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Part III
Part III
LXVIII
Our way of life resembles a fair. The flocks and herds are passing along
to be sold, and the greater part of the crowd to buy and sell. But there are
some few who come only to look at the fair, to inquire how and why it is being
held, upon what authority and with what object. So too, in this great Fair of
life, some, like the cattle, trouble themselves about nothing but the fodder.
Know all of you, who are busied about land, slaves and public posts, that
these are nothing but fodder! Some few there are attending the Fair, who love
to contemplate what the world is, what He that administers it. Can there be no
Administrator? is it possible, that while neither city nor household could
endure even for a moment without one to administer and see to its welfare,
this Fabric, so fair, so vast, should be administered in order so harmonious,
without a purpose and by blind chance? There is therefore an Administrator.
What is His nature and how does He administer? And who are we that are His
children and what work were we born to perform? Have we any close connection
or relation with Him or not?
Such are the impressions of the f w of whom I speak. And further, they
apply themselves solely to considering and examining the great assembly before
they depart. Well, they are derided by the multitude. So are the lookers - on
by the traders: aye, and if the beasts had any sense, they would deride those
who thought much of anything but fodder!
LXIX
I think I know now what I never knew before - the meaning of the common
saying, A fool you can neither bend nor break. Pray heaven I may never have a
wise fool for my friend! There is nothing more intractable. - "My resolve is
fixed!" - Why, so madmen say too; but the more firmly they believe in their
delusions, the more they stand in need of treatment.
LXX
- "Oh! when shall I see Athens and its Acropolis again?" - Miserable man!
art thou not contented with the daily sights that meet thine eyes? Canst thou
behold aught greater or nobler than the Sun, Moon, and Stars; than the
outspread Earth and Sea? If indeed thou apprehendest Him who administers the
universe, if thou bearest Him about within thee, canst thou still hanker after
mere fragments of stone and a fine rock? When thou art about to bid farewell
to the Sun and Moon itself, wilt thou sit down and cry like a child? Why, what
didst thou hear, what didst thou learn? why didst thou write thyself down a
philosopher, when thou mightest have written what was the fact, namely, "I
have made one or two Compendiums, I have read some works of Chrysippus, and I
have not even touched the hem of Philosophy`s robe"!
LXXI
Friend, lay hold with a desperate grasp, ere it is too late, on Freedom,
on Tranquillity, on Greatness of soul! Lift up thy head, as one escaped from
slavery; dare to look up to God, and say: - "Deal with me henceforth as Thou
wilt; Thou and I are of one mind. I am Thine: I refuse nothing that seemeth
good to Thee; lead on whither Thou wilt; clothe me in what garb Thou pleasest;
wilt Thou have me a ruler or a subject - at home or in exile - poor or rich?
All these things will I justify unto men for Thee. I will show the true nature
of each. . . ."
Who would Hercules have been had he loitered at home? no Hercules, but
Eurystheus. And in his wanderings through the world how many friends and
comrades did he find? but nothing dearer to him than God. Wherefore he was
believed to be God`s son, as indeed he was. So then in obedience to Him, he
went about delivering the earth from injustice and lawlessness.
But thou art not Hercules, thou sayest, and canst not deliver others from
their iniquity - not even Theseus, to deliver the soil of Attica from its
monsters? Purge away thine own, cast forth thence - from thine own mind, not
robbers and monsters, but Fear, Desire, Envy, Malignity, Avarice, Effeminacy,
Intemperance. And these may not be cast out, except by looking to God alone,
by fixing thy affections on Him only, and by consecrating thyself to His
commands. If thou choosest aught else, with sighs and groans thou wilt be
forced to follow a Might greater than thine own, ever seeking Tranquillity
without, and never able to attain unto her. For thou seekest her where she is
not to be found; and where she is, there thou seekest her not!
LXXII
If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away
conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a
conceit that he already knows.
