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030 - XXIX On Constancy Or Firmness · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty nine of Discourses of Epictetus by Epictetus, translated
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  Speaker 1: by George Long. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Christine Rucker, October eighth, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 1: Section twenty nine on constancy or firmness. The being nature
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  Speaker 1: of the good is a certain will. The being of
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  Speaker 1: the bad is a certain kind of will. What then,
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  Speaker 1: are externals materials for the will about which the will,
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  Speaker 1: being conversant will obtain its good or evil? How shall
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  Speaker 1: it obtain the good? If it does not admire over
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  Speaker 1: value the materials, for the opinions about the materials. If
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  Speaker 1: the opinions are right, make the will good. But perverse
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  Speaker 1: and distorted opinions make the will bad. God has fixed
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  Speaker 1: this law and says, if you would not have anything good,
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  Speaker 1: receive it from yourself. You say no, but I will
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  Speaker 1: have it from another. Do not sow, but receive it
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  Speaker 1: from yourself. Therefore, when the tyrant threatens and calls me,
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  Speaker 1: I say, whom do you threaten? If he says I
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  Speaker 1: will put you in chains, I say, you threaten my
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  Speaker 1: hands and feet. He says I will cut off your head.
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  Speaker 1: I reply, you threaten my head. If he says I
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  Speaker 1: will throw you into prison, I say, you threaten the
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  Speaker 1: whole of this poor body. If he threatens me with banishment,
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  Speaker 1: I say the same. Does he then not threaten you
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  Speaker 1: at all? If I feel that all these things do
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  Speaker 1: not concern me, he does not threaten me at all.
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  Speaker 1: But if I fear any of them, it is I
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  Speaker 1: whom he threatens. Whom men? Do I fear the master
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  Speaker 1: of what? The master of things which are in my
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  Speaker 1: own power? There is no such master. Do I fear
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  Speaker 1: the master of things which are not in my power?
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  Speaker 1: And what are these things to me? Do you philosophers
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  Speaker 1: then teach us to despise kings? I hope not who
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  Speaker 1: among us teaches to claim against them the power over
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  Speaker 1: things which they possess. Take my poor body, take my property,
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  Speaker 1: take my reputation, Take those who are about me. If
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  Speaker 1: I advise any persons to claim these things, they may
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  Speaker 1: truly accuse me. Yes, But I intend to command your
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  Speaker 1: opinions also? And who has given you this power? How
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  Speaker 1: can you conquer the opinions of another man by applying
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  Speaker 1: terror to it? He replies, I will conquer it. Do
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  Speaker 1: you not know that opinion? Conquers itself and is not
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  Speaker 1: conquered by another. But nothing else can conquer will accept
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  Speaker 1: the will itself. For this reason too, the law of
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  Speaker 1: God is most powerful and most just. Which is this?
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  Speaker 1: Let the stronger always be superior to the weaker. Ten
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  Speaker 1: are stronger than one for what for putting in chains?
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  Speaker 1: For killing, for dragging whither they choose, for taking away
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  Speaker 1: what a man has? The ten therefore conquer the one
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  Speaker 1: in this which they are stronger in? What then are
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  Speaker 1: the ten weaker? If the one possesses right opinions and
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  Speaker 1: the others do not, well, then can the ten conquer
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  Speaker 1: in this matter? How is it possible? If we were
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  Speaker 1: placed in the scales? Must not the heavier draw down
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  Speaker 1: the scale in which it is? How strange then that
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  Speaker 1: Socrates should have been so treated by the Athenians slave?
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  Speaker 1: Why do you say Socrates speak of the thing as
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  Speaker 1: it is? How strange that the poor body of Socrates
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  Speaker 1: should have been carried off and dragged to prison by
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  Speaker 1: stronger men, And that anyone should have given hemlock to
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  Speaker 1: the poor body of Socrates, and then it should breathe
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  Speaker 1: out the life? Do these things seem strange? Do they
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  Speaker 1: seem unjust? Do you on account of these things blame God?
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  Speaker 1: Had Socrates then no equivalent for these things? Where then,
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  Speaker 1: for him was the nature of good boom? Shall we
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  Speaker 1: listen to you or him? And what does Socrates say?
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  Speaker 1: Annetus and Melitus can kill me, but they cannot hurt me.
