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044 - XIII On Anxiety Solicitude · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section forty three 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, January fourth, twenty twenty two, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter thirteen, on anxiety solicitude. When I see
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  Speaker 1: a man anxious, I say, what does this man want?
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  Speaker 1: If he did not want something which is not in
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  Speaker 1: his power, how could he be anxious? For this reason,
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  Speaker 1: a lute player, when he is singing by himself, has
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  Speaker 1: no anxiety. But when he enters the theater he is anxious,
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  Speaker 1: even if he has a good voice and plays well
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  Speaker 1: on the lute, for he not only wishes to sing well,
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  Speaker 1: but also to obtain applause. But this is not in
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  Speaker 1: his power. Accordingly, where he has skill, there he has
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  Speaker 1: confidence bring any single person who knows nothing of music,
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  Speaker 1: and the musician does not care for him. But in
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  Speaker 1: the matter where a man knows nothing and has not
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  Speaker 1: been practiced, there he is anxious. What matter is this?
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  Speaker 1: He knows not what a crowd is or what the
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  Speaker 1: praise of a crowd is. However, he has learned to
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  Speaker 1: strike the lowest chord and the highest, But what the
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  Speaker 1: praise of the many is and what power it has
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  Speaker 1: in life. He neither knows nor has he thought about it.
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  Speaker 1: Hence he must, of necessity tremble and grow pale. I
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  Speaker 1: cannot then say that a man is not a loot
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  Speaker 1: player when I see him afraid. But I can say
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  Speaker 1: something else, and not one thing, but many. And first
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  Speaker 1: of all, I call him a stranger, and say, this
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  Speaker 1: man does not know in what part of the world
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  Speaker 1: he is. But though he has been here so long,
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  Speaker 1: he is ignorant of the laws of the state and
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  Speaker 1: the customs, and what is permitted and what is not.
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  Speaker 1: And he has never employed any lawyer to tell him
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  Speaker 1: and to explain the laws. But a man does not
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  Speaker 1: write a will if he does not know how it
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  Speaker 1: ought to be written, or he employs a person who
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  Speaker 1: does know, or does he rashly seal a bond or
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  Speaker 1: write a security. But he uses his desire without a
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  Speaker 1: lawyer's advice and aversion and pursuit, movement and attempt and purpose.
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  Speaker 1: How do you mean without a lawyer, he does not
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  Speaker 1: know that he wills what is not allowed, and does
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  Speaker 1: not will that which is of necessity. And he does
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  Speaker 1: not know either what is his own or what is
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  Speaker 1: another man's. But if he did know, he would never
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  Speaker 1: be impeded, he would never be hindered, He would not
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  Speaker 1: be anxious. How so, is any man then, afraid about
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  Speaker 1: things which are not evils? No? Is she afraid about
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  Speaker 1: things which are evils, but still so far within his
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  Speaker 1: power that they may not happen. Certainly he is not.
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  Speaker 1: If then the things which are independent of the will
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  Speaker 1: are neither good nor bad. And all things which do
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  Speaker 1: depend on the will are within our power. And no
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  Speaker 1: man can either take them from us or give them
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  Speaker 1: to us. If we do not choose. Where is room
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  Speaker 1: left for anxiety. But we are anxious about our poor body,
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  Speaker 1: our little property, about the will of Caesar, but not
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  Speaker 1: anxious about things internal. Are we anxious about not forming
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  Speaker 1: a false opinion? No, for this is in my power.
