Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

248 STOICISM.universal and unalterable law with which every heartis originally impressed He that lives according. . .to nature will suffer nothing from the delusions ofhope, or importunities of desire he will receive and;reject with equability of temper and act or suffer as;the reason of things shall alternately prescribe. Othermen may amuse themselves with subtle definitions orintricate ratiocinations. Let them learn to be wiseby easier means ;let them observe the hind of theforest, and the linnet of the grove ;let them considerthe life of animals whose motions are regulated byinstinct; they obey their guide and be happy.' ....When he had spoken, he looked round him witha placid air and enjoyed the consciousness of hisown beneficence. Sir,' said the prince, with great'modesty, * as I, like all the rest of mankind, amdesirous of felicity, my closest attention has beendiscourse : I doubt not the truthfixed upon yourof a position which a man so learned has so confidentlyadvanced. Let me only know what it isto live according to nature.' 'When I find youngmen so humble and so docile,' said the philosopher,'I can deny them no information which my studieshave enabled me to afford. To live according tonature is to act always with due regard to the fitnessarising from the relations and qualities of causes andeffects ;to concur with the great and unchangeablescheme of universal felicity to ; co-operate with thegeneral disposition and tendency of the present systemof things.'"The prince soon found that this was one of the