Epictetus 1 - Aphorisms 1 - 21 Lyrics

Section 1 of "The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus"
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The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus.
Translated by Hastings Crossley. Aphorisms 1 - 21

Are these the only works of Providence within us? What words suffice to
praise or set them forth? Had we but understanding, should we ever
cease
hymning and blessing the Divine Power, both openly and in secret, and
telling of His gracious gifts? Whether digging or ploughing or eating,
should we not sing the hymn to God:--

Great is God, for that He hath given us such instruments to till
the ground withal: Great is God, for that He hath given us hands and
the power of swallowing and digesting; of unconsciously growing and
breathing while we sleep!

Thus should we ever have sung; yea and this, the grandest and divinest
hymn of all:--

Great is God, for that He hath given us a mind to apprehend these
things, and duly to use them!

What then! seeing that most of you are blinded, should there not be
some
one to fill this place, and sing the hymn to God on behalf of all
men? What else can I that am old and lame do but sing to God? Were I
a nightingale, I should do after the manner of a nightingale. Were I
a swan, I should do after the manner of a swan. But now, since I am a
reasonable being, I must sing to God: that is my work: I do it, nor
will
I desert this my post, as long as it is granted me to hold it; and upon
you too I call to join in this self-same hymn.

How then do men act? As though one returning to his country who had
sojourned for the night in a fair inn, should be so captivated thereby
as to take up his abode there.

"Friend, thou hast forgotten thine intention! This was not thy
destination, but only lay on the way thither."

"Nay, but it is a proper place."

"And how many more of the sort there may be; only to pass through
upon thy way! Thy purpose was to return to thy country; to relieve thy
kinsmen's fears for thee; thyself to discharge the duties of a citizen;
to marry a wife, to beget offspring, and to fill the appointed round of
office. Thou didst not come to choose out what places are most
pleasant;
but rather to return to that wherein thou wast born and where wert
appointed to ba a citizen."

III

Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men.

But I have one whom I must please, to whom I must be subject, whom I
must obey:--God, and those who come next to Him. He hath entrusted me
with myself: He hath made my will subject to myself alone and given me
rules for the right use thereof.

Rufus used to say, If you have leisure to praise me, what I say is
naught. In truth he spoke in such wise, that each of us who sat there,
though that some one had accused him to Rufus:--so surely did he lay
his
finger on the very deeds we did: so surely display the faults of each
before his very eyes.

But what saith God?--"Had it been possible, Epictetus, I would have
made
both that body of thine and thy possessions free and unimpeded, but as
it is, be not deceived:--it is not thine own; it is but finely tempered
clay. Since then this I could not do, I have given thee a portion of
Myself, in the power of desiring and declining and of pursuing and
avoiding, and is a word the power of dealing with the things of sense.
And if thou neglect not this, but place all that thou hast therein,
thou
shalt never be let or hindered; thou shalt never lament; thou shalt
not blame or flatter any. What then? Seemth this to thee a little
thing?"--God forbid!--"Be content then therewith!"

And so I pray the Gods.

VII

What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard?--

It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.

VIII

"Aye, but to debase myself thus were unworthy of me."

"That," said Epictetus, "is for you to consider, not for me. You know
yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you
will
sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This was why,
when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows,
taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'But why
do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the
question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions,
and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from
forgetting what manner of man he is. Why, what is it that you ask me?
Is death preferable, or life? I reply, Life. Pain or pleasure? I reply,
Pleasure."

"Well, but if I do not act, I shall lose my head."

"Then go and act! But for my part I will not act."

"Why?"

"Because you think yourself but one among the many threads which make
up the texture of the doublet. You should aim at being like men in
general--just as your thread has no ambition either to be anything
distinguished compared with the other threads. But I desire to be the
purple--that small and shining part which makes the rest seem fair and
beautiful. Why then do you bid me become even as the multitude? Then
were I no longer the purple."

If a man could be throughly penetrated, as he ought, with this thought,
that we are all in an especial manner sprung from God, and that God
is the Father of men as well as of Gods, full surely he would never
conceive aught ignoble or base of himself. Whereas if Cæsar were to
adopt you, your haughty looks would be intolerable; will you not be
elated at knowing that you are the son of God? Now however it is not
so with us: but seeing that in our birth these two things are
commingled--the body which we share with the animals, and the Reason
and
Thought which we share with the Gods, many decline towards this unhappy
kinship with the dead, few rise to the blessed kinship with the Divine.
Since then every one must deal with each thing according to the view
which he forms about it, those few who hold that they are born for
fidelity, modesty, and unerring sureness in dealing with the things
of sense, never conceive aught base or ignoble of themselves: but the
multitude the contrary. Why, what am I?--A wretched human creature;
with
this miserable flesh of mine. Miserable indeed! but you have something
better than that paltry flesh of yours. Why then cling to the one, and
neglect the other?

Thou art but a poor soul laden with a lifeless body.

The other day I had an iron lamp placed beside my household gods. I
heard a noise at the door and on hastening down found my lamp carried
off. I reflected that the culprit was in no very strange case.
"Tomorrow, my friend," I said, "you will find an earthenware lamp; for
a
man can only lose what he has."

XII

The reason why I lost my lamp was that the thief was superior to me in
vigilance. He paid however this price for the lamp, that in exchange
for it he consented to become a thief: in exchange for it, to become
faithless.

