1. If you would advance in philosophy you must abandon such thoughts as, _If I neglect my affairs I shall not have the means of living. If I do not correct my servant he will be good for nothing._ For it is better to die of hunger, having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit amid abundance. And it is better to have a bad servant than an afflicted mind. 2. Make a beginning then in small matters. Is a little of your oil spilt, or a little wine stolen? Then say to yourself, _For so much peace is bought, this is the price of tranquillity_. For nothing can be gained without paying for it. And when you call your servant, bethink you that he may not hear, or, hearing, may not obey. For him, indeed, that is not well, but for you it is altogether well that he have not the power to trouble your mind. CHAPTER XVII. A CHOICE. If thou wouldst advance, be content to let people think thee senseless and foolish as regards external things. Wish not ever to seem wise, and if ever thou shalt find thyself accounted to be somebody, then mistrust thyself. For know that it is not easy to make a choice that shall agree both with outward things and with Nature, but it must needs be that he who is careful of the one shall neglect the other. CHAPTER XVIII. THAT WHERE THE HEART IS THE BOND IS. 1. Thou art a fool if thou desire wife and children and friends to live forever, for that is desiring things to be in thy power which are not in thy power, and things pertaining to others to be thine own. So also thou art a fool to desire that thy servant should never do anything amiss, for that is desiring evil not to be evil, but something else. But if thou desire never to fail in any pursuit, this thou canst do. This, therefore, practice to attain—namely, the attainable. 2. The lord of each of us is he that hath power over the things that we desire or dislike, to give or to take them away. Whosoever, then, will be free, let him neither desire nor shun any of the things that are in others’ power; otherwise he must needs be enslaved. 3. Wherefore Demetrius[1] said to Nero, _You threaten me with death, but Nature threatens you_. If I am taken up with my poor body, or my property, I have given myself over to slavery, for I immediately show of my own self with what I may be captured. As when a snake draws in his head, I say, _Strike at that part of him which he guards_. And know thou, that at the part thou desirest to guard, there thy master will fall upon thee. Remembering this, whom wilt thou still flatter or fear?