A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the EncheiridionEpictetus
Philosophy
A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
Epictetus
Philosophy -- Early works to 1800
For we ought not even by the appearance of the body to deter the
multitude from philosophy; but as in other things, a philosopher should
show himself cheerful and tranquil, so also he should in the things
that relate to the body. See, ye men, that I have nothing, that I want
nothing; see how I am without a house, and without a city, and an
exile, if it happens to be so, and without a hearth I live more free
from trouble and more happily than all of noble birth and than the
rich. But look at my poor body also and observe that it is not injured
by my hard way of living. But if a man says this to me, who has the
appearance (dress) and face of a condemned man, what god shall persuade
me to approach philosophy, if it makes men such persons? Far from it; I
would not choose to do so, even if I were going to become a wise man. I
indeed would rather that a young man, who is making his first movements
towards philosophy, should come to me with his hair carefully trimmed
than with it dirty and rough, for there is seen in him a certain notion
(appearance) of beauty and a desire of (attempt at) that which is
becoming; and where he supposes it to be, there also he strives that it
shall be. It is only necessary to show him (what it is), and to say:
Young man, you seek beauty, and you do well; you must know then that it
(is produced) grows in that part of you where you have the rational
faculty; seek it there where you have the movements towards and
movements from things, where you have the desires towards and the
aversion from things; for this is what you have in yourself of a
superior kind; but the poor body is naturally only earth; why do you
labor about it to no purpose? if you shall learn nothing else, you will
learn from time that the body is nothing. But if a man comes to me
daubed with filth, dirty, with a moustache down to his knees, what can
I say to him, by what kind of resemblance can I lead him on? For about
what has he busied himself which resembles beauty, that I may be able
to change him and say, Beauty is not in this, but in that? Would you
have me to tell him, that beauty consists not in being daubed with
muck, but that it lies in the rational part? Has he any desire of
beauty? has he any form of it in his mind? Go and talk to a hog, and
tell him not to roll in the mud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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