Encheiridion — Epictetus

Gbe Discourses of JEptctetus 75 future, it is our duty to stick to the things which are in their nature more suitable for our choice, for we were made among other things for this. After this, remember that you are a son. What does this character promise ?

To consider that everything which is the son's belongs to the father, to obey him in all things, never to blame him to another, nor to say or do anything which does him injury, to yield to him in all things and give way, co-operating with him as far as you can.

After this know that you are a brother also, and that to this character it is due to make concessions ; to be easily persuaded, to speak good of your brother, never to claim in opposition to him any of the things which are independent of the will, but readily to give them up, that you may have the larger share in what is dependent on the will.

For see what a thing it is, in place of a lettuce, if it should so happen, or a seat, to gain for yourself goodness of disposition. How great is the advantage. Next to this, if you are a senator of any state, remember that you are a senator ; if a youth, that you are a youth; if an old man, that you are an old man ; for each of such names, if it conies to be examined, marks out the proper duties. But if you go and blame your brother,

;6 Gbe Discourses of JEpictetus I say to you, You have forgotten who you are and what is your name. In the next place, if you were a smith and made a wrong use of the hammer, you would have forgotten the smith ; and if you have forgotten the brother and instead of a brother have become an enemy, would you appear not to have changed one thing for another in that case ?

And if instead of a man, who is a tame animal and social, you are become a mischievous wild beast, treacherous, and biting, have you lost nothing? But (I suppose) you must lose a bit of money that you may suffer damage ? And does the loss of nothing else do a man damage ?

If you had lost the art of grammar or music, would you think the loss of it a damage? and if you shall lose modesty, moderation (xara6roAyi') and gentleness, do you think the loss nothing?

And yet the things first mentioned are lost by some cause external and independent of the will, and the second by our own fault ; and as to the first neither to have them nor to lose them is shameful ; but as to the second, not to have them and to lose them is shameful and matter of reproach and a misfortune. What then ? shall I not hurt him who has hurt me ?

In the first place consider what hurt (/JAa/J?/) is, and remember what you have heard from the philosophers. For if the good con

Zhc Discourses of JEpictetus 77 sists in the will (purpose, intention, Ttpocapzi£(l), and the evil also in the will, see if what you say is not this : What then, since that man has hurt himself by doing an unjust act to me, shall I not hurt myself by doing some unjust ac* to him ? Why do we not imagine to ourselves (mentally think of) something of this kind?

But where there is any detriment tc the body or to our possession, there is harm there ; and where the same thing happens to the faculty of the will, there is (you suppose) no harm ; for he who has been deceived or he who has done an unjust act neither suffers in the head nor in the eye nor in the hip, nor does he lose his estate ; and we wish for nothing else than (security to) these things.

But whether we shall have the will modest and faithful or shameless and faithless, we care not the least, except only in the school so far as a few words are concerned. Therefore our proficiency is limited to these few words ; but beyond them it does not exist even in the slightest degree.

What the Beginning of Philosophy Is. — The beginning of philosophy, to him at least who enters on it in the right way and by the door, is a consciousness of his own weakness and inability about necessary things ; for we come into the world with no natural notion of a right-