nt little, and to work with my own hands,
and not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to be ready to
listen to slander.

6. From Diognetus,[163] not to busy myself about trifling things, and
not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers
about incantations and the driving away of demons and such things; and
not to breed quails [for fighting], not to give myself up passionately
to such things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become
intimate with philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of
Bacchius, then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogs
in my youth; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever
else of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline.

7. From Rusticus[164] I received the impression that my character
required improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be
led astray to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative
matters, nor to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing
myself off as a man who practises much discipline, or does benevolent
acts in order to make a display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and
poetry, and fine writing; and not to walk about in the house in my
outdoor dress, nor to do other things of the kind; and to write my
letters with simplicity, like the letter which Rusticus wrote from
Sinuessa to my mother; and with respect to those who have offended me
by words, or done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and
reconciled, as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled;
and to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial
understanding of a book; not hastily to give my assent to those who
talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted with the
discourses of Epictetus.

8. From Apollonius[165] I learned freedom of will and undeviating
steadiness of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a
moment, except to reason; and to be always the same, in sharp pains,
on the occasion of the loss of a child, and in long illness; and to
see clearly in a living example that the same man can be both most
resolute and yielding, and not peevish in giving his instruction; and
to have had before my eyes a man who clearly considered his experience
and his skill in expounding philosophical principles as the smallest
of his merits; and from him I learned how to receive from friends what
are esteemed favors, without being either humbled by them or le