Ch. 30
Weapons ready for difficult occasions.
When you are going before any of the great,
remember that there is another who sees
from above what passes, and whom you ought to
please, rather than man. He therefore asks you, -
" In the schools, what did you use to call exile, and
prison, and chains, and death, and calumny? "
I? Indifferent things.
"What, then, do you call them now? Are they
at all changed?"
No.
"Are you changed, then?"
No.
" Tell me, then, what things are indifferent."
Things not dependent on our own will.
"What is the inference?"
Things not dependent on my own will are nothing
to me.
" Tell me, likewise, what appeared to be the good
of man."
Rectitude of will, and to understand the appearances of things.
"What his end?"
To follow Thee.
"Do you say the same things now, too? "
Yes. I do say the same things, even now.
Well, go in then boldly, and mindful of these
things; and you will show the difference between the
instructed and the ignorant. I protest, I think you
will then have such thoughts as these: "Why do
we provide so many and great resources for nothing?
Is the power, the antechamber, the attendants, the
guards, no more than this? Is it for these that I
have listened to so many dissertations? These are
nothing; and yet I had qualified myself as for some
great encounter."