The Golden Sayings of

CLXXXV


We shall then be like Socrates, when we can indite hymns of
praise to the Gods in prison.


CLXXXVI


It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the
carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the
intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible:
else were happiness also impossible. We should act as we do in
seafaring.

"What can I do?"--Choose the master, the crew, the day, the
opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters it to me? my
part has been fully done. The matter is in the hands of another--
the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I
to do? I do the only thing that remains to me--to be drowned
without fear, without a cry, without upbraiding God, but knowing
that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am not
Eternity, but a human being--a part of the whole, as an hour is
part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour
must pass!


CLXXXVII


And now we are sending you to Rome to spy out the land; but
none send a coward as such a spy, that, if he hear but a noise
and see a shadow moving anywhere, loses his wits and comes flying
to say, The enemy are upon us!

So if you go now, and come and tell us: "Everything at Rome
is terrible: Death is terrible, Exile is terrible, Slander is
terrible, Want is terrible; fly, comrades! the enemy are upon
us!" we shall reply, Get you gone, and prophesy to yourself! we
have but erred in sending such a spy as you. Diogenes, who was
sent as a spy long before you, brought us back another report
than this. He says that Death is no evil; for it need not even
bring shame with it. He says that Fame is but the empty noise of
madmen. And what report did this spy bring us of Pain, what of
Pleasure, what of Want? That to be clothed in sackcloth is better
than any purple robe; that sleeping on the bare ground is the
softest couch; and in proof of each assertion he points to his
own courage, constancy, and freedom; to his own healthy and
muscular frame. "There is no enemy near," he cries, "all is
perfect peace!"


CLXXXVIII


If a man has this peace--not the peace proclaimed by Caesar
(how indeed should he have it to proclaim?), nay, but the peace
proclaimed by God through reason, will not that suffice him when
alone, when he beholds and reflects:--Now can no evil happen unto
me; for me there is no robber, for me no earthquake; all things
are full of peace, full of tranquillity; neither highway nor city
nor gathering of men, neither neighbour nor comrade can do me
hurt. Another supplies my food, whose care it is; another my
raiment; another hath given me perceptions of sense and primary
conceptions. And when He supplies my necessities no more, it is
that He is sounding the retreat, that He hath opened the door,
and is saying to thee, Come!--Whither? To nought that thou
needest fear, but to the friendly kindred elements whence thou
didst spring. Whatsoever of fire is in thee, unto fire shall
return; whatsoever of earth, unto earth; of spirit, unto spirit;
of water, unto water. There is no Hades, no fabled rivers of
Sighs, of Lamentation, or of Fire: but all things are full of
Beings spiritual and divine. With thoughts like these, beholding
the Sun, Moon, and Stars, enjoying earth and sea, a man is
neither helpless nor alone!


CLXXXIX


What wouldst thou be found doing when overtaken by Death? If
I might choose, I would be found doing some deed of true
humanity, of wide import, beneficent and noble. But if I may not
be found engaged in aught so lofty, let me hope at least for
this--what none may hinder, what is surely in my power--that I
may be found raising up in myself that which had fallen; learning
to deal more wisely with the things of sense; working out my own
tranquillity, and thus rendering that which is its due to every
relation of life. . . .

If death surprise me thus employed, it is enough if I can
stretch forth my hands to God and say, "The faculties which I
received at Thy hands for apprehending this thine Administration,
I have not neglected. As far as in me lay, I have done Thee no
dishonour. Behold how I have used the senses, the primary
conceptions which Thou gavest me. Have I ever laid anything to
Thy charge? Have I ever murmured at aught that came to pass, or
wished it otherwise? Have I in anything transgressed the
relations of life? For that Thou didst beget me, I thank Thee for
that Thou hast given: for the time during which I have used the
things that were Thine, it suffices me. Take them back and place
them wherever Thou wilt! They were all Thine, and Thou gavest
them me."--If a man depart thus minded, is it not enough? What
life is fairer or more noble, what end happier than his?






(APPENDIX A)



FRAGMENTS

Attributed to Epictetus



I


A life entangled with Fortune is like a torrent. It is
turbulent and muddy; hard to pass and masterful of mood: noisy
and of brief continuance.


II


The soul that companies with Virtue is like an ever-flowing
source. It is a pure, clear, and wholesome draught; sweet, rich,
and generous of its store; that injures not, neither destroys.


III


It is a shame that one who sweetens his drink with the gifts
of the bee, should embitter God's gift Reason with vice.


IV


Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no
longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living,
and her eyes they blind.


V


Keep neither a blunt knife nor an ill-disciplined looseness
of tongue.


VI


Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may
hear from others twice as much as we speak.


VII


Do not give sentence in another tribunal till you have been
yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice.


VIII


It is shameful for a Judge to be judged by others.


IX



Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of
one that is longer but of less account!


X



Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice. . . . None
is a slave whose acts are free.


XI


Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely give the most
delight.


XII


Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become
the least delightful.


XIII


The anger of an ape--the threat of a flatterer:--these
deserve equal regard.


XIV


Chastise thy passions that they avenge not themselves upon
thee.


XV


No man is free who is not master of himself.


XVI


A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a
single hope.


XVII


Fortify thyself with contentment: that is an impregnable
stronghold.


XVIII


No man who is a lover of money, of pleasure, of glory, is
likewise a lover of Men; but only he that is a lover of
whatsoever things are fair and good.

XIX


Think of God more often than thou breathest.


XX


Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it
sweet to thee.


XXI


Let thy speech of God be renewed day by day, aye, rather
than thy meat and drink.


XXII



Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations
to rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also
wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy
duty; nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved
like the Sun.


XXIII


Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.




XXIV



If thou rememberest that God standeth by to behold and visit
all that thou doest; whether in the body or in the soul, thou
surely wilt not err in any prayer or deed; and thou shalt have
God to dwell with thee.


Note.--Schweighaeuser's great edition collects 181 fragments
attributed to Epictetus, of which but a few are certainly
genuine. Some (as xxi., xxiv., above) bear the stamp of
Pythagorean origin; others, though changed in form, may well be
based upon Epictetean sayings. Most have been preserved in the
Anthology of John of Stobi (Stobaeus), a Byzantine collector, of
whom scarcely anything is known but that he probably wrote
towards the end of the fifth century, and made his vast body of
extracts from more than five hundred authors for his son's use.
The best examination of the authenticity of the Fragments is
Quaestiones Epicteteae, by R. Asmus, 1888. The above selection
includes some of doubtful origin but intrinsic interest.--Crossley.