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041 - X How We May Discover the Duties of Life from Names · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section forty of Discourses of Epictetus by Epictetus, translated by
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  Speaker 1: George Long. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Christine Rucker, December twenty first, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter ten, How we may discover the duties
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  Speaker 1: of life from names? Consider who you are in the
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  Speaker 1: first place. You are a man, and this is one
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  Speaker 1: who has nothing superior to the faculty of the will,
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  Speaker 1: but all other things subjected to it, and the faculty
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  Speaker 1: itself he possesses, unenslaved and free from subjection. Consider then,
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  Speaker 1: from what things you have been separated by reason? You
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  Speaker 1: have been separated from wild beasts, you have been separated
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  Speaker 1: from domestic animals provaton. Further, you are a citizen of
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  Speaker 1: the world, and a part of it, not one of
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  Speaker 1: the subservient serving, but one of the principal ruling parts.
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  Speaker 1: For you are capable of comprehending the divine administration and
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  Speaker 1: of considering the connection of things. What, then, does the
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  Speaker 1: character of a citizen promise profess to hold nothing as
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  Speaker 1: profitable to himself, to deliberate about nothing as if he
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  Speaker 1: were detached from the community, but to act as the
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  Speaker 1: hand or foot would do if they had reason and
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  Speaker 1: understood the constitution of nature, for they would never put
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  Speaker 1: themselves in motion, nor desire anything otherwise than with reference
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  Speaker 1: to the whole. Therefore, the philosophers say well that if
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  Speaker 1: the good man had foreknowledge of what would happen, he
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  Speaker 1: would cooperate towards his own sickness and death and mutilation,
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  Speaker 1: since he knows that these things are assigned to him
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  Speaker 1: according to the universal arrangement, that the whole is superior
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  Speaker 1: to the part, and the state to the citizen. But now,
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  Speaker 1: because we do not know the future, it is our
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  Speaker 1: duty to stick to the things which are in their
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  Speaker 1: nature more suitable for our choice, For we were made,
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  Speaker 1: among other things, for this. After this, remember that you
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  Speaker 1: are a son. What does this character promise? To consider
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  Speaker 1: that everything which is the son's belongs to the father,
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  Speaker 1: To obey him in all things, never to blame him
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  Speaker 1: to another, nor to say or do anything which does
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  Speaker 1: him injury. To yield to him in all things, and
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  Speaker 1: give way cooperating with him as far as you can.
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  Speaker 1: After this, know that you are a brother also, and
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  Speaker 1: that to this character it is due to make concessions,
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  Speaker 1: to be easily persuaded to speak good of your brother,
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  Speaker 1: never to claim in opposition to him, any of the
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  Speaker 1: things which are independent of the will, but readily to
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  Speaker 1: give them up, that you may have the larger share
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  Speaker 1: in what is dependent on the will. Foresee what a
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  Speaker 1: thing it is in place of a lettuce, if it
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  Speaker 1: should so happen, or a seat to gain for yourself
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  Speaker 1: goodness of disposition? How great is the advantage next to this?
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  Speaker 1: If you are a senator of any state, remember that
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  Speaker 1: you are a senator. If a youth, that you are
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  Speaker 1: a youth. If an old man, that you are an
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  Speaker 1: old man. For each of such names, if it comes
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  Speaker 1: to be examined, marks out the proper duties. But if
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  Speaker 1: you go and blame your brother, I say to you,
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  Speaker 1: you have forgotten who you are and what is your name.
