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039 - VIII What Is the Nature 'H Ουσια Of the Good · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty eight 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 one, twenty twenty one, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter eight. What is the nature Uziah of
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  Speaker 1: the good? God is beneficial? But the good is also beneficial?
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  Speaker 1: It is consistent then that where the nature of God is,
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  Speaker 1: there also the nature of the good should be. What
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  Speaker 1: then is the nature of God? Flesh? Certainly not? And
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  Speaker 1: a state in land by no means fame? No? Is
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  Speaker 1: it intelligence? Knowledge? Right? Reason? Yes, Here in the simple
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  Speaker 1: seek the nature of the good. For I suppose that
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  Speaker 1: you do not seek it in a plan No, do
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  Speaker 1: you seek it in an irrational animal? No? If you
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  Speaker 1: then seek it in a rational animal, why do you
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  Speaker 1: still seek it anywhere except in the superiority of rational
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  Speaker 1: over irrational animals. Now, plants have not even the power
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  Speaker 1: of using appearances, and for this reason you do not
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  Speaker 1: apply the term good to them. The good then requires
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  Speaker 1: the use of appearances? Does it require this use? Only?
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  Speaker 1: For if you say that it requires this use, only
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  Speaker 1: say that the good and that happiness and unhappiness are
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  Speaker 1: in irrational animals also, But you do not say this,
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  Speaker 1: and you do right. For if they possess even the
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  Speaker 1: highest degree the use of appearances, yet they have not
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  Speaker 1: the faculty of understanding the use of appearances. And there
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  Speaker 1: is good reason for this, for they exist for the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of serving others, and they exercise no superiority. For
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  Speaker 1: the ass I suppose does not exist for any superiority
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  Speaker 1: over others. No, but because we had need of a
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  Speaker 1: back which is able to bear something, and in truth
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  Speaker 1: we had need also of his being able to walk.
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  Speaker 1: And for this reason he received also the faculty of
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  Speaker 1: making use of appearances, for otherwise he would not have
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  Speaker 1: been able to walk. And here then the matter stopped.
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  Speaker 1: For if he had also received the faculty of comprehending
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  Speaker 1: the use of appearances, it is plain that consistently with reason,
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  Speaker 1: he would not then have been subjected to us, nor
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  Speaker 1: would he have done us these services. But he would
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  Speaker 1: have been equal to us and liked to us. Will
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  Speaker 1: you not then seek the nature of good in the
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  Speaker 1: rational animal, For if it is not there, you will
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  Speaker 1: not choose to say that it exists in any other thing,
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  Speaker 1: plant or animal. What then, are not planned and animals
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  Speaker 1: also the works of God they are, But they are
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  Speaker 1: not superior things, nor yet parts of the gods. But
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  Speaker 1: you are a superior thing. You are a portion separated
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  Speaker 1: from the Deity. You have in yourself a certain portion
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  Speaker 1: of Him. Why then, are you ignorant of your own
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  Speaker 1: noble descent? Why do you not know whence you came?
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  Speaker 1: Will you not remember when you are eating who you are,
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  Speaker 1: who eat and whom you feed? When you are in
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  Speaker 1: conjunction with a woman, will you not remember who you
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  Speaker 1: are who do this thing? When you are in social intercourse,
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  Speaker 1: when you are exercising yourself, when you are engaged in discussion,
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  Speaker 1: know you not that you are nourishing a God, that
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  Speaker 1: you are exercising a god? Wretch? You are carrying about
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  Speaker 1: a God with you, and you know it not. Do
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  Speaker 1: you think that I mean some God of silver or
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  Speaker 1: of gold and external? No, carry him within yourself, and
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  Speaker 1: you perceive not that you are polluting him by impure
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  Speaker 1: thoughts and dirty deeds. And if an image of God
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  Speaker 1: were present, you would not dare to do any of
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  Speaker 1: the things which you are doing. But when God himself
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  Speaker 1: is present within and sees all and hears all, you
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  Speaker 1: are not ashamed of thinking such things and doing such
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  Speaker 1: things ignorant as you are of your own nature and
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  Speaker 1: subject to the anger of God. Then why do we
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  Speaker 1: fear when we are sending a young man from the
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  Speaker 1: school into active life, lest he should do anything improperly,
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  Speaker 1: eat improperly, have improper intercourse with women, And lest the
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  Speaker 1: rags in which he is wrapped should debase him, lest
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  Speaker 1: fine garments should make him proud. This youth, if he
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  Speaker 1: acts thus, does not know his own God. He knows
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  Speaker 1: not with whom he sets out into the world. But
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  Speaker 1: we can endure when he says, I wish I had
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  Speaker 1: you God with me? Have you not God with you?
