CHAPTER XVI.
that we do not strive to use our opinions about good and evil.
Where is the good? In the will.[1] Where is the evil? In the will. Where is neither of them? In those things which are independent of the will. Well then? Does any one among us think of these lessons out of the schools? Does any one meditate (strive) by himself to give an answer to things[2] as in the case of questions? Is it day?—Yes.—Is it night?—No.—Well, is the number of stars even?[3]—I cannot say.—When money is shown (offered) to you, have you studied to make the proper answer, that money is not a good thing? Have you practised yourself in these answers, or only against sophisms? Why do you wonder then if in the cases which you have studied, in those you have improved; but in those which you have not studied, in those you remain the same? When the rhetorician knows that he has written well, that he has committed to memory what he has written, and brings an agreeable voice, why is he still anxious? Because he is not satisfied with having studied. What then does he want? To be praised by the audience? For the purpose then of being able to practise declamation he has been disciplined; but with respect to praise and blame he has not been disciplined. For when did he hear from any one what praise is, what blame is, what the nature of each is, what kind of praise should be sought, or what kind of blame should be shunned? And when did he practise this discipline which follows these words (things)?[4] Why then do you still wonder, if in the matters which a man has learned, there he surpasses others, and in those in
- ↑ See ii. 10. 25.
- ↑ 'To answer to things' means to act in a way suitable to circumstances, to be a match for them. So Horace says (Sat. ii. 7. 85)—
Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores
Fortis. - ↑ Perhaps this was a common puzzle. The man answers right; he cannot say.
- ↑ That is which follows praise or blame. He seems to mean making the proper use of praise or of blame.
