Ch. 16
What we do not study to make use of the established principles concerning good and evil.
Where lies good? In the will. Where evil?
In the will. Where neither good nor evil?
In things inevitable. What then? Does any one of
us remember these lessons out of the schools? Does
any one of us study how to answer for himself in the
affairs of life, as in common questions? " Is it day? "
"Yes." "Is it night, then? " "No." "Is the
number of stars even?" "I cannot tell." When
a bribe is offered you, have you learned to make
the proper answer, that it is not a good? Have you
exercised yourself in such answers as these, or only
in sophistries? Why do you wonder, then, that you
improve in points which you have studied; while in
those which you have not studied, there you remain
the same? When an orator knows that he has
written well, that he has committed to memory what
he has written, and that he brings an agreeable voice
with him, why is he still anxious? Because he is
not contented with what he has studied. What does
he want then? To be applauded by the audience.
He has studied the power of speaking, then; but he
has not studied censure and applause. For when did
he hear from any one what applause, what censure
is? What is the nature of each? What kind of applause is to be sought, and what kind of censure to
be shunned? And when did he ever apply himself
to study what follows from these lessons? Why do
you wonder, then, if, in what he has learned, he excels others; but where he has not studied, he is the
same with the rest of the world? Just as a musician
knows how to play, sings well, and has the proper dress
of his profession, yet trembles when he comes upon the
stage. For the first he understands; but what the
multitude is, or what mean the clamor and laughter of
the multitude, he does not understand. Nor does he
even know what anxiety itself is; whether it be our
own affair, or that of others; or whether it be possible
to suppress it, or not. Hence, if he is applauded, he
is puffed up when he makes his exit; but if he is
laughed at, the inflation is punctured, and subsides.
Thus are we too affected. What do we admire?
Externals. For what do we strive? Externals.
And are we then in any doubt why we fear and
are anxious? What is the consequence, then, when
we esteem the things that are brought upon is to
be evils? We cannot but fear; we cannot but be
anxious. And then we say, " O Lord God, how shall
I avoid anxiety!" Have you not hands, foolish
man? Has not God made them for you? You
might as well kneel and pray to be cured of your
catarrh. Take care of your disease, rather; and do
not murmur. Well; and has he given you nothing in
the present case? Has he not given you patience?
Has he not given you magnanimity? Has he not
given you fortitude? When you have such hands as
these, do you still seek for aid from another? But
we neither study nor regard these things. For give
me but one who cares how he does anything, who
does not regard the mete success of anything, but
his own manner of acting. Who, when he is walking,
regards his own action? Who, when he is deliberating, prizes the deliberation itself, and not the success that is to follow it? If it happens to succeed,
he is elated, and cries, "How prudently have we
deliberated ! Did not I tell you, my dear friend, that
it was impossible, when we considered about anything,
that it should not happen right? " But if it miscarries,
the poor wretch is dejected, and knows not what to
say about the matter. Who among us ever, for such
a purpose, consulted a diviner? Who of us ever
slept in a temple, to be instructed [in a dream] concerning his manner of acting? I say, who? Show
me one who is truly noble and ingenuous, that I may
see what I have long sought. Show me either a
young or an old man.
Why, then, are we still surprised, if, when we waste
all our attention on the mere materials of action, we
are, in the manner of action itself, low, sordid, unworthy, timid, wretched, and altogether failures? For
we do not care about these things, nor make them
our study. If we had feared, not death or exile, but
fear itself, we should have studied not to fall into
what appears to us to be evil. But as the case now
stands, we are eager and loquacious in the schools;
and when any little question arises about any of these
things, we are prepared to trace its consequences;
but drag us into practice, and you will find us miserably shipwrecked. Let something of alarming aspect
attack us, and you will perceive what we have been
studying, and in what we are exercised. Besides,
through this negligence we always exaggerate, and
represent things greater than the reality. In a voyage, for instance, casting my eyes down upon the
ocean below, and looking round me, and seeing no
land, I am beside myself, and imagine that, if I should
be shipwrecked, I must swallow all that ocean; not
does it occur to me, that. three pints are enough for
me. What is it, then, that alarms me,- the ocean?
No; but my own impressions. Again, in an earthquake I imagine the city is going to fall upon me;
but is not one little stone enough to knock my brains
out? What is it, then, that oppresses and makes us
beside ourselves? Why, what else but our own impressions? For what is it, but mere impressions, that
distress him who leaves his country, and is separated
from his acquaintance and friends and place and
usual manner of life? When children cry, if their
nurse happens to be absent for a little while, give
them a cake, and they forget their grief. Shall we
compare you to these children, then?
