When Xanthippe was chiding Socrates for making scanty preparation for entertaining his friends, he answered:—“If they are friends of ours they will not care for that; if they are not, we shall care nothing for them!” CLXXXII Asked, _Who is the rich man?_ Epictetus replied, “_He who is content_.” CLXXXIII Favorinus tells us how Epictetus would also say that there were two faults far graver and fouler than any others—inability to bear, and inability to forbear, when we neither patiently bear the blows that must be borne, nor abstain from the things and the pleasures we ought to abstain from. “So,” he went on, “if a man will only have these two words at heart, and heed them carefully by ruling and watching over himself, he will for the most part fall into no sin, and his life will be tranquil and serene.” He meant the words [Greek: Anechou kai apechou]—“Bear and Forbear.” CLXXXIV On all occasions these thoughts should be at hand:— Lead me, O God, and Thou, O Destiny Be what it may the goal appointed me, Bravely I’ll follow; nay, and if I would not, I’d prove a coward, yet must follow still! Again: Who to Necessity doth bow aright, Is learn’d in wisdom and the things of God. Once more:— Crito, if this be God’s will, so let it be. As for me, Anytus and Meletus can indeed put me to death, but injure me, never! CLXXXV We shall then be like Socrates, when we can indite hymns of praise to the Gods in prison. CLXXXVI It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible: else were happiness also impossible. We should act as we do in seafaring. “What can I do?”—Choose the master, the crew, the day, the opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters it to me? my part has been fully done. The matter is in the hands of another—the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I to do? I do the only thing that remains to me—to be drowned without fear, without a cry, without upbraiding God, but knowing that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am not Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass! CLXXXVII And now we are sending you to Rome to spy out the land; but none send a coward as such a spy, that, if he hear but a noise and see a shadow moving anywhere, loses his wits and comes flying to say, _The enemy are upon us!_