at he who enters upon a deliberation of life and
death has no right to consider

What good or ill in his own house there is;

or to weigh, as in a balance, what things have the greatest sign of
serving to felicity or infelicity; but must argue whether he should live
or die from those things which are neither profitable nor prejudicial,
and follow such principles and sentences as command the choosing of a
life full of all things to be avoided, and the shunning of one which
wants nothing of all those things that are desirable? For though it is
an absurd thing, friend Lamprias, to shun a life in which there is
no evil, it is yet more absurd, if any one should leave what is good
because he is not possessed of what is indifferent, as these men do who
leave present felicity and virtue for want of riches and health which
they have not.

Satumian Jove from Glaucus took his wits,

when he went about to change his suit of golden armor for a brazen one,
and to give what was worth a hundred oxen for that which was worth but
nine. And yet the brazen armor was no less useful for fight than the
golden; whereas beauty and health of body, as the Stoics say, contribute
not the least advantage so far as happiness is concerned. And yet they
seek health in exchange for wisdom. For they say, it would well enough
have become Heraclitus and Pherecydes to have parted with their virtue
and wisdom, if the one of them could have thereby been freed from his
lousy disease, and the other from his dropsy; and if Circe had used two
sorts of magical drinks, one to make wise men fools, and the other to
make fools wise, Ulysses would rather have drunk that of folly, than
have changed his shape for the form of a beast, though having with it
wisdom, and consequently also happiness. And, they say, wisdom itself
dictates to them these things, exhorting them thus: Let me go, and value
not my being lost, if I must be carried about in the shape of an ass.
But this, some will say, is an ass-like wisdom which teacheth thus;
granting that to be wise and enjoy felicity is good, and to wear the
shape of an ass is indifferent. They say, there is a nation of the
Ethiopians where a dog reigns, is called king, and has all regal honors
and services done to him; but men execute the offices of magistrates and
governors of cities. Do not the Stoics act in the very same manner? They
give the name and appearance of good to virtue, saying that it alone is
desirabl