An argument from the physics of the body. The first paragraph is pure Stoic physics: the light (TERMπνευμάτιον and the fiery) tends by nature upward, the heavy (the earthy and the watery) downward; yet in the living compound (σύγκριμα) both are held where they do not belong. The words are chosen to stress the constraint: ἀνωφερῆ / κατωφερῆ ("upward-tending" and "downward-tending"), παρακρατεῖται ("is held down by force"), ἐγήγερται ("has been raised"), τὴν οὐχ ἑαυτῶν φυσικὴν στάσιν ("a natural standing not their own"). The TERMelements stand at attention.

A military metaphor hidden in a verb. ἐπειδάν που καταταχθῇ σὺν βίᾳ, μένοντα μέχρις ἂν … τὸ ἐνδόσιμον τῆς διαλύσεως σημήνῃ — "once posted in the ranks under constraint, they hold until the signal for dismissal is sounded from that same quarter." Ἐνδόσιμον is the note that gives the start, σημαίνω "to give the signal." The elements are sentries awaiting relief. From here the road runs straight to 11.9, where the one who fails to hold is called a λειποτάκτης, a deserter.

The move of the second paragraph. οὐ δεινὸν οὖν μόνον τὸ νοερόν σου μέρος ἀπειθὲς εἶναι; — "is it not monstrous that your intelligent part alone is disobedient?" An a fortiori argument: if the elements endure a station contrary to their nature, the rational part should the more readily accept what is assigned it, since οὐδέν γε βίαιον ἐπιτάσσεται, "nothing violent is laid upon it," DOGMAbut only what accords with its own nature. And yet — τὴν ἐναντίαν φέρεται, "it is carried the opposite way."

A list that functions as a definition. ἡ … ἐπὶ τὰ ἀδικήματα καὶ τὰ ἀκολαστήματα καὶ τὰς ὀργὰς καὶ τὰς TERMλύπας καὶ τοὺς φόβους κίνησις οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ TERMἀφισταμένου τῆς φύσεως — five vices (injustice, licence, anger, grief, fear) are named not as vices but as one movement: "a standing away from nature." Definition in place of condemnation.

And the extension the passage was written for. καὶ ὅταν δέ τινι τῶν συμβαινόντων δυσχεραίνῃ τὸ TERMἡγεμονικόν, καταλείπει … τὴν ἑαυτοῦ χώραν — "and whenever the ruling part is put out at anything that happens, it abandons its own station." Discontent with circumstances is thus ranked as desertion on a par with injustice. The ground: it is constructed πρὸς ὁσιότητα καὶ θεοσέβειαν no less than πρὸς TERMδικαιοσύνην.

The last sentence is the strongest. καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα ἐν εἴδει ἐστὶ τῆς εὐκοινωνησίας, μᾶλλον δὲ πρεσβύτερα τῶν δικαιοπραγημάτων — "for these too are a species of good fellowship — indeed, older than acts of justice." Piety is called not a separate virtue standing beside the social one but a kind of it, and a prior kind at that: to stand rightly toward the gods (that is, toward the ordering of the whole) is the condition of standing rightly toward men. The governing discipline is assent, the sustaining one action.