Book 2
18
This is the true athlete, the man who exercises himself against such appearances. Stay, wretch, do not be carried way. Great is the combat, divine is the work; it is for kingship, for freedom, for happiness, for freedom from perturbation. Remember God: call on him as a helper and protector, as men at sea call on the DioscurCastor and Pollux. Horace, Carm. i. 12:— Quorum simul alba nautis Stella refulsit, etc. in a storm. For what is a greater storm than that which comes from appearances which are violent and drive away the reason?Gellius, xix. c. 1, 4 visa quae vi quadam sua sese inferunt noscitanda hominibus. For the storm itself, what else is it but an appearance? For take away the fear of death, and suppose as many thunders and lightnings as you please, and you will know what calmConsider that every thing is opinion, and opinion is in thy power. Take away then, when thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner, who has doubled the promontory, thou wilt find calm, every thing stable, and a waveless pay. Antoninus, xii. 22. and serenity there is in the ruling faculty. But if you have once been defeated and say that you will conquer hereafter, and then say the same again, be assured that you will at last be in so wretched a condition and so weak that you will not even know afterwards that you are doing wrong, but you will even begin to make apologies (defences) for your wrong doing, and then you will confirm the saying of HesiodHesiod, Works and Days, v. 411. to be true,
Against those who embrace philosophical opinions only in words.
