4. Shall I, then, exist no longer? Nay, thou shalt exist, but as something else, whereof the universe hath now need.[3] For neither didst thou choose thine own time to come into existence, but when the universe had need of thee. 5. What, then, is the fruit of these opinions? That which ought to be the fairest and comeliest to those who have been truly taught,—tranquillity, courage, and freedom. For concerning these things, the multitude are not to be believed which say that those only should be taught who are freemen, but the philosophers rather, which say that those only are free who have been taught. How is this? It is thus—Is freedom anything else than the power to live as we choose? _Nothing else._ Do ye choose, then, to live in sin? _We do not choose it._ None, therefore, that fears or grieves or is anxious is free; but whosoever is released from griefs and fears and anxieties is by that very thing released from slavery. How, then, shall we still believe you, most excellent legislators, when ye say, “We permit none to be taught, save freemen?”[4] for the philosophers say, “We permit none to be free save those who have been taught”—that is, God permits it not. _So, when a man turns round his slave before the Prætor,[5] has he done nothing?_ He has done something. _And what?_ He has turned round his slave before the Prætor. _Nothing else at all?_ Yea, this too—he must pay for him the tax of the twentieth. _What then? has the man thus treated not gained his freedom?_ No more than he has gained tranquillity of mind. For thou, who art able to emancipate others, hast thou no master? is money not thy master, or lust, or a tyrant, or some friend of a tyrant? Why, then, dost thou tremble when thou art to meet with some affliction in this kind? And therefore I say oftentimes, be these things your study, be these things ever at your hand, wherein ye should be bold and wherein fearful; bold in things beyond the Will, fearful in things subject to the Will. CHAPTER VI.[1] THE WISE MAN’S FEAR AND THE FOOL’S.