Encheiridion — Epictetus

Hbe Discourses of Bpictctus 63 Thus also where there is need of any practice, ^eek not that which is acquired from the need (of such practice), but yield in that matter to those who have had practice, and be yourself content with firmness of mind. Go and salute a certain person. How? Not meanly.

But I have been shut out, for I have not learned to make my way through the window ; and when I have found the door shut, I must either come back or enter through the window. But still speak to him. In what way ? Not meanly. But suppose that you have not got what you wanted. Was this your business, and not his ? Why then do you claim that which belongs to another?

Always remember what is your own, and what belongs to another ; and you will not be disturbed. Chrysippus therefore said well, So long as future things are uncertain, I always cling to those which are more adapted to the conservation of that which is according to nature ; for God himself has given me the faculty of such choice.

But if I knew that it was fated (in the order of things) for me to be sick, I would even move towards it ; for the foot also, if it had intelligence, would move to go into the mud. For why are ears of corn produced ? Is it not that they may become dry? And do they not become dry that they may be reaped ? for they

64 Gbe 2>tscourses of Bplctetus are not separated from communion with other things. If then they had perception, ought they to wish never to be reaped ? But this is a curse upon ears of corn to be never reaped. So we must know that in the case of men too it is a curse not to die, just the same as not to be ripened and not to be reaped.

But since we must be reaped, and we also know that we are reaped, we are vexed at it ; for we neither know what we are nor have we studied what belongs to man, as those who have studied horses know what belongs to horses. But Chrysantas when he was going to strike the enemy checked himself when he heard the trumpet sounding a retreat : so it seemed better to him to obey the general's command than to follow his own inclination.

But not one of us chooses, even when necessity summons, readily to obey it, but weeping and groaning we suffer what we do suffer, and we call them "circumstances. What kind of circumstances, man? If you give the name of circumstances to the things which are around you, all things are circumstances ; but if you call hardships by this name, what hardship is there in the dying of that which has been produced ?

But that which destroys is either a sword, or a wheel, or the sea, or a tile, or a tyrant. Why do you care about the way of going down to Hades ?

Gbe Discourses of Bpictetus 65 All ways are equal. But if you will listen to the truth, the way which the tyrant sends you is shorter. A tyrant never killed a man in six months : but a fever is often a year about it. All these things are only sou id and the noise of empty names. How we ought to use Divination.- « Through an unreasonable regard to divination many of us omit many duties.

For what more can the diviner see than death or danger or disease, or generally things of that kind? If then I must expose • myself to danger for a friend, and if it is my duty even to die for him, what need have I then for divination? Have I not within me a diviner who has told me the nature of good and of evil, and has explained to me the signs (or marks) of both ?

What need have I then to consult the viscera of victims or the flight of birds, and why do I submit when he says, It is for your interest? For does he know what is for my interest, does he know what is good ; and as he has learned the signs of the viscera, has he also learned the signs of good and evil? For if he knows the signs of these, he knows the signs both of the beautiful and of the ugly, and of the just and of the unjust. Do you tell me, man, what is the thing which is signified for me : is it life or 5