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Page 41
[A] Epictetus, i. 25, 18.
30. The intelligence of the universe is social. Accordingly it has made
the inferior things for the sake of the superior, and it has fitted the
superior to one another. Thou seest how it has subordinated,
co-ordinated, and assigned to everything its proper portion, and has
brought together into concord with one another the things which are the
best.
31. How hast thou behaved hitherto to the gods, thy parents, brethren,
children, teachers, to those who looked after thy infancy, to thy
friends, kinsfolk, to thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved
to all in such a way that this may be said of thee,--
"Never has wronged a man in deed or word."
And call to recollection both how many things thou hast passed through,
and how many things thou hast been able to endure, and that the history
of thy life is now complete and thy service is ended; and how many
beautiful things thou hast seen; and how many pleasures and pains thou
hast despised; and how many things called honorable thou hast spurned;
and to how many ill-minded folks thou hast shown a kind disposition.
32. Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and
knowledge? What soul then has skill and knowledge? That which knows
beginning and end, and knows the reason which pervades all substance,
and though all time by fixed periods [revolutions] administers the
universe.
33. Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a
name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things
which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and
[like] little dogs biting one another, and little children quarreling,
laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and
justice and truth are fled
Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth.
HESIOD, _Works, etc_. v. 197.
What then is there which still detains thee here, if the objects of
sense are easily changed and never stand still, and the organs of
perception are dull and easily receive false impressions, and the poor
soul itself is an exhalation from blood? But to have good repute amid
such a world as this is an empty thing. Why then dost thou not wait in
tranquillity for thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another
state? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else
than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to
practise tolerance and self-restraint;[A] but as to everything which is
beyond the limits of the poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is
neither thine nor in thy power.
[A] This is the Stoic precept [Greek: anechou kai apechou]. The
first part teaches us to be content with men and things as they
are. The second part teaches us the virtue of self-restraint,
or the government of our passions.
34. Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow of happiness, if thou
canst go by the right way, and think and act in the right way. These two
things are common both to the soul of God and to the soul of man, and to
the soul of every rational being: not to be hindered by another; and to
hold good to consist in the disposition to justice and the practice of
it, and in this to let thy desire find its termination.
35. If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness,
and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it, and what
is the harm to the common weal?
36. Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of
things, but give help [to all] according to thy ability and their
fitness; and if they should have sustained loss in matters which are
indifferent, do not imagine this to be a damage; for it is a bad habit.
But as the old man, when he went away, asked back his foster-child's
top, remembering that it was a top, so do thou in this case also.
When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man, what
these things are?--Yes; but they are objects of great concern to these
people--wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things? I was once a
fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.--But fortunate means that
a man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good
disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.[A]
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