The Discourses of Epictetus (Audiobook) - Book 1

the discourses of Epictetus as reported by Aryan translated by William Abbott old father and narrated by Robin Homer greetings from Aryan to lucia skellies I have not composed these words of epic teasers as one might be said to compose books of this kind nor have I of my own acts published them to the world indeed I acknowledge that I have not composed them at all but whatever I heard him say I used to write down word for word as best I could endeavoring to preserve it as a memorial for my own future use of his way of thinking and the frankness of his speech they are accordingly as you might expect such remarks as one man might make off hand to another not such as he would compose for men to read in after time this being their character they have fallen I know not how without my will or knowledge into the hands of men yet to me it is a matter of small concern if I shall be thought incapable of composing a work and to epictetus of no concern at all if anyone shall despise his words seeing that even when he uttered them he was clearly aiming at nothing else but to incites the minds of his hearers to the best things if now these words of his should produce that same effect they would have I think just that success which the words of the philosophers ought to have but if not let those who read them be assured of this that when epictetus himself spoke them the hearer could not help but feel exactly what Epictetus wanted him to feel if however the words by themselves do not produce this effect perhaps I am at fault nor else perhaps it cannot well be otherwise farewell book 1 chapter 1 of the things under our control and not under our control among the arts and faculties in general you will find none that is self contemplative and therefore none that is either self approving or self disapproving how far does the art of grammar possess the power of contemplation only so far as to pass judgment upon what is written how far the art of music only so far as to pass judgment upon the melody does either of them then contemplate itself not at all but if you are writing to a friend and are at a loss as to what to write the art of grammar will tell you yet whether or no you are to write to your friend at all the art of grammar will not tell the same holds true of the art of music with regard to melodies but whether you are at this moment to sing and play on the lyre or neither sing nor play it will not tell what art or faculty then will tell that one which contemplates both itself and everything else and what is this the reasoning faculty for this is the only one we have inherited which will take knowledge both of itself what it is and what it is capable and how valuable a gift it is to us and likewise of all the other faculties for what else is it that tells us gold is beautiful for the gold itself does not tell us clearly it is the faculty which makes use of external impressions and what else judges with discernment the art of music the art of grammar the other arts and faculties passing judgment upon their uses and pointing out the seasonable occasions for their use nothing else stars as was fitting therefore the gods have put under our control only the most excellent Faculty of all and that which dominates the rest namely the power to make correct use of external impressions but all the others they have not but under our control was it indeed because they would not I for one think that had they been able they would have entrusted us with the others also but they were quite unable to do that for since we are upon earth and trammeled by an earthy body and by earthy associates how was it possible that in respect to them we should not be hampered by external things but what says Zeus Epictetus had it been possible and I should have made both this poultry body and this small estate of mine free and unhampered but as it is let it not escape thee this body is not thine own but only clay cunningly compounded yet since I could not give thee this we have given the a certain portion of our self this Faculty of choice and refusal of desire and aversion nor in a word the faculty which makes use of external impressions if thou careful this and placed all that thou hast therein thou shalt never be thwarted never hampered shalt not groan shalt not blame shalt not flatter any man what then now these things small in thy sight far be it from me not thou then content with them I pray the gods I may be but now although it is in our power to care for one thing only and devote ourselves to but one we choose rather to care for many things and to be tied fast to many even to our body and our estate and brother and friend and child and slave wherefore being tied fast to many things we are burdened and dragged down by them that is why if the weather keeps us from sailing we sit down and fidget and keep constantly peering about what wind is blowing we ask Boreas what have we to do with it when will Zephyrus blow when it pleases good sir no or rather when Aeolus pleases for God has not made used of the winds but Aeolus what then we must make the best of what is under our control and take the rest as its nature is how then is its nature as God wills must I then be the only one to be beheaded now why did you want everybody to be beheaded for your consolation are you not willing to stretch out your neck as did a certain latter a nurse at Rome when Nero ordered him to be beheaded for he stretched out his neck and received the blow but as it was a feeble one he shrank back for an instant and then stretched out his neck again yes and before that when afraid itis a freed man of Nero approached a certain man and asked about the ground of his offence he answered if I wish anything I will speak to your master what aid then must we have ready at hand in such circumstances why what else than the knowledge of what is mine and what is not mine and what is permitted me and what is not permitted me I must die must I then die groaning - I must be fettered and wailing - I must go into exile does anyone then keep me from going with a smile and cheerful and serene tell me your secrets I say not a word for this is under my control but I will fetter you what is that you say man fetter me my leg you will fetter but my moral purpose not even Zeus himself has power to overcome I will throw you into prison my poultry body rather I will behead you well when did I ever tell you that mine was the only neck that could not be severed these are the lessons that philosophers ought to rehearse these they ought to write down daily in these they ought to exercise themselves through see I used to say I would rather be killed a day then vanished tomorrow what then did Rufus say to him if you choose death as the heavier of two misfortunes what folly of choice but if as the lighter who has given you the choice are you not willing to practice contentment with what has been given you where for what was it that a grip Ernest used to remark I am NOT standing in my own way word was brought to him your case is being tried in the Senate good luck betide but it is the fifth hour now let us be off and take our exercise he was in the habit of taking his exercise and then a cold bath at that hour after he had finished his exercise someone came and told him you have been condemned to exile says he or to death to exile and what about my property it has not been confiscated well then let us go to Africa and take our lunch there this is what it means to have rehearsed the lessons one ought to rehearse to have set desire and a version free from every hindrance and made them proof against chance I must die if forthwith I die and if a little later I will take my lunch now since the hour for lunch has come and afterwards I will die at the appointed time how as becomes the man who is giving back that which was and others chapter 2 how may a man preserve his proper character upon every occasion to the rational being only the irrational is unendurable but the rational is in durable bows are not by nature unendurable how so observe how like Adam Oni ins take a scourging once they have learned that it is rational but is it not unendurable to be hanged hardly at all events whenever a man feels that it is rational he goes and hangs himself in short if we observe we shall find mankind distressed by nothing so much as by the irrational and again attracted to nothing so much as to the rational now it so happens that the rational and irrational are different for different persons precisely as good and evil and the profitable and the unprofitable are different for different persons it is for this reason especially that we need education so as to learn how in conformity with nature to adapt to specific instances our preconceived idea of what is rational and what is irrational but for determining the rational and the irrational we employ not only our estimates of the value of external things but also the criterion of that which is in keeping with one's own character for to one man it is reasonable to hold a chamber pot for another since he considers only that if he does not hold it he will get a beating and will not get food whereas if he does hold it nothing harsh or painful will be done to him but some other man feels that it is not merely unendurable to hold such a pot himself but even to tolerate another's doing so if you ask me then shall I hold the pot or not I will tell you that to get food is of greater value than not to get it and to be flayed is of greater detriment than not to be so that if you measure your interests by these standards go and hold the pot yes but it would be unworthy of me that is an additional consideration which you and not I must introduce into the question for you are the one that knows yourself how much you are worth in your own eyes and at what price you sell yourself for different men sell themselves at different prices wherefore when Flores was debating whether he should enter Nero's festival so as to make some personal contribution to it a grip earnest said to him enter and when florists asked why do you not enter yourself he replied I why I do not even raise the question for when a man wants to the consideration of such questions I mean to estimating the value of externals and calculates them one by one he comes very close to those who have forgotten their own proper character come what is this you ask me is death or life preferable I answer life pain or pleasure I answer pleasure but unless I take part in the tragedy I shall be beheaded go then and take part but I will not take apart why not because you regard yourself as but a single thread of all that goes to make up the garment what follows then this that you ought to take thought how you may resemble all other men precisely as even the single thread wants to have no point of superiority in comparison with the other threads but I want to be the purple that small and brilliant portion which causes the rest to appear comely and beautiful why then do you say to me be like the majority of people and if I do that how shall I any longer be the purple this is what hell Vidya spris 'kiss also saw and having seen did when Vespasian sent him word not to attend a meeting of the Senate he answered it is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the Senate about so long as I am one I must attend its meetings very well then but when you attend hold your peace do not ask for my opinion and I will hold my peace but I must ask for your opinion and I must answer what seems to me right but if you speak I shall have you put to death well when did I ever tell you that I was immortal you will do your part and I mine it is yours to put me to death mine to die without a tremor yours to banish mine to leave without sorrow what good then did Priscus do who was but a single individual and what good does the purple do the mantle what else then that it stands out conspicuous in it as purple and is displayed as a goodly example to the rest but had Caesar told another man in such circumstances not to attends the meetings of the Senate he would have said I thank you for excusing me a man like that Caesar would not even have tried to keep from attending but would have known that he would either sit like a jug or if he spoke would say what he knew Caesar wanted said and would pile up any amount more on the top of it in like manner also a certain athlete acted who was in danger of dying unless his private parts were amputated his brother and he was a philosopher came to him and said well brother what are you going to do how are you going to cut off this member and step forth once more into the gymnasium he would not submit but hardened his heart and died and as someone asked how did he do this as an athlete or as a philosopher as a man replied Epictetus and as a man who had been proclaimed at the Olympic Games and had striven in them who had been at home in such places and had not merely been rubbed down with oil in battles wrestling school but another would have had even his neck cut off if he could have lived without his neck this is what we mean by regard for one's proper character and such is its strength with those who in their deliberations habitually make it a personal contribution come there never deters shave off your beard if I am a philosopher and I answer I will not shave it off but I will take off your neck if that will do you any good take it off someone inquired how then shall each of us become aware of what is appropriate to his own proper character how comes it replied he and when the lion charges the bull alone is aware of his own prowess and rushes forward to defend the whole herd or is it clear that with the possession of the prowess comes immediately the consciousness of it also and so among us to whoever has such prowess will not be unaware of it yet a bull does not become a bull all at once any more than a man becomes noble but a man must undergo a winter training he must prepare himself must not plunge recklessly into what is inappropriate for him only consider at what price you sell your freedom of will if you must sell it man at least do not sell it cheap but the great and preeminence deed perhaps befits others Socrates and men of his stamp why then pray if we are endowed by nature for such greatness do not all men or many become like him what do all horses become Swift old dogs keen to follow the scent what then because I have no natural gifts shall I on that account give up my discipline far be it from me Epictetus will not be better than socrates but if only I am NOT worse that suffices me for I shall not be a Mylo either and yet I do not neglect my body nor a Croesus and yet I do not neglect my property nor in a word is there any other field in which we give up the appropriate discipline merely from despair of attaining the highest Chapter three from the thesis that God is the father of mankind how may one proceed to the consequences if the man could only subscribe heart and soul as he to this doctrine that we are all primarily Billiton of God and that God is the father of men as well as of gods I think that he will entertain no ignoble or mean thought about himself yet if Caesar adopts you no one will be able to endure your conceit but if you know that you are a son of Zeus will you not be elated as it is however we are not but in as much as these two elements were commingled in our be getting on the one hand the body which we have in common with the Brutes and on the other reason and intelligence which we have in common with the gods some of us inclined toward the former relationship which is unblessed by fortune and is mortal and only a few toward that which is divine and blessed since then it is inevitable that every man whoever he be should deal with each thing according to the opinion which he forms about it these few who think that by their birth they are called to fidelity to self-respect and to unerring judgment in the use of external impressions cherish no mean or ignoble thoughts about themselves whereas the multitude do quite the opposite for what am i a miserable poultry man say they and lo my wretched poultry flesh wretched indeed but you also have something better than your poultry flesh why then abandon that and cleave to this it is because of this kinship with the flesh that those of us who inclined toward it become like wolves faithless and treacherous and hurtful and others like lions wild and savage and untamed but most of us become foxes that is to say Rascals of the animal kingdom for what else is a slanderous and malicious man but a fox or something even more rascally and degraded take heed therefore and beware that you become not one of these rascally creatures chapter 4 of Progress he who is making progress having learned of the philosophers the desire is for things good and a version is toward things evil and having also learned that serenity and calm are not attained by a man save as he succeeds in securing the objects of desire and as he avoids encountering the objects of aversion such a one has utterly excluded desire from himself or else has deferred it to another time and feels a version only toward the things which involve freedom of choice for if he avoids anything that is not a matter of free choice he knows that at some time he will encounter something in spite of his aversion to it and will come to grief now if it is virtue that holds out the promise thus to create happiness and calm and serenity then assuredly progress toward virtue is progress toward each of these states of mind for it is always true that whatsoever the goal toward which perfection in anything definitely leads progress is an approach there too how comes it then that we acknowledge virtue to be a thing of this sort and yet seek progress and make a display of it in other things what is the work of virtue serenity who then is making progress the man who has read many treatises of cruciferous what is virtue no more than this to have gained a knowledge of cruciferous for if it is this progress is confessedly nothing else than a knowledge of many of the works of Christopher's but now while acknowledging that virtue produces one thing we are declaring that the approach to virtue which is progress produces something else so-and-so says someone is already able to read cruciferous all by himself it is a fine headway by the gods that you are making man and great progress this why do you mock him and why do you try to divert him from the consciousness of his own shortcomings are you not willing to show him the work of virtue that he learn where to look for his progress look for it there where your work lies and where is your work in desire and a version that you may not miss what you desire and encounter what you would avoid in choice and