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1Gbe ^Discourses of jepictetus 3 Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains ? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower. I will throw you into prison. My poor body, you mean. I will cut your head off. When then have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off? These are the things which philosophers should meditate on, which they should write daily, in which they should exercise themselves. What then did Agrippinus say ? He said, " I am not a hindrance to myself. When it was reported to him that his trial was going on in the Senate, he said : "I hope it may turn out well ; but it is the fifth hour of the day " — this was the time when he was used to exercise himself and then take the cold bath, — "let us go and take our exercise. After he had taken his exercise, one comes and tells him, "You have been condemned. " To banishment," he replies, "or to death? "To banishment. " What about my property? " " It is not taken from you.1 "Let us go to Aricia then," he said, " and dine. How a Man on Every Occasion can Maintain his Proper Character. — To the rational animal only is the irrational intolerable ; but that which is rational is tolerable.
24 Cbe Discourses of JEpictetus Blows are not naturally intolerable. How is that ? See how the Lacedaemonians endure whipping when they have learned that whipping is consistent with reason. To hang yourself is not intolerable. When then you have the opinion that it is rational, you go and hang yourself. In short, if we observe, we shall find that the animal man is pained by nothing so much as by that which is irrational ; and, on the contrary, attracted to nothing so much as to that which is rational. Only consider at what price you sell your own will : if for no other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum. But that which is great and superior perhaps belongs to Socrates and such as are like him. Why then, if we are naturally such, are not a very great number of us like him ? Is it true then that all horses become swift, that all dogs are skilled in tracking footprints? What then, since I am naturally dull, shall I, for this reason, take no pains ? I hope not. Rpictetus is not superior to Socrates ; but if he is not inferior, this is enough for me ; for I shall never be a Milo, and yet I do not neglect my body ; nor shall I be a Crcesus, and yet I do not neglect my property ; nor, in a word, do we neglect looking after anything because we despair of reaching the highest degree.
3Zbc Discourses of JEpictetus 5 How a Man should Proceed from the Principle oe God being the Father of all Men to the Rest. — If a man should be able to assent to this doctrine as he ought, that we are all sprung from God in an especial manner, and that God is the father both of men and of gods, I suppose that he would never have any ignoble or mean thoughts about himself. But if Caesar (the emperor) should adopt you, no one could endure your arrogance ; and if you know that you are the son of Zeus, will you not be elated? Yet we do not so ; but since these two thirgs are mingled in the generation of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelligence in common with the gods, many incline to this kinship, which is miserable and mortal ; and some few to that which is divine and happy. Since then it is of necessity that every man uses everything according to the opinion which he has about it, those, the few, who think that they are formed for fidelity and modesty and a sure use of appearances have no mean or ignoble thoughts about themselves ; but with the many it is quite the contrary. For they say, What am I ? A poor, miserable man, with my wretched bit of flesh. Wretched, indeed ; but you possess something better than your bit of flesh. Why then do you neglect
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1Gbe ^Discourses of jepictetus 3 Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains ? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower. I will throw you into prison. My poor body, you mean. I will cut your head off. When then have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off? These are the things which philosophers should meditate on, which they should write daily, in which they should exercise themselves. What then did Agrippinus say ? He said, " I am not a hindrance to myself. When it was reported to him that his trial was going on in the Senate, he said : "I hope it may turn out well ; but it is the fifth hour of the day " — this was the time when he was used to exercise himself and then take the cold bath, — "let us go and take our exercise. After he had taken his exercise, one comes and tells him, "You have been condemned. " To banishment," he replies, "or to death? "To banishment. " What about my property? " " It is not taken from you.1 "Let us go to Aricia then," he said, " and dine. How a Man on Every Occasion can Maintain his Proper Character. — To the rational animal only is the irrational intolerable ; but that which is rational is tolerable.
24 Cbe Discourses of JEpictetus Blows are not naturally intolerable. How is that ? See how the Lacedaemonians endure whipping when they have learned that whipping is consistent with reason. To hang yourself is not intolerable. When then you have the opinion that it is rational, you go and hang yourself. In short, if we observe, we shall find that the animal man is pained by nothing so much as by that which is irrational ; and, on the contrary, attracted to nothing so much as to that which is rational. Only consider at what price you sell your own will : if for no other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum. But that which is great and superior perhaps belongs to Socrates and such as are like him. Why then, if we are naturally such, are not a very great number of us like him ? Is it true then that all horses become swift, that all dogs are skilled in tracking footprints? What then, since I am naturally dull, shall I, for this reason, take no pains ? I hope not. Rpictetus is not superior to Socrates ; but if he is not inferior, this is enough for me ; for I shall never be a Milo, and yet I do not neglect my body ; nor shall I be a Crcesus, and yet I do not neglect my property ; nor, in a word, do we neglect looking after anything because we despair of reaching the highest degree.
3Zbc Discourses of JEpictetus 5 How a Man should Proceed from the Principle oe God being the Father of all Men to the Rest. — If a man should be able to assent to this doctrine as he ought, that we are all sprung from God in an especial manner, and that God is the father both of men and of gods, I suppose that he would never have any ignoble or mean thoughts about himself. But if Caesar (the emperor) should adopt you, no one could endure your arrogance ; and if you know that you are the son of Zeus, will you not be elated? Yet we do not so ; but since these two thirgs are mingled in the generation of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelligence in common with the gods, many incline to this kinship, which is miserable and mortal ; and some few to that which is divine and happy. Since then it is of necessity that every man uses everything according to the opinion which he has about it, those, the few, who think that they are formed for fidelity and modesty and a sure use of appearances have no mean or ignoble thoughts about themselves ; but with the many it is quite the contrary. For they say, What am I ? A poor, miserable man, with my wretched bit of flesh. Wretched, indeed ; but you possess something better than your bit of flesh. Why then do you neglect
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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