keep your mind fixed upon the ship, and constantly to look round lest at any time the master of the ship should call, and must, if he call, cast away all those things, lest you be treated like the sheep that are bound and thrown into the hold: So it is with human life also, and nothing hinders the comparison if there be given wife and children instead of shells and roots.[1] And if the master call, run to the ship, forsaking all those things and looking not behind. And if you be in old age, go not far from the ship at any time, lest the master should call, and you should not be ready.
VIII.Do not seek to have all things happen as you would choose them, but rather choose them to happen as they do; and so shall the current of your life flow free.
IX.Disease is a hindrance of the body, not of the will, unless the will itself consent. Lame-
- ↑ Or 'if there be given wife and children, &c. . . . . nothing hinders [you from taking them].'
