BOOK VIII
good man; but the true good man would never regret having passed a pleasure by. Pleasure therefore is neither a useful thing nor a good.
11. What of itself is the thing in question as individually constituted? What is the substance and material of it? What the causal[1] part? What doeth it in the Universe? How long doth it subsist?
12. When thou art loth to get up,[2] call to mind that the due discharge of social duties is in accordance with thy constitution and in accordance with man's nature, while even irrational animals share with us the faculty of sleep; but what is in accordance with the nature of the individual is more congenial, more closely akin to him, aye and more attractive.
13. Persistently and, if possible, in every case test thy impressions by the rules of physics, ethics, logic.
14. Whatever man thou meetest, put to thyself at once this question: What are this man's convictions[3] about good and evil? For if they are such and such about pleasure and pain and what is productive of them, about good report and ill report, about death and life, it will be in no way strange or surprising to me if he does such and such things. So I will remember that he is constrained to act as he does.[4]
15. Remember that, as it is monstrous to be surprised at a fig-tree bearing figs, so also is it to be surprised at the Universe bearing its own particular crop. Likewise it is monstrous for a physician or a steersman to be surprised[5] that a patient has fever or that a contrary wind has sprung up.
