My father would have been wiser to take her to the Stoa and impress it upon her that, if life must have a goal, it should be only to live in accordance with the sensibly arranged course of the world, and in harmony with one's own nature.

He should have taught her to derive happiness from virtue.

He should have stamped goodness upon the soul of the future Queen as the fundamental law of her being.

He omitted to do this, because in his secluded life he had succeeded in finding the happiness which the master promises to his disciples.

From Athens to Cyrene, from Epicurus to Aristippus, is but a short step, and Cleopatra took it when she forgot that the master was far from recognizing the chief good in the enjoyment of individual pleasure.