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1Gbe Discourses ot jEpictetus 9 denarii ? Never then look for the matter itself in one place, and progress towards it in another. Where then is progress? If any of you, withdrawing himself from externals, turns to his own will (jtpoa.ips.6iS} to exercise it and to improve it by labor, so as to make it conformable to nature, elevated, free, unrestrained, unimpeded, faithful, modest ; and if he has learned that he who desires or avoids the things which are not in his power can neither be faithful nor free, but of necessity he must change with them and be tossed about with them as in a tempest, and of necessity must subject himself to others who have the power to procure or prevent what he desires or would avoid ; finally, when he rises in the morning, if he observes and keeps these rules, bathes as a man of fidelity, eats as a modest man ; in like manner, if in every matter that occurs he works out his chief principles (ra Ttporjyov/iEva) as the runner does with reference to running, and the trainer of the voice with reference to the voice — this is the man who truly makes progress, and this is the man who has not travelled in vain. But if he has strained his efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this, and has travelled for this, I tell him to return home immediately, and not to neglect his
2io <Xbe Discourses of Epictetus affairs there ; for this for which he has travelled is nothing. But the other thing is something, to study how a man can rid his life of lamentation and groaning, and saying, Woe to me, and wretched that I am, and to rid it also of misfortune and disappointment, and to learn what death is, and exile, and prison, and poison, that he may be able to say when he is in fetters, Dear Crito, if it is the will of the gods that it be so, let it be so ; aud not to say, Wretched am I, an old man ; have I kept my gray hairs for this ? Who is it that speaks thus ? Do you think that I shall name some man of no repute and of low condition ? Does not Priam say this ? Does not CEdipus say this ? Nay, all kings say it ! For what else is tragedy than the perturbations {rtocr)})) of men who value externals exhibited in this kind of poetry ? But if a man must learn by fiction that no external things which are independent of the will concern us, for my part I should like this fiction, by the aid of which I should live happily and undisturbed. But you must consider for yourselves what you wish. What then does Chrysippus teach us ? The reply is, to know that these things are not false, from which happiness comes and tranquillity arises. Take my books, and you will learn how true and conformable to nature are the
3Zbe Discourses of Bpictetus ii things which make me free from perturbations. O great good fortune ! O the great benefactor who points out the way ! To Triptolemus all men have erected temples and altars, because he gave us food by cultivation ; but to him who discovered truth and brought it to light and communicated it to all, not the truth which shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of you for this reason has built an altar, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who worships God for this? Because the gods have given the vine, or wheat, we sacrifice to them ; but because they have produced in the human mind that fruit by which they designed to show us the truth which relates to happiness, shall we not thank God for this ? Against the Academics. — If a man, said Epictetus, opposes evident truths, it is not easy to find arguments by which we shall make him change his opinion. But this does not arise either from the man's strength or tbe teacher's weakness ; for when the man, though he has been confuted, is hardened like a stone, how shall we then be able to deal with him by argument? Now there are two kinds of hardening, one of the understanding, the other of the sense of shame, when a man is resolved not to assent to
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 ot jEpictetus 9 denarii ? Never then look for the matter itself in one place, and progress towards it in another. Where then is progress? If any of you, withdrawing himself from externals, turns to his own will (jtpoa.ips.6iS} to exercise it and to improve it by labor, so as to make it conformable to nature, elevated, free, unrestrained, unimpeded, faithful, modest ; and if he has learned that he who desires or avoids the things which are not in his power can neither be faithful nor free, but of necessity he must change with them and be tossed about with them as in a tempest, and of necessity must subject himself to others who have the power to procure or prevent what he desires or would avoid ; finally, when he rises in the morning, if he observes and keeps these rules, bathes as a man of fidelity, eats as a modest man ; in like manner, if in every matter that occurs he works out his chief principles (ra Ttporjyov/iEva) as the runner does with reference to running, and the trainer of the voice with reference to the voice — this is the man who truly makes progress, and this is the man who has not travelled in vain. But if he has strained his efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this, and has travelled for this, I tell him to return home immediately, and not to neglect his
2io <Xbe Discourses of Epictetus affairs there ; for this for which he has travelled is nothing. But the other thing is something, to study how a man can rid his life of lamentation and groaning, and saying, Woe to me, and wretched that I am, and to rid it also of misfortune and disappointment, and to learn what death is, and exile, and prison, and poison, that he may be able to say when he is in fetters, Dear Crito, if it is the will of the gods that it be so, let it be so ; aud not to say, Wretched am I, an old man ; have I kept my gray hairs for this ? Who is it that speaks thus ? Do you think that I shall name some man of no repute and of low condition ? Does not Priam say this ? Does not CEdipus say this ? Nay, all kings say it ! For what else is tragedy than the perturbations {rtocr)})) of men who value externals exhibited in this kind of poetry ? But if a man must learn by fiction that no external things which are independent of the will concern us, for my part I should like this fiction, by the aid of which I should live happily and undisturbed. But you must consider for yourselves what you wish. What then does Chrysippus teach us ? The reply is, to know that these things are not false, from which happiness comes and tranquillity arises. Take my books, and you will learn how true and conformable to nature are the
3Zbe Discourses of Bpictetus ii things which make me free from perturbations. O great good fortune ! O the great benefactor who points out the way ! To Triptolemus all men have erected temples and altars, because he gave us food by cultivation ; but to him who discovered truth and brought it to light and communicated it to all, not the truth which shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of you for this reason has built an altar, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who worships God for this? Because the gods have given the vine, or wheat, we sacrifice to them ; but because they have produced in the human mind that fruit by which they designed to show us the truth which relates to happiness, shall we not thank God for this ? Against the Academics. — If a man, said Epictetus, opposes evident truths, it is not easy to find arguments by which we shall make him change his opinion. But this does not arise either from the man's strength or tbe teacher's weakness ; for when the man, though he has been confuted, is hardened like a stone, how shall we then be able to deal with him by argument? Now there are two kinds of hardening, one of the understanding, the other of the sense of shame, when a man is resolved not to assent to
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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