By the lot of each kind. An argument from a thing's nature: to a human nothing falls that is not a "human accident" (ἀνθρωπικὸν σύμπτωμα); to an ox, what is not "oxen"; to a vine, what is not "of the vine"; to a stone, what is not "proper to a stone" (λίθου ἴδιον). Everything that happens belongs to the lot of its kind: sickness, age, death are as "human" as bearing fruit is for the vine (cf. the image of the fig-tree's juice; 8.15 — not to wonder that the world produces its own).

Hence, against discontent. DOGMA"If to each happens what is customary and natural" (ὃ καὶ εἴωθε καὶ πέφυκε), then DOGMA"why complain?" (τί ἂν δυσχεραίνοις;). Discontent would presuppose that what happened is an anomaly, a breach; but there is no breach — there is the fulfilment of nature. The closing guarantee: TERM"the common nature" (ἡ κοινὴ φύσις) "brought you nothing unbearable" (οὐ ἀφόρητον): since the event is natural to the kind, it is also within the kind's strength — else nature would contradict itself (cf. 5.8 — what is prescribed is also curative; 8.5 — all is by the nature of the Whole). The strict term by the word is φύσις. The governing discipline is desire (not to fret at the natural lot).