in refusal that you may commit no fault therein in giving and withholding a sense of judgment that you may not be deceived but first come the first and most necessary points yet if you are in a state of fear and grief when you seek to be proof against encountering what you would avoid how pray are you making progress do you yourself show me therefore your own progress in matters like the following suppose for example that in talking to an athlete I said show me your shoulders and then he answered look at my jumping weights go to you and you're jumping weights what I want to see is the effect of the jumping weights take the treatise upon choice and see how I have mastered it it is not that I am looking into you slave but how you act in your choices and refusals your desires and aversions how you go at things and apply yourself to them and prepare yourself whether you are acting in harmony with nature there in or out of harmony with it for if you are acting in harmony show me that and I will tell you that you are making progress but if out of harmony be gone and do not confine yourself to expounding your books but go and write some of the same kind yourself and what will you gain thereby do you not know that the whole book costs only five Denari is the expounder of it then think you worth more than five denarii and so never look for your work in one place and your progress in another where then is progress if any man among you withdrawing from external things has turned his attention to the question of his own moral purpose cultivating and affecting it so as to make it finally harmonious with nature elevated free unhindered untrammeled faithful and honorable and if he has learned that he who craves or shuns the things that are not under his control can be neither faithful nor free but must himself of necessity be changed and tossed to and fro with them and must end by subordinating himself to others those namely who are able to procure or prevent these things that he craves or shuns and if finally when he rises in the morning he proceeds to keep and observe all this that he has learned if he bathes as a faithful man eats as a self-respecting man similarly whatever the subject matter may be with which he has to deal putting into practice is guiding principles as the runner does when he applies the principles of running and the voice trainer when he applies the principles of voice training this is the man who in all truth is making progress and the man who has not traveled at random is this one but if he has driven merely to attain the state which he finds in his books and works only at that and has made that the goal of his travels I bid him go home at once and not to neglect his concerns there since the goal to which he has traveled is nothing but not so that other goal to study how a man may rid his life of sorrows and lamentations and of such cries as woe is me and rich that I am and of misfortune and failure and to learn the meaning of death exile Prison hemlock that he may be able to say in prison dear Crito if so it pleases the gods so be it rather than alas poor me an old man is it for this that I have kept my gray hairs who says such things do you think that I will name you some man held in small esteem and of low degree does not Priam say it does not eat of us namor all Kings say it for what our tragedies but the portrayal in tragic verse of the sufferings of men who have admired things external if indeed one had to be deceived into learning that among things external and independent of our free choice none concerns us I for my part should consent to a deception which would result in my living thereafter serenely and without turmoil but as for you you will yourselves see to your own preference what then does chrysalis furnish us that you may know he says that these things are not false from which serenity arises and tranquility comes to us take my books and you shall know how comfortable and harmonious with nature are the things which render me tranquil oh the great good fortune oh the great benefactor who points the way to trip Thomas indeed all men have established shrines and altars because he gave us as food the fruits of cultivation but to him who has discovered and brought to light and imparted to all men the truth which deals not with mere life but with a good life who among you has for that set up an altar in his honour nor dedicated a temple or a statue or bounds down to God in gratitude for him but because the gods have given us the vine or wheat before that do we make sacrifice and yet because they have brought forth such a fruit in a human mind whereby they propose to show us the truth touching happiness shall we fail to render thanks unto God for this chapter 5 against the academics if a man says Epictetus resists truths that are all too evident in opposing him it is not easy to find an argument by which one may cause him to change his opinion the reason for this is neither the man's ability nor the teachers weakness nay when who has been trapped in an argument hardens to stone how shall one any longer deal with him by argument now there are two kinds of petrifaction one is the petrifaction of the intellect the other of the sense of shame when a man stands an array prepared neither to a sense to manifest truths nor to leave the fighting line most of us dread the deadening of the body and would resort to all means so as to avoid falling into such a state but about the deadening of the soul we care not at all indeed by Zeus even in the case of the soul itself if a man be in such a state that he cannot follow an argument step by step or even understand one we regard him - as being in a bad way but if a man's sense of shame and self-respect be deadened this we go so far as to call strength of character do your senses tell you that you are awake no he answers any more than they do when in dreams I have the impression that I am awake is there then no difference between these two impressions none can I argue with this man any longer and what cautery or Lancet shall I apply to him to make him realise that he is dead and he does realize it but pretends that he does not he is even worse than a corpse one man does not notice the contradiction he is in a bad way another man notices it indeed but is not moved and does not improve he is in a still worse state his self-respect and sense of shame have been lopped off and his reasoning faculty has been I will not say cut away but brutalized am I to call this strength of character far from it unless I am so to describe the strength that lewd fellows have which enables them to say and do in public anything that comes into their heads chapter 6 of Providence from everything that happens in the universe it is easy for a man to find occasion to praise Providence if he has within himself these two qualities the Faculty of taking a comprehensive view of what has happened in each individual instance and the sense of gratitude otherwise one man will not see the usefulness of what has happened and another even if he does see it will not be grateful therefore if God had made colors but had not made the Faculty of seeing them of what good had it been none at all but conversely if he had made the faculty but in making objects had made them incapable of falling under the Faculty of vision in that case also of what good had it been none at all and what's then if he had even made both of these but had not made light even thus it would have been of no use who is it then that has fitted this to that and that's to this and who is it that has fitted the saw to the scabbard and the scabbard to the sword no one assuredly from the very structure of all made objects we are accustomed to prove that the work is certainly the product of Psalm artificer and has not been constructed at random does then every such work reveal its artificer but invisible objects and vision and light not reveal him and the male and the female and the passion of each for intercourse with the other and the faculty which makes use of the organs which have been constructed for this purpose do these things not reveal their artifice are either well admit it for these things but the marvelous constitution of the intellect whereby when we meet with sensible objects we do not merely have their forms impressed upon us but also make a selection from among them and subtract and add and make these various combinations by using them yes and by Zeus pass from some things to certain others which are in a manner related to them is not even all this sufficient to stir our friends and induce them not to leave the artificer out count else let them explain to us what it is that produces each of these results or how it is possible that objects so wonderful and so workmanlike should come into being at random and spontaneously what then is it in the case of man alone that these things occur you will indeed find many things in man only things of which the rational animal had a peculiar need but you will also find many possessed by us in common with the irrational animals do they also then understand what happens no for use is one thing and understanding another God had need of the animals and that they make use of external impressions and of us in that we understand the use of external impressions and so for them it is sufficient to eat and drink and rest and procreate and whatever else of the things within their own province the animal severally do while for us to whom he has made the additional gift of the Faculty of understanding these things are no longer sufficient but unless we act appropriately and methodically and in conformity each with his own nature and constitution we shall no longer achieve our own ends for of beings whose constitutions are different the works and the ends are likewise different so for the being whose Constitution is adapted to use only mere use is sufficient but where a being has also the Faculty of understanding the use unless the principle of propriety be added he will never attain his end what then each of the animals God constitutes one to be eaten another to serve in farming another to produce cheese and yet another for some other similar use to perform these functions what need have they to understand external impressions and to be able to differentiate between them but God has brought man into the world to be a spectator of himself and of his works and not merely aspect but also an interpreter wherefore it is shameful for man to begin and end just where the irrational animals do he should rather begin where they do but end where nature has ended in dealing with us now she did not end until she reached contemplation and understanding and a manner of life harmonious with nature take heed therefore lest you die without ever having been spectators of these things but you travel to Olympia to behold the work of phidias and each of you regards it as a misfortune to die without seeing such sights yet when there is no need to travel at all but where Zeus is already and is present in his works will you not yearn to behold these works and know them will you decline therefore to perceive either who you are or for what you have been born or for what that purpose is for which you have received sight but some unpleasant and hard things happen in life and do they not happen at Olympia do you not swelter are you not cramped and crowded do you not bathe with discomforts are you not drenched whenever it rains do you not have your fill of tumult and shouting and other annoyances but I fancy that you hear and endure all this by balancing it off against the memorable character of the spectacle come have you not received faculties that enable you to bear whatever happens have you not received magnanimity have you not received courage have you not received endurance and what care I longer for anything that may happen if I be magnanimous what shall perturb me or trouble me or seem Grievous to me shall I fail to use my faculty to that end for which I have received it but grieve and lament over events that occur yes but my nose is running what have you hands for then slave is it not that you may wipe your nose is it reasonable then that there should be running noses in the world and how much better it would be for you to wipe your nose than to find fault or what do you think Heracles would have amounted to if there had not been a lion like the one which he encountered and a Hydra and a stag and a boar and wicked and brutal men whom he made it his business to drive out and clear away and what would he have been doing had nothing of the sort existed is it not clear that he would have rolled himself up in a blanket and slept in the first place then he would never have become Heracles by slumbering away his whole life in such luxury and ease but even if he had of what good would he have been what would have been the use of those arms of his and his prowess in general and his steadfastness and nobility had not such circumstances and occasions roused and exorcised him what then 42 have prepared these things for himself and sought to bring a line into his own country from somewhere or other and a boar and a Hydra this would have been folly and madness but since they did exist and were found in the world they were serviceable as a means of revealing and exercising our Heracles come then the you all so now that you are aware of these things contemplate the faculties which you have and after contemplating say bring now azuz what's difficulty thou wilt for I have an equipment given to me by thee and resources wherewith to distinguish myself by making use of the things that come to pass but no you sit trembling for fear something will happen and lamenting and grieving and groaning about the things that are happening and then you blame the gods for what else can be the consequence of so ignoble a spirit but sheer in piety and yet God has not merely given us these faculties to enable us to bear all that happens without being degraded or crushed thereby but as became a good King and in very truth a father he has given them to us free from all restraint Polson hindrance he has put the whole matter under our control without reserving even for himself any power to prevent or hinder although you have these faculties free and entirely your own you do not use them nor do you realize what gifts you have received and from whom but you sit sorrowing and groaning some of you blinded toward the giver himself and not even acknowledging your benefactor and others such is their ignoble spirit turning aside to fault finding and complaints against God and yet though I can show you that you have resources and endowment for magnanimity and courage do you pray show me what resources you have to justify fault finding and complaining chapter 7 of the use of equivocal premises hypothetical arguments and the like most men are unaware that the handling of arguments which involve equivocal and hypothetical premises and further of those which derive syllogisms by the process of interrogation and in general the handling of all such arguments has a bearing upon the duties of life for our aim in every matter of inquiry is to learn how the good and excellence man may finds the appropriate course through it and the appropriate way of conducting himself in it let them say then either that the good man will not enter the contest of question and answer all that once he has entered he will be at no pains to avoid conducting himself carelessly and at haphazard in question and answer or else if they accept neither of these alternatives they must admit that some investigation should be made of those topics with which question and answer are principally concerned for what is the professed object of reasoning to state the true to eliminate the false to suspend judgment in doubtful cases is it enough then to learn this alone it is enough says one is it then also enough for the man who wants to make no mistake in the use of money to be told the reason why you accept genuine drachma x' and reject the counterfeit it is not enough what then must be added to this why what else but the faculty that tests the genuine drachmas and the counterfeit and distinguishes between them where form in reasoning also the spoken word is not in our visit on the contrary is it not necessary to develop the power of testing the true and the false and the uncertain and of distinguishing between them it is necessary what else besides this is proposed in reasoning pray accept the consequences of what you have properly granted come is it enough then in this case also merely to know that this particular thing is true it is not enough but one must learn in what way a thing follows as a consequence upon certain other things and how sometimes one thing follows upon one and at other times upon several conjointly is it not then necessary that a man should also acquire this power if he is to acquit himself intelligently in argument and is himself not only to prove each point when he tries to prove it but also to follow the arguments of those who are conducting a proof and is not to be misled by men who quibble as though they were proving something there has consequently arisen among us and shown itself to be necessary a science which deals with inferential arguments and with logical figures and trains men therein but of course there are times when we have with sound reasoning granted the premises and the inference from them is so and so and in spite of its being false it is nonetheless the inference what then should I do accept the fallacy and how is that possible well should I say it was not sound reasoning for me to grant the premises nay but this is not permissible either or this does not follow from what has been granted but that is not permissible either what then must be done in these circumstances is it not this that the fact of having borrowed is not enough to prove that one is still in debt but we must add the circumstance that one abides by the loan that is has not paid it and just so our having once granted the premises is not enough to compel us to accept the inference but we must abide by our acceptance of the premises and what is more if the premises remain until the end what they were when they were granted there is every necessity for us to abide by our acceptance of them and to allow the conclusion that has been drawn from them for from our point of view and to our way of thinking this inference does not now result from the premises since we have withdrawn from our previous assent to the premises it is necessary therefore to inquire into premises of this kind and into such change and equivocal modification of them whereby at the very moment the question is put or the answer made or the deduction drawn or at some other similar stage in the argument