LXXIV

“The question at stake,” said Epictetus, “is no common one; it is this: — Are we in our senses, or are we not?”

LXXV

If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to the fire. If overcome by a temptation of the flesh, do not reckon it a single defeat, but that you have also strengthened your dissolute habits. Habits and faculties are necessarily affected by the corresponding acts. Those that were not there before, spring up: the rest gain in strength and extent. This is the account which Philosophers give of the origin of diseases of the mind: — Suppose you have once lusted after money: if reason sufficient to produce a sense