<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0092" id="link2H_4_0092"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCII </h2>
<p>"His son is dead."</p>
<p>What has happened?</p>
<p>"His son is dead."</p>
<p>Nothing more?</p>
<p>"Nothing."</p>
<p>"His ship is lost."</p>
<p>"He has been haled to prison."</p>
<p>What has happened?</p>
<p>"He has been haled to prison."</p>
<p>But that any of these things are misfortunes to him, is an addition which
every one makes of his own. But (you say) God is unjust is this.—Why?
For having given thee endurance and greatness of soul? For having made
such things to be no evils? For placing happiness within thy reach, even
when enduring them? For open unto thee a door, when things make not for
thy good?—Depart, my friend and find fault no more!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0093" id="link2H_4_0093"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCIII </h2>
<p>You are sailing to Rome (you tell me) to obtain the post of Governor of
Cnossus. You are not content to stay at home with the honours you had
before; you want something on a larger scale, and more conspicuous. But
when did you ever undertake a voyage for the purpose of reviewing your own
principles and getting rid of any of them that proved unsound? Whom did
you ever visit for that object? What time did you ever set yourself for
that? What age? Run over the times of your life—by yourself, if you
are ashamed before me. Did you examine your principles when a boy? Did you
not do everything just as you do now? Or when you were a stripling,
attending the school of oratory and practising the art yourself, what did
you ever imagine you lacked? And when you were a young man, entered upon
public life, and were pleading causes and making a name, who any longer
seemed equal to you? And at what moment would you have endured another
examining your principles and proving that they were unsound? What then am
I to say to you? "Help me in this matter!" you cry. Ah, for that I have no
rule! And neither did you, if that was your object, come to me as a
philosopher, but as you might have gone to a herb-seller or a cobbler.—"What
do philosophers have rules for, then?"—Why, that whatever may
betide, our ruling faculty may be as Nature would have it, and so remain.
Think you this a small matter? Not so! but the greatest thing there is.
Well, does it need but a short time? Can it be grasped by a passer-by?—grasp
it, if you can!</p>
<p>Then you will say, "Yes, I met Epictetus!"</p>
<p>Aye, just as you might a statue or a monument. You saw me! and that is
all. But a man who meets a man is one who learns the other's mind, and
lets him see is in turn. Learn my mind—show me yours; and then go
and say that you met me. Let us try each other; if I have any wrong
principle, rid me of it; if you have, out with it. That is what meeting a
philosopher means. Not so, you think; this is only a flying visit; while
we are hiring the ship, we can see Epictetus too! Let us see what he has
to say. Then on leaving you cry, "Out on Epictetus for a worthless fellow,
provincial and barbarous of speech!" What else indeed did you come to
judge of?</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0094" id="link2H_4_0094"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCIV </h2>
<p>Whether you will or no, you are poorer than I!</p>
<p>"What then do I lack?"</p>
<p>What you have not: Constancy of mind, such as Nature would have it be:
Tranquillity. Patron or no patron, what care I? but you do care. I am
richer than you: I am not racked with anxiety as to what C�sar may think
of me; I flatter none on that account. This is what I have, instead of
vessels of gold and silver! your vessels may be of gold, but your reason,
your principles, your accepted views, your inclinations, your desires are
of earthenware.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0095" id="link2H_4_0095"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCV </h2>
<p>To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your
desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their
hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out the nuts and figs
it contains: if they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out again, and
then they fall to tears.—"Let go a few of them, and then you can
draw out the rest!"—You, too, let your desire go! covet not many
things, and you will obtain.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0096" id="link2H_4_0096"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCVI </h2>
<p>Pittacus wronged by one whom he had it in his power to punish, let him go
free, saying, Forgiveness is better than revenge. The one shows native
gentleness, the other savagery.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0097" id="link2H_4_0097"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCVII </h2>
<p>"My brother ought not to have treated me thus."</p>
<p>True: but he must see to that. However he may treat me, I must deal
rightly by him. This is what lies with me, what none can hinder.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0098" id="link2H_4_0098"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCVIII </h2>
<p>Nevertheless a man should also be prepared to be sufficient unto himself—to
dwell with himself alone, even as God dwells with Himself alone, shares
His repose with none, and considers the nature of His own administration,
intent upon such thoughts as are meet unto Himself. So should we also be
able to converse with ourselves, to need none else beside, to sigh for no
distraction, to bend our thoughts upon the Divine Administration, and how
we stand related to all else; to observe how human accidents touched us of
old, and how they touch us now; what things they are that still have power
to hurt us, and how they may be cured or removed; to perfect what needs
perfecting as Reason would direct.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0099" id="link2H_4_0099"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XCIX </h2>
<p>If a man has frequent intercourse with others, either in the way of
conversation, entertainment, or simple familiarity, he must either become
like them, or change them to his own fashion. A live coal placed next a
dead one will either kindle that or be quenched by it. Such being the
risk, it is well to be cautious in admitting intimacies of this sort,
remembering that one cannot rub shoulders with a soot-stained man without
sharing the soot oneself. What will you do, supposing the talk turns on
gladiators, or horses, or prize-fighters, or (what is worse) on persons,
condemning this and that, approving the other? Or suppose a man sneers and
jeers or shows a malignant temper? Has any among us the skill of the
lute-player, who knows at the first touch which strings are out of tune
and sets the instrument 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!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0100" id="link2H_4_0100"></SPAN></p>
<h2> C </h2>
<p>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!"</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0101" id="link2H_4_0101"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CI </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0102" id="link2H_4_0102"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CII </h2>
<p>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!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0103" id="link2H_4_0103"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CIII </h2>
<p>Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in chorus: so some cannot
walk alone.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0104" id="link2H_4_0104"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CIV </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 . . . .</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0105" id="link2H_4_0105"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CV </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0106" id="link2H_4_0106"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CVI </h2>
<p>Can any profit be derived from these men? Aye, from all.</p>
<p>"What, even from a reviler?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0107" id="link2H_4_0107"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CVII </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0108" id="link2H_4_0108"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CVIII </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0109" id="link2H_4_0109"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CIX </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0110" id="link2H_4_0110"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CX </h2>
<p>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:—</p>
<p>"Thou are the Sun! in thine orbit thou hast<br/>
power to make the year and the seasons;<br/>
to bid the fruits of the earth to grow<br/>
and increase, the winds arise and fall;<br/>
thou canst in due measure cherish with<br/>
thy warmth the frames of men; go make<br/>
thy circuit, and thus minister unto all<br/>
from the greatest to the least! . . ."<br/>
<br/>
"Thou canst lead a host against Troy; be Agamemnon!"<br/>
<br/>
"Thou canst meet Hector in single combat; be Achilles!"<br/></p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0111" id="link2H_4_0111"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXI </h2>
<p>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!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0112" id="link2H_4_0112"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXII </h2>
<p>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!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0113" id="link2H_4_0113"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXIII </h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0114" id="link2H_4_0114"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXIV </h2>
<p>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?</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0115" id="link2H_4_0115"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXV </h2>
<p>Give thyself more diligently to reflection: know thyself: take counsel
with the Godhead: without God put thine hand unto nothing!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0116" id="link2H_4_0116"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CXVI </h2>
<p>"But to marry and to rear offspring," said the young man, "will the Cynic
hold himself bound to undertake this as a chief duty?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 him as the
Messenger, the Spy, the Herald of the Gods!</p>
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