The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes
right: has any of you such power as Socrates had, in all his
intercourse with men, of winning them over to his own convictions? Nay,
but _you_ must needs be swayed hither and thither by the uninstructed.
How comes it then that they prove so much stronger than you? Because
they speak from the fulness of the heart—their low, corrupt views are
their real convictions: whereas your fine sentiments are but from the
lips, outwards; that is why they are so nerveless and dead. It turns
one’s stomach to listen to _your_ exhortations, and hear of your
miserable Virtue, that you prate of up and down. Thus it is that the
Vulgar prove too strong for you. Everywhere strength, everywhere
victory waits your conviction!
C
In general, any methods of discipline applied to the body which tend to
modify its desires or repulsions, are good—for ascetic ends. But if
done for display, they betray at once a man who keeps an eye on outward
show; who has an ulterior purpose, and is looking for spectators to
shout, “Oh what a great man!” This is why Apollonius so well said: “If
you are bent upon a little private discipline, wait till you are
choking with heat some day—then take a mouthful of cold water, and spit
it out again, and tell no man!”
CI
Study how to give as one that is sick: that thou mayest hereafter give
as one that is whole. Fast; drink water only; abstain altogether from
desire, that thou mayest hereafter conform thy desire to Reason.
CII
Thou wouldst do good unto men? then show them by thine own example what
kind of men philosophy can make, and cease from foolish trifling.
Eating, do good to them that eat with thee; drinking, to them that
drink with thee; yield unto all, give way, and bear with them. Thus
shalt thou do them good: but vent not upon them thine own evil humour!
CIII
Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in chorus: so some
cannot walk alone.
Man, if thou art aught, strive to walk alone and hold converse with
thyself, instead of skulking in the chorus! at length think; look
around thee; bestir thyself, that thou mayest know who thou art!
CIV
You would fain be victor at the Olympic games, you say. Yes, but weigh
the conditions, weigh the consequences; then and then only, lay to your
hand—if it be for your profit. You must live by rule, submit to diet,
abstain from dainty meats, exercise your body perforce at stated hours,
in heat or in cold; drink no cold water, nor, it may be, wine. In a
word, you must surrender yourself wholly to your trainer, as though to
a physician.
Then in the hour of contest, you will have to delve the ground, it may
chance dislocate an arm, sprain an ankle, gulp down abundance of yellow
sand, be scourge with the whip—and with all this sometimes lose the
victory. Count the cost—and then, if your desire still holds, try the
wrestler’s life. Else let me tell you that you will be behaving like a
pack of children playing now at wrestlers, now at gladiators; presently
falling to trumpeting and anon to stage-playing, when the fancy takes
them for what they have seen. And you are even the same: wrestler,
gladiator, philosopher, orator all by turns and none of them with your
whole soul. Like an ape, you mimic what you see, to one thing constant
never; the thing that is familiar charms no more. This is because you
never undertook aught with due consideration, nor after strictly
testing and viewing it from every side; no, your choice was
thoughtless; the glow of your desire had waxed cold . . . .
Friend, bethink you first what it is you would do, and then what your
own nature is able to bear. Would you be a wrestler, consider your
shoulders, your thighs, your loins—not all men are formed to the same
end. Think you to be a philosopher while acting as you do? think you go
on thus eating, thus drinking, giving way in like manner to wrath and
to displeasure? Nay, you must watch, you must labour; overcome certain
desires; quit your familiar friends, submit to be despised by your
slave, to be held in derision by them that meet you, to take the lower
place in all things, in office, in positions of authority, in courts of
law.
Weigh these things fully, and then, if you will, lay to your hand; if
as the price of these things you would gain Freedom, Tranquillity, and
passionless Serenity.
CV
He that hath no musical instruction is a child in Music; he that hath
no letters is a child in Learning; he that is untaught is a child in
Life.
CVI
Can any profit be derived from these men? Aye, from all.
“What, even from a reviler?”
Why, tell me what profit a wrestler gains from him who exercises him
beforehand? The very greatest: he trains me in the practice of
endurance, of controlling my temper, of gentle ways. You deny it. What,
the man who lays hold of my neck, and disciplines loins and shoulders,
does me good, . . . while he that trains me to keep my temper does me
none? This is what it means, not knowing how to gain advantage from
men! Is my neighbour bad? Bad to himself, but good to me: he brings my
good temper, my gentleness into play. Is my father bad? Bad to himself,
but good to me. This is the rod of Hermes; _touch what you will with
it_, they say, _and it becomes gold_. Nay, but bring what you will and
I will transmute it into Good. Bring sickness, bring death, bring
poverty and reproach, bring trial for life—all these things through the
rod of Hermes shall be turned to profit.
CVII
Till then these sound opinions have taken firm root in you, and you
have gained a measure of strength for your security, I counsel you to
be cautious in associating with the uninstructed. Else whatever
impressions you receive upon the tablets of your mind in the School
will day by day melt and disappear, like wax in the sun. Withdraw then
somewhere far from the sun, while you have these waxen sentiments.
