I have now said enough about the effects of exercise, custom, and careful meditation.

Proceed we now to consider the force of reason, unless you have something to reply to what has been said.
_A._ That I should interrupt you! By no means; for your discourse has brought me over to your opinion.

Let the Stoics, then, think it their business to determine whether pain be an evil or not, while they endeavor to show by some strained and trifling conclusions, which are nothing to the purpose, that pain is no evil.

My opinion is, that whatever it is, it is not so great as it appears; and I say, that men are influenced to a great extent by some false representations and appearance of it, and that all which is really felt is capable of being endured.

Where shall I begin, then?
Shall I superficially go over what I said before, that my discourse may have a greater scope?
This, then, is agreed upon by all, and not only by learned men, but also by the unlearned, that it becomes the brave and magnanimous--those that have patience and a spirit above this world--not to give way to pain.