BOOK XI
No better is he who looks for a child when he may no longer have one.[1]
34. A man while fondly kissing his child, says Epictetus, should whisper in his heart[2]: 'To-morrow peradventure thou wilt die.' Ill-omened words these! Nay, said he, nothing is ill-omened that signifies a natural process. Or it is ill-omened also to talk of ears of corn being reaped.
35. The grape unripe, mellow, dried-in every stage we have a change, not into non-existence, but into the not now existent.[3]
36. Hear Epictetus: no one can rob us of our free choice.[4]
37. We must, says he,[5] hit upon the true science of assent and in the sphere of our impulses pay good heed that they be subject to proper reservations,[6] that they have in view our neighbour's welfare; that they are proportionate to worth. And we must abstain wholly from inordinate desire and shew avoidance in none of the things that are not in our control.
38. It is no casual matter, then, said he, that is at stake, but whether we are to be sane or no.[7]
39. Socrates was wont to say:[8] What would ye have? The souls of reasoning or unreasoning creatures? Of reasoning creatures. Of what kind of reasoning creatures? Sound or vicious? Sound. Why then not make a shift to get them? Because we have them already. Why then fight and wrangle?
- ↑ Epict. iii. 24, § 87 quoted, not verbatim.
- ↑ ibid. iii. 24, § 88.
- ↑ Epict. iii. 24, § 91.
- ↑ ibid. iii. 22, § 105.
- ↑ i.e. Epictetus. cp. iii. 22, § 105, and Manual, ii. 2.
- ↑ iv. 1; v. 20; vi. 50; i.e. not unconditionally, but subject to modification by circumstances.
- ↑ Epict. i. 22, §§ 17–21; Hor. Sat. ii. 3. 43.
- ↑ Only found here.
