PREF. THE PRINCIPAL THING 113 



for no advantage which some one must give and 

 some one lose in order that it may reach you ; to 

 pray a prayer that no one will envy for purity 

 of heart; as for other blessings which are highly 

 esteemed by the world, even should some chance 

 bring them to your home, to regard them as sure to 

 depart by the same door by which they entered. 

 What is the principal thing ? To lift one's courage 14 

 high above all that depends upon chance ; to re- 

 member what man is, so that whether you be 

 fortunate, you may know that this will not be for 

 long ; or whether you be unfortunate, you may be 

 sure you are not so if you do not think yourself so. 



The principal thing is to have life on the very 

 lips, ready to issue when summoned. This makes a 

 man free, not by right of Roman citizenship, but by 

 right of nature. He is the true freeman who has 

 escaped from bondage to self. That slavery is 

 constant, from it there is no deliverance ; it presses 

 us day and night alike, without pause, without 

 respite. To be a slave to self is the most grievous 15 

 kind of slavery ; yet its fetters may easily be struck 

 off, if you will but cease to make large demands 

 upon yourself, if you will cease to seek a personal 

 reward for your services, and if you will set clearly 

 before you your nature and your time of life, even 

 though it be the bloom of youth ; if you will say to 

 yourself, Why do -I rave, and pant, and sweat ? 

 Why do I ply the earth ? why do I haunt the forum ? 

 Man needs but little, nor needs that little long. 



To this end it will be profitable for us to examine 

 the nature of the universe. In the first place we 

 shall rise above what is base ; in the second, we shall 

 set the spirit free from the body, imparting to it that 

 courage and elevation of which it stands in need. 