CVIII
We must approach this matter in a different way; it is great and
mystical: it is no common thing; nor given to every man. Wisdom alone,
it may be, will not suffice for the care of youth: a man needs also a
certain measure of readiness—an aptitude for the office; aye, and
certain bodily qualities; and above all, to be counselled of God
Himself to undertake this post; even as He counselled Socrates to fill
the post of one who confutes error, assigning to Diogenes the royal
office of high reproof, and to Zeno that of positive instruction.
Whereas _you_ would fain set up for a physician provided with nothing
but drugs! Where and how they should be applied you neither know nor
care.
CIX
If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and
turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a
Philosopher, nor suffer others to call you so. Say rather: He is in
error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I give in my adhesion
to what I did before; nor has my mode of dealing with the things of
sense undergone any change.
CX
When a friend inclined to Cynic views asked Epictetus, what sort of
person a true Cynic should be, requesting a general sketch of the
system, he answered:—“We will consider that at leisure. At present I
content myself with saying this much: If a man put his hand to so
weighty a matter without God, the wrath of God abides upon him. That
which he covets will but bring upon him public shame. Not even on
finding himself in a well-ordered house does a man step forward and say
to himself, I must be master here! Else the lord of that house takes
notice of it, and, seeing him insolently giving orders, drags him forth
and chastises him. So it is also in this great City, the World. Here
also is there a Lord of the House, who orders all thing:—
“Thou are the Sun! in thine orbit thou hast power to make the year and
the seasons; to bid the fruits of the earth to grow and increase, the
winds arise and fall; thou canst in due measure cherish with thy warmth
the frames of men; go make thy circuit, and thus minister unto all from
the greatest to the least! . . .”
“Thou canst lead a host against Troy; be Agamemnon!”
“Thou canst meet Hector in single combat; be Achilles!”
“But had Thersites stepped forward and claimed the chief command, he
had been met with a refusal, or obtained it only to his own shame and
confusion of face, before a cloud of witnesses.”
CXI
Others may fence themselves with walls and houses, when they do such
deeds as these, and wrap themselves in darkness—aye, they have many a
device to hide themselves. Another may shut his door and station one
before his chamber to say, if any comes, _He has gone forth! he is not
at leisure!_ But the true Cynic will have none of these things; instead
of them, he must wrap himself in Modesty: else he will but bring
himself to shame, naked and under the open sky. _That_ is his house;
that is his door; that is the slave that guards his chamber; that is
his darkness!
CXII
Death? let it come when it will, whether it smite but a part of the
whole: Fly, you tell me—fly! But whither shall I fly? Can any man cast
me beyond the limits of the World? It may not be! And whithersoever I
go, there shall I still find Sun, Moon, and Stars; there I shall find
dreams, and omens, and converse with the Gods!
CXIII
Furthermore the true Cynic must know that he is sent as a Messenger
from God to men, to show unto them that as touching good and evil they
are in error; looking for these where they are not to be found, nor
ever bethinking themselves where they are. And like Diogenes when
brought before Philip after the battle of Chaeronea, the Cynic must
remember that he is a Spy. For a Spy he really is—to bring back word
what things are on Man’s side, and what against him. And when he had
diligently observed all, he must come back with a true report, not
terrified into announcing them to be foes that are no foes, nor
otherwise perturbed or confounded by the things of sense.
CXIV
How can it be that one who hath nothing, neither raiment, nor house,
nor home, nor bodily tendance, nor servant, nor city, should yet live
tranquil and contented? Behold God hath sent you a man to show you in
act and deed that it may be so. Behold me! I have neither house nor
possessions nor servants: the ground is my couch; I have no wife, no
children, no shelter—nothing but earth and sky, and one poor cloak. And
what lack I yet? am I not untouched by sorrow, by fear? am I not free?
. . . when have I laid anything to the charge of God or Man? when have
I accused any? hath any of you seen me with a sorrowful countenance?
And in what wise treat I those of whom you stand in fear and awe? Is it
not as slaves? Who when he seeth me doth not think that he beholdeth
his Master and his King?
CXV
Give thyself more diligently to reflection: know thyself: take counsel
with the Godhead: without God put thine hand unto nothing!
CXVI
“But to marry and to rear offspring,” said the young man, “will the
Cynic hold himself bound to undertake this as a chief duty?”
Grant me a republic of wise men, answered Epictetus, and perhaps none
will lightly take the Cynic life upon him. For on whose account should
he embrace that method of life? Suppose however that he does, there
will then be nothing to hinder his marrying and rearing offspring. For
his wife will be even such another as himself, and likewise her father;
and in like manner will his children be brought up.
But in the present condition of things, which resembles an Army in
battle array, ought not the Cynic to be free from all distraction and
given wholly to the service of God, so that he can go in and out among
men, neither fettered by the duties nor entangled by the relations of
common life? For if he transgress them, he will forfeit the character
of a good man and true; whereas if he observe them, there is an end to