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  Speaker 1: About not exerting our movements contrary to nature. No, not
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  Speaker 1: even about this. When then you see a man pale,
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  Speaker 1: as the physician says, judging from the complexion, this man's
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  Speaker 1: spleen is disordered, that man's liver, So also say this
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  Speaker 1: man desire and aversion are disordered. He is not in
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  Speaker 1: the right way. He is in a fever. For nothing
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  Speaker 1: else changes the color, or causes trembling or chattering of
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  Speaker 1: the teeth, or causes a man to quote sink in
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  Speaker 1: his knees, and shift from foot to foot end quote
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  Speaker 1: a lad thirteen to eighty one. For this reason, when
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  Speaker 1: Zeno was going to meet Antigonus, he was not anxious,
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  Speaker 1: for Antigonus had no power over any of the things
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  Speaker 1: which Zeno admired, and Zeno did not care for those
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  Speaker 1: things over which Antigonus had power. But Antigonus was anxious
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  Speaker 1: when he was going to meet Zeno, for he wished
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  Speaker 1: to please Zeno, but this was a thing external, out
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  Speaker 1: of his power. But Zeno did not want to please Antigonus,
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  Speaker 1: for no man who is skilled in any art wishes
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  Speaker 1: to please one who has no such skill. Should I
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  Speaker 1: try to please you? Why I suppose you know the
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  Speaker 1: measure by which one man is estimated by another. Have
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  Speaker 1: you taken pains to learn what is a good man
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  Speaker 1: and what is a bad man? And how a man
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  Speaker 1: becomes one or the other? Why then, are you not
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  Speaker 1: good yourself? How he replies, Am I not good? Because
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  Speaker 1: no good man laments or groans or weeps. No good
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  Speaker 1: man is pale and trembles or says, how will he
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  Speaker 1: receive me? How will he listen to me? Slave? Just
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  Speaker 1: as it pleases him? Why do you care about what
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  Speaker 1: belongs to others? Is it now his fault if he
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  Speaker 1: receives badly? What proceeds from you? Certainly? And is it
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  Speaker 1: possible that a fault should be one man's and the
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  Speaker 1: evil in another? No? Why then, are you anxious about
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  Speaker 1: that which belongs to others? Your question is reasonable? But
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  Speaker 1: I am anxious how I shall speak to him? Cannot
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  Speaker 1: you then speak to him as you choose? But I
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  Speaker 1: fear that I may be disconcerted. If you are going
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  Speaker 1: to write the name of Dion? Are you afraid that
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  Speaker 1: you would be disconcerted? By no means? Why is it
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  Speaker 1: not because you have practiced writing the name certainly well
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  Speaker 1: if you were going to read the name, would you
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  Speaker 1: not feel the same? And why? Because every art has
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  Speaker 1: a certain strength and confidence in the things which belong
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  Speaker 1: to it. Have you then not practiced speaking? And what
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  Speaker 1: else did you learn in the school syllogisms and sophistical propositions?
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  Speaker 1: For what purpose? Was it not for the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: discoursing skillfully? And is not discoursing skillfully the same as
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  Speaker 1: discoursing seasonably and cautiously, and with intelligence, and also without
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  Speaker 1: making mistakes, and without hindrance, and besides all this with
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  Speaker 1: cop evidence. Yes, When then you are mounted on a
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  Speaker 1: horse and go into a plane, are you anxious at
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  Speaker 1: being matched against a man who is on foot and
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  Speaker 1: anxious in a matter in which you are practiced and
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  Speaker 1: he is not? Yes, But that person to whom I
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  Speaker 1: am going to speak has the power to kill me.
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  Speaker 1: Speak the truth, then, unhappy man, And do not brag,
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  Speaker 1: nor claim to be a philosopher, nor refuse to acknowledge
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  Speaker 1: your masters. But so long as you present this handle
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  Speaker 1: in your body, follow every man who is stronger than yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Socrates used to practice speaking, He who talked as he
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  Speaker 1: did to the tyrants, to the die cast judges, He
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  Speaker 1: who talked in his prison. Diogenes had practiced speaking, he
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  Speaker 1: who spoke as he did to Alexander, to the pirates,
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  Speaker 1: to the person who bought him. These men were confident
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  Speaker 1: in the things which they practiced. But do you walk
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  Speaker 1: off to your own affairs and never leave them, Go
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  Speaker 1: and sit in a corner and weave syllogisms and propose
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  Speaker 1: them to another. There is not in you the man
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  Speaker 1: who can rule a state. End of Book two, Chapter thirteen,