STOIC PHILOSOPHY


Epictetus' Manual.



I
Of existing things some are in our power,
others not in our power.
In our power are conception, effort, desire, aversion
and in a word whatever are our actions;
but not in our power are the body, property, reputation,
rulers and in a word whatever are not our actions.

Also things in our power are by nature
free, unhindered, unimpeded,
but things not in our power are
weak, slavish, hindered, belonging to others.

So remember, that if
what is by nature slavish you think free
and what is others' your own,
you will be hindered, you will mourn, you will be disturbed,
and you will blame both gods and humans,
but if you think only yours is yours,
and another's, just as it is, another's,
no one will ever compel you, no one will hinder you,
you will not blame anyone, nor accuse someone,
not one thing will you do unwilling,
no one will harm you, you will have no enemy,
for you will suffer no harm from anyone.

So aiming at such great things, remember that
it is not necessary moderately moving to take hold of them,
but to give up some things completely,
and carry over others for the present.

Even if you intend these things
and to rule and be wealthy,
perhaps you may not bring about these latter
because of also aiming at the former,
and you may fail to get these,
by which alone freedom and happiness are gained.

So at once practice saying to every disturbing impression,
"You are an impression and not the complete manifestation."
Then examine it and test it by these rules which you have,
first and foremost of which is this:
whether it concerns things in our power or not in our power;
and if it does not concern something in our power,
let the reason for that be handy, "It is nothing to me."

II
Remember that the promise of desire
is the attainment of what you desire,
the attainment of aversion
not to fall into that which is avoided,
and whoever fails in desire is unfortunate,
and whoever falls into what is avoided has misfortune.

If then you avoid things against nature in your power,
you will fall into none which you may avoid;
but if you are averse to sickness or death or poverty,
you will have misfortune.

So remove aversion from all things not in your power
and transfer it to things against nature in your power.
But for the present remove completely the desire;
for if you desire some of the things not in our power,
you must be unfortunate,
and of those in our power,
however beautiful it would be to desire them,
none would ever come forward for you.
But use only impulse and departing,
and yet even lightly with exceptions and unconstrained.

III
To each of the allurements
or things providing use or contentment
remember to say, "What quality is it?"
beginning from the smallest things.

If you like a jug, say, "I like a jug;"
for when it breaks you will not be disturbed.
If you should kiss your child or wife,
say that you are kissing a person;
for when one dies you will not be disturbed.

IV
When you are about to take on some work,
remind yourself, what kind of work it is.
If you are going out to bathe,
put before yourself things occurring in a bathhouse,
the splashing, the pushing, the insulting, the stealing.
And thus you will take on your work more safely,
if at once you say to yourself, "I intend to bathe
and to watch keeping my preferring according to nature."

Also do the same in each action.
For thus if something got in the way of bathing,
a handy reason for that will be:
"But this was not the only thing I intended,
but also to watch keeping my preferring according to nature;
but I shall not be observing it,
if I am annoyed at the things occurring."

V
Actions do not disturb people,
but opinions about actions;
for example, death is nothing terrible,
or else it would have appeared so to Socrates also,
but the opinion about death, that it is terrible,
that is what is terrible.

So when we are hindered or disturbed or grieved,
let us never accuse another, but ourselves,
that is, our own opinions.

To charge others is the work of the uneducated,
in whose power the self is doing badly;
beginning to be educated is to charge oneself;
having been educated neither another nor oneself.

VI
Do not be excited by any advantages of others.
If the horse being excited should say,
"I am beautiful," it could be endured;
but when you being excited say, "I have a beautiful horse,"
be aware that you are excited about a good of the horse.

What then is yours?
The use of impressions.
Therefore, when you have the use of impressions
according to nature, then get excited;
for then you will be getting excited
about something good in your power.

VII
Just as on a voyage the ship being anchored
if you should go out to draw water,
along the way you might pick up both shell-fish and bulbs,
it is necessary to pay attention to the ship
and continually turn towards it,
lest the captain ever call,
and if he calls, to give up all those things,
unless you want to be thrown on like the sheep.

