84
Why tears, honest friend? There’s a deal of sense, I think, in that fable of Aesop’s where a man sits on the shore by the water’s edge to count the waves. When he fails he is hurt and takes it badly, until the Fox comes up to him and says: “Why are you worrying about those that have gone, my noble sir? Let them go and begin your count from here.” And so with you; since that is your view, you will do better in the future to make up your mind to join in the common life. Share in the city life of everyday, and give up your hopes of the strange and puffed-up. You will not be ashamed, if you are wise, to learn afresh in your old age and make a change for the better.
85
In all that I have said, my dear friend, do not think that I have directed my argument against the Stoa, or that I have some special hatred for the Stoics. No, it applied to all alike. I should have said the same to you if you had chosen the school of Plato or Aristotle and condemned the rest without a trial. As it is, you have given pride of place to the Stoics, and so the argument has seemed to be directed against the Stoa, although it had no particular grudge against it.
