ted to the ship, and you ought to be
constantly watching if the captain should call, and then you must throw
away all those things, that you may not be bound and pitched into the
ship like sheep. So in life also, if there be given to you instead of a
little bulb and a shell a wife and child, there will be nothing to
prevent (you from taking them). But if the captain should call, run to
the ship and leave all those things without regard to them. But if you
are old, do not even go far from the ship, lest when you are called you
make default.

VIII.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but
wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a
tranquil flow of life.

IX.

Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the
will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to
the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everything that
happens; for you will find it an impediment to something else, but not
to yourself.

X.

On the occasion of every accident (event) that befalls you, remember to
turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
If you see a fair man or a fair woman, you will find that the power to
resist is temperance (continence). If labor (pain) be presented to you,
you will find that it is endurance. If it be abusive words, you will
find it to be patience. And if you have been thus formed to the (proper)
habit, the appearances will not carry you along with them.

XI.

Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it. Is
your child dead? It has been restored. Is your wife dead? She has been
restored. Has your estate been taken from you? Has not then this also
been restored? But he who has taken it from me is a bad man. But what is
it to you, by whose hands the giver demanded it back? So long as he may
allow you, take care of it as a thing which belongs to another, as
travellers do with their inn.

XII.

If you intend to improve, throw away such thoughts as these: if I
neglect my affairs, I shall not have the means of living: unless I
chastise my slave, he will be bad. For it is better to die of hunger and
so to be released from grief and fear than to live in abundance with
perturbation; and it is better for your slave to be bad than for you to
be unhappy. Begin then from little things. Is the oil spilled? Is a
little wine stolen? Say on the occasion, at such price is