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032 - Book II I That Confidence Courage is Not Inconsistent with Caution · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty one 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 twenty first, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: book to section one that confidence courage is not inconsistent
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  Speaker 1: with caution, the opinion of the philosophers, perhaps seems to
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  Speaker 1: be a paradox, but still less examined as well as
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  Speaker 1: we can if it is true that it is possible
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  Speaker 1: to do everything both with caution and with confidence, For
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  Speaker 1: caution seems to be in a manner contrary to confidence,
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  Speaker 1: and contraries are in no way consistent that which seems
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  Speaker 1: to many to be a paradox in the manner under consideration,
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  Speaker 1: in my opinion, is of this kind. If we asserted
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  Speaker 1: that we ought to employ caution and confidence in the
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  Speaker 1: same things, men might justly accuse us of bringing together
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  Speaker 1: things which cannot be united. But now where is the
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  Speaker 1: difficulty in what is said? For if these things are true,
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  Speaker 1: which have been often said and often proved, that the
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  Speaker 1: nature of good is in the use of appearances, and
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  Speaker 1: the nature of evil likewise, and that the things independent
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  Speaker 1: of our will do not admit either the nature of
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  Speaker 1: evil nor of good. What paradox do the philosophers assert
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  Speaker 1: if they say that where things are not dependent on
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  Speaker 1: the will, there you should employ confidence. But where they
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  Speaker 1: are dependent on the will, there you should employ caution.
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  Speaker 1: For if the bad consists in a bad exercise of
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  Speaker 1: the will, caution ought only to be used where things
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  Speaker 1: are dependent on the will. But if things independent of
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  Speaker 1: the will and not in our power are nothing to us,
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  Speaker 1: with respect to these we must employ confidence. And thus
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  Speaker 1: we shall both be cautious and confident, and indeed confident
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  Speaker 1: because of our caution. For by employing caution towards things
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  Speaker 1: that are really bad, it will result that we have
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  Speaker 1: confidence with respect to things which are not so. We
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  Speaker 1: are then in the condition of deer when they flee
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  Speaker 1: from the huntsmen's feathers, in fright, whither do they turn?
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  Speaker 1: And in what do they seek refuge? As safe, they
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  Speaker 1: turn to the nets, And thus they perish by confounding
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  Speaker 1: things which are objects of fear with things that they
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  Speaker 1: ought not to fear. Thus we also act, in what
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  Speaker 1: cases do we fear in things which are independent of
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  Speaker 1: the will? In what cases, on the contrary, do we
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  Speaker 1: behave with confidence, as if there were no danger in
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  Speaker 1: things dependent on the will. To be deceived then, or
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  Speaker 1: to act rashly or shamelessly, or with base desire to
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  Speaker 1: seek something does not concern us at all if we
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  Speaker 1: only hit the mark in things which are independent of
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  Speaker 1: our will. But where there is death or exile, or
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  Speaker 1: pain or infamy, there we attempt to run away. There
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  Speaker 1: we are struck with terror. Therefore, as we may expect
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  Speaker 1: it to happen with those who err in the greatest matters,
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  Speaker 1: we convert natural confidence, that is according to nature, into audacity, desperation, rashness, shamelessness.
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  Speaker 1: And we convert natural caution and modesty into cowardice and meanness,
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  Speaker 1: which are full of fear and confusion. For if a
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  Speaker 1: man should transfer caution to those things in which the
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  Speaker 1: will may be exercised, and the acts of the will,
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  Speaker 1: he will, immediately, by willing to be cautious, have also
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  Speaker 1: the power of avoiding what he chooses. But if he
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  Speaker 1: transfer to the things which are not in his power,
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  Speaker 1: and will an attempt to avoid the things which are
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  Speaker 1: in the power of others, he will, of necessity fear,
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  Speaker 1: he will be unstable, he will be disturbed, for death
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  Speaker 1: or pain is not formidable, but the fear of pain
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  Speaker 1: or death. For this reason we commend the poet who said,
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  Speaker 1: not death is evil, but a shameful death. Confidence courage
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  Speaker 1: then ought to be employed against death, and caution against
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  Speaker 1: the fear of death. But now we do the contrary
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  Speaker 1: and employ against death the attempt to escape, And to
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  Speaker 1: our opinion about it, we employ carelessness, rashness, and indifference.
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  Speaker 1: These things Socrates properly used to call tragic masks. As
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  Speaker 1: for to children, mass appear terrible and fearful from anexperience,
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  Speaker 1: We also are affected in like manner by events. The
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  Speaker 1: things which happen in life for no other reason than
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  Speaker 1: children are by masks. For what is a child ignorance?
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  Speaker 1: What is a child want of knowledge? For when a
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  Speaker 1: child knows these things, he is in no way inferior
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  Speaker 1: to us. What is death a tragic mask? Turn it
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  Speaker 1: and examine it. See it does not bite. The poor
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  Speaker 1: body must be separated from the spirit, either now or later,
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  Speaker 1: as it was separated from it before. Why then are
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  Speaker 1: you troubled if it be separated now? For if it
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  Speaker 1: is not separated now, it will be separated afterwards. Why
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  Speaker 1: that the period of the universe may be completed, for
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  Speaker 1: it has need of the present, and of the future,
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  Speaker 1: and of the past. What is pain a mask? Turn
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  Speaker 1: it and examine it. The poor flesh is moved roughly, then,
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, smoothly. If this does not satisfy please you.
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  Speaker 1: The door is open if it does bear with things.
