§7.55.1Μὴ περιβλέπου ἀλλότρια ἡγεμονικά, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖ βλέπε κατ’ εὐθὺ ἐπὶ τί σε ἡ φύσις ὁδηγεῖ, ἥ τε τοῦ ὅλου διὰ τῶν συμβαινόντων σοι καὶ ἡ σὴ διὰ τῶν πρακτέων ὑπὸ σοῦ·
Do not look around at the ruling centers of others, but look straight ahead to where nature is leading you—both the nature of the whole through the things that happen to you, and your own nature through the things that must be done by you.
πρακτέον δὲ ἑκάστῳ τὸ ἑξῆς τῇ κατασκευῇ·
And each must do what is in accordance with their constitution.
κατεσκεύασται δὲ τὰ μὲν λοιπὰ τῶν λογικῶν ἕνεκεν, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐπὶ παντὸς ἄλλου τὰ χείρω τῶν κρειττόνων ἕνεκεν, τὰ δὲ λογικὰ ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν.
Now, the rest have been constituted for the sake of the rational, just as in every other case the worse is for the sake of the better, but the rational for the sake of one another.
τὸ μὲν οὖν προηγούμενον ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῇ τὸ κοινωνικόν ἐστι, δεύτερον δὲ τὸ ἀνένδοτον πρὸς τὰς σωματικὰς πείσεις·
Therefore, the primary thing in the human constitution is the social, and the second is unyieldingness to bodily influences.
λογικῆς γὰρ καὶ νοερᾶς κινήσεως ἴδιον περιορίζειν ἑαυτὴν καὶ μήποτε ἡττᾶσθαι μήτε αἰσθητικῆς μήτε ὁρμητικῆς κινήσεως· ζῳώδεις γὰρ ἑκάτεραι, ἡ δὲ νοερὰ ἐθέλει πρωτιστεύειν καὶ μὴ κατακρατεῖσθαι ὑπ’ ἐκείνων.
For it is characteristic of a rational and intellectual movement to limit itself and never to be overcome by either sensory or appetitive movement; for both of these are animal-like, whereas the intellectual movement wills to have the preeminence and not to be mastered by them.
δικαίως γε· πέφυκε γὰρ χρηστικὴ πᾶσιν ἐκείνοις.
And justly so, for it is by nature fit to make use of all of them.
τρίτον ἐν τῇ λογικῇ κατασκευῇ τὸ ἀπρόπτωτον καὶ ἀνεξαπάτητον.
Third in the rational constitution is freedom from precipitancy and from deception.
τούτων οὖν ἐχόμενον τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν εὐθεῖαν περαινέτω καὶ ἔχει τὰ ἑαυτοῦ.
Let the ruling center, therefore, holding fast to these things, go straight on its way, and it possesses what is its own.