Encheiridion — Epictetus
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172 Gbe Discourses of Bptctetus is, oris it in your power to improve him? Is this power given to you? Well then, ought you to wish the things which are not given to you, or to be ashamed if you do not obtain them ? And have you also been accustomed while you were studying philosophy to look to others and to hope for nothing from yourself? Lament then and groan and eat with fear that you may not have food to-morrow.
Tremble about your poor slaves lest they steal, lest they run away, lest they die.
So live, and continue to live, you who in name only have approached philosophy, and have disgraced its theorems as far as you can by showing them to be useless and unprofitable to those who take them up ; you, who have never sought constancy, freedom from perturbation, and from passions ; you who have not sought any person for the sake of this object, but many for the sake of syllogisms ; you who have never thoroughly examined any of these appearances by yourself, Am I able to bear, or am I not able to bear ?
What remains for me to do ? But as if all your affairs were well and secure, you have been resting on the third topic, that of things being unchanged, in order that you may possess unchanged — what? cowardice, mean spirit, the admiration of the rich, desire without attaining any end, and avoidance (i'xxXidiv)
Gbe Discourses of Bpictetus 173 which fails in the attempt ? About security in these things you have been anxious. Ought you not to have gained something in addition from reason, and then to have protected this with security ? And whom did you ever see building a battlement all around and encircling it with a wall ? And what doorkeeper is placed with no door to watch ? But you practise in order to be able to prove — what ?
You practise that you may not be tossed as on the sea through sophisms, and tossed about from what ? Show me first what you hold, what you measure, or what you weigh ; and show me the scales or the medimnus (the measure) ; or how long will you go on measuring the dust ?
Ought you not to demonstrate those things which make men happy, which make things go on for them in the way as they wish, and why we ought to blame no man, accuse no man, and acquiesce in the administration of the universe ?
About Freedom. — He is free who lives as he wishes to live ; who is neither subject to compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force ; whose movements to action (6p/.iai) are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does not fall into that which he would avoid (inxXidEii an spin tootoi). Who then i74 £be Discourses of Bpfctetus chooses to live in error ? No man. Who chooses to live deceived, liable to mistake, unjust, unrestrained, discontented, mean ? No man. Not one then of the bad lives as he wishes ; nor is he then free. And who chooses to live in sorrow, fear, envy, pity, desiring and failing in his desires, attempting to avoid something and falling into it ? Not one.
Do we then find any of the bad free from sorrow, free from fear, who does not fall into that which he would avoid, and does not obtain that which he wishes ? Not one ; nor then do we find any bad man free. Further, then, answer me this question, also : does freedom seem to you to be something great and noble and valuable ? How should it not seem so ? Is it possible then when a man obtains anything so great and valuable and noble to be mean ?
It is not possible.
When then you see any man subject to another or flattering him contrary to his own opinion, confidently affirm that this man also is not free ; and not only if he do this for a bit of supper, but also if he does it for a government (province) or a consulship ; and call these men little slaves who for the sake of little matters do these things, and those who do so for the sake of great things call great slaves, as they deserve to be. This is admitted also. Do you think that freedom is
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