the premises take on modified meanings and give occasion to the unthinking to be disconcerted if they do not see what follows in consequence why is it necessary in order that in this matter we may not behave unsuitably nor and haphazard nor confusedly and the same holds true of hypotheses and hypothetical arguments for it is necessary at times to postulate some hypothesis as a sort of stepping-stone for the subsequent arguments are we therefore to grant any and every hypothesis that is proposed or not every one and if not every one what one and when a man has granted a hypothesis must he abide forever by it and maintain it so are there times when he should abandon it and accept only the consequences which follow from it without accepting those which are opposed to it yes but some one says if you once admit a hypothesis that involves a possibility I will compel you to be drawn on to an impossibility Chell the prudent-man refused to engage with this person and avoid inquiry and discussion with him yet who but the prudent is capable of using argument and skill in Question and Answer and by Zeus proof against deceit and sophistic fallacies but shall he argue indeed and then not take pains to avoid conducting himself recklessly and haphazard in arguments and if he does not how will he any longer be the sort of man we think he is but without some such exercise and preparation in formal reasoning how will he be able to maintain the continuity of the arguments let them show that he will be able and all these speculations become mere superfluity they were absurd and inconsistent with our preconception of the good man why are we still indolent and easygoing and sluggish seeking excuses whereby we may avoid toiling or even late hours as we try to perfect our own reason if then hire in these matters I have not murdered my own father have I slave prey where was there in this case a father for you to murder what then have you done you ask you have committed what was the only possible error in the matter indeed this is the very remark I made to Rufus when he censured me for not discovering the one omission in a certain syllogism well said I it isn't as bad as if I had burned down the capital but he answered slave the omission here is the capital or are there no other errors then setting fire to the capital and murdering one's father about to make a reckless and foolish and haphazard use of the external impressions that come to one to fail to follow an argument or demonstration or sophism in a word to fail to see in question an answer what is consistent with one's position or inconsistent is none of these things an error chapter eight but the reasoning faculties in the case of the uneducated are not free from error in as many ways as it is possible to vary the meaning of equivalent terms in so many ways may a man also vary the forms of his controversial argument sant of his enthymeme xin reasoning take this syllogism for instance if you have borrowed and have not repaid you owe me the money now you have not borrowed and have not repaid therefore you do not owe me the money and no man is better fitted to employ such variations skilfully than the philosopher for if indeed the enthymeme is an incomplete syllogism it is clear that he who has been exercised in the perfect syllogism would be no less competent to deal with the imperfect also why then do we neglect to exercise ourselves and one another in this way because even now without receiving exercise in these matters or even being by me at least diverted from the study of morality we nevertheless make no progress toward the beautiful and the good what therefore must we expect if we should take on this occupation also and especially since it would not merely be an additional occupation to draw us away from those which are more necessary but would also be an exceptional excuse for conceit and vanity for great is the power of argumentation and persuasive reasoning and especially if it should enjoy excessive exercise and receive likewise a certain additional ornament from language the reason is that in general every faculty which is acquired by the uneducated and the weak is dangerous for them as being apt to make them conceited and puffed up over it for by what device might one any longer persuade a young man who excels in these faculties to make them an appendage to himself instead of his becoming an appendage to them does he not trample all these reasons underfoot and strut about in our presence all conceited and puffed up much less submit if anyone by way of reproof reminds him of what he lacks and wherein he has gone astray what then was not Plato a philosopher yes and was not Hippocrates a physician but you see how eloquently Hippocrates expresses himself and as Hippocrates then express himself so eloquently by virtue of his being a physician why then do you confuse things that for no particular reason have been combined in the same man now if Plato was handsome and strong ought I to sit down and strive to become handsome or become strong on the assumption that this is necessary for philosophy because a certain philosopher was at the same time both handsome and a philosopher are you not willing to observe and distinguish just what this is by virtue of which men become philosophers and what qualities pertain to them for no particular reason come now if I were a philosopher ought you to become lame like me what then am i depriving you of these faculties far be it from me no more than I am depriving you of the Faculty of science yet if you inquire of me what is man's good I can give you no other answer than that it is a kind of moral purpose chapter 9 how from the thesis that we are akin to God may a man proceed to the consequences if what is said by the philosophers regarding the kinship of God and men be true what other course remains for men but that which Socrates took when asked to what country he belonged never to say I am an athenian or i am a corinthian but i am a citizen of the universe for why do you say that you are an athenian instead of mentioning merely that's corner into which your poultry body was cast at birth or is it clear you take the place which is a higher degree of authority and comprehends not merely that corner of yours but also your family and in a word the source from which your race has come your ancestors down to yourself and from some such entity call yourself Athenian or Corinthian well then anyone who has attentively studied the administration of the universe and has learned that the greatest and most authoritative and most comprehensive of all governments is this one which is composed of men and God and that from him have descended the seeds of being not merely to my father or my grandfather but to all things that are begotten and that grow upon earth and chiefly to rational beings seeing that by nature it is theirs alone to have communion in the Society of God being intertwined with him through the reason why should not such a man call himself a citizen of the universe why should he not call himself a son of God and ye shall he fear anything that happens among men what shall kinship with Caesar or any other of them that have great power at Rome be sufficient to enable men to live securely proof against contempt and in fear of nothing whatsoever but to have God as our maker and father and guardian shall this not suffice to deliver us from griefs and fears and wherewithal shall I be fed asks one if I have nothing and how have slaves how have runaways on what do they rely when they leave their masters on their lands their slaves and their vessels of silver know nothing but themselves and nevertheless food does not fail them and shall it be necessary for our philosopher forsooth when he goes abroad to depend upon others for his assurance and his refreshment instead of taking care of himself and to be more vile and Craven than the irrational animals every one of which is sufficient to himself and lacks neither its own proper food nor that way of life which is appropriate to it and in harmony with nature as for me I think that the elder man ought not to be sitting here devising how to keep you from thinking to meanly of yourselves or from taking in your debates a mean or ignoble position regarding yourselves he should rather be striving to prevent there being among you any young men of such a sort that when once they have realized their kinship to the gods and that we have these fetters as it were fastened upon us the body and its possessions and whatever things on their account are necessary to us for their management of life and our tarrying therein they may desire to throw aside all these things as burdensome and vexatious and unprofitable and depart to their kindred and this is the struggle in which your teacher and trainer if he really amounted to anything ought to be engaged you for your part would come to him saying Epictetus we can no longer endure to be imprisoned with this paltry body giving it food and drink and resting and cleansing it and to crown it all being on its account brought into contact with these people and those are not these things indifferent in deeds nothing to us and is not death no evil and are we not in a manner akin to God and have we not come from him suffer us to go back whence we came suffer us to be freed at last from these fetters that are fastened to us and weigh us down here our despoilers and thieves and courts of law and those who are called tyrants they think they have some power over us because of the poultry body and its possessions suffer us to show them that they have power over no one and thereupon it were my part to say men wait upon God when he shall give the signal and set you free from this service then shall you depart to him but for the present endure to abide in this place where he has stationed you short indeed is the time of your abiding here and easy to bear for many of your convictions for what tyrant or what thief are any longer formidable to those who have thus set at nought the body and its possessions stay nor be so unravel as to depart some such instruction should be given by the teacher to the youth of good natural parts but what happens now the corpse is your teacher and corpses are you as soon as you have fed your fill today you sits lamenting about the morrow wherewithal you shall be fed slave if you get it you will have it if you do not get it you will depart the door stands open why grieve where is there yet room for tears what occasion longer for flattery why shall one man envy another why shall he admire those who have great possessions all those who are stationed in places of power especially if they be both strong and prone to anger for what will they do to us as for what they have power to do we shall pay no heed thereto and for the things we care about over them they have no power who then will ever again be ruler over the man who is thus disposed how did Socrates feel with regard to these matters why how else then as that man ought to feel who's been convinced that he is akin to the gods if you tell me now says he we will acquit you on these conditions namely that you will no longer engage in these discussions which you have conducted hitherto nor trouble either the young or the old among us I will answer you make yourselves ridiculous by thinking that if your general had stationed me at any post I ought to hold and maintain it and choose rather to die 10,000 times than to desert it but if God has stationed us in some place and in some manner of life we ought to desert that this is what it means for a man to be in very truth a kinsmen of the gods we however think of ourselves as though we were mere bellies entrails and genitals just because we have fear because we have appetite and we flatter those who have power to help us in these matters and these same men we fear a certain man asked me to write to Rome on his behalf now he had met with what most men accounts misfortune though he had formerly been eminent and wealthy he had afterwards lost everything and was living here and I wrote in humble terms on his behalf but when he had read the letter he handed it back to me and said I wanted your help not your pity my plight is not an evil one so likewise Rufus was wont to say to test me your master is going to do such and such a thing to you and when I would say in answer tis but the lot of man he would reply what then am I to go on and petition him when I can get the same result from you for in fact it is foolish and superfluous to try to obtain from another that which one can get from oneself since therefore I am able to get greatness of soul and nobility of character from myself am I to get a farm and money or some office from you far from it I will not be so unaware of what I myself possess but when a man is cowardly and abject what else can one possibly do but write letters on his behalf as we do on behalf of a corpse please to grant us the carcass of so-and-so and a pint of poultry blood for really such a person is but a carcass and a pint of poultry blood and nothing more but if he were anything more he would perceive that one man is not unfortunate because of another chapter 10 to those who have set their hearts on preferment at Rome if we philosophers had applied ourselves to our own work jealously as the old men at Rome have applied themselves to the matters on which they have set their hearts perhaps we too should be accomplishing something I know a man older than myself who is now in charge of the grain supply at Rome when he passed this place on his way back from exile I recall what a tale he told as he invade against his former life and announced for the future that when he had returned to Rome he would devote himself solely to spending the remainder of his life in peace and quiet for how little is yet left to me he said and I told him you will not do it but when once you have caught no more than a whiff of Rome you will forget all this and if also admission to court should be granted I added that he would rejoice thank God and push his way in if you find me Epictetus said he putting so much as one foot inside the court think of me what you will well now what did he do before he reached Rome letters from Caesar met him and as soon as he received them he forgot all those resolutions of his and ever since he has been piling up one property after another I wish I could stand by his side now and remind him of the words that he uttered as he passed by here and remark how much more clever a profit I am than you what then do I say that man is an animal made for inactivity far be it from me but how can you say that we philosophers are not active in affairs for example to take myself first as soon as day breaks I call to mind briefly what author I must read over then forthwith I say to myself and yet what difference does it really make to me how so-and-so reads the first thing is that I get my sleep even so in what are the occupations of those other men comparable to ours if you observe what they do you will see for what else do they do but all day long cast up accounts dispute consult about a bit of grain a bit of land or similar matters of profit is it then much the same thing to receive a little petition from someone and read I beseech you to allow me to export a small quantity of grain and this one I beseech you to learn from cruciferous what is the administration of the universe and what place there in the rational animal has and consider also who you are and what is the nature of your good and evil is this like that and does it demands the like kind of study and is it in the same way shameful to neglect the one and the other what then is it we philosophers alone who take things easily and drowse no it is you young men far sooner for look you we old men when we see young men playing are eager to join in the play ourselves and much more if I saw them wide awake and eager to share in our studies should I be eager to join myself in their serious pursuits chapter 11 of family affection when an official came to see him Epictetus after making some special inquiries about other matters asked him if he had children and a wife and when the other replied that he had Epictetus asked the further question what then is your experience with marriage wretched he said to which Epictetus said how so for men do not marry and beget children just for this surely to be wretched but rather to be happy men yet as for me the other replied I feel so wretched about the little children that recently when my little daughter was sick and was thought to be in danger I could not bear even to stay by her sick bed but I up and ran away until someone brought me word that she was well again what then do you feel you were acting right in doing this I was acting naturally he said but really you must first convince me of this that you were acting naturally said he and then I will convince you that whatever is done in accordance with nature is rightly done this is the way said the man all or at least most of us fathers feel and I do not contradict you either answered epictetus and say that it is not done but the point at issue between us is the other whether it is rightly done for by your style of reasoning we should have to say of tumors also that they are produced for the good of the body just because they occur and in brief that to err is in accordance with nature just because practically all of us or at least most of us do do you show me therefore how your conduct is in accordance with nature I cannot said the man but do you rather show me how it is not in accordance with nature and not rightly done and epictetus said well if you were inquiring about white and black objects what sort of criterion should we summon in order to distinguish between them the sight said the man and if about hot and cold and hard and soft objects what criterion and the touch very well then since we are disputing about things which are in accordance with nature and things which are rightly or not rightly done what criterion would you have us take I do not know he said and yet though it is perhaps no great harm for one not to know the criterion of colors and odors and so two of flavors still do you think that it is a slight harm for a man to be ignorant to the criterion of good and evil things and of those in accordance with nature and those contrary to nature on the contrary it is the very greatest harm come tell me all the things that certain persons regard as good and fitting rightly so regarded and is it possible at this present time that all the opinions which Jews and Syrians and Egyptians and Romans hold on the subject of food are rightly held how can it be possible but I fancy it is absolutely necessary if the views of the Egyptians are right that those of the others are not