id: How shall a great lion not appear
to me, or a great boar, or savage men? And what do you care for that? If
a great boar appear, you will fight a greater fight; if bad men appear,
you will relieve the earth of the bad. Suppose then that I lose my life
in this way. You will die a good man, doing a noble act. For since he
must certainly die, of necessity a man must be found doing something,
either following the employment of a husbandman, or digging, or trading,
or serving in a consulship, or suffering from indigestion or from
diarrhoea. What then do you wish to be doing when you are found by
death? I, for my part, would wish to be found doing something which
belongs to a man, beneficent, suitable to the general interest, noble.
But if I cannot be found doing things so great, I would be found doing
at least that which I cannot be hindered from doing, that which is
permitted me to do, correcting myself, cultivating the faculty which
makes use of appearances, laboring at freedom from the affects (laboring
at tranquillity of mind); rendering to the relations of life their due.
If I succeed so far, also (I would be found) touching on (advancing to)
the third topic (or head) safety in forming judgments about things. If
death surprises me when I am busy about these things, it is enough for
me if I can stretch out my hands to God and say: The means which I have
received from thee for seeing thy administration (of the world) and
following it I have not neglected; I have not dishonored thee by my
acts; see how I have used my perceptions, see how I have used my
preconceptions; have I ever blamed thee? have I been discontented with
anything that happens, or wished it to be otherwise? have I wished to
transgress the (established) relations (of things)? That thou hast given
me life, I thank thee for what thou hast given. So long as I have used
the things which are thine I am content. Take them back and place them
wherever thou mayest choose, for thine were all things, thou gavest them
to me. Is it not enough to depart in this state of mind? and what life
is better and more becoming than that of a man who is in this state of
mind? and what end is more happy?

* * * * *

ABOUT PURITY (CLEANLINESS).--Some persons raise a question whether the
social feeling is contained in the nature of man; and yet I think that
these same persons would have no doubt that love of purity is certainly
contained in it, and