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  Speaker 1: For the door ought to be open for all occasions,
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  Speaker 1: and so we have no trouble. What, then, is the
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  Speaker 1: fruit of these opinions? Is it that we ought to
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  Speaker 1: be the most noble and the most becoming to those
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  Speaker 1: who are really educated? Release from perturbation, release from fear, freedom,
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  Speaker 1: For in these matters we must not believe the many
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  Speaker 1: who say that free persons only ought to be educated,
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  Speaker 1: But we should rather believe the philosophers who say that
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  Speaker 1: the educated only are free? How is this? In this manner?
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  Speaker 1: Is freedom anything else than the power of living as
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  Speaker 1: we choose? Nothing else? Tell me, then, ye men, do
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  Speaker 1: you wish to live in error? We do not. No
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  Speaker 1: one then, who lives in error is free? Do you
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  Speaker 1: wish to live in fear? Do you wish to live
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  Speaker 1: in sorrow? Do you wish to live in perturbation? By
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  Speaker 1: no means no one then? Who is in a state
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  Speaker 1: of fear or sorrow or perturbation is free. But whoever
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  Speaker 1: is delivered from sorrows and fears and perturbations, he is
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  Speaker 1: at the same time also delivered from servitude. How then,
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  Speaker 1: can we continue to believe you, most dear legislators, when
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  Speaker 1: you say we only allow free persons to be educated.
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  Speaker 1: For philosophers say we allow none to be free except
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  Speaker 1: the educated. That is, God does not allow it. When
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  Speaker 1: then a man has turned round before the praetor his
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  Speaker 1: own slave, has he done nothing? He has done something?
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  Speaker 1: What he has turned round his own slave before the praetor,
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  Speaker 1: has he done nothing more? Yes, he is also bound
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  Speaker 1: to pay for him the tax called the twentieth Well, then,
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  Speaker 1: is not the man who has gone through this ceremony
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  Speaker 1: become free, no more than he has become free from perturbations?
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  Speaker 1: Have you who are able to turn round free others? No?
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  Speaker 1: Master is not money, your master, or a girl or
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  Speaker 1: a boy, or some tyrant or some friend of the tyrant.
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  Speaker 1: Why do you tremble then when you are going off
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  Speaker 1: to any trial danger of this kind? It is for
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  Speaker 1: this reason that I often say, study and hold in
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  Speaker 1: readiness these principles by which you may determine what those
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  Speaker 1: things are with reference to which you ought to have
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  Speaker 1: confidence courage, and those things with reference to which you
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  Speaker 1: ought to be caught courageous in that which does not
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  Speaker 1: depend on your will, cautious in that which does depend
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  Speaker 1: on it. Well, have I not read to you? And
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  Speaker 1: do you not know what I was doing in what?
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  Speaker 1: In my little dissertations? Show me how you are with
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  Speaker 1: respect to desire and aversion ecuisine. And show me if
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  Speaker 1: you do not fail in getting what you wish, and
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  Speaker 1: if you do not fall into the things which you
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  Speaker 1: would avoid. But as to these long and labored sentences,
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  Speaker 1: you will take them and block them out. What then
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  Speaker 1: did not Socrates write, and who wrote so much? But
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  Speaker 1: how as he could not always have it at hand
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  Speaker 1: one to argue against his principles, or to be argued against.
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  Speaker 1: In turn, he used to argue with and examine himself.
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  Speaker 1: And he was always treating at least someone subject in
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  Speaker 1: a practical way. These are the things which a philosopher,
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  Speaker 1: but little dissertations, and that method which I speak of,
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  Speaker 1: he leaves to others, to the stupid, or to the
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  Speaker 1: happy men, who, being free from perturbations, have leisure, or
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  Speaker 1: to such as are too foolish to reckon consequences. And
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  Speaker 1: will you, now, when opportunity invites, go and display those
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  Speaker 1: things which you possess, and recite them, and make an
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  Speaker 1: idle show, and say, see how I make dialogues. Do
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  Speaker 1: not so, my man, but rather say see how I
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  Speaker 1: am not disappointed of that which I desire. See how
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  Speaker 1: I do not fall into that which I would avoid.
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  Speaker 1: Set death before me, and you will see set before
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  Speaker 1: me pain, prison, disgrace, and condemnation. This is the proper
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  Speaker 1: display of a young man who has come out of
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  Speaker 1: the schools. But leave the rest to others, and let
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  Speaker 1: no one ever hear you say a word about these things.
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  Speaker 1: And if any man commends you for them, do not
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  Speaker 1: allow it. But think that you are nobody and know nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Only show that you know this, how never to be
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  Speaker 1: disappointed in your desire, and how never to fall into
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  Speaker 1: that which you would avoid. Let others labor at forensic causes,
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  Speaker 1: problems and syllogisms. Do you labor at thinking about death, chains,
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  Speaker 1: the rack, exile? And do all this with confidence and
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  Speaker 1: reliance on him who has called you to these sufferings,
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  Speaker 1: who has judged you worthy of the place in which,
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  Speaker 1: being stationed, you will show what things the rational governing
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  Speaker 1: power can do when it takes its stand against the
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  Speaker 1: forces which are not within the power of our will.
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  Speaker 1: And thus this paradox will no longer appear either impossible
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  Speaker 1: or a paradox that a man ought to be at
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  Speaker 1: the same time cautious and courageous, courageous towards the things
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  Speaker 1: which do not depend on the will, and cautious in
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  Speaker 1: things which are within the power of the will. End
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  Speaker 1: of Book two, Section one