay. Let him know that nothing is evil except what is base, and
nothing good except what is honourable: let him guide his life by this
rule: let him both act and expect others to act in accordance with this
law, and let him regard those whose minds are steeped in indolence, and
who are given up to lust and gluttony, as the most pitiable of mankind,
no matter how splendid their fortunes may be. Let him say to himself,
"Pleasure is uncertain, short, apt to pall upon us, and the more eagerly
we indulge in it, the sooner we bring on a reaction of feeling against
it; we must necessarily afterwards blush for it, or be sorry for it,
there is nothing grand about it, nothing worthy of man's nature, little
lower as it is than that of the gods; pleasure is a low act, brought
about by the agency of our inferior and baser members, and shameful in
its result. True pleasure, worthy of a human being and of a man, is,
not to stuff or swell his body with food and drink, nor to excite lusts
which are least hurtful when they are most quiet, but to be free from
all forms of mental disturbance, both those which arise from men's
ambitious struggles with one another, and those which come from on high
and are more difficult to deal with, which flow from our taking the
traditional view of the gods, and estimating them by the analogy of our
own vices." This equ