Encheiridion — Epictetus

Zbc Discourses of jEptctetus 57 power, what else do you care for ? Let this be your preface, this your narrative, this your confirmation, this your victory, this your peroration, this your applause (or the approbation which you will receive). Therefore Socrates said to one who was reminding him to prepare for his trial, Do you not think then that I have been preparing for it all my life ? By -what kind of preparation ?

I have maintained that which was in my own power. How then ? I have never done anything unjust either in my private or in my public life. But if you wish to maintain externals also, your poor body, your little property and your little estimation, I advise you to make from this moment all possible preparation, and then consider both the nature of your judge and your adversary.

If it is necessary to embrace his knees, embrace his knees ; if to weep, weep ; if to groan, groan.

For when you have subjected to externals what is your own, then be a slave and do not resist, and do not sometimes choose to be a slave, and sometimes not choose, but with all your mind be one or the other, either free or a slave, either instructed or uninstructed, either a well-bred cock or a mean one, either endure to be beaten until you die or yield at once; and let it not happen to you to receive

58 Gbe ©tscourees of Bpictetua many stripes and then to yield. But if these things are base, determine immediately. Where is the nature of evil and good? It is where truth is : where truth is and where nature is, there is caution : where truth is, there is courage where nature is. For this reason also it is ridiculous to say, Suggest something to me (tell me what to do). What should I suggest to you ?

Well, form my mind so as to accommodate itself to any event. Why that is just the same as if a man who is ignorant of letters should say, Tell me what to write when any name is proposed to me. For if I should tell him to write Dion, and then another should come and propose to him not the name of Dion but that of Theon, what will be done ? what will he write ?

But if you have practised writing, you are also prepared to write (or to do) anything that is required. If you are not, what can I now suggest? For if circumstances require something else, what will you say, or what will you do ? Remember then this general precept and you will need nc suggestion. But if you gape after externals, you must of necessity ramble up and down in obedience to the will of your master. And who is the master? He who has the powej over the things which you seek to gain or tr\ to avoid.

Gbe ©fscoursee of Bpictetue 59 How Magnanimity is Consistent with Care. — Things themselves (materials) are indifferent ; but the use of them is not indifferent. How then shall a man preserve firmness and tranquillity, and at the same time be careful and neither rash nor negligent ? If he imitates those who play at dice. The counters are indifferent ; the dice are indifferent. How do I know what the cast will be ?

But to use carefully and dexterously the cast of the dice, this is my business. Thus then in life also the chief business is this : distinguish and separate things, and say : Externals are not in my power : will is in my power. Where shall I seek the good and the bad? Within, in the things which are my own. But in what does not belong to you call nothing either good or bad, or profit or damage or anything of the kind. What then ?

Should we use such things carelessly ? In no way : for this on the other hand is bad for the faculty of the will, and consequently against nature ; but we should act carefully because the use is not indifferent, and we should also act with firmness and freedom from perturbations because the material is indifferent. For where the material is not indifferent, there no man can hinder me or compel me. Where I can be hindered and compelled,