Page:All the works of Epictetus - which are now extant; consisting of his Discourses, preserved by Arrian, in four books, the Enchiridion, and fragments (IA allworksofepicte00epic).pdf/355

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Chap. 1.
EPICTETUS.
303

that you are a Slave in a great Family. Thus the Nicopolitans too, frequently cry out, "By the Life of Cæsar, we are free!"

§. 4. For the present, however, if you please, we will let Cæsar alone. But tell me this. Have you never been in Love with any one, either of a servile or liberal Condition?—"Why, what is that to the being either a Slave, or free?"——Was you never commanded any thing by your Mistress, that you did not chuse? Have you never flattered your Slave? Have you never kissed her Feet? And yet, if you were commanded to kiss Cæsar's Feet, you would think it an Outrage, and an Excess of Tyranny. Have you never gone out by Night, where you did not chuse? Have you never spent more than you chose? Have not you sometimes uttered your Words with Sighs and Groans? Born to be reviled, and shut out of Doors? But, if you are ashamed to confess your own Follies, see what Thrasonides[1] says, and doth; who, after having fought more Battles perhaps than you, went out by Night, when Geta[2] would not dare to go: Nay, had he been compelled to it by him, would have gone roaring, and lamenting his bitter Servitude. And what doth [this Master of his] say afterwards, "A sorry Girl hath enslaved me, whom no Enemy ever enslaved."——(Wretch! to be the Slave of a Girl, and a sorry Girl too! Why then do you still call yourself free? Why do you boast your military Expeditions?)——Then he calls for a Sword, and is angry with the Person who, out of Kindness, denies it; and sends Presents to her who hates him and begs, and weeps, and then again is elated on every little Success. But how is he elated even then? Is it so, as neither passionately to desire or fear.

§. 5.

  1. A Character in one of the Comedies of Menander, called The Hated Lover.
  2. The Name of a Slave.