BOOK III. VII. 23-29
ahead and invented also some such doctrine as this of yours, which helps to push us on into them, and gives them additional strength, what is going to happen?
In a piece of plate what is the best thing, the silver or the art? The substance of the hand is mere flesh, but the important thing is the works of the hand. 25Now duties are of three kinds; first, those that have to do with mere existence, second, those that have to do with existence of a particular sort, and third, the principal duties themselves.[1] So also in the case of man, it is not his material substance that we should honour, his bits of flesh, but the principal things. What are these? The duties of citizenship, marriage, begetting children, reverence to God, care of parents,[2] in a word, desire, avoidance, choice, refusal, the proper performance of each one of these acts, and that is, in accordance with our nature. And what is our nature? To act as free men, as noble, as self-respecting. Why, what other living being blushes, what other comprehends the impression of shame? And it is our nature to subordinate pleasure to these duties as their servant, their minister, so as to arouse our interest and keep us acting in accordance with nature.
But I am rich and need nothing.—Why, then, do you still pretend to be a philosopher? Your
- ↑ The classification of duties in this sentence is obscure, and the commentators have ever been in straits both to elucidate it, and to explain what bearing it has upon the context. The first two classes (which are essentially one) deal with outward existence; the last touches our higher nature. A full discussion of this matter will be found in A. Bonhöffer; Die Ethik des Stoikers Epiktet, p. 205-6. A very similar Stoic division of duties into five classes, where the third class of Epictetus is triply divided, will be found in Cicero, De Finibus, III. 16 and 20. I believe that the sentence, though probably going back to Epictetus, did not belong here originally (so also Bonhöffer, it seems), but derived from a marginal note upon τὰ προηγούμενα, just below, and the sentence immediately following.
- ↑ After the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, 3-4:τούς τε καταχθονίους σέβε δαίµονας, ἔννοµα ῥέζων·
τούς τε γόνεις τίµα, τούς τ᾽ ἄγχιστ᾽ ἐκγεγαῶτας.
