De Tranquillitate Animi

And, to speak generally, although some of the things which happen against our will do by their very nature bring pain and distress, yet since it is through false opinion that we learn and become accustomed to be disgruntled with the greatest part of them, it is not unprofitable to have the verse of Menander[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 52, Frag. 179, from the Epitrepontes; Allinson, p. 127. The translation is that of A. M. Harmon.) ever ready against the latter:

No harm’s been done you, if you none admit

(for what, he means, if they touch neither body nor soul, are such things to you as the low birth of your father, or the adultery of your wife, or the deprivation of a crown or of front seats,[*](The προεδρία was the privilege of sitting in the front seats at public games, or the theatre, or public assemblies, granted to distinguished citizens, foreigners, or magistrates.) since when these misfortunes are present a man is not prevented from having both body and soul in the best of condition?); and against those things which seem to pain us by their very nature, as sicknesses, anxieties, and the death of friends and children, we should have ready that famous verse of Euripides[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. ², p. 449, Frag. 300, from the Bellerophon; Cf. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, aetat. 45 (vol. i. p. 277 ed. Hill).):

1. Alas! - Yet why alas? Our sufferings
2. Are but what we mortals must endure.

For no reasoning so effectively engages the emotional part of us, when it is being borne down and is slipping, as that which reminds us of the common and natural necessity to which man is exposed through his composite and corporeal nature: it is the only hold he gives to Fortune, while in his most vital and important parts he stands secure.

When Demetrius took the Megarians’ city, he asked Stilpo if any of his possessions had been plundered. And Stilpo said, I saw no one carrying off my property. [*](Virtue according to Moralia, 5 f; knowledge in the Life of Demetrius, ix. (893 a): οὐδένα γὰρ εἶδον ἐπιστάμαν ἀποφέροντα.) And therefore when Fortune plunders and strips us of everything else, we have something within ourselves of the sort that

Achaeans could never harry or plunder.[*](Adapted from Homer, Il., v. 484.)

Therefore[*](The following passage is citd in Stobaeus, vol. ii. p. 161 ed. Wachsmuth, as from Πλουτάρχου Περὶ φιλίας; but Patzig (Quaest. Plutarch., p. 34) is doubtless right in thinking that φιλίας is a scribal error for εὐθυμίας.) we should not altogether debase and depreciate Nature in the belief that she has nothing strong, stable, and beyond the reach of Fortune, but, on the contrary, since we know that the corrupt and perishable part of man wherein he lies open to Fortune is small, and that we ourselves are masters of the better part, in which the greatest of our blessings are situated - right opinions and knowledge and the exercise of reason terminating in the acquisition of virtue, all of which have their being inalienable and indestructible - knowing all this, we should face the future undaunted and confident and say to Fortune what Socrates,[*](Cf. Plato, Apology, 30 c-d; the same form of this statement with almost the same differences from Plato’s words is found in Epictetus, i. 29. 18, and the Encheiridion, liii. 4.) when he was supposed to be replying to his accusers, was really saying to the jury, Anytus and Meletus are able to take away my life, but they cannot hurt me. Fortune, in fact, can encompass us with sickness, take away our possessions, slander us to people or despot; but she cannot make the good and valiant and high-souled man base or cowardly, mean, ignoble, or envious, nor can she deprive us of that disposition, the constant presence of which is of more help in facing life than is a pilot in facing the sea. For a pilot cannot calm a savage wave or a wind, nor can he find a harbour wherever he wishes at need, nor can he await the event confidently and without trembling; as long as he has not despaired, making use of his skill,

1. With the mainsail dropped to the lower mast
2. He flees from the murky sea,[*](Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ², iii. p. 730, Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, iii. p. 474, or Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. ², p. 910, ades. 377. The text is quite uncertain, though Pohlenz’s interpretation seems better than any earlier one. Cf. also Moralia, 169 b, where the fragment is quoted in another form.)

whereas when the sea towers over him, he sits there quaking and trembling. But the disposition of the wise man yields the highest degree of calm to his bodily affections, destroying by means of self-control, temperate diet, and moderate exertion the conditions leading to disease; even if the beginning of some evil comes from without, he rides it out with light and well-furled sail, as Asclepiades[*](Asclepiades of Samos; Cf. Knox, Choliambica, p. 270, who rewrites the line.) has it, just as one passes through a storm. But if some great unforeseen disaster comes upon him and masters him, the harbour is close at hand and he may swim away from his body, as from a leaky boat.[*](Apparently by suicide: Cf. the admiration Plutarch expresses for Demosthenes’ suicide (Comp. Cic. and Dem., v. 888 c); but his position is quite different in the polemic against Epicurus, Moralia, 1103 e.)