A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
nobler than you are. These things you must contrive, if you choose to
go by the second path in order not to be pitied. But the first way is
both impracticable and long, to attempt the very thing which Zeus has
not been able to do, to convince all men what things are good and bad.
Is this power given to you? This only is given to you, to convince
yourself; and you have not convinced yourself. Then I ask you, do you
attempt to persuade other men? and who has lived so long with you as
you with yourself? and who has so much power of convincing you as you
have of convincing yourself; and who is better disposed and nearer to
you than you are to yourself? How then have you not yet convinced
yourself in order to learn? At present are not things upside down? Is
this what you have been earnest about doing, to learn to be free from
grief and free from disturbance, and not to be humbled (abject), and to
be free? Have you not heard then that there is only one way which leads
to this end, to give up (dismiss) the things which do not depend on the
will, to withdraw from them, and to admit that they belong to others?
For another man then to have an opinion about you, of what kind is it?
It is a thing independent of the will—Then is it nothing to you? It is
nothing. When then you are still vexed at this and disturbed, do you
think that you are convinced about good and evil?
ON FREEDOM FROM FEAR.—What makes the tyrant formidable? The guards, you
say, and their swords, and the men of the bedchamber, and those who
exclude them who would enter. Why then if you bring a boy (child) to
the tyrant when he is with his guards, is he not afraid; or is it
because the child does not understand these things? If then any man
does understand what guards are and that they have swords, and comes to
the tyrant for this very purpose because he wishes to die on account of
some circumstance and seeks to die easily by the hand of another, is he
afraid of the guards? No, for he wishes for the thing which makes the
guards formidable. If then any man neither wishing to die nor to live
by all means, but only as it may be permitted, approaches the tyrant
what hinders him from approaching the tyrant without fear? Nothing. If
then a man has the same opinion about his property as the man whom I
have instanced has about his body; and also about his children and his
wife, and in a word is so affected by some madness or despair that he
cares not whether he possesses them or not, but like children who are
playing with shells (quarrel) about the play, but do not trouble
themselves about the shells, so he too has set no value on the
materials (things), but values the pleasure that he has with them and
the occupation, what tyrant is then formidable to him, or what guards
or what swords?
What hinders a man, who has clearly separated (comprehended) these
things, from living with a light heart and bearing easily the reins,
quietly expecting everything which can happen, and enduring that which
has already happened? Would you have me to bear poverty? Come and you
will know what poverty is when it has found one who can act well the
part of a poor man. Would you have me to possess power? Let me have
power, and also the trouble of it. Well, banishment? Wherever I shall
go, there it will be well with me; for here also where I am, it was not
because of the place that it was well with me, but because of my
opinions which I shall carry off with me, for neither can any man
deprive me of them; but my opinions alone are mine and they cannot be
taken from me, and I am satisfied while I have them, wherever I may be
and whatever I am doing. But now it is time to die. Why do you say to
die? Make no tragedy show of the thing, but speak of it as it is. It is
now time for the matter (of the body) to be resolved into the things
out of which it was composed. And what is the formidable thing here?
what is going to perish of the things which are in the universe? what
new thing or wondrous is going to happen? Is it for this reason that a
tyrant is formidable? Is it for this reason that the guards appear to
have swords which are large and sharp? Say this to others; but I have
considered about all these things; no man has power over me. I have
been made free; I know his commands, no man can now lead me as a slave.
I have a proper person to assert my freedom; I have proper judges. (I
say) are you not the master of my body? What then is that to me? Are
you not the master of my property? What then is that to me? Are you not
the master of my exile or of my chains? Well, from all these things and
all the poor body itself I depart at your bidding, when you please.
Make trial of your power, and you will know how far it reaches.
Whom then can I still fear? Those who are over the bedchamber? Lest
they should do, what? Shut me out? If they find that I wish to enter,
let them shut me out. Why then do you go to the doors? Because I think
it befits me, while the play (sport) lasts, to join in it. How then are
you not shut out? Because unless some one allows me to go in, I do not
choose to go in, but am always content with that which happens; for I
think that what God chooses is better than what I choose. I will attach
myself as a minister and follower to him; I have the same movements
(pursuits) as he has, I have the same desires; in a word, I have the
same will ([Greek: sunthelo]). There is no shutting out for me, but for
those who would force their way in. Why then do not I force my way in?
Because I know that nothing good is distributed within to those who
enter. But when I hear any man called fortunate because he is honored
by Cæsar, I say what does he happen to get? A province (the government
of a province). Does he also obtain an opinion such as he ought? The
office of a Prefect. Does he also obtain the power of using his office
well? Why do I still strive to enter (Cæsar’s chamber)? A man scatters
dried figs and nuts: the children seize them, and fight with one
another; men do not, for they think them to be a small matter. But if a
man should throw about shells, even the children do not seize them.