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  Speaker 1: In the next place, if you are a smith and
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  Speaker 1: made a wrong use of the hammer, you would have
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  Speaker 1: forgotten the smith. And if you have forgotten the brother,
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  Speaker 1: and instead of a brother, have become an enemy, would
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  Speaker 1: you appear not to have changed one thing for another
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  Speaker 1: in that case? And if instead a man who is
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  Speaker 1: a tame animal and social, you are become a mischievous
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  Speaker 1: wild beast treacherous and biting. Have you lost nothing? But
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  Speaker 1: I suppose you must lose a bit of money, that
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  Speaker 1: you may suffer damage. And does the loss of nothing
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  Speaker 1: else do a man damage? If you had lost the
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  Speaker 1: art of grammar or music, would you think the loss
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  Speaker 1: of it damage? And if you shall lose modesty, moderation, catastolin,
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  Speaker 1: and gentleness, do you think the loss nothing? And yet
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  Speaker 1: the things first mentioned are lost by some cause external
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  Speaker 1: and independent of the will, and the second by our
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  Speaker 1: own fault. And as to the first, neither to have
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  Speaker 1: them nor to lose them is shameful. But as to
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  Speaker 1: the second, not to have them and to lose them
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  Speaker 1: is shameful and matter of reproach and misfortune. What does
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  Speaker 1: the pathic lose? He loses the character of man? What
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  Speaker 1: does he lose who makes the pathic what he is?
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  Speaker 1: Many other things? And he also loses the man no
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  Speaker 1: less than the other? What does he lose who commits adultery?
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  Speaker 1: He loses the character of the modest, the temperate, the decent,
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  Speaker 1: the citizen, the neighbor. What does he lose? Who is angry?
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  Speaker 1: Something else? What does the coward lose? Something else? No
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  Speaker 1: man is bad without suffering some loss and damage. If
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  Speaker 1: then you look for the damage in the loss of money,
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  Speaker 1: only all these men receive no harm or damage. It
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  Speaker 1: may be they have even profit and gain when they
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  Speaker 1: acquire a bit of money of any of these bad deeds.
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  Speaker 1: But consider that if you refer everything to a small coin,
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  Speaker 1: not even he who loses his nose is in your opinion, damaged. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: you say, for he is mutilated in his body. Well,
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  Speaker 1: but does he who has lost his smell only lose nothing?
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  Speaker 1: Is there then no energy of the soul, which is
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  Speaker 1: an advantage to him who possesses it, and a damage
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  Speaker 1: to him who has lost it? Tell me what sort
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  Speaker 1: of energy you mean? Have we not a natural modesty
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  Speaker 1: we have? Does he who loses this sustain no damage?
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  Speaker 1: Is he deprived of nothing? Does he part with nothing
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  Speaker 1: of the things which belong to him? Have we not
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  Speaker 1: naturally fidelity, natural affection, a natural disposition to help others,
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  Speaker 1: a natural disposition to forbearance. The man, then, who allows
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  Speaker 1: himself to be damaged in these matters, can he be
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  Speaker 1: free from harm and uninjured? What then, shall I not
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  Speaker 1: hurt him who has hurt me in the first place?
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  Speaker 1: Consider what hurt lavi is, and remember that you have
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  Speaker 1: heard from the philosophers. For if the good consists in
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  Speaker 1: the will purpose intention for anssi, and the evil also
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  Speaker 1: in the will, see if what you say is not this,
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  Speaker 1: what then, since that man has hurt himself by doing
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  Speaker 1: an unjust act to me, shall I not hurt myself
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  Speaker 1: by doing some unjust act to him? Why do we
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  Speaker 1: not imagine ourselves mentally think of something of this kind?
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  Speaker 1: But where there is any detriment to the body or
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  Speaker 1: to our possessions, there is harm there. And where the
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  Speaker 1: same thing happens to the faculty of the will, there
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  Speaker 1: is you suppose, no harm. For he who has been deceived,
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  Speaker 1: or he who has done an unjust act, neither suffers
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  Speaker 1: in the head, nor in the eye, nor in the hip,
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  Speaker 1: nor does he lose his estate. And we wish for
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  Speaker 1: nothing else than security to these things. But whether we
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  Speaker 1: shall have it the will modest and faithful or shameless
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  Speaker 1: and faithless, we care not the least except only in
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  Speaker 1: the school, so far as a few words are concerned.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore our proficiency is limited to these few words. But
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  Speaker 1: beyond them it does not exist even in the slightest degree.
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  Speaker 1: End of Book two, Chapter ten,