LXXIII
Give me but one young man, that has come to the School with this
intention, who stands forth a champion of this cause, and says, "All else I
renounce, content if I am but able to pass my life free from hindrance and
trouble; to raise my head aloft and face all things as a free man; to look up
to heaven as a friend of God, fearing nothing that may come to pass!" Point
out such a one to me, that I may say, "Enter, young man, into possession of
that which is thine own. For thy lot is to adorn Philosophy. Thine are these
possessions; thine these books, these discourses!"
And when our champion has duly exercised himself in this part of the
subject, I hope he will come back to me and say: - "What I desire is to be
free from passion and from perturbation; as one who grudges no pains in the
pursuit of piety and philosophy, what I desire is to know my duty to the Gods,
my duty to my parents, to my brothers, to my country, to strangers."
"Enter then on the second part of the subject; it is thine also."
"But I have already mastered the second part; only I wished to stand firm
and unshaken - as firm when asleep as when awake, as firm when elated with
wine as in despondency and dejection."
"Friend, you are verily a God! you cherish great designs."
LXXIV
"The question at stake," said Epictetus, "is no common one; it is this: -
Are we in our senses, or are we not?"
LXXV
If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil
involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to the fire.
If overcome by a temptation of the flesh, do not reckon it a single defeat,
but that you have also strengthened your dissolute habits. Habits and
faculties are necessarily affected by the corresponding acts. Those that were
not there before, spring up: the rest gain in strength and extent. This is the
account which Philosophers give of the origin of diseases of the mind: -
Suppose you have once lusted after money: if reason sufficient to produce a
sense of the evil be applied, then the lust is checked, and the mind at once
regains its original authority; whereas if you have recourse to no remedy, you
can no longer look for this return - on the contrary, the next time it is
excited by the corresponding object, the flame of desire leaps up more quickly
than before. By frequent repetition, the mind in the long run becomes callous;
and thus this mental disease produces confirmed Avarice.
One who has had fever, even when it has left him, is not in the same
condition of health as before, unless indeed his cure is complete. Something
of the same sort is true also of diseases of the mind. Behind, there remains a
legacy of traces and of blisters: and unless these are effectually erased,
subsequent blows on the same spot will produce no longer mere blisters, but
sores. If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it
nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the
days when you were not angry: "I used to be angry every day, then every other
day: next every two, next every three days!" and if you succeed in passing
thirty days, sacrifice to the Gods in thanksgiving.
LXXVI
How then may this be attained? - Resolve, now if never before, to approve
thyself to thyself; resolve to show thyself fair in God`s sight; long to be
pure with thine own pure self and God!
LXXVII
That is the true athlete, that trains himself to resist such outward
impressions as these.
"Stay, wretched man! suffer not thyself to be carried away!" Great is the
combat, divine the task! you are fighting for Kingship, for Liberty, for
Happiness, for Tranquillity. Remember God: call upon Him to aid thee, like a
comrade that stands beside thee in the fight.
LXXVIII
Who then is a Stoic - in the sense that we call that a statue of Phidias
which is modelled after that master`s art? Show me a man in this sense
modelled after the doctrines that are ever upon his lips. Show me a man that
is sick - and happy; in danger - and happy; on his death - bed - and happy; an
exile - and happy; in evil report - and happy! Show me him, I ask again. So
help me Heaven, I long to see one Stoic! Nay, if you cannot show me one fully
modelled, let me at least see one in whom the process is at work - one whose
bent is in that direction. Do me that favour! Grudge it not to an old man, to
behold a sight that he has never yet beheld. Think you I wish to see the Zeus
or Athena of Phidias, bedecked with gold and ivory? - Nay, show me, one of
you, a human soul, desiring to be of one mind with God, no more to lay blame
on God or man, to suffer nothing to disappoint, nothing to cross him, to yield
neither to anger, envy, nor jealousy - in a word, why disguise the matter? one
that from a man would fain become a God; one that while still imprisoned in
this dead body makes fellowship with God his aim. Show me him! - Ah, you
cannot! Then why mock yourselves and delude others? why stalk about tricked
out in other men`s attire, thieves and robbers that you are of names and
things to which you can show no title!
