FRAGMENTS
15
From the Memorabilia of Epictetus
At Rome the women have in their hands Plato's Republic, because he insists on community of women. For they pay attention only to the words, and not to the meaning of the man; the fact is, he does not bid people marry and live together, one man with one woman, and then go on to advocate the community of women, but he first abolishes that kind of marriage altogether, and introduces another kind in its place.[1] And in general people delight in finding excuses for their own faults; for, indeed, philosophy says we ought not to stretch out even our finger at random![2]
16
From the Memorabilia of Epictetus
One ought to know that it is not easy for a man to acquire a fixed judgement, unless he should day by day state and hear the same principles, and at the same time apply them to his life.
17
From Epictetus
Now when we have been invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us; and if a person should
- ↑ The commununity of women which Plato proposed was, first of all, restricted to a small, highly-trained, and devoted band of warrior-saints; and, second, such that no man and woman should pair off for more than a very temporary "marriage," all such matings being carefully supervised by the highest authorities. Instead of being more licentious than ordinary monogamous marriage (which frequently deserves Bernard Shaw's jibe, that it is popular largely because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity), Plato's proposal was relatively a denial of the flesh, and a marked move towards asceticism.
- ↑ See II. 11, 17. The remark in this connection is no doubt ironical, mockingly justifying the process of "rationalization" just described.