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  Speaker 1: And do you seek for any other when you have him?
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  Speaker 1: Or will God tell you anything else than this? If
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  Speaker 1: you were a statue of Phidias, either Athena or Zeus,
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  Speaker 1: you would think both of yourself and of the artist,
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  Speaker 1: And if you had any understanding power of perception, you
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  Speaker 1: would try to do nothing unworthy of him who made you,
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  Speaker 1: or of yourself, and try not to appear in an
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  Speaker 1: unbecoming dress attitude to those who look on you. But now,
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  Speaker 1: because Zeus has made you for this reason, do you
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  Speaker 1: care not how you shall appear. And yet is the
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  Speaker 1: artist in one case like the artist in the other,
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  Speaker 1: or the work in the one case like the other.
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  Speaker 1: And what work of an artist, for instance, has in
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  Speaker 1: itself the faculty which the artist shows in making it?
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  Speaker 1: Is it not marble or bronze, or gold or ivory?
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  Speaker 1: And the athena of Phidias, when she has once extended
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  Speaker 1: the hand and received in it, the figure of victory,
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  Speaker 1: stands in that attitude forever. But the works of God
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  Speaker 1: have power of motion, they breathe, they have the faculty
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  Speaker 1: of using the appearances of things, and the power of
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  Speaker 1: examining them. Being the work of such an artist, do
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  Speaker 1: you dishonor him? And what shall I say? Not only
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  Speaker 1: that he made you, but also entrusted you to yourself,
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  Speaker 1: and made you a deposit to yourself? Will you not
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  Speaker 1: think of this too? But do you also dishonor your guardianship?
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  Speaker 1: But if God had entrusted an orphan to you, would
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  Speaker 1: you thus neglect him? He has delivered yourself to your
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  Speaker 1: own care, and says I had no one fitter to
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  Speaker 1: entrust him to than yourself. Keep him for me, such
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  Speaker 1: as he is, by nature, modest, faithful, erect, unterrified, free
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  Speaker 1: from passion and perturbation. And then you do not keep
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  Speaker 1: him such? But some will say, whence has this fellow
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  Speaker 1: got the arrogance which he displays and the supercilious looks?
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  Speaker 1: I have not yet so much gravity as befits a philosopher.
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  Speaker 1: For I do not yet feel confidence in what I
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  Speaker 1: have learned and in what I've assented to. I still
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  Speaker 1: fear my own weakness. Let me get confidence, and then
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  Speaker 1: you shall see a countenance such as I ought to have,
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  Speaker 1: and an attitude such as I ought to have. Then
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  Speaker 1: I will show you the statue when it is perfected,
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  Speaker 1: when it is polished. What do you expect a supercilious countenance?
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  Speaker 1: Does the Zeus at Olympia lift up his brow? No,
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  Speaker 1: his look is fixed, as becomes him who is ready
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  Speaker 1: to say, irrevocable is my word and shall not fail
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  Speaker 1: Iliad five twenty six. Such I will show myself to you, faithful, modest, noble,
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  Speaker 1: free from perturbation. What an immortal to exempt from old
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  Speaker 1: age and from sickness? No, but dying as becomes a god,
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  Speaker 1: sickening as becomes a god. This power I possess. This
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  Speaker 1: I can do, But the rest I do not possess,
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  Speaker 1: nor can I do. I will show the nerves strength
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  Speaker 1: of a philosopher. What nerves are these? A desire never disappointed,
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  Speaker 1: an aversion which never falls on that which it would avoid,
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  Speaker 1: a proper pursuit or mean, a diligent purpose, and a
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  Speaker 1: scent which is not rash. These you shall see. End
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  Speaker 1: of Book two, Chapter eight,