BOOK VII
thou reflectest that they are of kin to thee and that they do wrong involuntarily and through ignorance,[1] and that within a little while both they and thou will be dead[2]; and this, above all, that the man has done thee no hurt[3]; for he has not made thy ruling Reason worse than it was before.
23. The Nature of the Whole out of the Substance of the Whole,[4] as out of wax, moulds at one time a horse, and breaking up the mould kneads the material up again into a tree, then into a man, and then into something else; and every one of these subsists but for a moment. It is no more a hardship for the coffer to be broken up than it was for it to be fitted together.
24. An angry scowl on the face is beyond measure unnatural, and when it is often seen there, all comeliness begins at once to die away, or in the end is so utterly extinguished that it can never be rekindled at all. From this very fact try to reach the conclusion that it is contrary to reason. The consciousness of wrong-doing once lost, what motive is left for living any more?
25. Everything that thou seest will the Nature that controls the Universe change, no one knows how soon, and out of its substance make other compounds,[5] and again others out of theirs, that the world may ever renew its youth.
26. Does a man do thee wrong? Go to and mark what notion of good and evil was his that did the wrong. Once perceive that and thou wilt feel
