All the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant/Book 3/Chapter 26
CHAPTER XXVI.
Concerning those who are in Dread of Want.
§. 1.[1]Are not you ashamed to be more fearful and mean-spirited than fugitive Slaves? To what Estates, to what Servants, do they trust, when they run away, and leave their Masters? Do not they, after carrying off a little with them for the First Days, travel over Land and Sea, contriving first one, then another Method of getting Food? And what Fugitive ever died with Hunger? But you tremble, and lie awake by Night, for fear you should want Necessaries. Wretch! are you so blind? Do not you see the Way where the Want of Necessaries leads?
Why, where doth it lead?
Where a Fever, where even a Stone falling on you, leadsto Death. Have not you yourself then, often said this to your Companions? Have not you read, have not you written, many Things of this kind? And how often have you arrogantly boasted, that you are easy with regard to Death?
Ay: but my Family too will starve with Hunger.
What then? Doth their Hunger lead any other Way than yours? Is there not the same Descent? The same State below? Will you not then, in every Want and Necessity, look with Confidence there, where even the most Rich and Powerful, and Kings and Tyrants themselves must descend? You indeed, hungry perhaps; and they, burst with Indigestion and Drunkenness? What Beggar have you almost ever seen, who did not live to Old-age, nay, to extreme Old-age? Chilled with Cold Day and Night, lying on the Ground, and eating only what is barely necessary, they come nearly to an Impossibility of DyingCannot you write? Cannot you keep a School? Cannot you be a Watchman at somebody's Door?
But it is shameful to come to this Necessity.
First therefore, learn what Things are shameful? and then tell us, you are a Philosopher: but at present, do not bear, that even any one else should call you so. Is that shameful to you, which is not your own Act? Of which you are not the Cause? Which hath happened to you by Accident, like a Fever, or the Head-ach? If your Parents were poor, or left others their Heirs, or, though they are living, do not assist you, are these Things shameful for you? Is this what you have learned from the Philosophers? Have you never heard, that what is shameful is blameable; and what is blameable deserves to be blamed? Whom do you blame for an Action not his own, which he hath not done himself? Did you then make your Father such a one [as he is]? Or is it in your Power to mend him? Is that permitted you? What then, must you desire what is not permitted; and, when you fail of it, be ashamed? Are you thus habituated, even when you are studying Philosophy, to depend upon others, and to hope nothing from yourself? Sigh then, and groan, and eat in Fear that you shall have no Victuals To-morrow. Tremble, lest your Servants should rob Servants should rob you, or run away from you, or die. Thus live on, without ceasing, whoever you are, who have applied to Philosophy in Name only; and, as much as in you lies, have disgraced its Theorems, by showing, that they are unprofitable and useless to those who take up the Profession of them. You have never made Constancy, Tranquillity, and Apathy, the Object of your Desires; have attended on no one upon this Account; but on many, for the Sake of Syllogisms: nor have ever, by yourself, examined any one of these Appearances. "Can I bear this, or can I not bear it? What remains for me to do?" But, as if all your Affairs went safe and well, you have dwelt upon the Third Class[2], that of Security from Failure; that you may never failOf what?Fear, Mean-spiritedness, Admiration of Riches, an unaccomplished Desire, and unsuccessful Aversion. These are the Things which you have been labouring to secure. Ought you not first to have acquired something by the Use of Reason, and then to have provided Security for that? Whom did you ever see building a Round of Battlements, without placing them upon a Wall? And what Porter is ever set where there is no Door? But you study. Can you show me what you study?
Not to be shaken by Sophistry.
Shaken from what? Show me first, what you have in your Custody; what you measure, or what you weigh; and then accordingly show me the Balance, or the Bushel. What signifies it to go on, ever so long, measuring Dust? Ought you not to show, what makes Men happy, what makes their Affairs proceed as they wish? How we may blame no one, accuse no one; how acquiesce in the Administration of the Universe? Show me these Things. "See, I do show them," say you; "I will solve Syllogisms to you."This is the Measure, Wretch, and not the Thing measured. Hence you now pay the Penalty due for neglecting Philosophy. You tremble, you lie awake, you advise with every body, and if what you are advised to doth not please every body, you think that you have been ill-advised. Then you dread Hunger, as you fancy: but it is not Hunger that you dread; but you are afraid, that you shall not have a Cook; that you shall not have another Person for a Butler; another, to pull off your Shoes; a fourth, to dress you; others, to rub you; others, to follow you: that, when you have undressed your self in the Bathing-room, and stretched yourself out like those who are crucified, you may be rubbed here and there; and the Person who presides over these Operations may stand by, and say, "Come this Way; give your Side; take hold on his Head; turn your Shoulder:" and that, when you are returned home from the Bath, you may bawl out, "Doth nobody bring any thing to eat?" And then, "Take away; wipe the Table." This is your Dread, that you shall not be able to lead the Life of a sick Man. But learn the Life of those in Health: how Slaves live; how, Labourers; how, those who are genuine Philosophers; how Socrates lived, even with a wife and Children; how, Diogenes; how, Cleanthes[3], at once studying and drawing Water. If these are the Things you would have, you will have them every-where, and with a fearless Confidence.