LXXIX
If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both
played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.
LXXX
Fellow, you have come to blows at home with a slave: you have turned the
household upside down, and thrown the neighbourhood into confusion; and do you
come to me then with airs of assumed modesty - do you sit down like a sage and
criticise my explanation of the readings, and whatever idle babble you say has
come into my head? Have you come full of envy, and dejected because nothing is
sent you from home; and while the discussion is going on, do you sit brooding
on nothing but how your father or your brother are disposed towards you: -
"What are they saying about me there? at this moment they imagine I am making
progress and saying, He will return perfectly omniscient! I wish I could
become omniscient before I return; but that would be very troublesome. No one
sends me anything - the baths at Nicopolis are dirty; things are wretched at
home and wretched here." And then they say, "Nobody is any the better for the
School." - Who comes to the School with a sincere wish to learn: to submit his
principles to correction and himself to treatment? Who, to gain a sense of his
wants? Why then be surprised if you carry home from the School exactly what
you bring into it?
LXXXI
"Epictetus, I have often come desiring to hear you speak, and you have
never given me any answer; now if possible, I entreat you, say something to
me."
"Is there, do you think," replied Epictetus, "an art of speaking as of
other things, if it is to be done skilfully and with profit to the hearer?"
"Yes."
"And are all profited by what they hear, or only some among them? So that
it seems there is an art of hearing as well as of speaking. . . . To make a
statue needs skill: to view a statue aright needs skill also."
"Admitted."
"And I think all will allow that one who proposes to hear philosophers
speak needs a considerable training in hearing. Is that not so? Then tell me
on what subject you are able to hear me."
"Why, on good and evil."
"The good and evil of what? a horse, an ox?"
"No; of a man."
"Do we know then what Man is? what his nature is? what is the idea we
have of him? And are our ears practised in any degree on the subject? Nay, do
you understand what Nature is? can you follow me in any degree when I say that
I shall have to use demonstration? Do you understand what Demonstration is?
what True or False is? . . . must I drive you to Philosophy? . . . Show me
what good I am to do by discoursing with you. Rouse my desire to do so. The
sight of the pasture it loves stirs in a sheep the desire to feed: show it a
stone or a bit of bread and it remains unmoved. Thus we also have certain
natural desires, aye, and one that moves us to speak when we find a listener
that is worth his salt: one that himself stirs the spirit. But if he sits by
like a stone or a tuft of grass, how can he rouse a man`s desire?"
"Then you will say nothing to me?"
"I can only tell you this: that one who knows not who he is and to what
end he was born; what kind of world this is and with whom he is associated
therein; one who cannot distinguish Good and Evil, Beauty and Foulness, . . .
Truth and Falsehood, will never follow Reason in shaping his desires and
impulses and repulsions, nor yet in assent, denial, or suspension of judgment;
but will in one word go about deaf and blind, thinking himself to be somewhat,
when he is in truth of no account. Is there anything new in all this? Is not
this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the
human race began? . . ."
"This is all I have to say to you, and even this against the grain. Why?
Because you have not stirred my spirit. For what can I see in you to stir me,
as a spirited horse will stir a judge of horses? Your body? That you maltreat.
Your dress? That is luxurious. Your behaviour, your look? - Nothing whatever.
When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, `You say nothing to me`; only
show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move
the speaker."
LXXXII
And now, when you see brothers apparently good friends and living in
accord, do not immediately pronounce anything upon their friendship, though
they should affirm it with an oath, though they should declare, "For us to
live apart is a thing impossible!" For the heart of a bad man is faithless,
unprincipled, inconstant: now over - powered by one impression, now by
another. Ask not the usual questions, Were they born of the same parents,
reared together, and under the same tutor; but ask this only, in what they
place their real interest - whether in outward things or in the Will. If in
outward things, call them not friends, any more than faithful, constant, brave
or free: call them not even human beings, if you have any sense. . . . But
should you hear that these men hold the Good to lie only in the Will, only in
rightly dealing with the things of sense, take no more trouble to inquire
whether they are father and son or brothers, or comrades of long standing;
but, sure of this one thing, pronounce as boldly that they are friends as that
they are faithful and just: for where else can Friendship be found than where
Modesty is, where there is an interchange of things fair and honest, and of
such only?
