We must not be the slaves of our bodies, except where we are compelled.  Our best provision must be for the soul.  We ought by means of philosophy to release her from fellowship with all bodily appetites as we might from a dungeon, and at the same time make our bodies superior to our appetites.  We should, for instance, supply our bellies with necessaries, not with dainties like men whose minds are set on cooks and table arrangers, and who search through every land and sea, like the tributaries of some stern despot, much to be pitied for their toil.  Such men are really suffering pains as intolerable as the torments of hell, carding into a fire, εἰς πῦρ ξαίνοντες, i.e. labouring in vain.  cf. Plat., Legg. 780 c.  The ordinary rendering to “flog fire,” adopted by Erasmus (Adag. Chil. i., Centur. iv.), seems wrong.  cf. Bekker on the phrase in Plato. fetching water in a sieve, pouring into a tub with holes in it, and getting nothing for their pains.  To pay more than necessary attention to our hair and dress is, as Diogenes phrases it, the part either of the unfortunate or of the wicked.  To be finely dressed, and to have the reputation of being so, is to my mind quite as disgraceful as to play the harlot or to plot against a neighbour’s wedlock.  What does it matter to a man with any sense, whether he wears a grand state robe, or a common cloak, so long as it serves to keep off heat and cold?  In other matters necessity is to be the rule, and the body is only to be so far regarded as is good for the soul.”