right if those of the Jews are well-founded that those of the others are not yes certainly now where there is ignorance there is also lack of knowledge and the lack of instruction in matters which are indispensable he agreed you then said he now that you perceive this will henceforth study no other having learns the criterion of what is in accordance with nature you shall apply that criterion and thus determine each special case but for the present I can give you the following assistance toward the attainment of what you desire does family affection seem to you to be in accordance with nature and good now of course what then is it possible that while family affection is in accordance with nature and good that which is reasonable is not good by no means that which is reasonable is not therefore incompatible with family affection it is not I think otherwise when two things are incompatible and one of them is in accordance with nature the other must be contrary to nature must it not even so said he whatever therefore we find to be at the same time both affectionate and reasonable this we confidently asserts to be both right and good granted said he what then I suppose you will not deny that going away and leaving one's child when it is sick is at least not reasonable but we have yet to consider whether it is affectionate yes let us consider that were you then since you were affectionately just to your child doing right when you ran away and left her and has the mother no affection for her child on the contrary she has affection what then the mother also to have left her child or ought she not she ought not what of the nurse does she love her child she does he said what then she also to have left her by no means what about the school attendant does not he love the child he does ought then he also to have gone away and left her so that the child would thus have been left alone and helpless because of the great affection of you her parents and of those in charge of her or perhaps have died in the arms of those who neither loved her nor cared for her far from it and yet is it not unfair and unfeeling when a man thinks certain conduct fitting for himself because of his affection that he should not allow the same to others who have as much affection as he has that were absurd come if it had been you who were sick would you have wanted all your relatives your children and your wife included to show their affection in such a way that you would be left all alone and deserted by them by no means and would you pray to be so laughed by your own that because of their excessive affection you would always be left alone in sickness nor would you so far as this is concerned have prayed to be loved by your enemies rather if that were possible so as to be left alone by them and if this is what you would have prayed for the only conclusion left us is that your conduct was in the end not an act of affection at all what then was the motive nothing at all which actuated you and induced you to leave your child and how can that be but it was a motive like that which impelled a certain man in Rome to cover his head when the horse which he backed was running and then when it won an they had to apply sponges to him to revive him from his faint what motive then is this the scientific explanation perhaps is not in place now but it is enough for us to be convinced that if what the Philosopher's say is sound we ought not to look for the motive anywhere outside of ourselves but that in all cases it is one and the same thing that is the cause of our doing a thing or of our not doing it of our saying things or of our not saying them of our being related or of our being cast down of our avoiding things or of our pursuing them the very thing indeed which has even now become a cause of my action and of yours yours in coming to me and sitting here now listening mine in saying these things and what is that is it indeed anything else then that we wanted to do this nothing else and supposing that we had wanted to do something else what else would we be doing than that which we wanted to do surely then in the case of Achilles also it was this that was the cause of his grief not the death of Patroclus but that he wanted to grieve for other men do not act this way when their comrades died and in your case the other day the cause of your running away was just that you wanted to do so and another time if you stay with her it will be because you wanted to stay and now you are going back to Rome because you want to do so and if you change your mind and want something else you will not go and in brief it is neither death nor exile nor toil nor any such thing that is the cause of our doing all of our not doing anything but only our opinions and the decisions of our will do I convince you of this or not you convinced me said he of such sort then as are the causes in each case such likewise are the effects very well then whenever we do anything wrongly from this day forth we shall ascribe to this action no other cause than the decision of our will which led us to do it and we shall endeavour to destroy and excise that cause more earnestly than we try to destroy and excise from the body it's tumors and abscesses and in the same way we shall declare the same thing to be the cause of our good actions and we shall no longer blame either slave or neighbor or wife or children as being the causes of any evils to us since we are persuaded that unless we decide that things are thus and so we do not perform the corresponding actions and of our decision for or against something we ourselves and not things outside of ourselves are the Masters it is so he said from this very day therefore the thing whose nature or condition we shall investigate and examine will be neither our farm nor our slaves nor our horses nor our dogs but only the decisions of our will I hope so he said you see then that it is necessary for you to become a frequenter of the schools and that animal at which all men laugh if you really desire to make an examination of the decisions of your own will and that this is not the work of a single hour or day you know as well as I do chapter 12 of contentment concerning gods there are some who say that the divine does not so much as exist and others that it exists indeed but is inactive and indifferent and takes forethought for nothing and a third sets that it exists and takes for thought though only for great and heavenly things and in no case for terrestrial things and a fourth sets that it also takes for thought for things to rest real and the affairs of men but only in a general way and not for the end of in particular and a fifth set to which Odysseus and Socrates belonged who say nor when I move am I concealed from thee we must therefore first of all inquire about each of these statements to see whether it is sound or not sound for if gods do not exist how can it be an ends to follow the gods and if they exist indeed but care for nothing how even thus will that conclusion be sound but if indeed they both exist and exercise care yet there is no communication from them to men yes and by Zeus to me personally how even in this case can our conclusion still be sound the good and excellent man must therefore inquire into all these things before he subordinates his own will to him who administers the universe precisely as good citizens submit to the law of the state and he that is being instructed ought to come to his instruction with this aim how may I follow the gods in everything and how may I be acceptable to the divine administration and how may I become free since he is free for whom all things happen according to his moral purpose and whom none can restrain what then his freedom insanity far from it for madness and freedom are not consistent with one another but I would have that which seems best to me happen in every case no matter how it comes to seem so you are mad you are beside yourself do you not know that freedom is a noble and precious thing but for me to desire at haphazard that those things should happen which have at haphazard seemed best to me is dangerously near being not merely not noble but even in the highest degree shameful for how do we act in writing do I desire to write the name do as I choose no but I am taught to desire to write it as it ought to be written what do we do in music the same and what in general where there any art or science the same otherwise knowledge of anything would be useless if it were accommodated to every individuals whims is it then only in this matter of freedom the greatest and indeed the highest of all that I am permitted to desire at haphazard by no means but instruction consists precisely in learning to desire each thing exactly as it happens and hell do they happen as he that ordains them has ordained and he has ordained that there be summer and winter and abundance and earth and virtue and vice and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole and he has given each of us a body and members of the body and property and companions mindful therefore of this ordaining we should go to receive instruction not in order to change the constitution of things for this is neither vouchsafed us nor is it better than it should be but in order that things about us being as they are and as their nature is we may for our own part keep our wills in harmony with what happens for look you can we escape from men and how is it possible but can we if they associate with us change them and who vouchsafe sus that power what alternative remains then nor what method can we find for living with them some such method as that while they will act as seems best to them we shall nonetheless be in a state conformal to nature but you are impatient and peevish and if you are alone you call it a solitude but if you are in the company of men you call them schemas and brigands and you find fault even with your own parents and children and brothers and neighbors but you ought when staying alone to call that peace and freedom and to look upon yourself as like the gods and when you are in the company of many you ought not to call that a mob nor a tumult nor a disgusting thing but a feast and affair and so accept all things contentedly what then is the punishment of those who do not accept to be just as they are is one peevish because he is alone let him be in solitude is he peevish with his parents let him be an evil son and grieve is he peevish with his children let him be a bad father throw him into prison what sort of prison where he is now for he is there against his will and where a man is against his will that for him is a prison just as Socrates was not in prison for he was there willingly alas that I should be lame in my leg slave do you then because of one poultry leg blame the universe will you not make a free gift of it to the Hall will you not relinquish it will you not gladly yield it to the giver and will you be angry and peevish and the ordinances of Zeus which he defined and ordained together with the fates who spun in his presence the thread of your begetting do you not know how small a part you are compared with the whole that is as to the body for as to the reason you are not inferior to the gods nor less than they for the greatness of the reason is not determined by length nor by height but by the decisions of its will will you not therefore set what is for you the good in that wherein you are equal to the gods wretched man that I am such a father and such a mother as I have well there was it permitted you to step forward and make selection saying let such and such man have intercourse with such and such woman at this hour that I may be born it was not permitted you but your parents had to exist first when you had to be born as you were born of what kind of parents and of such as they were what then since they are such is no remedy given you again supposing that you were ignorant of the purpose for which you possessed the Faculty of vision you would be unfortunate and wretched if you closed your eyes when men brought some colour before them but in that you have greatness of mind and nobility for use for every one of the things that may happen to you and you know it not are you not yet more unfortunate and wretched things proportionate to the Faculty which you possess are brought before you but you turn that faculty away at the very moments when you ought to keep it wide open and discerning do you not rather render thanks to the gods that they have allowed you to be superior to all the things that they did not put under your control and have rendered you accountable only for that which is under your control as for parents the gods have released you from accountability as for brothers they have released you as for body they have released you and for property death life well for what have they made you accountable for the only thing that is under your control the proper use of impressions why then do you draw upon yourself that for which you are not responsible this is to make trouble for yourself chapter 30 how may each several thing be done except ibly to the gods now when someone asked him how it is possible to eat except ably to the gods he said if it is done justly and graciously and fairly and restrain idli earned decently is it not also done except ibly to the gods and when you have asked for warm water and the slave does not heed you nor if he does he do but brings in tepid water or if he is not even to be found in the house then to refrain from anger and not to explode is not this acceptable to the gods how then can a man bear with such persons slave will you not bear with your own brother who has Lu says his progenitor and is as it were a son born of the same seed as yourself and of the same sowing from above but if you have been stationed in a like position above others will you forthwith set yourself up as a tyrant do you not remember what you are and over whom you rule that they are kinsmen that they are brothers by nature that they are the offspring of Zeus but I have a deed of sale for them and they have none for me do you see whither you bend your gaze that it is to the earth that it is to the pit that it is to these wretched laws of ours the laws of the Dead and that it is not to the laws of the Gods that you look chapter 14 that the deity oversees all men now when someone asked him how a man could be convinced that each thing which he does is under the eye of God he answered do you not think that all things are united in one I do said the other very well do you not think that what is on earth feels the influence of that which is in heaven I do he replied for how else comes it that so regularly as if from God's command when he bids the plants flower they flower when he bids them put four shoots they put them forth when he bids them bear fruit they bear it when to ripen they ripen when again he bids them drop their fruit and let fall their leaves and gather themselves together and remain quiet and take their rest they remain quiet and take their rest and how else comes it that at the waxing and waning of the moon and at the approach and recession of the Sun we see among the things that are on earth so great an alteration and change to the opposite but are the plants and our own bodies so closely bound up with the universe and are they so intimately share its affections and is not the same much more true of our own Souls but if our souls are so bound up with God and joined together with him as being parts portions of his being does not God perceive their every motion as being a motion of that which is his own and of one body with himself and yet you have power to think about the divine dispensation and about each several item among things divine and at the same time also about human affairs and you have the Faculty of being moved by a myriad of matters at the same time both in your senses and in your intelligence and at the same time you are sent to some while you descend from others nor suspends judgment about them and you guard in your own soul so many impressions derived from so many and various matters and on being moved by these impressions your mind falls upon notions corresponding to the impressions first made and so from a myriad of matters you derive and retain arts one after the other and memories all this you do and is God not able to oversee all things and be present with all and to have a certain communication from them all yet the son is capable of illuminating so large a portion of the universe and of leaving unenumerated only the small space which is no larger than can be covered by the shadow that the earth casts and is he who has created the Sun which is but a small portion of himself in comparison with the whole and causes it to revolve is he not able to perceive all things and yet says one I cannot follow all these things and one in the same time but does anyone go so far as to tell you this namely that you possess a faculty which is equal to that of Zeus yet nonetheless he has stationed by each man's side as Guardian his particular genius and has committed the man to his care and that to a Guardian who never sleeps and is not to be beguiled for to what other Guardian better hands more careful could he have committed each one of us wherefore when you close the doors and make darkness within remember never to say that you are alone for you are not alone nay God is within and your own genius is within and what need have a of light in order to see what you are doing yes and to this God you also ought to swear allegiance as the soldiers do to Caesar they are about hireling yet they swear that they will put the safety of Caesar above everything and shall you indeed who have been counted worthy of blessings so numerous and so great be unwilling to swear or when you have sworn to abide by your oath and what shall you swear never to disobey under any circumstances never to prefer charges never to find fault with anything that God has given never to let your will rebel when you have either to do or to suffer something that is inevitable can the oath of soldiers in any way be compared with this of ours now there men swear never to prefer another in honor above Caesar but here we swear to prefer ourselves in honor above everything else chapter 15 what does philosophy profess when someone consulted Epictetus as to how he could persuade his brother to cease being angry with him he replied philosophy does not profess to secure for man any external possession otherwise it would be undertaking something that lies outside its proper subject matter for as wood is the material of the carpenter bronze that of the statuary just so each man's life is the subject matter of the art of living well what about my brother's life that again is the subject-matter of his own