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035 - IV Against a Person Who Had Once Been Detected in Adultery · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty four 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, November twenty seventh, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter four, against a person who had once
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  Speaker 1: been detected in adultery. As Epictetus was saying that a
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  Speaker 1: man is formed for fidelity, and that he who subverts
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  Speaker 1: fidelity subverts the peculiar characteristic of men, they're entered one
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  Speaker 1: of those who are considered to be men of letters,
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  Speaker 1: who had once been detected in adultery in the city.
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  Speaker 1: Then Epictetus continued, But if we lay aside this fidelity
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  Speaker 1: for which we are formed and make designs against our
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  Speaker 1: neighbour's wife, what are we doing? What else but destroying
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  Speaker 1: and overthrowing whom the man of fidelity, the man of modesty,
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  Speaker 1: the man of sanctity? Is this all? And are we
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  Speaker 1: not overthrowing neighborhood and friendship and the community? And in
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  Speaker 1: what place are we putting ourselves? How shall I consider
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  Speaker 1: you man as a neighbor, as a friend, what kind
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  Speaker 1: of one as a citizen? Wherein shall I trust you? So?
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  Speaker 1: If you were a utensil so worthless that a man
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  Speaker 1: could not use you, You would be pitched out on
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  Speaker 1: the dung heaps, and no man would pick you up.
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  Speaker 1: But if, being a man, you aren't able to fill
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  Speaker 1: any place which befits a man, what shall we do
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  Speaker 1: with you? For suppose that you cannot hold the place
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  Speaker 1: of a friend, can you hold the place of a slave?
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  Speaker 1: And who will trust you? Are you then content that
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  Speaker 1: you also should be pitched somewhere on a dung heap
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  Speaker 1: as a useless utensil and a bit of dung? When
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  Speaker 1: will you say, no man cares for me, a man
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  Speaker 1: of letters? They do not because you are bad and useless.
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  Speaker 1: It is just as if the wasps complained because no
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  Speaker 1: man cares for them, but all fly from them, and
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  Speaker 1: if a man can, he strikes them and knocks them down.
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  Speaker 1: You have such a sting that you throw into trouble
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  Speaker 1: and pain any man that you wound with it. What
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  Speaker 1: would you have us do with you? You have no
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  Speaker 1: place where you can be put. What then, are not
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  Speaker 1: women common by nature? So I say also, for a
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  Speaker 1: little pig is common to all the invited guests. But
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  Speaker 1: when the portions have been distributed go if you think
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  Speaker 1: it's right, and snatch up the portion of him who
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  Speaker 1: reclines next to you, or slyly steal it, or place
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  Speaker 1: your hand down by it and lay hold of it.
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  Speaker 1: And if you cannot tear away a bit of the meat,
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  Speaker 1: grease your fingers and lock them. A fine companion over
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  Speaker 1: cups an socratic guests. Indeed, well is not the theater
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  Speaker 1: common to the citizens. When then they have taken their seats,
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  Speaker 1: come if you think proper, and eject one of them.
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  Speaker 1: In this way. Women also are common by nature. When
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  Speaker 1: the legislator, like the master of a feast, has distributed them,
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  Speaker 1: you will not also look for your own portion, and
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  Speaker 1: not filch and handle what belongs to another. But I
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  Speaker 1: am a man of letters, and understand arcademus. Understand arcademus then,
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  Speaker 1: and be an adulterer and faithless, and instead of a man,
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  Speaker 1: be a wolf or an ape? For what is the difference.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section two, Chapter four