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  Speaker 1: And further, he says, if it so pleases God, so
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  Speaker 1: let it be. But show me that he who has
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  Speaker 1: the inferior principles overpowers him who is superior principles. You
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  Speaker 1: will never show this, nor come near to showing it.
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  Speaker 1: For this is the law of nature and of God,
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  Speaker 1: that the superior shall always overpower the inferior. In what
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  Speaker 1: in that in which it is superior? One body is
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  Speaker 1: stronger than another. Many are stronger than one. The thief
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  Speaker 1: is stronger than he who is not a thief. This
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  Speaker 1: is the reason why I also lost my lamp, because
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  Speaker 1: in wakefulness, the thief was superior to me. But the
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  Speaker 1: man bought the lamp at this price. For a lamp,
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  Speaker 1: he became a thief, a faithless fellow, and like a
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  Speaker 1: wild beast, this seemed to him a good bargain. Be
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  Speaker 1: it so, But a man has seized me by the
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  Speaker 1: cloak and is drawing me to the public place. Then
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  Speaker 1: others ball out, philosopher, what has been the use of
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  Speaker 1: your opinions? See you are dragged to prison, you are
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  Speaker 1: going to be beheaded. And what system of philosophy, he
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  Speaker 1: sagung Ghin could have made that? So that if a
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  Speaker 1: stronger man should have laid hold of my cloak, I
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  Speaker 1: should not be dragged off that if ten men should
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  Speaker 1: have laid hold of me and cast me into prison,
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  Speaker 1: I should not be cast in. Have I learned nothing else? Then?
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  Speaker 1: I have learned to see that everything which happens, if
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  Speaker 1: it be independent of my will, is nothing to me.
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  Speaker 1: I may ask, if you have not gained by this,
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  Speaker 1: why then do you seek advantage in anything else than
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  Speaker 1: in that in which you have learned that advantage is?
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  Speaker 1: Then sitting in prison, I say, the man who cries
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  Speaker 1: out in this way neither hears what words mean, nor
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  Speaker 1: understands what is said, nor does he care at all
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  Speaker 1: to know what philosophers say or what they do. Let
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  Speaker 1: him alone. But now he says to the prisoner, come
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  Speaker 1: out from your prison. If you have no further need
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  Speaker 1: of me in prison, I come out. If you should
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  Speaker 1: have need of me again, I will enter the prison.
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  Speaker 1: How long will you act thus? So long as reason
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  Speaker 1: requires me to be with the body. But when reason
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  Speaker 1: does not require this, take away the body and fare
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  Speaker 1: you well. Only we must not do it inconsiderately, nor weakly,
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  Speaker 1: nor for any slight reason. For on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: God does not wish it to be done, and he
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  Speaker 1: has need of such a world and such inhabitants in it.
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  Speaker 1: But if he sounds the signal for a retreat, as
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  Speaker 1: he did to Socrates, we must obey him who gives
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  Speaker 1: the signal, as if he were a general. Well, then
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  Speaker 1: ought we to say such things to the many? Why
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  Speaker 1: should we? Is it not enough for a man to
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  Speaker 1: be persuaded himself? When children come clapping their hands and
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  Speaker 1: crying out, today is the good of saturnalia? Do we say?
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  Speaker 1: The saturnalia are not good by no means? But we
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  Speaker 1: clap our hands also? Do you also, then, when you
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  Speaker 1: are not able to make any man change his mind,
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  Speaker 1: be assured that he is a child, and clap your
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  Speaker 1: hands with him. And if you do not choose to
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  Speaker 1: do this, keep silent. A man must keep this in mind,
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  Speaker 1: And when he is called to any such difficulty, he
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  Speaker 1: should know that the time is coming for showing if
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  Speaker 1: he has been instructed. For he who has come into
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  Speaker 1: a difficulty is like a young man from a school
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  Speaker 1: who has practiced the resolution of syllogisms. And if any
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  Speaker 1: person proposes to him an easy syllogism, he says, rather,
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  Speaker 1: propose to me a syllogism which is skillfully complicated, that
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  Speaker 1: I may exercise myself on it. Even athletes are dissatisfied
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  Speaker 1: with slight young men, and say, he cannot lift me.
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  Speaker 1: This is a youth of noble disposition. You do not sow.