In what?
In the only Thing that can be confided in; what is sure, incapable of being restrained, or taken away; your own Choice.
§. 2. But why have you contrived to make yourself so useless, and good for nothing, that nobody will receive you into their House; nobody take Care of you: but though, if any sound useful Vessel was thrown out of Doors, whoever finds it, will take it up, and esteem it as a Gain; yet nobody will take up you; but every body esteem you a Loss. What, cannot you so much as perform the Office of a Dog, or a Cock? Why then do you wish to live any longer, if you are so worthless? Doth any good Man fear, that Food should fail him? It doth not fail the Blind; it doth not fail the Lame. Shall it fail a good Man? A Paymaster is not wanting to a Soldier, or to a Labourer, or to a Shoemaker; and shall one be wanting to a good Man? Is God so negligent of his own Institutions; of his Servants; of his Witnesses, whom alone he makes use of as Examples to the Uninstructed, both that He is, and that he administers the Universe rightly; and doth not neglect human Affairs; and that no Evil happens to a good Man, either living or dead? What then is the Case, when he doth not bestow Food? What else, than that, like a good General, he hath made me a Signal of Retreat? I obey, I follow; speaking well of my Leader, praising his Works. For I came when it seemed good to him; and again, when it seems good to him, I depart: and in Life it was my Business to praise God, both by myself, to each particular Person, and to the World. Doth he not grant me many Things? Doth he not grant me Affluence? It is not his Pleasure, that I should live luxuriously: for he did. not grant that even to Hercules, his own Son; but another[4] reigned over Argos and Mycenæ; while he lived subject to Command, laboured, and was exercised. And Eurystheus was just what he was; neither King of Argos, nor Mycenæ; not being indeed King of himself. But Hercules was Ruler and Governor of the whole Earth and Seas; the Expeller of Lawlessness and Injustice; the Introducer of Justice and Sanctity. And this he effected naked and alone. Again: when Ulysses was shipwrecked, and cast away, did his helpless Condition at all deject him? Did it break his Spirit? No: But how did he go to Nausicaa, and her Attendants, to ask those Necessaries which it seems most shameful to beg from another?
As the fierce Lion, on the Mountain bred,
Confiding in his Strength
Confiding in what? Not in Glory, nor in Riches, nor in Dominion; but in his own Strength: that is, in his Principles, concerning what Things are in our own Power; what, not. For these alone are what render us free, render us incapable of Restraint; raise the Head of the Dejected, and make them look, with unaverted Eyes, full in the Face of the Rich; and of the Tyrants: and this was the Gift of the Philosopher[5]. But you will not set out with Confidence; but trembling, about such Trifles as Clothes and Plate. Wretch! have you thus wasted your Time till now?
But what, if I should be sick?
You will be sick as you ought.
Who will take care of me?
God: your Friends.
I shall lie in a hard Bed,
But like a Man.
I shall not have a convenient Room.
You will be sick in an inconvenient one then.
Who will provide Victuals for me?
They who provide for others too: you will be sick like Manes[6].
But, besides, what will be the Conclusion of my Sickness? Any other than Death?
Why, do not you know then, that the Origin of all human Evils, and of Mean-spiritedness, and Cowardice, is not Death; but rather the Fear of Death? Fortify yourself therefore against this. Hither let all your Discourses, Readings, Exercises, tend. And then you will know, that thus alone are Men made free.
End of the Third Book.
Footnotes
[edit]- ↑ Compare this Chapter with the beautiful and affecting Discourses of our Saviour on the same Subject, Matth. vi. 25—34. Luke xii. 22—30.
- ↑ See Introduction, §. 6.
- ↑ Cleanthes was a Stoic Philosopher, the Disciple and Successor of Zeno. He used to draw Water for his Livelihood all Night, and study all Day. He was so poor, that for Want of proper Materials, he used write down what he had heard from his Master Zeno, on Tiles, and Pieces of Bone. The Physicians ordered him, for a Swelling in his Gums, to abstain two Days from Food; with which he complied. When he was recovered, they gave him Leave to return to his usual Diet; which he refused; and, saying he was now far advanced on his Journey, starved himself to Death. Diog. Laert.
- ↑ Eurystheus.
- ↑ The Sense would be better, if we read της φιλοσοφιας, of Philosophy.
- ↑ The Name of a Slave, particularly of a Slave who once belonged to Diogenes: and perhaps this Expression alludes to some Story about him, which is now unknown.