Who does not know the calamities of fortune when poverty and disrepute combine with disease or disablement in the body, and these again are mixed with the infirmities of a soul rendered distracted by melancholy or senility, or any other grievous misfortune? For indeed a single item of this list is enough to upset and overthrow even the very stoutest, if it brings its force to bear upon him. But when the ills of body and soul and the external world unite and in serried mass, as though obedient to a single commanding voice, bear down at the same moment upon their lone victim, what misery is not insignificant beside them? When the guards fall, that which they guard must fall too. Now the guards of the body are wealth and reputation and honours, who keep it erect and lift it on high and give it a sense of pride, just as their opposites, dishonour, disrepute and poverty are like foes who bring it crashing to the ground. Again the guards of the soul are the powers of hearing and sight and smell and taste, and the whole company of the senses and besides them health and strength of body and limb and muscle. For these serve as fortresses well-walled and stayed on firm foundations, houses within which the mind can range and dwell rejoicing, with none to hinder it from following the urges of its personality, but with free passage everywhere as on easy and open high roads. But against these guards also are posted hostile forces, disablement of the sense-organs and disease, as I have said, which often bid fair to carry the understanding over the precipice in their arms. While these calamities of fortune which work independently of us are full of pain and misery, they are far outweighed in comparison with those which spring from our deliberate volition.
On the Confusion of Tongues 6
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.