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060 - III What Is the Matter on Which a Good Man Should be Employed and in What We Ought Chiefly to Practi · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section fifty 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 Rocker, March twenty third, twenty twenty two, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book three, Chapter three. What is the matter on which
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  Speaker 1: a good man should be employed? And in what we
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  Speaker 1: ought chiefly to practice ourselves? The material for the wise
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  Speaker 1: and good man is his own ruling faculty, and the
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  Speaker 1: body is the material for the physician, and the allptus.
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  Speaker 1: The man who oils persons the land is the matter
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  Speaker 1: for the husbandman. The business of the wise and good
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  Speaker 1: man is to use appearances conformably to nature. And as
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  Speaker 1: it is the nature of every soul to assent to
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  Speaker 1: the truth, to dissent from the false, and to remain
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  Speaker 1: in suspense as to that which is uncertain, so oh,
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  Speaker 1: it is its nature to be moved towards the desire
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  Speaker 1: of the good, and to aversion from the evil. And
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  Speaker 1: with respect to that which is neither good nor bad,
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  Speaker 1: it feels indifferent. For as the money changer banker is
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  Speaker 1: not allowed to reject Caesar's coin, nor the seller of herbs.
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  Speaker 1: But if you show the coin, whether he chooses or not,
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  Speaker 1: he must give up what is sold for the coin.
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  Speaker 1: So it is also in the matter of the soul.
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  Speaker 1: When the good appears, it immediately attracts to itself. The
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  Speaker 1: evil repels from itself. But the soul will never reject
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  Speaker 1: the manifest appearance of the good anymore than persons will
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  Speaker 1: reject Caesar's coin. And this principle depends every movement, both
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  Speaker 1: of man and God. For this reason, the good is
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  Speaker 1: preferred to every intimate relationship obligation. There is no intimate
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  Speaker 1: relationship between me and my father, but there is between
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  Speaker 1: me and the good. Are you so hard hearted? Yes?
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  Speaker 1: For such is my nature, and this is the coin
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  Speaker 1: which God has given me. For this reason. If the
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  Speaker 1: good is something different from the beautiful and the just,
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  Speaker 1: both father is gone neglected, and brother and country and everything.
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  Speaker 1: But shall I overlook my own good in order that
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  Speaker 1: you may have it? And shall I give it up
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  Speaker 1: to you? Why? I am your father, but you are
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  Speaker 1: not my good. I am your brother, but you are
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  Speaker 1: not my good. But if we place the good in
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  Speaker 1: a right determination of the will, the very observance of
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  Speaker 1: the relations of life is good. And accordingly, he who
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  Speaker 1: gives up any external things, obtains that which is good.
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  Speaker 1: Your father takes away your property, but he does not
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  Speaker 1: injure you. Your brother will have the greater part of
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  Speaker 1: the estate in land. Let him have as much as
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  Speaker 1: he chooses. Will he then have a greater share of modesty,
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  Speaker 1: of fidelity, of brotherly affection. For who will eject you
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  Speaker 1: from this possession? Not even zeus, for neither has he
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  Speaker 1: chosen to do so. But he has made this in
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  Speaker 1: my own power, and he has given it to me,
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  Speaker 1: just as he possessed it himself, free from hindrance, compulsion,
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  Speaker 1: and impediment. When then, the coin which another uses is
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  Speaker 1: a different coin. If a man presents this coin, he
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  Speaker 1: receives that which is sold for it. Suppose that there
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  Speaker 1: comes into the province a thievish proconsul. What coin does
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  Speaker 1: he use? Silver coin? Show it to him and carry
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  Speaker 1: off what you please. Suppose one comes who is an adulterer,
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  Speaker 1: What coin does he use? Little girls? Take a man,
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  Speaker 1: says the coin, and sell me the small thing. Give,
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  Speaker 1: says the seller, and buy what you want. Another is
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  Speaker 1: eager to possess boys. Give him the coin and receive
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  Speaker 1: what you wish. Another is fond of hunting. Give him
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  Speaker 1: a fine nag or a dog. Though he groans and laments,
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  Speaker 1: he will sell for it that which you want for
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  Speaker 1: another compels him from within he who has fixed determined
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  Speaker 1: this coin against or with respect to this kind of thing.
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  Speaker 1: Chiefly a man should exercise himself as soon as you
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  Speaker 1: go out in the morning, examine every man whom you see,
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  Speaker 1: every man whom you hear. Answer as to a question,
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  Speaker 1: what have you seen a handsome man or woman? Apply
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  Speaker 1: the rule? Is this independent of the will? Or dependent? Independent?
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  Speaker 1: Take it away? What have you seen a man lamenting
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  Speaker 1: over the death of a child? Apply the rule? Death
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  Speaker 1: is a thing independent of the will? Take it away?
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  Speaker 1: Has the proconsul met you? Apply the rule? What kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing is the proconsul's offen? Independent of the will?
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  Speaker 1: Or dependent on it? Independent? Take this away? Also, it
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  Speaker 1: does not stay in examination. Cast it away. It is
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  Speaker 1: nothing to you. If we practiced this and exercised ourselves
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  Speaker 1: in it daily from morning to night, something indeed would
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  Speaker 1: be done. But now we are forthwith caught half asleep
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  Speaker 1: by every appearance. And it is only if, ever, that
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  Speaker 1: in the school we are roused a little. Then when
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  Speaker 1: we go out, if we see a man lamenting, we
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  Speaker 1: say he is undone. If we say a council, we
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  Speaker 1: say he is happy. If we see an exiled man,
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  Speaker 1: we say he is miserable. If we see a poor man,
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  Speaker 1: we say he is wretched. He has nothing to eat.
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  Speaker 1: We ought, then, to eradicate these bad opinions, And to
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  Speaker 1: this end we should direct all our efforts. For what
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  Speaker 1: is weeping and lamenting opinion? What is bad fortune? Opinion?
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  Speaker 1: What is civil sedition? What is divided opinion? What is blame?
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  Speaker 1: What is accusation? What is impiety? What is trifling? All
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  Speaker 1: these things are opinions and nothing more, And opinions about
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  Speaker 1: things independent of the will, as if they were good
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  Speaker 1: and bad. Let me in transfer these opinions to things
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  Speaker 1: dependent on the will, and I engage for him that
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  Speaker 1: he will be firm and constant. Whatever may be the
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  Speaker 1: state of things around him, Such as is a dish
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  Speaker 1: of water, Such as is the soul, Such as is
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  Speaker 1: the ray of light which falls on the water. Such
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  Speaker 1: are the appearances when the water is moved, the ray
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  Speaker 1: also seems to be moved, yet it is not moved.
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  Speaker 1: And when a man is seized with giddiness, it is
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  Speaker 1: not the arts and the virtues which are confounded, but
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, the nervous power on which they are impressed.
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  Speaker 1: If the Spirit be restored to its settled state, those
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  Speaker 1: things are also restored. End of Book three, Chapter three,