« M. Aur. Med. 5.35 | M. Aur. Med. 5.36 | M. Aur. Med. 6.1 | About This Work »
36Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of things, but give help [to all] according to thy ability and their fitness; and if they should have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent, do not imagine this to be a damage. For it is a bad habit. But as the old man when he went away asked back his foster-child’s top, remembering that it was a top, so do thou in this case also.
When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man, what these things are?—Yes; but they are objects of great concern to these people—Wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things?—I was once a fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.—But fortunate means that a man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.[28]
« M. Aur. Med. 5.35 | M. Aur. Med. 5.36 | M. Aur. Med. 6.1 | About This Work »
Notes
[28] This section is unintelligible. Many of the words may be corrupt, and the general purport of the section cannot be discovered. Perhaps several things have been improperly joined in one section. I have translated it nearly literally. Different translators give the section a different turn, and the critics have tried to mend what they cannot understand.