BOOK VII
mice, puppets moved by strings.[1] Amid such environment therefore thou must take thy place graciously and not 'snorting defiance,'[2] nay thou must keep abreast of the fact that everyone is worth just so much as those things are worth in which he is interested.[3]
4. In conversation keep abreast of what is being said,[4] and, in every effort, of what is being done. In the latter see from the first to what end it has reference, and in the former be careful to catch the meaning.
5. Is my mind competent for this or not? If competent, I apply it to the task as an instrument given me by the Universal Nature. If not competent, I either withdraw from the work in favour of someone who can accomplish it better, unless for other reasons duty forbids; or I do the best I can, taking to assist me any one that can utilize my ruling Reason to effect what is at the moment seasonable and useful for the common welfare. For in whatsoever I do either by myself or with another I must direct my energies to this alone, that it shall conduce to the common interest[5] and be in harmony with it.
6. How many much-lauded heroes have already been given as a prey unto forgetfulness,[6] and how many that lauded them have long ago disappeared!
7. Blush not to be helped[7]; for thou art bound to carry out the task that is laid upon thee as a soldier to storm the breach. What then, if for What then, if for very lameness thou canst not mount the ramparts unaided, but canst do this with another's help?
- ↑ ii. 2 etc.
- ↑ cp. ix. 41 (Epicurus).
- ↑ v. 16. cp. Dem. Olynth. iii. 32: ἅττα γὰρ ἂν τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα τῶν ἀνθρώπων ᾖ, τοιοῦτον ἀναγκὴ καὶ τὸ φρόνημα ἔχειν. cp. Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. 23.
- ↑ vi. 53.
- ↑ iv. 12.
- ↑ iii. 10; iv. 33; viii. 21.
- ↑ x. 12. See saying of Marcus, Capit. xxii. 4, quoted below, p. 360.
