182. This, then, is the first notion of
fortitude. For fortitude of the mind can be regarded in two
ways. Cic. de
Off. I. 20, § 66. First, as it counts all externals
as very unimportant, and looks on them as rather superfluous and to be
despised than to be sought after. Secondly, as it strives after
those things which are the highest, and all things in which one can see
anything moral (or as the Greeks call it, πρέπον,) with all the
powers of the mind. For what can be more noble than to train thy
mind so as not to place a high value on riches and pleasures and
honours, nor to waste all thy care on these? When thy mind is
thus disposed, thou must consider how all that is virtuous and seemly
must be placed before everything else; and thou must so fix thy mind
upon that, that if aught happens which may break thy spirit, whether
loss of property, or the reception of fewer honours, or the
disparagement of unbelievers, thou mayest not feel it, as though thou
wert above such things; nay, so that even dangers which menace thy
safety, if undertaken at the call of justice, may not trouble thee.