With what then, says he, shall I begin? And what
shall I take for the principle of duty and matter of virtue,
leaving Nature and that which is according to Nature?
With what, O good sir, do Aristotle and Theophrastus begin?
[p. 394]
What beginnings do Xenocrates and Polemo take?
Does not also Zeno follow these, who suppose Nature and
that which is according to Nature to be the elements of
happiness? But they indeed persisted in these things, as
desirable, good, and profitable; and joining to them virtue, which employs them and uses every one of them
according to its property, thought to complete and consummate a perfect life and one every way absolute, producing
that concord which is truly suitable and consonant to Nature. For these men did not fall into confusion, like those
who leap up from the ground and presently fall down
again upon it, terming the same things acceptable and not
desirable, proper and not good, unprofitable and yet useful, nothing to us and yet the principles of duties. But
their life was such as their speech, and they exhibited actions suitable and consonant to their sayings. But they
who are of the Stoic sect—not unlike to that woman in
Archilochus, who deceitfully carried in one hand water, in
the other fire—by some doctrines draw nature to them,
and by others drive her from them. Or rather, by their
deeds and actions they embrace those things which are
according to Nature, as good and desirable, but in words
and speeches they reject and contemn them, as indifferent
and of no use to virtue for the acquiring felicity.
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