" No, indeed. For I do not desire to be pacified by
a cake, but by right impressions. And what are they? "
Such as a man ought to study all day long, so as
not to be absorbed in what does not belong to him, -
neither friend, place, nor academy, nor even his own
body; but to remember the law, and to have that
constantly before his eyes. And what is the divine
law? To preserve inviolate what is properly our own;
not to claim what belongs to others; to use what is
given us, and not desire what is not given us; and
when anything is taken away, to restore it readily,
and to be thankful for the time you have been permitted the use of it; and not cry after it, like a child
for its nurse and its mamma. For what does it signify what gets the better of you, or on what you
depend? Which is the worthier, one crying for a
doll, or for an academy? You lament for the portico
and the assembly of young people, and such entertainments. Another comes lamenting that he must
no longer drink the water of Dirce.33 Why, is not the
Marcian water as good? " But I was used to that."
And in time you will be used to the other. And
when you are attached to this too, you may weep
again, and set yourself, in imitation of Euripides, to
celebrate, in verse
The baths of Nero, and the Marcian water.
Hence see the origin of Tragedy, when trifling accidents befall foolish men. "Ah, when shall I see
Athens and the citadel again?" Foolish man, are
not you contented with what you see every day?
Can you see anything better than the sun, the moon,
the stars, the whole earth, the sea? But if, besides,
you comprehend him who administers the whole,
and carry him about within yourself, do you still long
after certain stones and a fine rock? What will you
do then, when you are to leave even the sun and
moon? Will you sit crying, like an infant? What,
then, have you been doing in the school? What did
you hear? What did you learn? Why have you
written yourself down a philosopher, instead of writing
the real fact? "I have prepared some abstracts, and
read over Chrysippus; but I have not so much as approached the door of philosophy. For what pretensions have I in common with Socrates, who died and
who lived in such a manner; or with Diogenes? " Do
you observe either of these crying, or out of humor,
that he is not to see such a man, or such a woman;
nor to live any longer at Athens nor at Corinth; but
at Susa, for instance, or Ecbatana? For does he stay
and repine, who may at any time, if he will, quit the
entertainment, and play no longer? Why does he not
stay, as children do, so long as he is amused? Such
a one, no doubt, will bear perpetual banishment and a
sentence of death wonderfully well ! Why will not you
be weaned, as children are; and take more solid food?
Will you never cease to cry after your mammas and
nurses, whom the old women about you have taught
you to bewail? " But if I go away, I shall trouble
them also." You trouble them ! No; it will not be
you; but that which troubles you too, -a mere impression. What have you to do then? Rid yourself
of that impression; and if they are wise, they will do
the same for theirs; or if not, they must lament for
themselves.
Boldly make a desperate push, man, as the saying
is, for prosperity, for freedom, for magnanimity. Lift
up your head at last, as being free from slavery.
Dare to look up to God, and say, "Make use of me
for the future as Thou wilt. I am of the same mind;
I am one with Thee. I refuse nothing which seems
good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt. Clothe
me in whatever dress Thou wilt. Is it Thy will that I
should be in a public or a private condition; dwell
here, or be banished; be poor, or rich? Under all
these circumstances I will testify unto Thee before
men. I will explain the nature of every dispensation." No? Rather sit alone, then, in safety, and
wait till your mamma comes to feed you. If Hercules
had sat loitering at home, what would he have been?
Eurystheus, and not Hercules. Besides, by travelling
through the world, how many acquaintances and how
many friends he made. But none more his friend
than God; for which reason he was believed to be
the son of God, and was so. In obedience to him,
he went about extirpating injustice and lawless force.
But you are not Hercules, nor able to extirpate the
evils of others; nor even Theseus, to extirpate the
evils of Attica. Extirpate your own then. Expel,
instead of Procrustes and Sciron,34 grief, fear, desire,
envy, malevolence, avarice, effeminacy, intemperance.
But these can be no otherwise expelled than by looking up to God alone, as your pattern; by attaching
yourself to him alone, and being consecrated to his
commands. If you wish for anything else, you will,
with sighs and groans, follow what is stronger than
you; always seeking prosperity without, and never
able to find it. For you seek it where it is not, and
neglect to seek it where it is.
