The Golden Sayings of Epictetus Part 8

LXXVIII

Who then is a Stoic--in the sense that we call a statue of Phidias which is modelled after that master's art? Show me a man in this sense modelled after the doctrines that are ever upon his lips. Show me a man that is sick--and happy; an exile--and happy; in evil report--and happy!

Show me him, I ask again. So help me Heaven, I long to see one Stoic!

Nay, if you cannot show me one fully modelled, let me at least see one in whom the process is at work--one whose bent is in that direction. Do me that favour! Grudge it not to an old man, to behold a sight he has never yet beheld. Think you I wish to see the Zeus or Athena of Phidias, bedecked with gold and ivory?--Nay, show me, one of you, a human soul, desiring to be of one mind with G.o.d, no more to lay blame on G.o.d or man, to suffer nothing to disappoint, nothing to cross him, to yield neither to anger, envy, nor jealousy--in a word, why disguise the matter? one that from a man would fain become a G.o.d; one that while still imprisoned in this dead body makes fellowship with G.o.d his aim. Show me him!--Ah, you cannot! Then why mock yourselves and delude others? why stalk about tricked out in other men's attire, thieves and robbers that you are of names and things to which you can show no t.i.tle!

LXXIX

If you have a.s.sumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

Lx.x.x

Fellow, you have come to blows at home with a slave: you have turned the household upside down, and thrown the neighbourhood into confusion; and do you come to me then with airs of a.s.sumed modesty--do you sit down like a sage and criticise my explanation of the readings, and whatever idle babble you say has come into my head? Have you come full of envy, and dejected because nothing is sent you from home; and while the discussion is going on, do you sit brooding on nothing but how your father or your brother are disposed towards you:--"What are they saying about me there? at this moment they imagine I am making progress and saying, He will return perfectly omniscient! I wish I could become omniscient before I return; but that would be very troublesome. No one sends me anything--the baths at Nicopolis are dirty; things are wretched at home and wretched here." And then they say, "n.o.body is any the better for the School."--Who comes to the School with a sincere wish to learn: to submit his principles to correction and himself to treatment? Who, to gain a sense of his wants? Why then be surprised if you carry home from the School exactly what you bring into it?

Lx.x.xI

"Epictetus, I have often come desiring to hear you speak, and you have never given me any answer; now if possible, I entreat you, say something to me."

"Is there, do you think," replied Epictetus, "an art of speaking as of other things, if it is to be done skilfully and with profit to the hearer?"

"Yes."

"And are all profited by what they hear, or only some among them? So that it seems there is an art of hearing as well as of speaking... .

To make a statue needs skill: to view a statue aright needs skill also."

"Admitted."

"And I think all will allow that one who proposes to hear philosophers speak needs a considerable training in hearing. Is that not so? The tell me on what subject your are able to hear me."

"Why, on good and evil."

"The good and evil of what? a horse, an ox?"

"No; of a man."

"Do we know then what Man is? what his nature is? what is the idea we have of him? And are our ears practised in any degree on the subject?

Nay, do you understand what Nature is? can you follow me in any degree when I say that I shall have to use demonstration? Do you understand what Demonstration is? what True or False is? ... must I drive you to Philosophy? ... Show me what good I am to do by discoursing with you.

Rouse my desire to do so. The sight of a pasture it loves stirs in a sheep the desire to feed: show it a stone or a bit of bread and it remains unmoved. Thus we also have certain natural desires, aye, and one that moves us to speak when we find a listener that is worth his salt: one that himself stirs the spirit. But if he sits by like a stone or a tuft of gra.s.s, how can he rouse a man's desire?"

"Then you will say nothing to me?"

"I can only tell you this: that one who knows not who he is and to what end he was born; what kind of world this is and with whom he is a.s.sociated therein; one who cannot distinguish Good and Evil, Beauty and Foulness, ... Truth and Falsehood, will never follow Reason in shaping his desires and impulses and repulsions, nor yet in a.s.sent, denial, or suspension of judgement; but will in one word go about deaf and blind, thinking himself to be somewhat, when he is in truth of no account. Is there anything new in all this? Is not this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the human race began? ..."

"This is all I have to say to you, and even this against the grain. Why?

Because you have not stirred my spirit. For what can I see in you to stir me, as a spirited horse will stir a judge of horses? Your body?

That you maltreat. Your dress? That is luxurious. You behavior, your look?--Nothing whatever. When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, You say nothing to me'; only show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move the speaker."

Lx.x.xII

And now, when you see brothers apparently good friends and living in accord, do not immediately p.r.o.nounce anything upon their friendship, though they should affirm it with an oath, though they should declare, "For us to live apart in a thing impossible!" For the heart of a bad man is faithless, unprincipled, inconstant: now overpowered by one impression, now by another. Ask not the usual questions, Were they born of the same parents, reared together, and under the same tutor; but ask this only, in what they place their real interest--whether in outward things or in the Will. If in outward things, call them not friends, any more than faithful, constant, brave or free: call them not even human beings, if you have any sense... . But should you hear that these men hold the Good to lie only in the Will, only in rightly dealing with the things of sense, take no more trouble to inquire whether they are father and son or brothers, or comrades of long standing; but, sure of this one thing, p.r.o.nounce as boldly that they are friends as that they are faithful and just: for where else can Friendship be found than where Modesty is, where there is an interchange of things fair and honest, and of such only?

Lx.x.xIII

No man can rob us of our Will--no man can lord it over that!

Lx.x.xIV

When disease and death overtake me, I would fain be found engaged in the task of liberating mine own Will from the a.s.saults of pa.s.sion, from hindrance, from resentment, from slavery.

Thus would I fain to be found employed, so that I may say to G.o.d, "Have I in aught transgressed Thy commands? Have I in aught perverted the faculties, the senses, the natural principles that Thou didst give me?

Have I ever blamed Thee or found fault with Thine administration? When it was Thy good pleasure, I fell sick--and so did other men: by my will consented. Because it was Thy pleasure, I became poor: but my heart rejoiced. No power in the State was mine, because Thou wouldst not: such power I never desired! Hast Thou ever seen me of more doleful countenance on that account? Have I not ever drawn nigh unto Thee with cheerful look, waiting upon Thy commands, attentive to Thy signals? Wilt Thou that I now depart from the great a.s.sembly of men? I go: I give Thee all thanks, that Thou hast deemed me worthy to take part with Thee in this a.s.sembly: to behold Thy works, to comprehend this Thine administration."

Such I would were the subject of my thoughts, my pen, my study, when death overtakes me.

Lx.x.xV

Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either G.o.d or Man? to wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything... . Who amongst you makes this his aim? Were it indeed so, you would gladly endure sickness, hunger, aye, death itself.

Lx.x.xVI

How are we const.i.tuted by Nature? To be free, to be n.o.ble, to be modest (for what other living thing is capable of blushing, or of feeling the impression of shame?) and to subordinate pleasure to the ends for which Nature designed us, as a handmaid and a minister, in order to call forth our activity; in order to keep us constant to the path prescribed by Nature.