Thus also in life, if instead of a bulb and shell-fish
a wife and child is given, no one will hinder;
but if the captain should call,
run to the ship giving up all those and not turning back.

If you are old, do not ever get far away from the ship,
lest when called you may be left behind.

VIII
Do not strive for things occurring to occur as you wish,
but wish the things occurring as they occur,
and you will flow well.

IX
Sickness is a hindrance of the body,
but not of preferring, unless this wills it.
Lameness is a hindrance of the leg, but not of preferring.
Also say this upon each thing happening;
for you will find this a hindrance of something else,
but not of yourself.

X
Upon each thing happening remember turning upon yourself
to seek what ability you have for the use of it.
If you see someone handsome or beautiful,
you will discover self-control the ability for these;
if labor is imposed, you will discover endurance;
if insults, you will discover patience.
And so becoming accustomed the impressions will not grab you.

XI
Never say about anything, "I lost it,"
but "I gave it back."
Did the child die? It was given back.
Did the woman die? She was given back.
"The farm was taken away." So this also was given back.
"But the one taking it away was bad."
What do you care by whom the giver took it back?

So long as one gives it, as a stranger's take care of it,
just as the ones passing by do of an inn.

XII
If you intend to advance, give up such inferences.
"If I neglect my things, I shall have no support."
"Unless I punish the servant, he will be bad."
For it is better to die of hunger
becoming sorrowless and fearless
than live in abundance being disturbed.
And it is better for your servant to be bad
than for you to be unhappy.

Begin therefore from the small things.
The oil is poured out; the wine is stolen;
say, "Such is the price of calmness, of being undisturbed."
Nothing is gained gratis.

When you call the servant,
realize that he may not be able to comply
and having complied may not do what you intend;
however it is not so well for him
that it should be in that one's power
for you to be disturbed at all.

XIII
If you intend to advance,
daring on account of external things
to be thought unintelligent and silly,
do not wish to be known for knowing anything;
and if some should believe you to be something,
distrust yourself.

For be aware that it is not easy
to watch keeping your preferring according to nature
and the externals too,
but taking care of one of these,
one must neglect the other altogether.

XIV
If you wish that your children and wife and your friends
live forever, you are silly;
for you are wishing that
things not in your power be in your power
and others' things be yours;
thus if you wish that the servant not fail, you are a fool;
for you are wishing that vice not be vice,
but something else.

But if you wish not to fail in desiring, this can be done.
Therefore exercise this, what can be done.
The lord of each is the one having authority
over what that one is wishing or not wishing
in the obtaining or taking away.

So whoever would be free,
let them neither wish anything nor avoid anything
in the power of others;
or else be by necessity enslaved.

XV
Remember that you ought to conduct yourself
as at a banquet.
When something is passed around to you,
stretching out your hand partake of it politely.
It passes on; do not hold it back.
It has not arrived yet; do not project the desire forward,
but wait around until it comes to you.

Do so toward children, do so toward a wife,
do so toward officers, do so toward wealth;
and then you will be worthy of the gods' banquets.

But if you do not take what is put before you,
but look down on it,
then not only will you share in the banquet of the gods
but also in ruling with them.
For by doing thus Diogenes and Heracleitus and similar ones
were deservedly divine and called so.

XVI
When you see someone crying in sorrow,
either a child having gone abroad
or one's things having been ruined,
be careful that the impression does not grab you
as being in one's external ills,
but at once let be handy,
"What happened does not distress this person
(for it does not distress another),
but their opinion about it."

Yet as far as words go
do not hesitate to sympathize with them,
and if it so chances, even to lament with them;
yet be careful not to lament also inside.

XVII
Remember that you are an actor in a play,
which the playwright wills;
if short, short; if long, long;
he may intend you to play a beggar
so that also you might act this naturally;
or a cripple, an official, or a private person.
For this is yours, to play the given role beautifully;
but the selection of it is another's.

