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Page 74
Fourth, consider that thou also doest many things wrong, and that thou
art a man like others; and even if thou dost abstain from certain
faults, still thou hast the disposition to commit them, though either
through cowardice, or concern about reputation, or some such mean
motive, thou dost abstain from such faults (i. 17).
Fifth, consider that thou dost not even understand whether men are doing
wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to
circumstances. And in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him
to pass a correct judgment on another man's acts (ix. 38; iv. 51).
Sixth, consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is
only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead (vii. 58;
iv. 48).
Seventh, that it is not men's acts which disturb us, for those acts have
their foundation in men's ruling principles, but it is our own opinions
which disturb us. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss
thy judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and thy
anger is gone. How then shall I take away these opinions? By reflecting
that no wrongful act of another brings shame on thee: for unless that
which is shameful is alone bad, thou also must of necessity do many
things wrong, and become a robber and everything else (v. 25; vii. 16).
Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and
vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we
are angry and vexed (iv. 39, 49; vii. 24).
Ninth, consider that a good disposition is invincible if it be genuine,
and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most
violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition
towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him
and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to
do thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for
something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring
thyself, my child.--And show him with gentle tact and by general
principles that this is so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor
any animals which are formed by nature to be gregarious. And thou must
do this neither with any double meaning nor in the way of reproach, but
affectionately and without any rancor in thy soul; and not as if thou
wert lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander may admire, but either
when he is alone, and if others are present ...[A]
[A] It appears that there is a defect in the text here.
Remember these nine rules, as if thou hadst received them as a gift from
the Muses, and begin at last to be a man while thou livest. But thou
must equally avoid nattering men and being vexed at them, for both are
unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be present to thee in the
excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that
mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so
also are they more manly; and he who possesses these qualities possesses
strength, nerves, and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of
passion and discontent. For in the same degree in which a man's mind is
nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer
to strength: and as the sense of pain is a characteristic of weakness,
so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger,
both are wounded and both submit.
But if thou wilt, receive also a tenth present from the leader of the
Muses [Apollo], and it is this,--that to expect bad men not to do wrong
is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to
allow men to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do thee any
wrong, is irrational and tyrannical.
19. There are four principal aberrations of the superior faculty against
which thou shouldst be constantly on thy guard, and when thou hast
detected them, thou shouldst wipe them out and say on each occasion
thus: This thought is not necessary: this tends to destroy social union:
this which thou art going to say comes not from the real thoughts; for
thou shouldst consider it among the most absurd of things for a man not
to speak from his real thoughts. But the fourth is when thou shalt
reproach thyself for anything, for this is an evidence of the diviner
part within thee being overpowered and yielding to the less honorable
and to the perishable part, the body, and to its gross pleasures (iv.
24; ii. 16).
20. Thy aerial part and all the fiery parts which are mingled in thee,
though by nature they have an upward tendency, still in obedience to the
disposition of the universe they are overpowered here in the compound
mass [the body]. And also the whole of the earthy part in thee and the
watery, though their tendency is downward, still are raised up and
occupy a position which is not their natural one. In this manner then
the elemental parts obey the universal; for when they have been fixed in
any place, perforce they remain there until again the universal shall
sound the signal for dissolution. Is it not then strange that thy
intelligent part only should be disobedient and discontented with its
own place? And yet no force is imposed on it, but only those things
which are conformable to its nature: still it does not submit, but is
carried in the opposite direction. For the movement towards injustice
and intemperance and to anger and grief and fear is nothing else than
the act of one who deviates from nature. And also when the ruling
faculty is discontented with anything that happens, then too it deserts
its post: for it is constituted for piety and reverence towards the gods
no less than for justice. For these qualities also are comprehended
under the generic term of contentment with the constitution of things,
and indeed they are prior[A] to acts of justice.
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