The Golden Sayings of Epictetus Part 5

"In the Schools, what didst thou call exile, imprisonment, bonds, death and shame?"

"I called them things indifferent."

"What then dost thou call them now? Are they at all changed?"

"No."

"Is it then thou that art changed?"

"No."

"Say then, what are things indifferent?"

"Things that are not in our power."

"Say then, what follows?"

"That things which are not in our power are nothing to me."

"Say also what things you hold to be good."

"A will such as it ought to be, and a right use of the things of sense."

"And what is the end?"

"To follow Thee!"

LII

"That Socrates should ever have been so treated by the Athenians!"

Slave! why say "Socrates"? Speak of the thing as it is: That ever then the poor body of Socrates should have been dragged away and haled by main force to prison! That ever hemlock should have been given to the body of Socrates; that that should have breathed its life away!--Do you marvel at this? Do you hold this unjust? Is it for this that you accuse G.o.d? Had Socrates no compensation for this? Where then for him was the ideal Good? Whom shall we hearken to, you or him? And what says he?

"Anytus and Melitus may put me to death: to injure me is beyond their power."

And again:--

"If such be the will of G.o.d, so let it be."

LIII

Nay, young man, for heaven's sake; but once thou hast heard these words, go home and say to thyself:--"It is not Epictetus that has told me these things: how indeed should he? No, it is some gracious G.o.d through him.

Else it would never have entered his head to tell me them--he that is not used to speak to any one thus. Well, then, let us not lie under the wrath of G.o.d, but be obedient unto Him."---Nay, indeed; but if a raven by its croaking bears thee any sign, it is not the raven but G.o.d that sends the sign through the raven; and if He signifies anything to thee through human voice, will He not cause the man to say these words to thee, that thou mayest know the power of the Divine--how He sends a sign to some in one way and to others in another, and on the greatest and highest matters of all signifies His will through the n.o.blest messenger?

What else does the poet mean:--

I spake unto him erst Myself, and sent Hermes the shining One, to check and warn him, The husband not to slay, nor woo the wife!

LIV

In the same way my friend Herac.l.i.tus, who had a trifling suit about a petty farm at Rhodes, first showed the judges that his cause was just, and then at the finish cried, "I will not entreat you: nor do I care what sentence you pa.s.s. It is you who are on your trial, not I!"--And so he ended the case.

LV

As for us, we behave like a herd of deer. When they flee from the huntsman's feathers in affright, which way do they turn? What haven of safety do they make for? Why, they rush upon the nets! And thus they perish by confounding what they should fear with that wherein no danger lies... . Not death or pain is to be feared, but the fear of death or pain. Well said the poet therefore:--

Death has no terror; only a Death of shame!

LVI

How is it then that certain external things are said to be natural, and other contrary to Nature?

Why, just as it might be said if we stood alone and apart from others.

A foot, for instance, I will allow it is natural should be clean. But if you take it as a foot, and as a thing which does not stand by itself, it will beseem it (if need be) to walk in the mud, to tread on thorns, and sometimes even to be cut off, for the benefit of the whole body; else it is no longer a foot. In some such way we should conceive of ourselves also. What art thou?--A man.--Looked at as standing by thyself and separate, it is natural for thee in health and wealth long to live.

But looked at as a Man, and only as a part of a Whole, it is for that Whole's sake that thou shouldest at one time fall sick, at another brave the perils of the sea, again, know the meaning of want and perhaps die an early death. Why then repine? Knowest thou not that as the foot is no more a foot if detached from the body, so thou in like case art no longer a Man? For what is a Man? A part of a City:--first of the City of G.o.ds and Men; next, of that which ranks nearest it, a miniature of the universal City... . In such a body, in such a world enveloping us, among lives like these, such things must happen to one or another. Thy part, then, being here, is to speak of these things as is meet, and to order them as befits the matter.

LVII

That was a good reply which Diogenes made to a man who asked him for letters of recommendation.--"That you are a man, he will know when he sees you;--whether a good or bad one, he will know if he has any skill in discerning the good or bad. But if he has none, he will never know, though I write him a thousand times."--It is as though a piece of silver money desired to be recommended to some one to be tested. If the man be a good judge of silver, he will know: the coin will tell its own tale.

LVIII

Even as the traveller asks his way of him that he meets, inclined in no wise to bear to the right rather than to the left (for he desires only the way leading whither he would go), so should we come unto G.o.d as to a guide; even as we use our eyes without admonishing them to show us some things rather than others, but content to receive the images of such things as they present to us. But as it is we stand anxiously watching the victim, and with the voice of supplication call upon the augur:--"Master, have mercy on me: vouchsafe unto me a way of escape!"

Slave, would you then have aught else then what is best? is there anything better than what is G.o.d's good pleasure? Why, as far as in you lies, would you corrupt your Judge, and lead your Counsellor astray?