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Epictetus - The Enchiridion - 29, 30, 31
Identifier
013351
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Enchiridion
29. In every affair consider what precedes and follows, and
then undertake it. Otherwise you will begin with spirit; but
not having thought of the consequences, when some of them
appear you will shamefully desist. "I would conquer at the
Olympic games." But consider what precedes and follows, and
then, if it is for your advantage, engage in the affair. You
must conform to rules, submit to a diet, refrain from
dainties; exercise your body, whether you choose it or not, at
a stated hour, in heat and cold; you must drink no cold water,
nor sometimes even wine. In a word, you must give yourself up
to your master, as to a physician. Then, in the combat, you
may be thrown into a ditch, dislocate your arm, turn your
ankle, swallow dust, be whipped, and, after all, lose the
victory. When you have evaluated all this, if your inclination
still holds, then go to war. Otherwise, take notice, you will
behave like children who sometimes play like wrestlers,
sometimes gladiators, sometimes blow a trumpet, and sometimes
act a tragedy when they have seen and admired these shows.
Thus you too will be at one time a wrestler, at another a
gladiator, now a philosopher, then an orator; but with your
whole soul, nothing at all. Like an ape, you mimic all you
see, and one thing after another is sure to please you, but is
out of favor as soon as it becomes familiar. For you have
never entered upon anything considerately, nor after having
viewed the whole matter on all sides, or made any scrutiny
into it, but rashly, and with a cold inclination. Thus some,
when they have seen a philosopher and heard a man speaking
like Euphrates (though, indeed, who can speak like him?), have
a mind to be philosophers too. Consider first, man, what the
matter is, and what your own nature is able to bear. If you
would be a wrestler, consider your shoulders, your back, your
thighs; for different persons are made for different things.
Do you think that you can act as you do, and be a philosopher?
That you can eat and drink, and be angry and discontented as
you are now? You must watch, you must labor, you must get the
better of certain appetites, must quit your acquaintance, be
despised by your servant, be laughed at by those you meet;
come off worse than others in everything, in magistracies, in
honors, in courts of judicature. When you have considered all
these things round, approach, if you please; if, by parting
with them, you have a mind to purchase apathy, freedom, and
tranquillity. If not, don't come here; don't, like children,
be one while a philosopher, then a publican, then an orator,
and then one of Caesar's officers. These things are not
consistent. You must be one man, either good or bad. You must
cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and
apply yourself either to things within or without you; that
is, be either a philosopher, or one of the vulgar.
30. Duties are universally measured by relations. Is anyone a
father? If so, it is implied that the children should take
care of him, submit to him in everything, patiently listen to
his reproaches, his correction. But he is a bad father. Is you
naturally entitled, then, to a good father? No, only to a
father. Is a brother unjust? Well, keep your own situation
towards him. Consider not what he does, but what you are to do
to keep your own faculty of choice in a state conformable to
nature. For another will not hurt you unless you please. You
will then be hurt when you think you are hurt. In this manner,
therefore, you will find, from the idea of a neighbor, a
citizen, a general, the corresponding duties if you accustom
yourself to contemplate the several relations.
31. Be assured that the essential property of piety towards
the gods is to form right opinions concerning them, as
existing "I and as governing the universe with goodness and
justice. And fix yourself in this resolution, to obey them,
and yield to them, and willingly follow them in all events, as
produced by the most perfect understanding. For thus you will
never find fault with the gods, nor accuse them as neglecting
you. And it is not possible for this to be effected any other
way than by withdrawing yourself from things not in our own
control, and placing good or evil in those only which are. For
if you suppose any of the things not in our own control to be
either good or evil, when you are disappointed of what you
wish, or incur what you would avoid, you must necessarily find
fault with and blame the authors. For every animal is
naturally formed to fly and abhor things that appear hurtful,
and the causes of them; and to pursue and admire those which
appear beneficial, and the causes of them. It is impractical,
then, that one who supposes himself to be hurt should be happy
about the person who, he thinks, hurts him, just as it is
impossible to be happy about the hurt itself. Hence, also, a
father is reviled by a son, when he does not impart to him the
things which he takes to be good; and the supposing empire to
be a good made Polynices and Eteocles mutually enemies. On
this account the husbandman, the sailor, the merchant, on this
account those who lose wives and children, revile the gods.
For where interest is, there too is piety placed. So that,
whoever is careful to regulate his desires and aversions as he
ought, is, by the very same means, careful of piety likewise.
But it is also incumbent on everyone to offer libations and
sacrifices and first fruits, conformably to the customs of his
country, with purity, and not in a slovenly manner, nor
negligently, nor sparingly, nor beyond his ability.