Ch. 10
What things we ought to despise, and what things we ought to value.
THE difficulties of all men are about external things, their
helplessness is about externals. What shall I do, how
will it be, how will it turn out, will this happen, will
that? All these are the words of those who are turning
themselves to things which are not within the power of
the will. For who says, How shall I not assent to that
which is false? how shall I not turn away from the
truth? If a man be of such a good disposition as to be
anxious about these things, I will remind him of this,
Why are you anxious? The thing is in your own power:
be assured: do not be precipitate in assenting before you
apply the natural rule. On the other side, if a man is
anxious (uneasy) about desire, lest it fail in its purpose
and miss its end, and with respect to the avoidance of
things, lest he should fall into that which he would
avoid, I will first kiss (love) him, because he throws away
the things about which others are in a flutter (others
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desire) and their fears, and employs his thoughts about
his own affairs and his own condition. Then I shall say
to him, if you do not choose to desire that which you will
fail to obtain nor to attempt to avoid that into which you
will fall, desire nothing which belongs to (which is in the
power of) others, nor try to avoid any of the things which
are not in your power. If you do not observe this rule,
you must of necessity fail in your desires and fall into
that which you would avoid. What is the difficulty here?
where is there room for the words, How will it be? and
How will it turn out? and will this happen or that?
Now is not that which will happen independent of
the will? Yes. And the nature of good and of evil is it
not in the things which are within the power of the will?
Yes. Is it in your power then to treat according to
nature every thing which happens? Can any person
hinder you? No man. No longer then say to me, How
will it be? For however it may be, you will dispose of
it well,758 and the result to you will be a fortunate one.
What would Hercules have been if he said, How shall a
great lion not appear to me, or a great boar, or savage
men? And what do you care for that? If a great boar
appear, you will fight a greater fight: if bad men appear,
you will relieve the earth of the bad. Suppose then that
I lose my life in this way. You will die a good man,
doing a noble act. For since we must certainly die, of
necessity a man must be found doing something, either
following the employment of a husbandman, or digging, or
trading, or serving in a consulship or suffering from
indigestion or from diarrhoea. What then do you wish
to be doing when you are found by death? I for my
part would wish to be found doing something which
belongs to a man, beneficent, suitable to the general
interest, noble. But if I cannot be found doing things
so great, I would be found doing at least that which I
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cannot be hindered from doing, that which is permitted
me to do, correcting myself, cultivating the faculty which
makes use of appearances, labouring at freedom from the
affects (labouring at tranquillity of mind), rendering to
the relations of life their due; if I succeed so far, also
(I would be found) touching on (advancing to) the third
topic (or head) safety in the forming judgments about
things.759 If death surprises me when I am busy about
these things, it is enough for me if I can stretch out my
hands to God and say: The means which I have received
from thee for seeing thy administration (of the world)
and following it, I have not neglected: I have not dishonoured thee by my acts: see how I have used my perceptions, see how I have used my preconceptions: have I
ever blamed thee? have I been discontented with any
thing that happens, or wished it to be otherwise? have
I wished to transgress the (established) relations (of
things)? That thou hast given me life, I thank thee
for what thou hast given: so long as I have used the
things which are thine I am content; take them back
and place them wherever thou mayest choose; for thine
were all things, thou gayest them to me760 Is it not
enough to depart in this state of mind, and what life is
better and more becoming than that of a man who is in
this state of mind? and what end is more happy?761
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But that this may be done (that such a declaration may
be made), a man must receive (bear) no small things, nor
are the things small which he must lose (go without).
You cannot both wish to be a consul and to have these
things (the power of making such a dying speech), and to
be eager to have lands, and these things also; and to be
solicitous about slaves and about yourself. But if you
wish for any thing which belongs to another, that which
is your own is lost. This is the nature of the thing:
nothing is given or had for nothing.762 And where is the
wonder? If you wish to be a consul, you must keep
awake, run about, kiss hands, waste yourself with exhaustion at other men's doors, say and do many things
unworthy of a free man, send gifts to many, daily
presents to some. And what is the thing that is got?
Twelve bundles of rods (the consular fasces), to sit three
or four times on the tribunal, to exhibit the games in the
Circus and to give suppers in small baskets.763 Or, if you
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do not agree about this, let some one show me what there
is besides these things. In order then to secure freedom
from passions (ἀπαφείας), tranquillity, to sleep well when
you do sleep, to be really awake when you are awake, to
fear nothing, to be anxious about nothing, will you spend
nothing and give no labour? But if any thing belonging
to you be lost while you are thus busied, or be wasted
badly, or another obtains what you ought to have
obtained, will you immediately be vexed at what has
happened? Will you not take into the account on the
other side what you receive and for what, how much for
how much? Do you expect to have for nothing things so
great? And how can you? One work (thing) has no
community with another. You cannot have both external
things after bestowing care on them and your own ruling
faculty:764 but if you would have those, give up this. If
you do not, you will have neither this nor that, while you
are drawn in different ways to both.765 The oil will be
spilled, the household vessels will perish: (that may be),
but I shall be free from passions (tranquil).There will
be a fire when I am not present, and the books will be
destroyed: but I shall treat appearances according to
natureWell; but I shall have nothing to eat. If I am
so unlucky, death is a harbour; and death is the harbour
for all; this is the place of refuge; and for this reason
not one of the things in life is difficult: as soon as you
choose, you are out of the house, and are smoked no more.766
Why then are you anxious, why do you lose your sleep,
why do you not straightway, after considering wherein
your good is and your evil, say, Both of them are in my
power? Neither can any man deprive me of the good,
nor involve me in the bad against my will. Why do I
not throw myself down and snore? for all that I have is
safe. As to the things which belong to others, he will
look to them who gets them, as they may be given by
him who has the power.767 Who am I who wish to have
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them in this way or in that? is a power of selecting them
given to me? has any person made me the dispenser of
them? Those things are enough for me over which I
have power: I ought to manage them as well as I can:
and all the rest, as the master of them (God) may choose.
When a man has these things before his eyes, does he
keep awake and turn hither and thither? What would
he have, or what does he regret, Patroclus or Antilochus
or Menelaus?768 For when did he suppose that any of his
friends was immortal, and when had he not before his
eyes that on the morrow or the day after he or his friend
must die? Yes, he says, but I thought that he would
survive me and bring up my son.You were a fool for
that reason, and you were thinking of what was uncertain. Why then do you not blame yourself, and sit
crying like girls?But he used to set my food before me.
Because he was alive, you fool, but now he cannot: but
Automedon769 will set it before you, and if Automedon also
dies, you will find another. But if the pot, in which
your meat was cooked, should be broken, must you die of
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hunger, because you have not the pot which you are
accustomed to? Do you not send and buy a new pot
He says:
No greater ill than this could fall on me. (Iliad xix. 321.)
Why is this your ill? Do you then instead of removing
it blame your mother (Thetis) for not foretelling it to you
that you might continue grieving from that time? What
do you think? do you not suppose that Homer wrote this
that we may learn that those of noblest birth, the
strongest and the richest, the most handsome, when they
have not the opinions which they ought to have, are not
prevented from being most wretched and unfortunate?
