|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 78
15. Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendor until
it is extinguished? and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and
temperance be extinguished [before thy death]?
16. When a man has presented the appearance of having done wrong [say],
How then do I know if this is a wrongful act? And even if he has done
wrong, how do I know that he has not condemned himself? And so this is
like tearing his own face. Consider that he who would not have the bad
man do wrong, is like the man who would not have the fig-tree to bear
juice in the figs, and infants to cry, and the horse to neigh, and
whatever else must of necessity be. For what must a man do who has such
a character? If then thou art irritable, + cure this man's
disposition.[A]
17. If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.
[For let thy efforts be--][B]
[A] The interpreters translate [Greek: gorgos] by the words
"acer, validusque," and "skilful." But in Epictetus (ii. 16,
20; iii. 12, 10) [Greek: gorgos] means "vehement," "prone to
anger," "irritable."
[B] There is something wrong here, or incomplete.
18. In everything always observe what the thing is which produces for
thee an appearance, and resolve it by dividing it into the formal, the
material, the purpose, and the time within which it must end.
19. Perceive at last that thou hast in thee something better and more
divine than the things which cause the various affects, and as it were
pull thee by the strings. What is there now in my mind,--is it fear, or
suspicion, or desire, or anything of the kind (v. 11)?
20. First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose. Second,
make thy acts refer to nothing else than to a social end.
21. Consider that before long thou wilt be nobody and nowhere, nor will
any of the things exist which thou now seest, nor any of those who are
now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned
and to perish, in order that other things in continuous succession may
exist (ix. 28).
22. Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
Take away then, when thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner who
has doubled the promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and
a waveless bay.
23. Any one activity, whatever it may be, when it has ceased at its
proper time, suffers no evil because it has ceased; nor he who has done
this act, does he suffer any evil for this reason, that the act has
ceased. In like manner then the whole, which consists of all the acts,
which is our life, if it cease at its proper time, suffers no evil for
this reason, that it has ceased; nor he who has terminated this series
at the proper time, has he been ill dealt with. But the proper time and
the limit nature fixes, sometimes as in old age the peculiar nature of
man, but always the universal nature, by the change of whose parts the
whole universe continues ever young and perfect.[A] And everything which
is useful to the universal is always good and in season. Therefore the
termination of life for every man is no evil, because neither is it
shameful, since it is both independent of the will and not opposed to
the general interest, but it is good, since it is seasonable, and
profitable to and congruent with the universal. For thus too he is moved
by the Deity who is moved in the same manner with the Deity, and moved
towards the same thing in his mind.
[A] vii. 25.
24. These three principles thou must have in readiness: In the things
which thou doest, do nothing either inconsiderately or otherwise than as
justice herself would act; but with respect to what may happen to thee
from without, consider that it happens either by chance or according to
providence, and thou must neither blame chance nor accuse providence.
Second, consider what every being is from the seed to the time of its
receiving a soul, and from the reception of a soul to the giving back of
the same, and of what things every being is compounded, and into what
things it is resolved. Third, if thou shouldst suddenly be raised up
above the earth, and shouldst look down on human things, and observe the
variety of them how great it is, and at the same time also shouldst see
at a glance how great is the number of beings who dwell all around in
the air and the ether, consider that as often as thou shouldst be raised
up, thou wouldst see the same things, sameness of form and shortness of
duration. Are these things to be proud of?
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|