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  Speaker 1: But when the time of the trial is come, one
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  Speaker 1: of you must weep and say, I wish I had
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  Speaker 1: learned more, a little more of what? If you did
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  Speaker 1: not learn these things in order to show them in practice,
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  Speaker 1: why did you learn them? I think that there is
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  Speaker 1: someone among you who are sitting here, who is suffering
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  Speaker 1: like a woman in labor, and saying, oh, that such
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  Speaker 1: a difficulty does not present itself to me as that
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  Speaker 1: which has come to this man. Oh that I should
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  Speaker 1: be wasting my life in a corner when I might
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  Speaker 1: be crowned at Olympia. When will anyone announce to me
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  Speaker 1: such a contest? Such ought to be the disposition of
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  Speaker 1: all of you. Even among the gladiators of Caesar the Emperor,
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  Speaker 1: there are some who complain greed that they are not
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  Speaker 1: brought forward and matched, And they offer up prayers to
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  Speaker 1: God and address themselves to their superintendence, and treating that
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  Speaker 1: they may fight. And will no one among you show
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  Speaker 1: himself such I would willingly take a voyage to Rome
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  Speaker 1: for this purpose, and see what my athlete is doing,
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  Speaker 1: how he is studying his subject. I do not choose
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  Speaker 1: such a subject, he says, Why is it in your
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  Speaker 1: power to take what subject you choose? There has been
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  Speaker 1: given to you such a body as you have, such parents,
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  Speaker 1: such brethren, such a country, such a place in your country.
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  Speaker 1: Then you come to me and say, change my subject.
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  Speaker 1: Have you not abilities which enable you to manage the
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  Speaker 1: subject which has been given to you? You ought to say,
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  Speaker 1: it is your business to propose. It is my business
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  Speaker 1: to exercise myself. Well, however, you do not say so.
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  Speaker 1: But you say, do not oppose to me such a topic,
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  Speaker 1: but such as I would choose. Do not urge against
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  Speaker 1: me such an obligation, but such as I would choose.
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  Speaker 1: There will be a time, perhaps when tragic actors will
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  Speaker 1: suppose that they are only masks and bushkins and the
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  Speaker 1: long cloak. I say these things, man, are your material
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  Speaker 1: and subject? What are something that we may know? Whether
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  Speaker 1: you are a tragic actor or a buffoon? For both
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  Speaker 1: of you have all the rest in common. If anyone
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  Speaker 1: should take away the tragic actors bushkins and his mask
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  Speaker 1: and introduce him on the stage as a phantom, is
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  Speaker 1: the tragic actor lost? Or does he still remain? If
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  Speaker 1: he has voice, he still remains an example of another kind.
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  Speaker 1: Assume the governorship of a province. I assume it. And
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  Speaker 1: when I have assumed it, I show how an instructed
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  Speaker 1: man behaves. Lay aside the lattaklave the mark of senatorial rank,
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  Speaker 1: and clothing yourself in rags. Come forward in this character?
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  Speaker 1: What then have I not the power of displaying a
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  Speaker 1: good voice, that is, of doing something that I ought
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  Speaker 1: to do? How then, do you now appear on the
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  Speaker 1: stage of life as a witness summoned by God? Come forward,
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  Speaker 1: you and bear testimony for me, for you are worthy
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  Speaker 1: to be brought forward as a witness by me? Is
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  Speaker 1: anything external to the will? Good or bad? Do I
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  Speaker 1: hurt any man? Have I made every man's interest dependent
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  Speaker 1: on any man? Except himself? What testimony do you give
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  Speaker 1: for God? I am in a wretched condition, Master Lord,
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  Speaker 1: and I am unfortunate. No man cares for me, No
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  Speaker 1: man gives me anything. All blame me, all stake ill
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  Speaker 1: of me. Is this the evidence that you are going
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  Speaker 1: to give and disgrace his summons? Who has conferred so
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  Speaker 1: much honor on you and thought you worthy of being
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  Speaker 1: called to bear such a testimony? But suppose that he
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  Speaker 1: who has the power has declared, I judge you to
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  Speaker 1: be impious and profane? What has happened to you? I
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  Speaker 1: have been judged to be impious and profane? Nothing else,
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  Speaker 1: nothing else. But if the same person had passed judgment
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  Speaker 1: on hypothetical syllogism sinni menu, and had made a declaration
