The Epicurean anodyne. The second memorandum of the «Περὶ …» series. The opening maxim is borrowed straight from Epicurus (KD 4; Marcus cites him by name at 7.64): pain that is unbearable "carries off" (ἐξάγει — kills: hence it will soon be over), pain that lasts is by that very fact bearable (φορητόν). The dilemma shuts both leaves of the fear: the intense is short, the long is manageable. The Stoic calmly takes the best instrument from a rival school — as in 7.32, where any metaphysics will do: therapy outranks guild loyalty.

Isolation and demarcation. The second half is properly Stoic mechanics: the mind "keeps TERMits own calm by cutting off" (κατὰ ἀπόληψιν — "severance, isolation": the pain is fenced off, as in 5.26 — περιοριζέτω), and TERMthe ruling part "has become no worse" (οὐ χεῖρον γέγονε — the same invulnerability formula as in 7.22). The close repeats the division of departments of 7.16: the suffering parts are granted the right "to make their declaration, if they can" (ἀποφηνάσθω — almost minute-taking language) — the body gets the word, the mind the verdict. A textual detail: our source reads ἀπόληψιν ("isolation"; so Long — "by retiring into itself"), while Rogovin translated the reading ὑπόληψιν — «силою убеждения»; doctrinally the two branches converge: the soul's peace is its own manufacture. The governing discipline is desire; the sustaining one, assent.