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Page 52
56. Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to
the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is
allowed thee.
57. Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of
thy destiny. For what is more suitable?
58. In everything which happens keep before thy eyes those to whom the
same things happened, and how they were vexed, and treated them as
strange things, and found fault with them: and now where are they?
Nowhere. Why then dost thou too choose to act in the same way? and why
dost thou not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature to
those who cause them and those who are moved by them; and why art thou
not altogether intent upon the right way of making use of the things
which happen to thee? For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be
a material for thee [to work on]. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to
be a good man in every act which thou doest: and remember ...[A]
[A] This section is obscure, and the conclusion is so corrupt
that it is impossible to give any probable meaning to it. It is
better to leave it as it is than to patch it up, as some
critics and translators have done.
59. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble
up, if thou wilt ever dig.
60. The body ought to be compact, and to show no irregularity either in
motion or attitude. For what the mind shows in the face by maintaining
in it the expression of intelligence and propriety, that ought to be
required also in the whole body. But all these things should be observed
without affectation.
61. The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's,
in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets
which are sudden and unexpected.
62. Constantly observe who those are whose approbation thou wishest to
have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt
neither blame those who offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their
approbation, if thou lookest to the sources of their opinions and
appetites.
63. Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily deprived of
truth; consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and
temperance and benevolence and everything of the kind. It is most
necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt be more
gentle towards all.
64. In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor
in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse, for it does
not damage the intelligence either so far as the intelligence is
rational[A] or so far as it is social. Indeed in the case of most pains
let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable
nor everlasting, if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if
thou addest nothing to it in imagination: and remember this too, that we
do not perceive that many things which are disagreeable to us are the
same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched by
heat, and the having no appetite. When then thou art discontented about
any of these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to pain.
65. Take care not to feel towards the inhuman as they feel towards
men.[B]
66. How do we know if Telauges was not superior in character to
Socrates? For it is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death,
and disputed more skilfully with the sophists, and passed the night in
the cold with more endurance, and that when he was bid to arrest Leon[C]
of Salamis, he considered it more noble to refuse, and that he walked in
a swaggering way in the streets[D]--though as to this fact one may have
great doubts if it was true. But we ought to inquire what kind of a soul
it was that Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with
being just towards men and pious towards the gods, neither idly vexed on
account of men's villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to any man's
ignorance, nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share out
of the universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing his
understanding to sympathize with the affects of the miserable flesh.
[A] The text has [Greek: hylik�], which it has been proposed to
alter to [Greek: logik�], and this change is necessary. We
shall then have in this section [Greek: logik�] and [Greek:
koin�nik�] associated, as we have in s. 68 [Greek: logik�] and
[Greek: politik�], and in s. 72.
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