Provinces are distributed: let children look to that. Money is
distributed; let children look to that. Prætorships, consulships, are
distributed; let children scramble for them, let them be shut out,
beaten, kiss the hands of the giver, of the slaves: but to me these are
only dried figs and nuts. What then? If you fail to get them, while
Cæsar is scattering them about, do not be troubled; if a dried fig come
into your lap, take it and eat it; for so far you may value even a fig.
But if I shall stoop down and turn another over, or be turned over by
another, and shall flatter those who have got into (Cæsar’s) chamber,
neither is a dried fig worth the trouble, nor anything else of the
things which are not good, which the philosophers have persuaded me not
to think good.
TO A PERSON WHO HAD BEEN CHANGED TO A CHARACTER OF SHAMELESSNESS.—When
you see another man in the possession of power (magistracy), set
against this the fact that you have not the want (desire) of power;
when you see another rich, see what you possess in place of riches: for
if you possess nothing in place of them, you are miserable; but if you
have not the want of riches, know that you possess more than this man
possesses and what is worth much more.
WHAT THINGS WE OUGHT TO DESPISE AND WHAT THINGS WE OUGHT TO VALUE.—The
difficulties of all men are about external things, their helplessness
is about external. What shall I do? how will it be? how will it turn
out? will this happen? will that? All these are the words of those who
are turning themselves to things which are not within the power of the
will. For who says, How shall I not assent to that which is false? how
shall I not turn away from the truth? If a man be of such a good
disposition as to be anxious about these things I will remind him of
this: Why are you anxious? The thing is in your own power, be assured;
do not be precipitate in assenting before you apply the natural rule.
On the other side, if a man is anxious (uneasy) about desire, lest it
fail in its purpose and miss its end, and with respect to the avoidance
of things, lest he should fall into that which he would avoid, I will
first kiss (love) him, because he throws away the things about which
others are in a flutter (others desire) and their fears, and employs
his thoughts about his own affairs and his own condition. Then I shall
say to him: If you do not choose to desire that which you will fail to
obtain nor to attempt to avoid that into which you will fall, desire
nothing which belongs to (which is in the power of) others, nor try to
avoid any of the things which are not in your power. If you do not
observe this rule, you must of necessity fail in your desires and fall
into that which you would avoid. What is the difficulty here? where is
there room for the words How will it be? and How will it turn out? and
Will this happen or that?
Now is not that which will happen independent of the will? Yes. And the
nature of good and of evil, is it not in the things which are within
the power of the will? Yes. Is it in your power then to treat according
to nature everything which happens? Can any person hinder you? No man.
No longer then say to me, How will it be? For, however it may be, you
will dispose of it well, and the result to you will be a fortunate one.
What would Hercules have been if he said: How shall a great lion not
appear to me, or a great boar, or savage men? And what do you care for
that? If a great boar appear, you will fight a greater fight; if bad
men appear, you will relieve the earth of the bad. Suppose then that I
lose my life in this way. You will die a good man, doing a noble act.
For since he must certainly die, of necessity a man must be found doing
something, either following the employment of a husbandman, or digging,
or trading, or serving in a consulship, or suffering from indigestion
or from diarrhoea. What then do you wish to be doing when you are found
by death? I, for my part, would wish to be found doing something which
belongs to a man, beneficent, suitable to the general interest, noble.
But if I cannot be found doing things so great, I would be found doing
at least that which I cannot be hindered from doing, that which is
permitted me to do, correcting myself, cultivating the faculty which
makes use of appearances, laboring at freedom from the affects
(laboring at tranquillity of mind); rendering to the relations of life
their due. If I succeed so far, also (I would be found) touching on
(advancing to) the third topic (or head) safety in forming judgments
about things. If death surprises me when I am busy about these things,
it is enough for me if I can stretch out my hands to God and say: The
means which I have received from thee for seeing thy administration (of
the world) and following it I have not neglected; I have not dishonored
thee by my acts; see how I have used my perceptions, see how I have
used my preconceptions; have I ever blamed thee? have I been
discontented with anything that happens, or wished it to be otherwise?
have I wished to transgress the (established) relations (of things)?
That thou hast given me life, I thank thee for what thou hast given. So
long as I have used the things which are thine I am content. Take them
back and place them wherever thou mayest choose, for thine were all
things, thou gavest them to me. Is it not enough to depart in this
state of mind? and what life is better and more becoming than that of a
man who is in this state of mind? and what end is more happy?
ABOUT PURITY (CLEANLINESS).—Some persons raise a question whether the
social feeling is contained in the nature of man; and yet I think that