XVIII
When a raven does not crow auspiciously,
do not let the impression carry you away;
but at once distinguish for yourself and say,
"None of these are significant for me,
but either for my body or my property
or my reputation or the children or wife.

For me every portent is significant, if I wish;
for whatever turns out,
it is in my power to benefit from it."

XIX
You can be invincible,
if you never go into a contest,
which is not in your power to win.

Look out lest seeing some more honored
or with great power or otherwise blessed with fame,
you are ever carried away by the impression.

For if the essence of the good is in your power,
neither envy nor jealousy have a place;
and you yourself will not wish to be a magistrate,
nor a president or consul, but free.

There is one way to this,
looking down upon things not in your power.

XX
Remember that not the one abusing or beating is insulting,
but the opinion about these as insulting.
So when someone irritates you,
be aware that your assumption has irritated you.
Thus at first try not to be carried away by the impression;
for once you get time and delay,
you will more easily control yourself.

XXI
Let death and exile and all things appearing terrible
be before your eyes each day, but most of all death;
and then you will neither take to heart the mean
nor will you desire anything very much.

XXII
If you desire philosophy,
prepare now as one being ridiculed,
as you are being mocked by many,
who are saying, "Suddenly a philosopher has returned to us"
and "From where has this high brow come to us?"

But you should not have a high brow;
but hold thus to what is appearing best to you,
as to that place assigned by God;
and remember that if you remain in the same,
these ridiculing you before will later be amazed,
but if you are overcome by them,
you will receive ridicule twice.

XXIII
If it should ever happen that you turn outside
because you wish to please someone,
be aware that you lost the management.

Therefore be sure in everything to be a philosopher,
if you also plan to seem one,
and you will be capable also of showing it.

XXIV
Do not let these considerations oppress you:
"I shall live unhonored and no one anywhere."
For if the lack of honor is bad,
you cannot be in evil through another,
any more than in shame.

So is it your work to get office
or be invited to a feast?
Not at all.
How then can this still be lack of honor?
and how will you be no one anywhere,
when it is necessary to be someone
only in those things which are in your power,
in which it is possible for you to be worthy of the greatest?

But will your friends be helpless?
What do you mean "helpless"?
They will not have small change from you;
nor will you make them citizens of Rome.

So who told you that these things are in your power,
and not others' work?
Who can give another what one does not have oneself?

"So acquire," one says, "so that you shall have."
If I can acquire keeping myself modest
and faithful and high-minded,
show the way and I shall acquire.
But if you expect me to lose the good things that are mine,
so that you may obtain things that are not good,
you see yourselves how unfair and unkind you are.

And what do you want more?
silver or a faithful and modest friend?
Therefore rather assist me into this
and do not expect me to do those things,
by which I may lose these things.

"But the country, as far as it is in my power,"
one says, "will be helpless."
Again, what kind of help is this also?
It will not have porticoes nor baths through you.
And what is this?
For neither does it have shoes through the blacksmith
nor arms through the cobbler;
but it is sufficient if each fulfills one's own work.

If you furnished for it
another faithful and modest citizen,
would you not be benefiting it?

"Yes."

Then you yourself would not be unbeneficial to it.

"So what place," one says, "shall I have in the state?"

Whichever you can
guarding at the same time fidelity and modesty.
But if wanting to benefit it you lose these things,
what benefit would you be for it,
if you ended up shameless and unfaithful?

XV
Is someone honored before you at a feast
or in greeting or in being invited in to counsel?
If these things are good,
you must be glad that that one got them;
but if bad, do not be distressed that you did not get them.

Remember that not doing the same things
toward getting things not in your power,
you cannot be expected to get an equal share.
For how can one have an equal share
not frequenting someone's door with the one frequenting it?
not escorting with the one escorting?
not praising with the one praising?

Thus you would be unjust and insatiable,
if not paying things for which those are sold,
you wish to receive them free.
But for how much is lettuce sold?
For an obol, perhaps.
So if someone paying an obol receives lettuce,
and you not paying do not receive it,
in no way have you less than the one receiving.
For as that one has lettuce,
so you an obol, which you have not given.