XIII

But God hath introduced Man to be a spectator of Himself and of His
works; and not a spectator only, but also an interpreter of them.
Wherefore it is a shame for man to begin and to leave off where the
brutes do. Rather he should begin there, and leave off where Nature
leaves off in us: and that is at contemplation, and understanding, and
a
manner of life that is in harmony with herself.

See then that ye die not without being spectators of these things.

XIV

You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you
holds
it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die. Whereas
when there is no need even to take a journey, but you are on the spot,
with the works before you, have you no care to contemplate and study
these?

Will you not then perceive either who you are or unto what end you were
born: or for what purpose the power of contemplation has been bestowed
on you?

"Well, but in life there are some things disagreeable and hard to
bear."

And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched by the heat? Are
you
not cramped for room? Have you not to bathe with discomfort? Are you
not
drenched when it rains? Have you not to endure the clamor and shouting
and such annoyances as these? Well, I suppose you set all this over
against the splendour of the spectacle and bear it patiently. What
then?
have you not received greatness of heart, received courage, received
fortitude? What care I, if I am great of heart, for aught that can come
to pass? What shall cast me down or disturb me? What shall seem
painful?
Shall I not use the power to the end for which I received it, instead
of
moaning and wailing over what comes to pass?

If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Man be true, what
remains for men to do but as Socrates did:--never, when asked one's
country, to answer, "I am an Athenian or a Corinthian," but "I am a
citizen of the world."

XVI

He that hath grasped the administration of the World, who hath learned
that this Community, which consists of God and men, is the foremost and
mightiest and most comprehensive of all:--that from God have descended
the germs of life, not to my father only and father's father, but to
all
things that are born and grow upon the earth, and in an especial manner
to those endowed with Reason (for those only are by their nature fitted
to hold communion with God, being by means of Reason conjoined with
Him)--why should not such an one call himself a citizen of the world?
Why not a son of God? Why should he fear aught that comes to pass among
men? Shall kinship with Cæsar, or any other of the great at Rome, be
enough to hedge men around with safety and consideration, without a
thought of apprehension: while to have God for our Maker, and Father,
and Kinsman, shall not this set us free from sorrows and fears?

XVII

I do not think that an old fellow like me need have been sitting here
to try and prevent your entertaining abject notions of yourselves, and
talking of yourselves in an abject and ignoble way: but to prevent
there
being by chance among you any such young men as, after recognising
their
kindred to the Gods, and their bondage in these chains of the body and
its manifold necessities, should desire to cast them off as burdens
too grievous to be borne, and depart their true kindred. This is the
struggle in which your Master and Teacher, were he worthy of the name,
should be engaged. You would come to me and say: "Epictetus, we can no
longer endure being chained to this wretched body, giving food and
drink and rest and purification: aye, and for its sake forced to be
subservient to this man and that. Are these not things indifferent and
nothing to us? Is it not true that death is no evil? Are we not in
a manner kinsmen of the Gods, and have we not come from them? Let us
depart thither, whence we came: let us be freed from these chains that
confine and press us down. Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals:
and they that are called tyrants, who deem that they have after a
fashion power over us, because of the miserable body and what
appertains
to it. Let us show them that they have power over none."

XVIII

And to this I reply:--

"Friends, wait for God. When He gives the signal, and releases you from
this service, then depart to Him. But for the present, endure to dwell
in the place wherein He hath a__igned you your post. Short indeed is
the
time of your habitation therein, and easy to those that are minded.
What
tyrant, what robber, what tribunals have any terrors for those who thus
esteem the body and all that belong to it as of no account? Stay;
depart
not rashly hence!"

XIX

Something like that is what should pass between a teacher and ingenuous
youths. As it is, what does pass? The teacher is a lifeless body, and
you are lifeless bodies yourselves. When you have had enough to eat
today, you sit down and weep about tomorrow's food. Slave! if you
have it, well and good; if not, you will depart: the door is open--why
lament? What further room is there for tears? What further occasion for
flattery? Why should one envy another? Why should you stand in awe of
them that have much or are placed in power, especially if they be also
strong and passionate? Why, what should they do to us? What they can
do,
we will not regard: what does concern us, that they cannot do. Who then
shall rule one that is thus minded?

Seeing this then, and noting well the faculties which you have, you
should say,--"Send now, O God, any trial that Thou wilt; lo, I have
means and powers given me by Thee to acquit myself with honour through
whatever comes to pass!"--No; but there you sit, trembling for fear
certain things should come to pass, and moaning and groaning and
lamenting over what does come to pass. And then you upbraid the Gods.
Such meanness of spirit can have but one result--impiety.

Yet God has not only given us these faculties by means of which we may
bear everything that comes to pass without being crushed or depressed
thereby; but like a good King and Father, He has given us this without
let or hindrance, placed wholly at our own disposition, without
reserving to Himself any power of impediment or restraint. Though
possessing all these things free and all you own, you do not use them!
you do not perceive what it is you have received nor whence it comes,
but sit moaning and groaning; some of you blind to the Giver, making no
acknowledgment to your Benefactor; others basely giving themselves to
complaints and accusations against God.

Yet what faculties and powers you possess for attaining courage and
greatness of heart, I can easily show you; what you have for upbraiding
and accusation, it is for you to show me!

XXI

How did Socrates bear himself in this regard? How else than as became
one who was fully a__ured that he was the kinsman of Gods?

"End of Section 1"

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