Ch. 18
That we ought not to be angry with the errors (faults) of others.
IF what philosophers say is true, that all men have one principle, as in the case of assent the persuasion115 that a thing
is so, and in the case of dissent the persuasion that a
thing is not so, and in the case of a suspense of judgment
the persuasion that a thing is uncertain, so also in the
[p. 56]
case of a movement towards any thing the persuasion that
a thing is for a man's advantage, and it is impossible to
think that one thing is advantageous and to desire another,
and to judge one thing to be proper and to move towards
another, why then are we angry with the many?116
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They are thieves and robbers, you may say. What do
you mean by thieves and robbers? They are mistaken
about good and evil. Ought we then to be angry with
them, or to pity them? But show them their error, and
you will see how they desist from their errors. If they
do not see their errors, they have nothing superior to
their present opinion.
Ought not then this robber and this adulterer to be
destroyed? By no means say so, but speak rather in this
way: This man who has been mistaken and deceived about
the most important things, and blinded, not in the faculty
of vision which distinguishes white and black, but in the
faculty which distinguishes good and bad, should we not
destroy him? If you speak thus, you will see how inhuman this is which you say, and that it is just as if you
would say, Ought we not to destroy this blind and deaf
man? But if the greatest harm is the privation of the
greatest things, and the greatest thing in every man is the
will or choice such as it ought to be, and a man is deprived of this will, why are you also angry with him?
Man, you ought not to be affected contrary to nature by
the bad things of another.117 Pity him rather: drop this
readiness to be offended and to hate, and these words which
the many utter: these accursed and odious fellows.
How have you been made so wise at once? and how are
you so peevish? Why then are we angry? Is it because
we value so much the things of which these men rob us?
Do not admire your clothes, and then you will not be
angry with the thief. Do not admire the beauty of your
wife, and you will not be angry with the adulterer. Learn
that a thief and an adulterer have no place in the things
which are yours, but in those which belong to others and
which are not in your power. If you dismiss these things
and consider them as nothing, with whom are you still
angry? But so long as you value these things, be angry
with yourself rather than with the thief and the adulterer.
[p. 58]
Consider the matter thus: you have fine clothes; your
neighbour has not: you have a window; you wish to
air the clothes. The thief does not know wherein man's
good consists, but he thinks that it consists in having
fine clothes, the very thing which you also think. Must
he not then come and take them away? When you show
a cake to greedy persons, and swallow it all yourself, do
you expect them not to snatch it from you? Do not provoke them: do not have a window: do not air your
clothes. I also lately had an iron lamp placed by the
side of my household gods: hearing a noise at the door, I
ran down, and found that the lamp had been carried off.
I reflected that he who had taken the lamp had done
nothing strange. What then? To-morrow, I said, you
will find an earthen lamp: for a man only loses that which
he has. I have lost my garment. The reason is that you
had a garment. I have pain in my head. Have you any
pain in your horns? Why then are you troubled? for we
only lose those things, we have only pains about those
things which we possess.118
But the tyrant will chainwhat? the leg. He will
take awaywhat? the neck. What then will he not
chain and not take away? the will. This is why the
antients taught the maxim, Know thyself.119 Therefore
we ought to exercise ourselves in small120 things, and
beginning with them to proceed to the greater. I have
pain in the head. Do not say, alas! I have pain in the
ear. Do not say, alas I And I do not say, that you are
not allowed to groan, but do not groan inwardly; and
if your slave is slow in bringing a bandage, do not cry
out and torment yourself, and say, Every body hates
me: for who would not hate such a man? For the
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future, relying on these opinions, walk about upright, free;
not trusting to the size of your body, as an athlete, for a
man ought not to be invincible in the way that an ass is.121
Who then is the invincible? It is he whom none of
the things disturb which are independent of the will.
Then examining one circumstance after another I observe,
as in the case of an athlete; he has come off victorious in
the first contest: well then, as to the second? and
what if there should be great heat? and what, if it
should be at Olympia? And the same I say in this case:
if you should throw money in his way, he will despise it.
Well, suppose you put a young girl in his way, what
then? and what, if it is in the dark?122 what if it should
be a little reputation, or abuse; and what, if it should be
praise; and what if it should be death? He is able to
overcome all. What then if it be in heat, and what if it
is in the rain,123 and what if he be in a melancholy (mad)
mood, and what if he be asleep? He will still conquer.
This is my invincible athlete.
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