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040 - IX That When We Cannot Fulfil That Which the Character of a Man Promises We Assume the Character of · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty 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, December twenty first, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter nine. That when we cannot fulfill that
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  Speaker 1: which the character of a man promises, we assume the
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  Speaker 1: character of a philosopher. It is no common easy thing
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  Speaker 1: to do this, only to fulfill the promise of a
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  Speaker 1: man's nature. For what is a man? The answer is
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  Speaker 1: a rational and mortal being, then by the rational faculty,
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  Speaker 1: from whom are we separated from wild beasts? And from
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  Speaker 1: what others? From sheep and like animals. Take care, then
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  Speaker 1: to do nothing like a wild beast. But if you do,
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  Speaker 1: you have lost the character of a man. You have
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  Speaker 1: not fulfilled your promise. See that you do nothing like
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  Speaker 1: a sheep. But if you do, in this case also
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  Speaker 1: the man is lost. What then, do we do as sheep?
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  Speaker 1: When we act gluttonously, when we act ludely, when we
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  Speaker 1: act rashly, filthilly, and considerately, to what have we declined
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  Speaker 1: to sheep? What have we lost the rational faculty? When
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  Speaker 1: we act contentiously and harmfully and passionately and violently to
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  Speaker 1: what have we declined to wild beast? Consequently, some of
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  Speaker 1: us are great wild beasts, and others little beasts of
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  Speaker 1: a bad disposition, and small. Whence we may say, let
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  Speaker 1: me be eaten by a lion. But in all these
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  Speaker 1: ways the promise of a man acting as a man
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  Speaker 1: is destroyed. For when is a conjunctive complex proposition maintained
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  Speaker 1: when it fills what nature promises? So that the preservation
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  Speaker 1: of a complex proposition is when it is a conjunction
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  Speaker 1: of truths? When is a disjunctive maintained when it fulfills
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  Speaker 1: what it promises? When are flutes, a liar, a horse,
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  Speaker 1: a dog preserved when they severally keep their promise? What
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  Speaker 1: is the wonder? Then if man, also in like manner,
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  Speaker 1: is preserved, and in like manner is lost, Each man
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  Speaker 1: is improved and preserved by corresponding acts. The carpenter by
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  Speaker 1: acts of carpentry, the grammarian by acts of grammar. But
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  Speaker 1: if a man accustoms himself to write ungrammatically of necessity,
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  Speaker 1: his art will be corrupted and destroyed. Theu smoddest actions
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  Speaker 1: preserve the modest man, and immodest actions destroy him, and
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  Speaker 1: actions of fidelity preserve the faithful man, and the contrary
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  Speaker 1: actions destroy him. And on the other hand, contrary actions
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  Speaker 1: strengthen contrary characters. Shamelessness strengthens the shameless man. Faithlessness the
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  Speaker 1: faithless man, Abusive words the abusive man, anger, the man
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  Speaker 1: of an angry temper, and unequal receiving and giving make
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  Speaker 1: the avaricious man more avaricious. For this reason, philosophers admonish
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  Speaker 1: us not to be satisfied with learning only, but also
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  Speaker 1: to add study and then practice. For we have long
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  Speaker 1: been accustomed to do contrary things, and we put in
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  Speaker 1: practice opinions which are contrary to true opinions. If then
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  Speaker 1: we shall not put in practice right opinions, we shall
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  Speaker 1: be nothing more than the expositors of the opinions of others.
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  Speaker 1: For now, who among us is not able to discourse,
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  Speaker 1: according to the rules of art about good and evil
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  Speaker 1: things in this fashion that of things, some are good
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  Speaker 1: and some are bad, and some are indifferent. The good
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  Speaker 1: then are virtues, and the things which participate in virtues,
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  Speaker 1: and the bad are the contrary, and the indifferent are wealth, health, reputation.
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  Speaker 1: Then if in the midst of our talk, there should
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  Speaker 1: happen some greater noise than usual, or some of those
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  Speaker 1: who are present should laugh at us. We are disturbed, philosopher.
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  Speaker 1: Where are the things which you were talking about? Whence
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  Speaker 1: did you produce and utter them from the lips? And
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  Speaker 1: thence only? Why then do you corrupt the aids provided
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  Speaker 1: by others? Why do you treat the weightiest matters as
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  Speaker 1: if you were playing a game of dice. For it
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  Speaker 1: is one thing to lay up bread and wine as
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  Speaker 1: in a storehouse, and another to eat that which has
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  Speaker 1: been is digested, distributed, and has become sinews, flesh, bones, blood,
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  Speaker 1: healthy color, healthy breath. Whatever is stored up when you choose,
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  Speaker 1: you can readily take and show it. But you have
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  Speaker 1: no other advantage from it, except so far as to
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  Speaker 1: appear to possess it. For what is the difference between
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  Speaker 1: explaining these doctrines and those of men who have different opinions?
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  Speaker 1: Sit down now and explain, according to the rules of art,
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  Speaker 1: the opinions of Epicurus, and perhaps you will explain his
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  Speaker 1: opinions in a more useful manner than Epicurus himself. Why then,
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  Speaker 1: do you call yourself a stoic? Why do you deceive
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  Speaker 1: the menu? Why do you act the part of a Jew.
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  Speaker 1: When you are a Greek, do you not see how
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  Speaker 1: why each is called a Jew, or as Syrian or
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  Speaker 1: an Egyptian. And when we see a man inclining to
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  Speaker 1: two sides, we are accustomed to say, this man is
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  Speaker 1: not a Jew, but he acts as one. But when
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  Speaker 1: he has assumed the effects of one who has been
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  Speaker 1: imbued with Jewish doctrine and has adopted that sect, then
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  Speaker 1: he is in fact, and he is named a Jew.
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  Speaker 1: Thus we, too, being falsely imbued baptized, are in named Jews,
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  Speaker 1: but in fact we are something else. Our effects, feelings
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  Speaker 1: are inconsistent with our words. We are far from practicing
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  Speaker 1: what we say and that of which we are proud,
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  Speaker 1: as if we knew it. Thus being unable to fulfill
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  Speaker 1: even what the character of a man promises, we even
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  Speaker 1: add to it the profession of a philosopher, which is
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  Speaker 1: as heavy a burden as if a man who is
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  Speaker 1: unable to bear ten pounds should attempt to raise the stone,
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  Speaker 1: which Ajak lifted end of Book two, chapter nine,