art of living but with respect to your art of living it comes under the category of externals like a farm like health like good repute philosophy promises none of these things but rather in every circumstance I will keep the governing principle in a state of accord with nature whose governing principle his in whom I am how then shall I keep my brother from being angry at me bring him to me and I will tell him but I have nothing to say to you on the subject of his anger and when the man who was consulting him said what I seek to know is this how even if my brother refuses to be reconciled with me I may yet be in accord with nature Epictetus replied nothing great comes into being all at once why not even the bunch of grapes or a fig if you say to me now I want a fig I shall answer that requires time let the tree blossom first then put forth its fruit and finally let the fruit ripen now although the fruit of even a fig tree is not brought to perfection all at once and in a single hour would you still seek to secure the fruit of a man's mind in so short a while and so easily do not expect it not even if I should tell you so myself chapter 16 of Providence Marvel not that the animals other than man have furnished them ready prepared by nature what pertains to their bodily needs not merely food and drink but also a bed to lie on and that they have no need of shoes or bedding or clothing while we are in need of all these things for in the case of animals or not for their own sake but for service to have created them in need of other things was not beneficial why consider what it would be for us to have to take thought not for merely ourselves but also for our sheep and our asses how they are to be clothed and shod how they are to find food and drink but just as soldiers appear before their general all ready for service shod clothed and armed and it would be shocking if the colonel had to go around and equip his regiment with shoes or uniforms so also Nature has made animals which are born for service ready for use equipped and in need of no further attention consequently one small child with a rod can drive a flock of sheep but as it is we first forbear to give thanks for these beasts because we do not have to bestow upon them the same care as we require for ourselves and then precedes a complain against God on our own account yes by Zeus and the gods one single gift of nature would suffice to make a man who is reverent and grateful perceive the Providence of God do not talk to me now of great matters take the mere facts that milk is produced from grass and cheese from milk and that wool grows from skin who is it that has created or devised these things no one somebody says no the depth of man's stupidity and shamelessness come let us leave the chief works of nature and consider merely what she does in passing can anything be more useless than the hairs on a chin well what then has not nature even used these in the most suitable way possible has she not by these means distinguished between male and female does not the nature of each one of us cry aloud forthwith from afar I am a man on this understanding approach me on this understanding talk with me ask for nothing further behold the signs again in the case of women just as Nature has mingled in their voice a certain softer notes so likewise she has taken the hair from their chins not so you say on the contrary the human animal ought to have been left without distinguishing features and each of us ought to proclaim by word of mouth I am a man nay but how fair and becoming and dignified the sign is how much more fair than the cockscomb now much more magnificent than the lion's mane wherefore we ought to preserve the signs which god has given we ought not to throw them away we ought not so far as in us lies to confuse the sexes which have been distinguished in this fashion are these the only works of Providence in us nay what language is adequate to praise them all or bring them home to our minds as they deserve why if we had sense and what we to be doing anything else publicly and privately than him Ning and praising the deity and rehearsing his benefits what we not as we dig and plow and eat to sing the hymn of praise to God great is God that he hath furnished us these instruments wherewith we shall till the earth great is God that he has given us hands and power to swallow and a belly and power to grow unconsciously and to breathe while asleep this is what we ought to sing on every occasion and above all to sing the greatest and divinest him that God has given us the faculty to comprehend these things and to follow the path of reason what then since most of you have become blind order there not to be someone to fulfill this office for you and on behalf of all sing the hymn of praise to God why what else can i a lame old man do but sing hymns to God if indeed I were a nightingale I should be singing as a nightingale if a swan as a swan but as it is I am a rational being therefore I must be singing hymns of praise to God this is my task I do it and will not desert this post as long as it may be given me to fill it and I exhort you to join me in this same song chapter 17 let the art of reasoning is indispensable since it is reason that analyzes and perfects all else and reason itself ought not to remain unanalyzed wherewithal shall it be analysed why clearly either by itself or by something else this latter is assuredly either reason or it will prove to be something else superior which is impossible if it be reason who again will analyze that reason for if it analyzes its own self the reason with which we started can do as much if we are going to require something else at each step our process will be endless and unceasing yes says someone but the cure of the decision of our will is a much more pressing need than the study of logic and the like do you then wish to hear about the other matter very well listen but if you say to me I do not know whether your argument is true or false and if I use some ambiguous term and you should then say distinguish I shall bear with you no longer but shall tell you nay but there is a much more pressing need this is the reason I suppose why the stoic philosophers put just as in the measuring of grain we put first the examination of the measure and if we do not define first what a moe Dias is and do not define first what a scale is how shall we be able to proceed with measuring or weighing anything so in the field of our present inquiry if we have neglected the thorough knowledge and intellectual mastery of our standard of judgment for all other things whereby they come to be known thoroughly shall we ever be able to attain intellectual mastery and thorough knowledge of the rest of the world and how could we possibly yes we are told but the MOE Deus is made out of wood and bears no fruit true but it is something with which we can measure grain logic also bears no fruit now as for this statement we shall see later but if one should grant even this it is enough to say in defence of logic that it has the power to discriminate and examine everything else and as one might say to measure and weigh them who says this only cruciferous and Zeno and Klee Anthes well does not anticipation is the examination of terms does not Socrates to say the same thing and of whom does Xenophon writes that he began with the examination of terms asking about each what does it mean is this then your great and admirable achievement the ability to understand and to interpret receivers and who says that what then is your admirable achievement to understand the will of nature very well do you understand it all by yourself and if that is the case what more do you need for if it is true that all men involuntarily and you have learned the truth it must needs be that you are doing right already but so help me Zeus I do not comprehend the will of nature who then interprets it men say cruciferous I go and try to find out what this interpreter of nature says I begin not to understand what he says and look for the man who can interpret him look and consider what this passage means says the interpreter just as if it were in Latin what place is there here then for pride on the part of the interpreter why there is no just place for pride even on the part of cruciferous if he merely interprets the will of nature but himself does not follow it how much less place for pride then in the case of his interpreter for we have no need of Chris averse on his own accounts but only to enable us to follow nature no more have we need of him who Divine's through sacrifice considered on his own account but simply because we think that through his instrumentality we shall understand the future and the signs given by the gods nor do we need the entrails on their own account but only because through them the signs are given nor do we admire the crow or the Raven but God who gives his signs through them wherefore I go to this interpreter and diviner and say examine for me the entrails and tell me what sign means they give the fellow takes and spreads them out and then interprets man you have a moral purpose free by nature from hindrances and constraint this stands written here in these entrails I will prove you that first in the sphere of ascent can anyone prevent you from ascending to the truth no one at all can anyone force you to accept the false no one at all do you see that in this sphere you have a moral purpose free from hindrance constraint obstruction come in the sphere of desire and choice is it otherwise and what can overcome one impulse but another impulse and what can overcome one desire or aversion but another desire or a version but says someone if a person subjects me to the fear of death he compels me no it is not what you are subjected to that impels you but the fact that you decide it is better for you to do something of the sort than to die once more then it is the decision of your own will which compelled you that his moral purpose compelled moral purpose for if God had so constructed that part of his own being which he has taken from himself and bestowed upon us that it could be subjected to hindrance and constraint either from himself or from some other he were no longer God nor would he be caring for us as he ought this is what I find says the diviner in the sacrifice these are the signs vouchsafe to you if you will you are free if you will you will not have to blame anyone or complain against anyone everything will be in accordance with what is not merely your own will but at the same time the will of God this is the prophecy for the sake of which I go to this diviner in other words the philosopher not admiring him because of his interpretation but rather the interpretation which he gives chapter 18 that we ought not to be angry with the earring if what the philosophers say is true that in all men thoughts and actions start from a single source namely feeling as in the case of a sense the feeling that a thing is so and in the case of descends the feeling that it is not so yes and by Zeus in the case of suspended judgment the feeling that it is uncertain so also in the case of impulse towards a thing the feeling that it is expedient for me and that it is impossible to judge one thing expedient and yet desire another and again to judge one thing fitting and yet be impelled to another if all this be true why are we any longer angry with the multitude they are thieves says someone and robbers what do you mean by thieves and robbers they have simply gone astray in questions of good and evil what we therefore to be angry with them or rather pity them only show them their error and you will see how quickly they desist from their mistakes but if their eyes are not opened they have nothing superior to their mere opinion what not this brigands then and this adulterer be put to death you ask not at all but you should ask rather what not this man to be put to death who is in a state of error and illusion about the greatest matters and is in a state of blindness not indeed in the vision which distinguishes between white and black but in the judgment which distinguishes between the good and the evil and if you put it this way you will realize how inhuman a sentiment it is that you are uttering and that it is just as if you should say what not this blind man then or this deaf man to be put to death for if the loss of the greatest things is the greatest harm that can befall a man while the greatest thing in each man is a right moral purpose and if a man is deprived of this very thing what ground is left for you to be angry at him why man if you must needs be affected in a way that is contrary to nature at the misfortunes of another pity him rather buts do not hate him drop this readiness to take offense and this spirit of hatred do not introduce those words which the multitude of the censorious use well then these are cursed and abominable fools very well but how is it that you have so suddenly been converted to wisdom that you are angry at fools why then are we angry because we admire the goods of which these men robbed us for Mark you stop admiring your clothes and you are not angry at the man who steals them stop admiring your wife's beauty and you are not angry at her adulterer know that a thief or an adulterer has no place among the things that are your own but only among the things that are another's and that are not under your control if you give these things up and count them as nothing at whom have you still grounds to feel angry but so long as you admire these things be angry at yourself and not at the men that I have just mentioned before consider you have fine clothes and your neighbor does not you have a window and wish to air them he does not know where in the true good of man consists but fancies that it consists in having fine clothes the very same fancy that you also entertain shall he not come then and carry them off why when you show a cake to gluttonous men and then gulp it down all to yourself are you not wanting them to snatch it stop provoking them stop having a window stop airing your clothes something similar happened to me also the other day I keep an iron lamp by the side of my household gods and on hearing a noise of the window I ran down I found that the lamp had been stolen I reflected that the man who stole it was moved by no unreasonable motive what then tomorrow I say you will find one of we're indeed a man losses only that which he already has I have lost my cloak yes for you had a cloak I have a pain in my head you don't have a pain in your horns do you why then are you indignant for our losses and our pains have to do only with the things which we possess but the tyrant will chain what your leg but he will cut off what your neck what then will he neither chain nor cut off your moral purpose this is why the ancients gave us the injunction know thyself what follows then why by the gods that one ought to practice in small thing since beginning with them pass on to the greater I have a headache well do not say alas I have an earache do not say alas and am I not saying that it is not permissible to groan only do not grown in the center of your being and if your slave is slow in bringing your bandage do not cry out and make a wry face and say everybody hates me why who would not hate such a person for the future put your confidence in these doctrines and walk about erect free not putting your confidence in the size of your body like an athlete for you ought not to be invincible in the way an ass is invincible who then is the invincible man he whom nothing that is outside the sphere of his moral purpose can dismay I then proceeded to consider the circumstances one by one as I would do in the case of an athlete this fellow has won the first round what then will he do in the second what if it be scorching hot and what will he do at Olympia it is the same way in the case under consideration if you put a bit of silver coin in a man's way he will despise it yes but if he put a young girl in his way what then or if it be in the dark what then or if you throw a bit of reputation in his way what then or abuse what then or praise what then or death what then all these things he can overcome what then if it be scorching hot that is what if he be drunk what if he be melancholy mad what if asleep the man who passes all these tests is what I mean by the invincible athlete chapter 19 how ought we to bear ourselves toward tyrants if the man possesses some superiority in all things at least that he does even though he does not it is quite unavoidable that this man if he is uneducated becomes puffed up on account of it for example the tyrant exclaims I am the mightiest in the world very well what can you do for me can you secure for me desire that is free from any hindrance how can you do you have it yourself can you secure for me a version proof against encountering what it would avoid do you have it yourself or infallible choice and where can you claim a share in that come when you are on board ship do you feel confidence in yourself or in the skilled navigator and when you are in a chariot in whom do you feel confidence other than the skilled driver and how is it in the other arts the same way what does your power amounts to then all men pay attention to me yes and I pay attention to my little plate and wash it and wipe it out and for the sake of my oil flask I Drive a peg in the wall what follows then are these things superior to me no but they render me some service and therefore I pay attention to them again do I not pay attention to my donkey do I not wash his feet do I not curry him do you not know that every man pays attention to himself and to you just as he does to his donkey for who pays attention to you as to a man point him out to me who wishes to become like you who becomes a zealous follower of yours as men did of Socrates but I can cut off your head well said I had forgotten that I ought to pay attention to you as to fever or cholera and set up an altar to you just as in Rome there is an altar to the god fever what is it then that disturbs and bewilders the multitude visits the tyrant and his bodyguards how is that possible nay far from it it is not possible that that which is by nature free should be disturbed or thwarted by anything but itself but it is a man's own judgments that disturbs him for when the tyrant says to a man I will chain your leg the man who has set a high value on his leg replies nay have mercy upon me while the man who has set a high value on his moral purpose replies if it seems more profitable to you to do so chain it do you not care no I do not care I will show you that I am master how can you be my master Zeus has set me free nor do you really think that he was likely to let his own son be