Triage of the work. The passage is a decision-procedure laid out in branches. The first question is sober self-assessment: "is my διάνοια sufficient for this?" If yes — take it up and work. If not — two honest branches: yield the work to one who will do it better (παραχωρῶ — with no jealousy for precedence), or — if the task is such that yielding it TERMis not fitting (μὴ καθήκῃ: some works cannot be handed over, and an emperor has many) — do what you can, taking a helper. Self-regard enters the calculation in neither branch: what matters is the deed, not the doer.

The mind as issued equipment. The ground of this indifference to precedence lies in the status of the mind itself: it is "an instrument given by the TERMnature of the Whole" (ὄργανον παρὰ τῆς τῶν ὅλων φύσεως δοθέντι). My reason is not private property to be vain of, but issued equipment for which I answer to the issuer. Hence too the remarkable formula about the helper acting "κατὰ πρόσχρησιν τοῦ ἐμοῦ TERMἡγεμονικοῦ" — "making use of my ruling part as well": even when another leads, my ἡγεμονικόν remains material for the common act. The hierarchy of executors is indifferent; the instruments add up.

The single measure. The close draws everything to one criterion: εἰς τὸ κοινῇ χρήσιμον καὶ εὐάρμοστον — "to what is commonly useful and well-fitting" (κοινωνία, κοινῇ — the communal lexicon; for the concept see τὸ κοινωνικόν). To accomplish by one's own strength or another's is indifferent; only the aim, never the manner, could be shameful. The nearest parallel is 7.7: "do not be ashamed to be helped: your task is to do your duty, like a soldier at the storming of a wall"; cf. 4.12 (readiness to change course at a just correction) and 8.16 (to change one's mind at another's correction is also a free act). The governing discipline is action; the sustaining one, assent (the exact estimate of one's powers).