Life act by act. The programme of the discipline of action: to "compose (συντιθέναι) life out of the single act" (κατὰ μίαν πρᾶξιν), content if each "gives what is its own" (τὸ ἑαυτῆς παρέχει) as far as possible. Life is not a grand design but the sum of deeds performed "here and now"; and from "giving what is its own" no one from outside can hinder you (οὐδὲ εἷς σε κωλῦσαι δύναται).

The objection and the answer. A dialogue with an imagined opponent: "— But the external will stand in the way. — DOGMANothing will stand in the way of acting justly, temperately, and reasonably" (τὸ δικαίως καὶ σωφρόνως καὶ εὐλογίστως): the moral quality of the act is inalienable. Let "some other active power" (an external undertaking) be cut off — yet DOGMA"by a good-natured acceptance of the hindrance itself (εὐαρεστήσει) and a compliant shift (εὐγνώμονι μεταβάσει) to what is allowed" another action at once takes the place of the thwarted one, fitting into the same "composition" (σύνθεσις) of life. The impediment does not break the design but becomes the material of the next move (cf. 5.20 — "the impediment to action is the way"; 8.35 — to turn every κώλυμα into one's own material). There are no term-lemmata in the text (λόγος here means "what is being discussed," not the cosmic one). The governing discipline is action (to compose life by the deed), the sustaining one desire (to accept the hindrance good-naturedly).