made a slave you are however master of my dead body take it you mean then that when you approach me you will not pay attention to me no I pay attention only to myself but if you wish me to say that I pay attention to you too I will tell you that I do so but only as I pay attention to my pot this is not mere self-love such is the nature of the animal man everything that he does is for himself why even the son does everything for its own sake and for that matter so does ooze himself but when Zeus wishes to be rain bringer and fruit giver and father of men and of gods you can see for yourself that he cannot achieve these works or win these Appalachians unless he proves himself useful to the common interest and in general he has so constituted the nature of the rational animal man but he can attain nothing of his own proper goods unless he contributes something to the common interest hence it follows that it can no longer be regarded as unsocial for a man to do everything for his own sake for what do you expect that a man should neglect himself and his own interest and in that case how can there be room for one and the same principle of action for all namely that of appropriation to their own needs what then when men entertain absurd opinions about what lies outside the province of the moral purpose counting it good or bad it is altogether unavoidable for them to pay attention to the tyrant I would that it were merely the tyrants and not their Chamberlain's to and yet how can the man suddenly become wise when Caesar puts him in charge of his chamber pot how can we forthwith say Felicio has spoken wisely to me I would that he were deposed from the superintendency of the dunghill that you may think him a fool again if Aphrodite zoned a certain cobbler whom he sold because he was useless then by some chance the fellow was bought by a member of Caesars household and became cobbler to Caesar you should have seen how I parent I t's honored him how is my good for Lisi oh I pray you he used to say and then if someone asked us what is your master doing he was told he is consulting Felicio about something or other why had he not sold him as being useless who then had suddenly made a wise man out of him this is what it means to honor something else than what lies within the province of the moral purpose he has been honoured with a tribune ship says someone all who meet him offer their congratulations one man kisses him on the eyes another on Nik his slaves kiss his hands he goes home he finds lamps being lighted he climbs up the Capitol and offers sacrifice now whoever sacrificed as a thank offering for having had right desire or for having exercised choice in accordance with nature for we give thanks to the gods for that wherein we set the good today a man was talking to me about a priesthood of Augustus I say to him man drop the matter you will be spending a great deal to no purpose but says he those who draw up deeds of sale will inscribe my name do you really expect then to be present when the deeds are read and say that is my name they have written and even supposing that you are now able to be present whenever anyone reads them what will you do if you die my name will remain after me inscribe it on a stone and it will remain after you come now who will remember you outside of Nicopolis but I shall wear a crown of gold if you desire a crown at all take a crown of roses and put it on you will look much more elegant in that chapter 20 how the reasoning faculty contemplates itself every art and faculty makes certain things the special object of its contemplation now when the art or faculty itself is of light kind with what it contemplates it becomes inevitably self contemplative but when it is of unlike kind it cannot contemplate itself for example the art of leatherworking has to do with hides but the art itself is altogether different from the material of hides wherefore it is not self contemplative again the art of grammar has to do with written speech it is not therefore also itself written speech is it not at all for this reason it cannot contemplate itself well then for what purpose have we received reason from nature for the proper use of external in what then is reason itself something composed out of a certain kind of external impressions thus it comes naturally to be also self contemplative and once more what are the things that wisdom has been given us to contemplate things good bad and neither good nor bad what then is wisdom itself a good and what is folly and evil do you see then that wisdom inevitably comes to contemplates both itself and its opposite therefore the first and greatest task of the philosopher is to test the impressions and discriminate between them and to apply none that has not been tested you all see in the matter of coinage in which it is felt that we have some interest how we have even invented an art and how many means the tester employs to test the coinage sight touch smell finally hearing he throws the Denarius down and then listens to the sound and is not satisfied with the sound it makes on a single test but as a result of his constant attention to the matter he catches the tune like a musician thus where we feel that it makes a good deal of difference to us whether we go wrong or do not go wrong there we apply any amount of attention to discriminating between things that are capable of making us go wrong but in the case of our governing principle poor thing we yawn and sleep and erroneously accept any and every external impression for here the loss that we suffer does not attract our attention when therefore you wish to realize how careless you are about the good and the evil and how zealous you are about that which is indifferent observe how you feel about physical blindness on the one hand and mental delusion on the other and you will find that you are far from feeling as you ought about things good and things evil yes but this requires much preparation and much hard work and learning many things well what then do you expect it to be possible to acquire the greatest art with a slight effort and yes the chief doctrine of the philosophers is extremely brief if you would know read what Zeno has to say and you will see for what is there lengthy in his statement to follow the gods is man's end and the essence of good is the proper use of external impressions ask what then is God and what is an external impression and what is nature in the individual and nature in the universe you already have a lengthy statement if Epicurus should come and say that the good ought to be in the flesh again the explanation becomes lengthy and you must be told what is the principal faculty within us and what our substantial and what our essential nature is since it is not probable that the good of a snail lies in its shell is it then probable that the good of man lies in his flesh but take your own case Epicurus what more masterful faculty do you yourself possess what is that thing within you which takes counsel which examines into all things severally which after examining the flesh itself decides that it is the principle matter and why do you light a lamp and toil on our behalf and write such quantities of books is it that we may not fail to know the truth who are we and what are we to you and so the argument becomes lengthy chapter 21 to those who would be admired when a man has his proper station in life he is not all the gate for things beyond it man what is it you want to have happen to you as for myself I am content if I exercise desire and aversion in accordance with nature if I employ choice and refusal as my nature is and similarly employ purpose and design and assent why then do you walk around in our presence as though you had swallowed a spit it has always been my wish that those who meet me should admire me and as they follow me should exclaim oh what a great philosopher who are those people by whom you wish to be admired are they not these about whom you are in the habit of saying that they are mad what then do you wish to be admired by the mad chapter 22 of our preconceptions preconceptions are common to all men and one preconception does not contradict another before who among us does not assume that the good is profitable then something to be chosen and that in every circumstance we ought to seek and pursue it and who among us does not assume that righteousness is beautiful lens becoming when then does contradiction arise it arises in the application of our preconceptions to the particular cases when one person says he did nobly he is brave another no but he is out of his mind thence arises the conflict of men with one another this is the conflict between Jews and Syrians and Egyptians and Romans not over the question whether holiness should be put before everything else and should be pursued in all circumstances but whether the particular act of eating swine's flesh is holy or unholy this you will find was also the cause of conflicts between Agamemnon and Achilles come summon them before us what do you say Agamemnon or not that's to be done which is proper and that which is Noble indeed it ought and what do you say Achilles do you not agree that what is noble ought to be done as for me I agree most emphatically with that principle very well then apply your preconceptions to the particular cases it is just there the conflict starts the one says I ought not to be compelled to give back crisis to her father while the other says indeed you ought most certainly one of the two is making a bad application of the preconception what one ought to do again the one of them says very well if I ought to give back Chrissie Asst then I ought to take from some one of you the prize he has won and the other replies would you then take the woman I love yes the woman you love the first answers shall I then be the only one a but shall I be the only one to have nothing so a conflict arises what then does it mean to be getting an education it means to be learning how to apply the natural preconceptions to particular cases each to the other in conformity with nature and further to make the distinction that some things are under our control while others are not under our control and our control our moral purpose and all the acts of moral purpose but not under our control are the body the parts of the body possessions parents brothers children country in a word all that with which we associate where then shall we place the good to what class of things are we going to apply it to the class of things that are under our control what is not health in a good thing and a sound body and life nay and not even children or parents or country and who will tolerate you if you deny that therefore let us transfer the designation good to these things but is it possible then for a man to be happy if he sustains injury and fails to get that which is good it is not possible and to maintain the proper relations with his associates and how can it be possible for it is my nature to look out for my own interest if it is my interest to have a farm it is my interest to take it away from my neighbor if it is my interest to have a cloak it is my interest also to steal it from a bath this is the sort of Wars seditions tyrannies plots and again how shall I any longer be able to perform my duty towards OU's for if I sustained injury and AM unfortunate he pays no heed to me and then we hear men saying what have I to do with him if he is unable to help us and again what have I to do with him if he wills that I be in such a state as I am now the next step is that I begin to hate him why then do we build temples to the gods and make statues of them as for evil spirits for Zeus as for a God of fever and how can he any longer be saviour and rain bringer and fruit giver and in truth if we set the nature of the good somewhere in this sphere all these things follow what then shall we do this is a subject of inquiry for the man who truly philosophizes and is in travail of thought says such a man to himself I do not now see what is the good and what is the evil am i not mad yes but suppose I set the good somewhere here among the things that the will controls all men will laugh at me some white-haired old man with many a gold ring on his fingers will come along and then he will shake his head and say listen to me my son one ought of course to philosophize but one ought also to keep one's head this is all nonsense you learn a syllogism from the philosophers but you know better than the philosophers what you ought to do man why then do you censure me if I know what shall I say to this slave if I hold my peace the fellow bursts with indignation so I must say forgive me as you would lovers I am NOT my own master I am mad chapter 23 in answer to Epicurus even Epicurus understands that we are by nature social beings but having one set are good in the husk which we wear he cannot go on and say anything inconsistent with this for he next insists emphatically upon the principle that we ought to either to admire nor to accept anything that is detached from the nature of the good and he is right in so doing but how then can we still be social beings if affection for our own children is not a natural sentiment why do you decide the wise man from bringing up children why are you afraid that sorrow will come to him on their account what does sorrow come to him on account of his house slave Mouse well what does it matter to him if his little mouse in his home begins to cry nay he knows that if once a child is born it is no longer in our power not to love it or to care for it for the same reason Epicurus says that a man of sense does not engage in politics either for he knows what the man who engages in politics has to do since of course if you are going to live among men as though you were a fly among flies what is to hinder you yet despite the fact that he knows this he still has the audacity to say let us not bring up children but a sheep does not abandon its own offspring nor a wolf and yet does a man abandon his and what do you wish us to do would you have us be foolish a sheep but even they do not desert their offspring would you have us be fierce as wolves but even they do not desert their offspring come now who follows your advice when he sees his child fallen on the ground and crying why in my opinion your mother and your father even if they had Divine's that you were going to say such things would not have exposed you chapter 24 how should we struggle against difficulties it is difficulties that show what men are consequently when a difficulty befall x' remember that god like a physical trainer has matched you with a rugged young man what for someone says so that you may become an Olympic victor but that cannot be done without sweat to my way of thinking no one has got a finer difficulty than the one which you have got if only you are willing to make use of it as an athlete makes use of a young man to wrestle with and now we are sending you to Rome as a scout to spy out the land but no one sends a coward as a Scouts that if he merely hears a noise and sees a shadow anywhere he may come running back in terror and report the enemy is already upon us so now also if you should come and tell us the state of things at Rome is fearful terrible is death terrible is exile terrible is revealing terrible is poverty flee sirs the enemy is upon us we shall say to you away prophesy to yourself our one mistake was that we sent a man like you as a scout Diogenes who before you was sent forth as a scout has brought us back a different report he says death is not an evil since it is not dishonorable he says ill repute is a noise made by madmen and what a report this scout has made us about toil and about pleasure and about poverty he says to be naked is better than any scarlet robe and asleep on the bare ground he says is the softest couch and he offers as proof of each statement his own courage his tranquility his freedom and finally his body radiant with health and hardened there is no enemy near says he all is full of peace how so Diogenes why look says he I have not been struck with any missile have I nor received any wound I have not fled from anyone have I this is what it means to be a proper Scout but you return and tell us one thing after another will you not go away again and observe more accurately without this cowardice what am I to do then what do you do when you disembark from a ship you do not pick up the rudder do you nor the oars and what do you pick up then your own luggage your oil flask your wallet so now if you are mindful of what is your own property you will never lay claim to that which is another's he says do you lay aside your broad scarlet hem and behold the narrow hem lay aside this also behold the plain toga lay aside your toga behold I am naked but you arouse my Envy well then take the whole of my poultry body do I any longer fear the man to whom I can throw my body but he will not leave me as his heir what then did I forget that none of these things is my own how then do we call them my own merely as we call the bed in the in my own if then the innkeeper dies and leaves you the beds you will have them but if he leaves them to someone else he will have them and you will look for another bed if then you do not find one you will have to sleep on the ground I only do so with good courage snoring and remembering that tragedies find a place among the rich and among kings and tyrants but no poor man fills a tragic role except as a member of the chorus now the kings commence in a state of prosperity hang the palace with Garland's then about the third or fourth act come alas sitter on why didst thou receive me slave where are your crowns where your diadem do your guards avail you not at all when therefore you approach one of those great men remember all this that you are approaching a tragic character not the actor but Oedipus himself but to sum it all up remember that the door has been thrown open do not become a greater coward than the children but just as they say I won't play any longer when the thing does not please them so do you also when things seem to you to have reached that stage merely say I won't play any longer and take your departure but if you stay stop lamenting chapter 25 upon the same theme if all this is true and we are not silly nor merely playing a part when we say man's good and man's evil lies in moral choice and all other things are nothing to us why are we still distressed and afraid over the things that we seriously care for no one has Authority and the things over which other men have authority do not concern us what kind of thing have we left to discuss nay give me directions what directions shall I give you has not Zeus given you directions has he not given you that which is your own