Generally speaking, the view which Epictetus took of life is always simple, and always consistent; it is a view which gave him consolation among life's troubles, and strength to display some of its noblest virtues, and it may be summed up in the following passages of his famous _Manual_:-- "Remember," he says, "that you are an actor of just such a part as is assigned you by the Poet of the play; of a short part, if the part be short; of a long part, if it be long. Should He wish you to act the part of a beggar, take care to act it naturally and nobly; and the same if it be the part of a lame man, or a ruler, or a private man; for _this_ is in your power, to act well the part assigned to you; but to _choose_ that part is the function of another." "Let not these considerations afflict you: 'I shall live despised, and the merest nobody;' for if dishonour be an evil, you cannot be involved in evil any more than you can be involved in baseness through any one else's means. Is it then at all _your_ business to be a leading man, or to be entertained at a banquet? By no means. How then can it be a dishonor not to be so? And how will you be a mere nobody, since it is your duty to be somebody only in those circumstances which are in your own power, in which you may be a person of the greatest importance?" "Honour, precedence, confidence," he argues in another passage, "whether they be good things or evil things, are at any rate things for which their own definite price must be paid. Lettuces are sold for a penny, and if you want your lettuce you must pay your penny; and similarly, if you want to be asked out to a person's house, you must pay the price which he demands for asking people, whether the coin he requires be praise or attention; but if you do not give these, do not expect the other. Have you then gained nothing in lieu of your supper? Indeed you have; you have escaped praising a person whom you did not want to praise, and you have escaped the necessity of tolerating the upstart impertinence of his menials." Some parts of this last thought have been so beautifully expressed by the American poet Lowell that I will conclude this chapter in his words: "Earth hath her price for what earth gives us; The beggar is tax'd for a corner to die in; The priest hath his fee who comes and shrieves us; We bargain for the graves we lie in: At the devil's mart are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold, For a cap and bells our lives we pay. Bubbles we earn with our whole soul's tasking, '_Tis only God that is given away, 'Tis only heaven may be had for the asking_." CHAPTER II. LIFE AND VIEWS OF EPICTETUS _(continued)_.