Ch. 12
Of taking pains.
When you cease to take pains for a little while,
do not fancy that you may recommence
whenever you please; but remember this, that by
means of the fault of to-day, your affairs must necessarily be in a worse condition for the future. The
first and worst evil is that there arises a habit of
neglect; and then a habit of postponing effort, and
constantly procrastinating as to one's successes and
good behavior and orderly thought and action. Now,
if procrastination as to anything is advantageous, it
must be still more advantageous to omit it altogether; but if it be not advantageous, why do you
not take pains all the time? " I would play to-day."
What then? Ought you not to take proper pains
about it? " I would sing." But why not take proper
pains about it? For there is no part of life exempted,
about which pains are not needed. For will you do
anything the worse by taking pains, and the better
by neglect? What else in life is best performed by
heedless people? Does a smith forge the better
by heedlessness? Does a pilot steer more safely by
heedlessness? Or is any other, even of the minutest
operations, best performed heedlessly? Do you not
perceive that, when you have let your mind loose,
it is no longer in your power to call it back, either to
propriety, or modesty, or moderation? But you do
everything at haphazard; you merely follow your
inclinations.
"To what, then, am I to direct my pains? "
Why, in the first place, to those universal maxims
which you must always have at hand; and not sleep,
or arise, or drink, or eat, or converse without them :
that no one is the master of another's will; and
that it is in the will alone that good and evil lie.
No one, therefore, is my master, either to procure me
any good, or to involve me in any evil; but 1 alone
have the disposal of myself with regard to these
things. Since these, then, are secured to me, what
need have I to be troubled about externals? What
tyrant is formidable? What disease? What poverty? What offence? "I have not pleased such a
one." Is he my concern then? Is he my conscience? "No." Why, then, do I trouble myself
any further about him? "But he is thought to be
of some consequence." Let him look to that; and
they who think him so. But I have One whom I
must please, to whom I must submit, whom I must
obey, - God, and those who surround him. He has
intrusted me with myself, and made my will subject
to myself alone, having given me rules for the right
use of it. If I follow the proper rules in syllogisms,
in convertible propositions, I do not heed or regard
any one who says anything contrary to them. Why,
then, am I vexed at being censured in matters of
greater consequence? What is the reason of this
perturbation? Nothing else, but that in this instance
I want practice. For every science despises ignorance and the ignorant; and not only the sciences,
but even the arts. Take any shoemaker, take any
smith you will, and he may laugh at the rest of the
world, so far as his own business is concerned.
In the first place, then, these are the maxims we
must have ready, and do nothing without them, but
direct the soul to this mark; to pursue nothing external, nothing that belongs to others, but as he who
has the power has appointed. Things controllable by
will are to be pursued always; and the rest as may
be permitted. Besides this, we must remember who
we are, and what name we bear, endeavoring to use
all the circumstances of life in their proper relations:
what is the proper time for singing, what for play,
and in what company; what will be the consequence
of our performance; whether our companions will
despise us, or we ourselves; when to employ raillery,
and whom to ridicule; upon what occasions to comply, and with whom; and then, in complying, how to
preserve our own character.
Wherever you deviate from any of these rules, the
damage is immediate; not from anything external,
but from the very action itself. "What, then; is it
possible by these means to be faultless? " Impracticable; but this is possible, to use a constant endeavor
to be faultless. For we shall have cause to be satisfied, if, by never remitting our pains, we shall be
exempt at least from a few faults. But now, when
you say you will begin to take pains to-morrow, be
assured that it is the same thing as if you said, "Today I will be shameless, impertinent, base, it shall
be in the power of others to grieve me; I will be passionate, I will be envious to-day." See to how many
evils you give yourself up. "But all will be well tomorrow." How much better to-day? If it be for
your interest to-morrow, how much more to-day, that
it may be in your power to-morrow too, and that you
may not again deter it until the third day.