I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete;
I swear the earth shall remain jagged and broken only to him or her who remains jagged and broken.
And in order to be 'complete,' be it remembered, it may often be necessary for us to sacrifice a gratification to a duty, while to sacrifice a duty to a gratification is quite another matter. For to do the duty at the expense of the gratification leaves, so far, our capacity for the gratification just where it was; while to indulge a gratification at the expense of a duty undoubtedly injures our capacity for duty in general, and probably, in the end, for gratification also.
This view, I say, accords with Stoicism, for as long as we have any consciousness at all we are being impressed in some way or other through the senses and affections, and to use the pleasures of them with the mingled freedom and reverence only known to those
