312 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



sciousness of good intentions, however unsuccessful, affords 

 a joy more real, pure, and agreeable to nature, than all the 

 other means that can be furnished, either for obtaining 

 one s desires or quieting the mind. 



It likewise censures that abuse which prevailed about 

 the time of Epictetus, when philosophy was turned into a 

 certain art or profession of life, as if its design were not to 

 compose and quiet troubles, but to avoid and remove the 

 causes and occasions thereof, whence a particular regimen 

 was to be entered into for obtaining this end, by introducing 

 such a kind of health into the mind as was that of Herodicus 

 in the body, mentioned by Aristotle, 17 while he did nothing 

 all his life long but take care of his health, and therefore 

 abstained from numberless things, which almost deprived 

 him of the use of his body; whereas, if men were determined 

 to perform the duties of society, that kind of bodily health 

 is most desirable which is able to suffer and support all sorts 

 of attacks and alterations. In the same manner, that mind 

 is truly sound and strong which is able to break through 

 numerous and great temptations and disorders; whence 

 Diogenes seems to have justly commended the habit which 

 did not warily abstain, but courageously sustain l8 which 

 could check the sallies of the soul on the steepest precipice, 

 and make it, like a well- broken horse, stop and turn at the 

 shortest warning. 



Lastly, it reproves that delicacy and unsociable temper 

 observed in some of the most ancient philosophers of great 

 repute, who too effeminately withdrew from civil affairs, in 

 order to prevent indignities and trouble to themselves, and 

 live the more free and unspotted in their own opinions; as 

 to which point the resolution of a true moralist should be 

 such as Gonsalvo required of a soldier viz. , Not to weave 

 Ms honor so fine, as for everything to catch and rend it. 



17 Rhet. i. 5, 10. l8 A&quot;*ou * ou . Summa Stoic. Philoa. 