Now it is the same way also here.
You have not been invited to someone's feast?
For you have not given to the one calling
as much as the dinner is sold for.
It is sold for praise, it is sold for service.
So give the price, if it profits you, for which it is sold.
But if you intend both not to pay and receive these,
you are insatiable and silly.
So do you have nothing instead of the dinner?
Thus you have the not praising one whom you did not wish to,
the not having to endure those at his entrance.

XXVI
The will of nature is to be learned out of things
in which we do not differ from each other.
For example, when another's servant breaks the cup,
it is handy at once to say, "It is of the things happening."
So be aware that when your cup is broken,
you should be such, as when that of another is broken.

Thus alter also the greater things.
Another's child or wife has died;
There is no one who would not say that it is human.
However when someone of one's own dies,
at once "Ah me! I am wretched."
But one must remember,
what we suffer hearing about the same of others.

XXVII
Just as a mark is not set up in order to be missed,
so neither does the nature of evil occur in the universe.

XXVIII
If someone turned over your body to anyone,
you would be upset;
but that you turn over your mind to any chance,
so that, if they insult you, it is disturbed and troubled,
are you not ashamed on account of this?

XXIX
In each action consider the leading things
and its following things and so upon the action itself.
If not, you will come to it at first enthusiastically
without having thought of the next things,
but later when some difficulties show up
you will withdraw disgracefully.

Do you wish to win the Olympics?
I do too, by the gods; for it is exquisite.
However consider the leading things and the things following
and so take hold of the action.
It is necessary for you to be disciplined,
to eat strictly, to keep off sweets,
to exercise under compulsion, at an appointed hour,
in heat, in cold, not to drink cold water,
nor wine, as it chances,
absolutely as to a physician
to give yourself over to the trainer,
when in the contest to dig in alongside,
it is possible then to throw out a hand,
to sprain an ankle, swallow much sand, perhaps be beaten,
and with all these things be defeated.

Having considered these things,
if you still intend to, enter upon athletics.
If not, you will be turning back like children,
who now play at wrestling, and now at single combat,
and now at athletics, then at tragedy;
so also you are now an athlete, and now a gladiator,
then an orator, then a philosopher,
but with the whole soul nothing;
but like an ape imitate everything which you see
and one after another whatever strikes you.

For you did not go into anything
with consideration nor circumspection,
but rashly and according to cold desire.

Thus some having seen a philosopher
and having heard thus someone talking,
like Euphrates talks (Yet who can speak like him?),
they wish also to philosophize themselves.

Person, first consider, what is the matter;
and then learn your nature, if you can bear it.
Do you wish to be in the pentathlon or a wrestler?
Look at your arms, thighs, study the loins.
For another has a nature for another thing.

Do you think that doing these things
you can eat the same way, drink the same way,
get angry similarly, be displeased similarly?
It is necessary to stay awake, to work,
to go away from the household, to be condemned by a servant,
to be ridiculed by everyone, to have the worst in everything,
in honor, in office, in justice, in every affair.

Consider these things, if you are willing to exchange
for these calm, freedom, tranquillity;
but if not, do not approach, not like children,
now a philosopher, but later a tax collector,
then an orator, then an administrator of Caesar.
These things do not harmonize.

But you must be one person either good or bad;
you must work out of yourself
either the leading or the externals;
either to love the art concerning inside things
or concerning outside things;
that is, either take the position of a philosopher
or of an average person.

XXX
Proper things in general are measured by the conditions.
It is a father; one is required to take care,
to yield in all things, to hold up when insulted, struck.
"But the father is bad."
What then, you were not related to a good father by nature?
But to a father.

"The brother is unjust."
So then maintain your position to him;
do not consider what he does,
but what you are doing
to keep your preferring according to nature.

For another will not harm you if you are not willing;
but then you will be harmed, when you assume you are harmed.
So then from the neighbor, from the citizen, from the general
you will discover the proper thing,
if you are in the habit of seeing the conditions.

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