unhindered and unrestrained while that which is not your own is subject to hindrance and restraint what directions then did you bring with you when you came from him into this world what kind of an order guard by every means that which is your own but do not grasp at that which is another's your faithfulness is your own your self-respect is your own who then can take these things from you who but yourself will prevent you from using them but you how do you act when you seek earnestly that which is not your own you lose that which is your own since you have such promptings and directions from Zeus what kinds do you still want from me now my greater than he or more trustworthy but if you keep these commands of his do you need any others besides but has he not given you these directions produce your preconceptions produce the demonstrations of the Philosopher's produce what you have often heard produce what you have said yourself produce what you have read produce what you have practiced how long then is it well to keep these precepts and not to break up the game as long as it is played pleasantly at the Saturnalia a king is chosen by lot for it has been decided to play this game the king gives his commands you drink you mix wine you sing you come you go I obey so as not to be the one to break up the game come suppose that you are in an evil plight I do not so suppose and who is there to compel me so to suppose again we have agreed to play the story of Agamemnon and Achilles the one who has been appointed to play the part of Agamemnon says to me go to Achilles and dragged away Brisas I go he says come and I come for as we behave in the matter of hypothetical proposals so we ought to behave in life also let it be night so be it what then is it day no for I have accepted the assumption that it is night let us suppose that you assume it to be night so be it but go on and assume that it is night that is not consistent with the hypothesis so also in the present case let us suppose that you are unhappy so be it are you then unfortunate yes what then are you troubled with ill fortune yes but go on and assume that you are in a wretched plight that is not consistent with the policies moreover there is another who forbids me to think so how long then should we obey such commands as long as it is beneficial and that means as long as I preserve what is becoming and consistent further some men are unduly crabbed and have too sharp tongues and say I cannot dine at this fellow's house where I have to put up with his telling every day how he fought in Malaysia I have told you brother how I climbed up to the crest of the hill well now I begin to be besieged again but another says I would rather dine and hear him babble all he pleases and it is for you to compare these estimates only do nothing as one burdened or afflicted or thinking that he is in a wretched plight for no one forces you to this house someone made a smoke in the house if he has made a moderate amount of smoke I shall stay if too much I go outside for one ought to remember and hold fast to this let the door stands open but someone says do not dwell in Nicolas I agree not to dwell there nor in Athens I agree not to dwell in Athens either nor in Rome I agree not to dwell in Rome either dwell in GR ax I agreed to dwell there but to dwell in gr ax seems to me to be like a great quantity of smoke in the house I leave for a place where no one will prevent me from dwelling for that dwelling place stands open to every man and as for the last in a tunic that is my poultry body and beyond that no one has any authority over me that is why Demetrius said to Nero you threatened me with death but nature threatens you if I admire my poultry body I have given myself away as a slave if I admire my poultry property and I have given myself away as a slave for at once I show thereby to my own hurt what I can be caught with just as when the snake draws in his head I say strike that part of him which he is protecting so do you be assured that your master will attack you at that point which you particularly wish to protect if you remember all this whom will you flatter or fear anymore if you remember all this whom will you flatter or fear anymore but I wish to sit where the Senators do do you realize that you are making close quarters for yourself that you are crowding yourself how else then shall I have a good view in the amphitheater man do not become spectator and you will not be crowded why do you make trouble for yourself nor else wait a little while and when the show is over sit down among the seats of the Senators and son yourself for in general remember this that we crowd ourselves we make close quarters for ourselves that is to say the decisions of our will crowd us and make us close quarters why what is this matter of being reviled take your stand by a stone and revile it and what effect will you produce if then a man listens like a stone what profit is there to the revealer but if the revealer has the weakness of the reviled as a point of Vantage then he does accomplish something strip him why do you say him take his cloak and strip that off I have outraged you much good may it do you this is what Socrates practiced and that is why he always wore the same expression on his face but we prefer to practice and rehearse anything rather than how to be untrammeled and free the philosophers talk paradoxes you say but are there not paradoxes in the other arts and what is more paradoxical than to Lance a man in the eye in order that he may see if anyone said this to a man who was inexperienced in the art of surgery would he not laugh at the speaker what is there to be surprised at then if in philosophy also many things which are true appear paradoxical to the inexperienced chapter 26 what is the rule of life as someone was reading the hypothetical arguments Epictetus said this also is a law governing hypotheses that we must accept what the hypothesis or premise demands but much more importance is the following law of life that we must do what nature demands for if we wish in every matter and circumstance to observe what is in accordance with nature it is manifest that in everything we should make it our aim neither to avoid that which nature demands nor to accept that which is in conflict with nature the philosophers therefore exercise us first in the theory where there is less difficulty and then after that lead us to the more difficult matters for in theory there is nothing which holds us back from following what we are taught but in the affairs of life there are many things which draw us away he is ridiculous then who says that he wishes to begin with the latter for it is not easy to begin with the more difficult things and this is the defense that we ought to present to such parents as are angry because their children study philosophy very well then father I go astray not knowing what is incumbent upon me or what my duty is now if this is a thing that can neither be taught and all learned why do you reproach me but if it can be taught teach me and if you cannot do this allow me to learn from those who profess to know really what is your idea that I intentionally fall into evil and miss the good far from it what then is the cause of my going astray ignorance very well do you not want me to put away my ignorance whom did anger ever teach the art of steering or music do you think then that your anger will make me learn the art of living only he can so speak who has applied himself to philosophy in such a spirit but if a man reads upon the subject and resorts to the philosophers merely because he wants to make a display at a banquet of his knowledge of hypothetical arguments what else is he doing but trying to win the admiration of some senator sitting by his side for there in Rome are found in truth the great resources while the riches of Nicopolis look to them like mere child's play hence it is difficult there for a man to control his own external impressions since the distracting influences at Rome are great I know a certain man who clung in tears to the knees of app aphrodite's and said that he was in misery for he had nothing left but a million and a half sister sees what then did app afroditi Stu did he laugh at him as you are laughing no he only said in a tone of amazement poor man how then did you manage to keep silence how did you endure it once when he had disconcerted the student who was reading the hypothetical arguments and the one who had set the other passage to read laughed at him Epictetus said to the latter you are laughing at yourself you did not give the young man a preliminary training nor discover whether he was able to follow these arguments but you treat him merely as a reader why is it then he added but to a mind unable to follow a judgment upon a complex argument we entrust the assigning of praise or blame for the passing of a judgment upon what is done well or ill if such a person speaks ill of another does the man in question pay any attention to him or if he praises another is the latter related when the one who is dispensing praise or blame is unable in matters as trivial as these to find the logical consequence this then is a starting point in philosophy a perception of the state of one's own governing principle for when once a man realizes that it is weak he will no longer wish to employ it upon great matters but as it is some who are unable to swallow the mortal by a whole treatise and set to work to eat that consequently they throw up or have indigestion after that come kollek's and fluxes and fevers but they ought first to have considered whether they have the requisite capacity however in a matter of theory it is easy enough to confuse the man who does not know but in the affairs of life a man does not submit himself to confession and we hate the person who has confuted us but Socrates used to tell us not to live a life unsub ejected to examination chapter 27 in how many ways do the external impressions arise and what age should we have ready at hand to deal with them the external impressions come to us in four ways either things are and seem so to be or they are not and do not seem to be either all they are and do not seem to be or they are not and yet seemed to be consequently in all these cases it is the business of the educated man to hit the mark but whatever be the thing that distresses us against that we ought to bring up our reinforcements if the things that distress arse arse off isms of Pierrot and the Academy let us bring up our reinforcements against them if they are the plausibility z' of things whereby we are led to think that certain things are good when they are not let us seek reinforcements at that point if the thing that distresses us is habit we should try to hunt up the reinforcements with which to oppose that what reinforcements then is it possible to find with which to oppose habit why the contrary habit you hear the common folk saying that poor man he is dead his father perished and his mother he was cut off yes and before his time and in a foreign land listen to the arguments on the other side tear yourself away from these expressions set over against one habit the contrary habit too meet sophistic arguments we must have the processes of logic and the exercise and the familiarity with these against the plausibility z' of things we must have our preconceptions clear polished like weapons and ready at hand when death appears to be an evil we must have ready at hand the argument that it is our duty to avoid evils and the death is an inevitable thing for what can I do where shall I go to escape it suppose that I am Sarpedon the son of Zeus in order that I may nobly say as he did seeing that I have left my home for the war I wish either to win the prize of valor myself or else to give someone else the chance to win it if I am unable to succeed in something myself I shall not begrudge another the achievement of some noble deed granted that such an act as Sarpedon is beyond us does not the other alternative fall within the compass of our powers and where can I go to escape death show me the country show me the people to whom I may go upon whom death does not come show me a magic charm against it if I have none what do you wish me to do I cannot avoid death instead of avoiding the fear of it shall I die in lamentation and trembling for the origin of sorrow is this to wish for something that does not come to pass therefore if I can change externals according to my own wish I change them but if I cannot I am ready to tear out the eyes of the man who stands in my way for it is man's nature not to endure to be deprived of the good not to endure to fall into the evil then finally when I can neither change the circumstances nor tear out the eyes of the man who stands in my way I sit down and groan and revile whom I can Zeus and the rest of the gods for if they do not care for me what are they to me yes you say but that will be in pious of you what then shall I get that is worse than what I have now in short we must remember this that unless piety and self-interest be conjoined piety cannot be maintained in any man do not these considerations seem urgent let the follower of Pierrot or of the Academy come and oppose us indeed I for my part have no leisure for such matters nor can I act as advocates to the commonly received opinion if I had a petty suit about a mere bit of land I should have called in someone else to be my advocate with what evidence then am I satisfied with that which belongs to the matter in hand to the question how perception arises whether through the whole body or from some particular part perhaps I do not know how to give a reasonable answer and both views perplex me but that you and I are not the same persons I know very certainly whence do I get this knowledge when I want to swallow something I never take the morsel to that place but to this when I wish to take bread I never take sweepings but I always go after the bread as to a mark and do you yourselves who take away the evidence of the senses do anything else who among you when he wishes to go to a bath goes to a mill instead what then naught we not to the best of our ability hold fast also to this maintain that is the commonly received opinion and be on our guard against the arguments that seek to overthrow it and who disputes that but only the man who has the power and the leisure should devote himself to these studies while the man who is trembling and perplexed and whose heart is broken within him ought to devote his leisure to something else 2:28 that we ought not to be angry with men and what are the little things and the great among men what is the reason that we are sent to anything the fact that it appears to us to be so it is impossible therefore to a sense to the thing that appears not to be so why because this is the nature of the intellect to agree to what is true to be dissatisfied with what it's false and to withhold judgment regarding what is uncertain what is the proof of this feel if you can that it is now night that is impossible put away the feeling that it is day that is impossible either feel or put away the feeling that the stars are even in number that is impossible when therefore a man a sense to a falsehood rest assured that it was not his wish to assent to it as false for every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth as Plato says it only seems to him that the false was true well now in the sphere of actions what have we corresponding to the true and the false here in the sphere of perceptions duty and what is contrary to duty the profitable and the unprofitable that which is appropriate to me and that which is not appropriate to me and whatever else is similar to these cannot a man then think that something is profitable to him and yet not choose it he cannot how of Medea who says now now I learn what horrors I intend but passion overpowers the better counsel it is because the very gratification of her passion and the taking of vengeance on her husband she regards as more profitable than the saving of her children yes but she is deceived show her clearly that she is deceived and she will not do it but so long as you do not show it what else has she to follow but that which appears to her to be true nothing why then are you you angry with her because the poor woman has gone astray in the greatest matters and has been transformed from a human being into a viper why do you not if anything rather pity her as we pity the blind and the halt why do we not pity those who have been made blind and halt in their governing faculties whoever then bears this clearly in mind that the measure of man's every action is the impression of his senses now this impression may be formed rightly or wrongly if rightly the man is blameless if wrongly the man himself pays the penalty for it is impossible that the man who has gone astray as one person while the man who suffers is another whoever remembers this I say will not be enraged at any one will not be angry with anyone will not revile anyone will not blame nor hate nor take offence at anyone so you conclude that such great and terrible things have their origin in this the impression of one senses in this and nothing else the Iliad is nothing but a sense impression and a poet's use of sense impressions there came to Alexander an impression to carry off the wife of Menelaus and an impression came to Helen to follow him now if an impression had led Menelaus to feel that it was a gain to be deprived of such a wife what would have happened we should have lost not merely the Iliad but the Odyssey as well then do matters of such great import depend upon one that is so small but what do you mean by matters of such great import wars and factions and deaths of many men and destructions of cities and what is their great in all this what nothing great in this why what is they great in the death of many oxen and many sheep and the burning and destruction of many nests of swallows or stalks is there any similarity between this and that a great similarity men's bodies perished in the one case and bodies of oxen and sheep in the other petty dwellings of men were burned and so were nests of stalks what is their great or dreadful about that or else show me in what respect a man's house and a stork's nest differ as a place of habitation is there any similarity between a stork and a man what is that you say as far as the body is concerned a great similarity except that the petit houses of men are made of beams and tiles and bricks but the nest of a stork is made of sticks and clay does a man then differ in nowise from a stork far from it but in these matters he does not differ in what wise then does he differ seek and you will find that he differs in some other respect