orehouse, see with
what faculties you came into the world. Have you the disposition of a
wild beast, have you the disposition of revenge for an injury? When is a
horse wretched? When he is deprived of his natural faculties, not when
he cannot crow like a cock, but when he cannot run. When is a dog
wretched? Not when he cannot fly, but when he cannot track his game. Is
then a man also unhappy in this way, not because he cannot strangle
lions or embrace statues, for he did not come into the world in the
possession of certain powers from nature for this purpose, but because
he has lost his probity and his fidelity? People ought to meet and
lament such a man for the misfortunes into which he has fallen; not
indeed to lament because a man has been born or has died, but because it
has happened to him in his lifetime to have lost the things which are
his own, not that which he received from his father, not his land and
house, and his inn, and his slaves; for not one of these things is a
man's own, but all belong to others, are servile, and subject to account
([Greek: hupeithuna]), at different times given to different persons by
those who have them in their power: but I mean the things which belong
to him as a man, the marks (stamps) in his mind with which he came into
the world, such as we seek also on coins, and if we find them we approve
of the coins, and if we do not find the marks we reject them. What is
the stamp on this sestertius? The stamp of Trajan. Present it. It is the
stamp of Nero. Throw it away; it cannot be accepted, it is counterfeit.
So also in this case: What is the stamp of his opinions? It is
gentleness, a sociable disposition, a tolerant temper, a disposition to
mutual affections. Produce these qualities. I accept them: I consider
this man a citizen, I accept him as a neighbor, a companion in my
voyages. Only see that he has not Nero's stamp. Is he passionate, is he
full of resentment, is he fault-finding? If the whim seizes him, does he
break the heads of those who come in his way? (If so), why then did you
say that he is a man? Is everything judged (determined) by the bare
form? If that is so, say that the form in wax is an apple and has the
smell and the taste of an apple. But the external figure is not enough:
neither then is the nose enough and the eyes to make the man, but he
must have the opinions of a man. Here is a man who does not listen to
reason, who does not know when he is refuted: he is an as