Ch. 6
Of indifference.
249
THE hypothetical proposition250 is indifferent: the judgment
about it is not indifferent, but it is either knowledge or
opinion or error. Thus life is indifferent: the use is not
indifferent. When any man then tells you that these
things also are indifferent, do not become negligent; and
when a man invites you to be careful (about such things),
do not become abject and struck with admiration of material things. And it is good for you to know your own
preparation and power, that in those matters where you
have not been prepared, you may keep quiet, and not be
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vexed, if others have the advantage over you. For you
too in syllogisms will claim to have the advantage over
them; and if others should be vexed at this, you will
console them by saying, 'I have learned them, and you
have not.' Thus also where there is need of any practice,
seek not that which is acquired from the need (of such
practice), but yield in that matter to those who have had
practice, and be yourself content with firmness of mind.
Go and salute a certain person. How? Not meanly.
But I have been shut out, for I have not learned to make
my way through the window; and when I have found the
door shut, I must either come back or enter through the
window.But still speak to him.In what way? Not
meanly. But suppose that you have not got what you
wanted. Was this your business, and not his? Why then
do you claim that which belongs to another? Always
remember what is your own, and what belongs to another;
and you will not be disturbed. Chrysippus therefore said
well, So long as future things are uncertain, I always
cling to those which are more adapted to the conservation
of that which is according to nature; for God himself has
given me the faculty of such choice. But if I knew that
it was fated (in the order of things) for me to be sick, I
would even move towards it; for the foot also, if it had
intelligence, would move to go into the mud.251 For why
are ears of corn produced? Is it not that they may
become dry? And do they not become dry that they may
be reaped?252 for they are not separated from communion
with other things. If then they had perception, ought
they to wish never to be reaped? But this is a curse upon
ears of corn, to be never reaped. So we must know that
in the case of men too it is a curse not to die, just the
same as not to be ripened and not to be reaped. But since
we must be reaped, and we also know that we are reaped,
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we are vexed at it; for we neither know what we are nor
have we studied what belongs to man, as those who have
studied horses know what belongs to horses. But Cbry-
santas253 when he was going to strike the enemy checked
himself when he heard the trumpet sounding a retreat: so
it seemed better to him to obey the general's command
than to follow his own inclination. But not one of us
chooses, even when necessity summons, readily to obey it,
but weeping and groaning we suffer what we do suffer,
and we call them 'circumstances.' What kind of circumstances, man? If you give the name of circumstances to
the things which are around you, all things are circumstances; but if you call hardships by this name, what
hardship is there in the dying of that which has been produced? But that which destroys is either a sword, or a
wheel, or the sea, or a tile, or a tyrant. Why do you care
about the way of going down to Hades? All ways are
equal.254 But if you will listen to the truth, the way which
the tyrant sends you is shorter. A tyrant never killed a
man in six months: but a fever is often a year about it.
All these things are only sound and the noise of empty
names.
I am in danger of my life from Caesar.255 And am not I
in danger who dwell in Nicopolis, where there are so
many earthquakes: and when you are crossing the
Hadriatic, what hazard do you run? Is it not the hazard
of your life? But I am in danger also as to opinion. Do
you mean your own? how? For who can compel you to
have any opinion which you do not choose? But is it as
to another man's opinion? and what kind of danger is
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yours, if others have false opinions? But I am in danger
of being banished. What is it to be banished? To be
somewhere else than at Rome? Yes: what then if I
should be sent to Gyara?256 If that suits you, you will go
there; but if it does not, you can go to another place
instead of Gyara, whither he also will go, who sends you
to Gyara, whether he choose or not. Why then do you
go up to Rome as if it were something great? It is not
worth all this preparation, that an ingenuous youth
should say, It was not worth while to have heard so
much and to have written so much and to have sat so long
by the side of an old man who is not worth much. Only
remember that division by which your own and not your
own are distinguished: never claim any thing which
belongs to others. A tribunal and a prison are each a
place, one high and the other low; but the will can be
maintained equal, if you choose to maintain it equal in
each. And we shall then be imitators of Socrates, when
we are able to write paeans in prison.257 But in our present
disposition, consider if we could endure in prison another
person saying to us, Would you like me to read Paeans to
you?Why do you trouble me? do you not know the
evils which hold me? Can I in such circumstances (listen
to paeans)?What circumstances?I am going to die.
And will other men be immortal?
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