LXXXIII
No man can rob us of our Will - no man can lord it over that!
LXXXIV
When disease and death overtake me, I would fain be found engaged in the
task of liberating mine own Will from the assaults of passion, from hindrance,
from resentment, from slavery.
Thus would I fain be found employed, so that I may say to God, "Have I in
aught transgressed Thy commands? Have I in aught perverted the faculties, the
senses, the natural principles that Thou didst give me? Have I ever blamed
Thee or found fault with Thine administration? When it was Thy good pleasure,
I fell sick - and so did other men: but my will consented. Because it was Thy
pleasure, I became poor: but my heart rejoiced. No power in the State was
mine, because Thou wouldst not: such power I never desired! Hast Thou ever
seen me of more doleful countenance on that account? Have I not ever drawn
nigh unto Thee with cheerful look, waiting upon Thy commands, attentive to Thy
signals? Wilt Thou that I now depart from the great Assembly of men? I go: I
give Thee all thanks, that Thou hast deemed me worthy to take part with Thee
in this Assembly: to behold Thy works, to comprehend this Thine
administration."
Such I would were the subject of my thoughts, my pen, my study, when
death overtakes me.
LXXXV
Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or
Man? To wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This
was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything.
. . . Who amongst you makes this his aim? Were it indeed so, you would gladly
endure sickness, hunger, aye, death itself.
LXXXVI
How are we constituted by Nature? To be free, to be noble, to be modest
(for what other living thing is capable of blushing, or of feeling the
impression of shame?) and to subordinate pleasure to the ends for which Nature
designed us, as a handmaid and a minister, in order to call forth our
activity; in order to keep us constant to the path prescribed by Nature.
LXXXVII
The husbandman deals with land; physicians and trainers with the body;
the wise man with his own Mind.
LXXXVIII
Which of us does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young
citizen had put out his eye, and been handed over to him by the people to be
punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on
the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in
the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: - "I received this young man
at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in
his right mind and fit to serve his country."
LXXXIX
A money - changer may not reject Caesar`s coin, nor may the seller of
herbs, but must when once the coin is shown, deliver what is sold for it,
whether he will or no. So is it also with the Soul. Once the Good appears, it
attracts towards itself; evil repels. But a clear and certain impression of
the Good the Soul will never reject, any more than men do Caesar`s coin. On
this hangs every impulse alike of Man and God.
XC
Asked what Common Sense was, Epictetus replied: -
As that may be called a Common Ear which distinguishes only sounds, while
that which distinguishes musical notes is not common but produced by training;
so there are certain things which men not entirely perverted see by the
natural principles common to all. Such a constitution of the Mind is called
Common Sense.
XCI
Canst thou judge men? . . . then make us imitators of thyself, as
Socrates did. Do this, do not do that, else will I cast thee into prison; this
is not governing men like reasonable creatures. Say rather, As God hath
ordained, so do; else thou wilt suffer chastisement and loss. Askest thou what
loss? None other than this: To have left undone what thou shouldst have done:
to have lost the faithfulness, the reverence, the modesty that is in thee!
Greater loss than this seek not to find!
XCII
"His son is dead."
What has happened?
"His son is dead."
Nothing more?
"Nothing."
"His ship is lost."
What has happened?
"His ship is lost."
"He has been haled to prison."
What has happened?
"He has been haled to prison."
But that any of these things are misfortunes to him, is an addition which
every one makes of his own. But (you say) God is unjust in this. - Why? For
having given thee endurance and greatness of soul? For having made such things
to be no evils? For placing happiness within thy reach, even when enduring
them? For opening unto thee a door, when things make not for thy good? -
Depart, my friend, and find fault no more!
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