see whether it be not in his understanding what he does see whether it be not in his capacity for social action in his faithfulness his self respect his steadfastness his security from error his intelligence where then is the great evil and the great good among men just where the difference is and if that element wherein the difference lies be preserved and stands firm and well fortified on every side and neither his self-respect nor his faithfulness nor his intelligence be destroyed then the man also is preserved but if any of these qualities be destroyed or taken by storm then the man also is destroyed and it is in this fear that the great things are did Alexander come to his great fall when the Helene's are sailed Troy with their ships and when they were devastating the land and when his brothers were dying not at all for no one comes to his fall because of another's deed but what went on then was merely the destruction of stalks nests nay he came to his fall when he lost his self-respect his faithfulness his respect for the laws of hospitality his decency of behavior when did Achilles come to his fall when Patroclus died far from it but when Achilles himself was enraged when he was crying about a poultry damsel when he forgot that he was there not to get sweethearts but to make war these are the foals that come to mankind this is the siege of their city this is the raising of it when their correct judgments are torn down when these are destroyed then when women are driven off into captivity and children are enslaved and when the men themselves are slaughtered are not all these things evils where do you get the justification for adding this opinion let me know also no on the contrary do you let me know where you get the justification for saying that they are not evils let us turn to our standards produce your preconceptions for this is why I cannot be sufficiently astonished at what men do in a case where we wish to judge of weights we do not judge at haphazard where we wish to judge what is straight and what is crooked we do not judge and haphazard in short where it makes any difference to us to know the truth in the case no one of us will do anything at haphazard yet where there is involved the first and only cause of acting a right or erring of prosperity or adversity of failure or success there alone are we have hazard and headlong there I have nothing like a balance there nothing like a standard but some sense impression comes and immediately I go and act upon it what now am i any better than agamemnon or achilles are they because of following the impressions of their senses to do and suffer such evils while I am to be satisfied with the impression of my senses and what tragedy has any other source than this what is the atreya so Euripides his sense impression the Oedipus of Sophocles his sense impression the Phoenix his sense impression the Hippolyta's his sense impression what kind of man then do you think he is who pays no attention to this matter what are those men called who follow every impression of their senses they are called madmen are we then acting differently chapter 29 of steadfastness the essence of the good is a certain kind of moral purpose and that of the evil is a certain kind of moral purpose what then are the external things they are materials for the moral purpose in dealing with which it will find its own proper good or evil how will it finds the good if it does not admire the materials for the judgments about the materials if they be correct make the moral purpose good but if they be crooked and awry they make it evil this is the law which God has ordained and he says if you wish any good thing get it from yourself you say no but from someone else do not so but get it from yourself for the rest when the tyrant threatens and summons me I answer whom are you threatening if he says I will put you in Chains I reply he is threatening my hands and my feet if he says I will behead you I answer he is threatening my neck if he says I will throw you into prison I say he is threatening my whole poultry body and if he threatens me with exile I give the same answer does he then threaten you not at all if I feel that all this is nothing to me not at all but if I am afraid of any of these threats it is I who me threatens who is there left then for me to fear the man who is master of what the themes that are under my control but there is no such man the man who is the master of things that are not under my control and what do I care for them do you philosophers then teach us to despise our kings far from it who among us teaches you to dispute their claim to the things over which they have authority take my poultry body take my property take reputation take those who are about me if I persuade any to lay claim to these things let some man truly accuse me yes but I wish to control your judgments also and who has given you this authority how can you have the power to overcome another's judgments by bringing fear to bear upon him he says I shall overcome him you failed to realize that the judgement overcame itself it was not overcome by something else as nothing else can overcome moral purpose but it overcomes itself for this reason to the law of God is most good and most just lets the better always prevail over the worse ten are better than one you say for what for putting in Chains for killing for dragging away where they will for taking away a man's property ten overcome one therefore in the point in which they are stronger in what then are they worse if the one has correct judgments and the ten have not what then can they overcome in this point how can they but if they are weighed in the balance must not the heavier draw down the scales so that a Socrates may suffer what he did at the hands of the Athenians slave why do you say Socrates speak of the matter as it really is and say that the poultry body of Socrates may be carried off and dragged to prison by those who were stronger than he and that someone may give hemlock to the poultry body of Socrates and that it may grow cold and die does this seem marvelous to you does this seem unjust for this do you blame God did Socrates then have no compensation for this in what did the essence of the good consist for him to whom shall we listen to you or to Socrates himself and what does he say Anytus and Meletus can kill me but they cannot hurt me and again if so it is pleasing to God so let it be but do you prove that one who holds inferior judgments prevails over the man who is superior in point of judgments you will not be able to prove this no nor even come near proving it for this is a law of nature and of God let the better always prevail over the worse prevail in what in that in which it is better one body is stronger than another body several persons are stronger than one the thief is stronger than the man who is not a thief that is why I lost my lump because in the matter of keeping awake the thief was better than I was however he bought a lamp for a very high price for a lamp he became a thief for a lamp he became faithless for a lamp he became beasts like this seemed to him to be profitable very well but now someone has taken hold of me by my cloak and pulls me into the marketplace and then others shouted me philosopher what good have your judgments done you see you are being dragged off to prison see you are going to have your head cut off and what kind of introduction to philosophy could I have studied which would prevent me from being dragged off if a man who is stronger than I should take hold of my cloak or would prevent me from being thrown into prison if ten men should hustle me and throw me unto it have I then learns nothing else I have learned to see that everything which happens if it be outside the realm of my moral purpose is nothing to me have you then derive no benefit from this principle for the present case why then do you seek your benefit in something other than that in which you have learned that it is well as I say it in the prison I say the fellow who shouts this at me neither understands what is meant nor follows what is said nor has he taken any pains at all to know what philosophers say or what they do don't mind him but come out of the prison again if you have no further need of me in the prison I shall come out if you ever need me there again I shall go back in for how long for so long as reason chooses that I remain with my poultry body but when reason does not so choose take it and good health to you only let me not give up my life irrationally only let me not give up my life faint heartedly or for some casual pretext for again God does not so desire for he has need of such a universe and of such men who go to and fro upon earth but if he gives the signal to retreat as he did to Socrates I must obey Him who gives the signal as I would a general what then must I say these things to the multitude for what purpose is it not sufficient for a man himself to believe them for example when the children come up to us and clap their hands and say today is the good Saturnalia do we say to them all this is not good not at all but we clap our hands to them and do you too therefore when you are unable to make a man change his opinion realize that he is a child and clap your hands to him but if you do not want to do this you have merely to hold your peace all this a man ought to remember and when he is summoned to meet some such difficulty he ought to know that the time has come to show whether we are educated for a young man leaving school and facing a difficulty is like one who has practiced the analysis of syllogisms and if someone propounds him one that is easy to solve he says nay rather propounds me one that is cunningly involved so that I may get exercise from it also the athletes are displeased with youths of lightweight he cannot lift me says one yonder is a sturdy young man Oh No but when the crisis calls he has to weep and say I wanted to keep on learning learning what if you do not learn the things so as to be able to manifest them in action what did you learn them for I fancy that someone among these who are sitting here is in travail with his own soul and is saying alas that such a difficulty does not come to me now as that which has come to this fellow alas that now I must be worn out sitting in a corner when I might be crowned at Olympia when will someone bring me word of such a contest you ought all to be thus minded but among the gladiators of Caesar there are some who complain because no one brings them out or matches them with an antagonist and they pray to God and go to their managers begging to fight in single combat and yet will no one of you display a like spirit I wanted to sail to Rome for this very purpose and to see what my athlete is doing what practice he is following in his task I do not want says he this kind of a task what is it in your power to take any task you want you have been given such a body such parents such brothers such a country such a position in it and then do you come to me and say change the task for me what do you not possess resources to enable you to utilize that which has been given you ought to say it is yours to set the task mine to practice it well no but do you say do not propose to me such-and-such a hypothetical syllogism but rather such-and-such a one do not urge upon me such-and-such a conclusion but rather such-and-such a one a time will soon come when the tragic actors will think that their masks and busken's and the long robe are themselves man all these things you have as a subject matter and a task say something so that we may know whether you are a tragic actor or a buffoon for both of these have everything but their lines in common therefore if one should take away from him both his busken's and his mask and bring him on the stage as a me shade of an actor is the tragic actor lost or does he abide if he has a voice he abides and so it is in actual life take a governorship I take it and having done so I show how an educated man comports himself lay aside the latter clave and having put on rags come forward in a character to correspond what then has it not been given me to display a fine voice in what role then do you mount the stage now as a witness summons by God God says go you and bear witness for me for you are worthy to be produced by me as a witness is any of those things which lie outside the range of the moral purpose either good or evil do I enjoy any man have I put each man's advantage under the control of any but himself what kind of witness do you bear forgot I am in sore straits O Lord and in misfortune no one regards me no one gives me anything all blame me and speak ill of me is this the witness that you are going to bear and is this the way in which you are going to disgrace the summons which he gave you in that he bestowed this honor upon you and deemed you worthy to be brought forward in order to bear testimony so important but the one who has authority over you declares I pronounce you impious and profane what has happened to you I have been pronounced in pious and profane nothing else nothing but if he had passed judgment upon some hypothetical syllogism and had made a declaration I judged the statement if it is day there is light to be false what has happened to the hypothetical syllogism who is being judged in this case who has been condemned the hypothetical syllogism and will the man who has been deceived in his judgement about it who in the world then is this man who has authority to make any declaration about you does he know what piety or impiety is as he pondered the matter has he learned it where under whose instruction and yet a musician pays no attention to him if he declares that the lowest string is the highest nor does a geometry ssin if the man decides that the lines extending from the center of the circumference of a circle are not equal but shall the truly educated man pay attention to an uninstructed person when he passes judgment on what is holy and unholy and on what is just and unjust how great is the injustice committed by the educated in so doing is this then what you have learned here will you not leave to others mannequins incapable of taking pains the petty quibbles about these things so that they may sit in a corner and gather their petty fees or grumble because nobody gives them anything and will you not yourself come forward and make use of what you have learned for what is lacking now is not quibbles may the books of the Stoics are full of quibbles what then is the thing lacking now the man to make use of them the man to bear witness to the argument spy his acts this is the character I would have you assume but you may no longer use old examples in the school but may have some example from your own time also whose part is it then to contemplate these matters the part of him who devotes himself to learning for man is a kind of animal that loves contemplation but it is disgraceful to contemplate these things like runaway slaves nay sit rather free from distractions and listen now to tragic actor and now to the sitter road and not as those Runaways do for at the very moment when one of them is paying attention and praising the tragic actor he takes a glance around and then if someone mentions the word master they are instantly all in a flutter and upset it is disgraceful for men who are philosophers to contemplate the works of nature in this period for what is a master one man is not master of another man but death and life and pleasure and hardship are his masters so bring Caesar to me if he be without these things and you shall see how steadfast I am but when he comes with them thundering and lightning and I am afraid of them what else have I done but recognised my master like the runaway slave but so long as I have as it were only a respite from these threats I too am acting like a runaway slave who is a spectator in a theatre I bathe I drink I sing but I do it all in fear and misery but if I emancipate myself from my masters that is those things which render masters terrifying what further trouble do I have what master anymore what then must I proclaim this to all men no but I must treat with consideration those who are not philosophers by a profession and say this man advises for me that which he thinks good in his own case therefore I excused him for Socrates excused the jailer who wept for him when he was about to drink the poison and said how generously he has wept for us does he then say to the jailer this is why we sent the women away no but he makes this latter remark to his intimate friends to those who are fit to hear it but the jailer he treats with consideration like a child chapter xxx what a door we have ready at hand in difficulties when you come into the presence of some prominent man remember that another looks from above on what is taking place and that you must please him rather than this man he then who is above asks of you in your school what did you call exile and imprisonment and bonds and death and disrepute I called them things indifferent why then do you call them now have they changed at all no have you then changed no tell me then what things are indifferent those that are independent of the moral purpose tell me also what follows things independent of the moral purpose are nothing to me tell me also what you thought were the good things a proper moral purpose and a proper use of external impressions and what was the end to follow thee do you say all that even now I say the same things even now then enter in full of confidence and mindful of all this and you shall see what it means to be a young man who has studied what he ought when he is in the presence of men who have not studied as for me by the gods I fancy that you will feel somewhat like this why do we make such great and elaborate preparations to meet what amounts to nothing was this what authority amounted to was this what the vestibule the Chamberlain's the armed guards amounted to was it for all this that I listened to those long discourses why all this never amounted to anything but I was preparing for it as though it was something great you

Channel: Vox Stoica

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Keywords: Stoicism, stoical, stoic, morality, philosophy, Tao, stoicism 101, stoic philosophy, vox stoica, robin homer, Epictetus, The Discourses of Epictetus, The Enchiridion, Epictetus Discourses, Stoicism audiobook, Epictetus Enchiridion, The Enchiridion of Epictetus, Epictetus Stoicism, Epictetus Audiobook, The Discourses Audiobook, Audio Book, epictetus (author), discourses of epictetus, stoic audio books, Stoicism audio book, epictetus, self improvement books

Id: vdbrjVyO0Dk

Length: 189min 12sec (11352 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2020