All the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant/Book 1/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV.
What it is that Philosophy promises.
§. 1.When one consulted him, How he might persuade his Brother to forbear treating him ill: Philosophy, answered Epictetus, doth not promise to procure any thing external to Man; otherwise it would admit something beyond its proper Subject-matter. For the Subject-matter of a Carpenter is Wood; of a Statuary, Brass: and so, of the Art of Living, the Subject-matter is each Person's own Life.
What, then, is my Brother's?
That, again, belongs to his own Art [of Living]; but to your's is external: like an Estate, like Health, like reputation. Now Philosophy promises none of these. In every Circumstance I will preserve the governing Part conformable to Nature. Whose governing Part? His in whom I exist.
But how, then, is my Brother to lay aside his Anger against me?
Bring him to me, and I will tell him; but I have nothing to say to you about his Anger.
§. 2. Well: but I still farther ask, How am I to keep myself in a State of Mind conformable to Nature, though he should not be reconciled to me?
No great Thing is brought to Perfection suddenly; when not so much as a Bunch of Grapes or a Fig is. If you tell me, that you would at this Minute have a Fig, I will answer you, that there must be Time. Let it first[1] blossom, then bear Fruit, then ripen. Is then the Fruit of a Fig tree not brought to Perfection suddenly, and in one Hour; and would you possess the Fruit of the human Mind in so short a Time, and without Trouble? I tell you, expect no such thing.
Footnotes
[edit]- ↑ The Philosopher had forgot that Fig-trees do not blossom: and is less excusable than the English Translators of the Bible, Hab. iii. 17. to whom Fig-trees were not so familiar. But the Hebrew Word used there signifies rather in general to shoot out, thrive, than in particular to flower. The LXX have Καρποφορησει; reading, perhaps, תפךה for תפךח. This Note was given to the Translator by a Friend.