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  Speaker 1: the conclusion that if it is day, it is light,
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  Speaker 1: I declare to be false. What has happened to the
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  Speaker 1: hypothetical syllogism? Who is judged in this case, who has
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  Speaker 1: been condemned the hypothetical syllogism, or the man who has
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  Speaker 1: been deceived by it? Does he, then, who has the
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  Speaker 1: power of making any declaration about you know what is
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  Speaker 1: pious or impious? Has he studied it? And has he
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  Speaker 1: learned it? Where from whom? Then it is the fact
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  Speaker 1: that a musician pays no regard to him who declares
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  Speaker 1: that the lowest chord in the lyre is the highest,
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  Speaker 1: Nor yet a geometrician if he declares that the lines
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  Speaker 1: from the center of a circle to the circumference are
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  Speaker 1: not equal. And shall he who is really instructed pay
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  Speaker 1: any regard to the uninstructed man when he pronounces judgment
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  Speaker 1: on what is pious and what is impious, on what
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  Speaker 1: is just and unjust? Oh, the signal wrong done by
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  Speaker 1: the instructed? Did they learn this here? Will you not
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  Speaker 1: leave the small arguments, Lauradia, about these matters to others,
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  Speaker 1: to lazy fellows, that they may sit in a corner
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  Speaker 1: and receive their sorry pay or grumble that knowing gives
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  Speaker 1: them anything. And will you not come forward and make
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  Speaker 1: use of what you have learned? For it is not
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  Speaker 1: these small arguments that are wanted. Now, The writings of
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  Speaker 1: the Stoics are full of them. What then, is the
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  Speaker 1: thing which is wanted? A man who shall apply them,
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  Speaker 1: one who buys acts shall bear testimony to his words.
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  Speaker 1: Assume I entreat you this character that we may no
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  Speaker 1: longer use in the schools the examples of the ancients,
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  Speaker 1: but may have some example of our own. To whom, then,
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  Speaker 1: does the contemplation of these matters philosophical inquiries belong to
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  Speaker 1: him who has leisure, For man is an animal that
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  Speaker 1: loves contemplation. But it is shameful to contemplate these things
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  Speaker 1: as runaway slaves do. We should sit as in a theater,
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  Speaker 1: free you from distraction, and listen at one time to
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  Speaker 1: the tragic actor, at another time to the player, and
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  Speaker 1: not do as slaves do. As soon as the slave
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  Speaker 1: has taken his station, he praises the actor and at
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  Speaker 1: the same time looks round. Then if anyone calls out
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  Speaker 1: his master's name, the slave is immediately frightened and disturbed.
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  Speaker 1: It is shameful for philosophers thus to contemplate the works
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  Speaker 1: of nature, For what is a master? Man? Is not
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  Speaker 1: the master of man, but death is, and life and
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  Speaker 1: pleasure and pain. For if he comes without these things,
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  Speaker 1: bring Caesar to me, and you will see how firm
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  Speaker 1: I am. But when he shall come with these things
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  Speaker 1: thundering and lightning, and when I am afraid of them,
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  Speaker 1: what do I do then, except to recognize my master
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  Speaker 1: like the runaway slave? But so long as I have
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  Speaker 1: any respite from these terrors, as a runaway slave stands
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  Speaker 1: in the theater, So do I I bathe, I drink,
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  Speaker 1: I sing. But all this I do with terror and uneasiness.
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  Speaker 1: But if I shall release myself from my masters, that is,
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  Speaker 1: from those things by means of which masters are formidable,
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  Speaker 1: what further trouble have I? What master have I? Still? What? Then,
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  Speaker 1: ought we to publish these things to all men? No?
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  Speaker 1: But we ought to accommodate ourselves to the ignorant chios idiotes.
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  Speaker 1: And to say, this man recommends to me that which
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  Speaker 1: he thinks good for himself, I excuse him. For Socrates
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  Speaker 1: also excuse the jailer, who had the charge of him
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  Speaker 1: in prison, and was weeping when Socrates was going to
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  Speaker 1: drink the poison, and said, how generously he events over us.
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  Speaker 1: Does he then say to the jailer that for this
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  Speaker 1: reason we have sent away the women. No, but he
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  Speaker 1: says it to his friends, who were able to hear
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  Speaker 1: understand it, And he treats the jailer as a child.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty nine.