Ch. 19
What is the comparative condition of the philosopher, and of the crowd.
The first difference between one of the crowd and
a philosopher is this: the one says, "I am undone on the account of my child, my brother, my
father;" but the other, if ever he be obliged to say,
"I am undone ! " reflects, and adds, "on account of
myself." For the Will cannot be restrained or hurt
by anything to which the Will does not extend, but
only by itself. If, therefore, we always would incline
this way, and whenever we are unsuccessful, would
lay the fault on ourselves, and remember that there is
no cause of perturbation and inconstancy but wrong
principles, I pledge myself to you that we should
make some proficiency. But we set out in a very different way from the very beginning. In infancy, for
example, if we happen to stumble, our nurse does
not chide us, but beats the stone. Why, what harm
has the stone done? Was it to move out of its place
for the folly of your child? Again, if we do not find
something to eat when we come out of the bath, our
tutor does not try to moderate our appetite, but beats
the cook. Why, did we appoint you tutor of the
cook, man? No; but of our child. It is he whom
you are to correct and improve. By these means,
even when we are grown up, we appear children.
For an unmusical person is a child in music; an illiterate person, a child in learning; and an untaught
one, a child in life.
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