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
In the first place, in the things which relate to yourself, you must
not be in any respect like what you do now; you must not blame God or
man; you must take away desire altogether, you must transfer avoidance
([Greek: echchlisis]) only to the things which are within the power of
the will; you must not feel anger nor resentment or envy nor pity; a
girl must not appear handsome to you, nor must you love a little
reputation, nor be pleased with a boy or a cake. For you ought to know
that the rest of men throw walls around them and houses and darkness
when they do any such things, and they have many means of concealment.
A man shuts the door, he sets somebody before the chamber; if a person
comes, say that he is out, he is not at leisure. But the Cynic instead
of all these things must use modesty as his protection; if he does not,
he will be indecent in his nakedness and under the open sky. This is
his house, his door; this is the slave before his bedchamber; this is
his darkness. For he ought not to wish to hide anything that he does;
and if he does, he is gone, he has lost the character of a Cynic, of a
man who lives under the open sky, of a free man; he has begun to fear
some external thing, he has begun to have need of concealment, nor can
he get concealment when he chooses. For where shall he hide himself and
how? And if by chance this public instructor shall be detected, this
pædagogue, what kind of things will he be compelled to suffer? when
then a man fears these things, is it possible for him to be bold with
his whole soul to superintend men? It cannot be: it is impossible.
In the first place then you must make your ruling faculty pure, and
this mode of life also. Now (you should say), to me the matter to work
on is my understanding, as wood is to the carpenter, as hides to the
shoemaker; and my business is the right use of appearances. But the
body is nothing to me: the parts of it are nothing to me. Death? Let it
come when it chooses, either death of the whole or of a part. Fly, you
say. And whither; can any man eject me out of the world? He cannot. But
wherever I go, there is the sun, there is the moon, there are the
stars, dreams, omens, and the conversation ([Greek: omilia]) with gods.
Then, if he is thus prepared, the true Cynic cannot be satisfied with
this; but he must know that he is sent a messenger from Zeus to men
about good and bad things, to show them that they have wandered and are
seeking the substance of good and evil where it is not, but where it
is, they never think; and that he is a spy, as Diogenes was carried off
to Philip after the battle of Chaeroneia as a spy. For in fact a Cynic
is a spy of the things which are good for men and which are evil, and
it is his duty to examine carefully and to come and report truly, and
not to be struck with terror so as to point out as enemies those who
are not enemies, nor in any other way to be perturbed by appearances
nor confounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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