1. The sense of human dignity was strong in Epictetus, and he would have it practically observed in men’s relations with each other. Compare Ch. v. 7. Zeller must have overlooked these Fragments of Epictetus when he asserted (p. 301) that no Stoic philosopher had ever condemned slavery. So far as we know, however, this is the only condemnation of that institution ever uttered by any Pagan thinker. The usual Stoic view was laid down by Chrysippus, who defined the slave very much as Carlyle does, as a “perpetuus mercenarius”—a man “hired for life, from whom work was to be required, a just return for it being accorded (_operam exegendam, justa prœbenda_).” This utterance of Epictetus, as of one who knew slavery from within, and certainly was not inclined to exaggerate its discomforts, is noteworthy enough. CHAPTER V. 1. Administrator, διορθωτής; in Latin, _Corrector_—a State officer of whom inscriptions, etc., make frequent mention, but of whose functions not much appears to be known beyond what the present chapter of Epictetus reveals. 2. Cassiope was a port of Epirus, not far from Nicopolis, where Epictetus taught. Schw. conjectures that Maximus was sending his son to study philosophy at Nicopolis under Epictetus. 3. “For a correct view of these matters will reduce every movement of preference and avoidance to health of body and tranquillity of soul; for this is the perfection of a happy life.”—Epicurus, _Diog. Laert._ x. 128. Epictetus’s analysis of the Epicurean theory amounts to this, that the pleasure of the soul is the chief good, but that it is only felt through the body and its conditions. 4. _The overseer of youth._—An officer in certain Greek cities. See Mahaffy’s _Greek Life and Thought_, ch. xvii., on the organization of the _ephebi_. 5. _Aid in works that are according to Nature._—The Greek is—ἐν τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἔργοις παρακρατῆ. There is some difference of opinion among commentators as to the meaning of παρακρατῆ. Wolf translates, “hold the chief place” in natural works. Upton, Schw., and Long render it by “keep us constant,” “sustain us,” in such works. I do not see why we should not take the word in its plainest sense—that pleasure should _act together with other forces_ in leading us to do well. CHAPTER VII. 1. _Zealous for evil things._—Epictetus must mean things which they know to be evil—evil things _as_ evil. It was a Socratic doctrine which we find again alluded to in this chapter, that no evil is ever willingly or wittingly done. 2. A favorite theme of later Greek and of Roman comedy was the rivalship in love of a father and a son. 3. Admetus, husband of Alcestis, being told by an oracle that his wife must die if no one offered himself in her stead, thought to lay the obligation on his father, as being an old man with but few more years to live. The first verse quoted is from the _Alcestis_ of Euripides; the second is not found in any extant version of that play.