arrived at Brundisium, the narrator asked the philosopher for an explanation of his fear, which the philosopher readily gave. He took out of his bag a work of Epictetus, the fifth book of his discourses in which was the following passage (Frag. clxxx.): The affects of the mind (visa animi), which philosophers name φαντασίαι, by which a man's mind is struck by the first appearance of a thing which approaches, are not things which belong to the will nor in our power, but by a peculiar force they intrude themselves on men. But the assents, which they name συγκαταθέσεις (the assents of the judgment), by which the same affects (visa animi) are known and determined are from the will and are in the power of men to make. For this reason when some frightful sound in the heavens or from a fall, or some sudden news of danger comes, or any thing of the same kind happens, it is unavoidable that even the mind of the wise man must be moved somewhat and confounded, and that he must grow pale, not through an opinion which he has first conceived of any danger (or evil), but by certain rapid and inconsiderate emotions which anticipate (prevent) the exercise of the mind and the reason. In a short time however the wise man does not allow these emotions (visa animi) to remain, but he rejects them, and he sees nothing terrible in them. But this is the difference between the fool and the wise man: the fool, as the things at the first impulse appeared to be dangerous, such he thinks them to be; but the wise man, when he has been moved for a short time, recovers the former state and vigour of his mind, which he always had with reference to such appearances, that they are not objects of fear, but only terrify by a false show.[1]
This explanation may be applied to all the events, to all the thoughts and to all the emotions which disturb the mind
- ↑ This is the general sense of the passage. The translation is not easy.
