Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON FIRMNESS, v. 5-vi. 2nothing which he will be able to regard as loss ; forthe only possession he has is \-irtue, and of this hecan never be robbed. Of all else he has merely theuse on sufferance. WTio, however, is moved by theloss of that which is not his ovm ? But if injury cando no harm to anything that a %\-ise man owns, sinceif his \lrtue is safe his possessions are safe, then noinjur\- can happen to the mse man.^^Tien Demetrius, the one who had the appellationof Poliorcetes, had captured Megara, he questionedStilbo, a philosopher, to find out whether he had lostanything, and his answer was, " Nothing ; I haveall that is mine \\'ith me." Yet his estate had beengiven up to plunder, his daughters had been outragedby the enemy, his native city had passedunder foreign sway, and the man himself was beingquestioned by a king on his throne, ensconced amidthe arms of his \ictorious army. But he ^^Testedthe victory from the conqueror, and bore ^^-itnessthat, though his city had been captured, he himselfwas not only unconquered but unharmed. For hehad viith him his true possessions, upon which nohand can be laid, while the property that was beingscattered and pillaged and plundered he countednot his own, but the adventitious things that followthe beck of Fortune. Therefore he had esteemedthem as not really his o\^'n ; for all that flows to usfrom without is a slippery and insecure possession.Consider now, can any thief or traducer or N-iolentneighbour, or any rich man who \\-ields the powerconferred by a childless old age, do injury to thisman, from whom war and the enemy and thatexponent of the illustrious art of wrecking citiesIcould snatch away nothing ? Amid swords flashing63