Part 2 (2/2)

--”Of all things this doth most please me”

Then make application of your natural conceptions Whence arose this dispute? The one saith: _I am not bound to deliver up Chryseis to her father_ And the other saith: _Thou art bound_ assuredly one of theain the one saith: _Therefore if I should deliver up Chryseis, it is meet that I take his prize from one of you_ And the other: _Wouldst thou, then, take from me my beloved?_ He saith: _Yea, even thine_ And _shall I alone, and I alone, have nothing_? And thus ariseth the contradiction

2 What is it, then, to be educated? It is to learn to apply the natural conceptions to each thing severally according to nature; and further, to discern that of things that exist some are in our oer[1] and the rest are not in our oer And things that are in our oer are the will, and all the works of the will And things that are not in our oer are the body, and the parts of the body, and possessions and parents and brethren and children and country and, in a word, our associates Where now shall we place the Good? To what objects shall we apply it? To those which are in our oer? Then is health not good, and whole limbs and life? and are not children and parents and country?

And ill bear with you if you say this? Let us, then, transfer it to these things Now, can one be happy who is injured, and has ood? He cannot And can such a one bear hiht? How is it possible that he should? For I have it of nature that I must seek my own profit If it profits me to own a piece of land, it profits arment, it profits me to steal it from the bath And hence wars, seditions, tyrannies, conspiracies And how shall I be able to ht mind towards God? for if I suffer injury and lects me And what have I to do with Hiain, what have I to do with Hi to let in to hate Him Why, then, do we build temples and set up statues to Zeus as we do to powers of evil, such as Fever?[2] And how is He now the Saviour and the Raingiver and the Fruitgiver? And verily, all this follows, if we place anywhere in external things the nature and being of the Good

CHAPTER III

THE MASTER-FACULTY

1 Of all our faculties ye shall find but one that can contemplate itself, or, therefore, approve or disapprove itself How far hath grae concerning letters Andmelodies Doth any of them, then, contemplate itself? Not one But when you have need to write to your friend, gramrammar will not tell And so with the musical art in the case ofor to play, music will not tell What, then, will tell it? That faculty which both contes And what is this? It is the faculty of Reason; for we have received none other which can consider itself-what it is, and what it can, and what it is worth-and all the other faculties as well For what else is it that tells us that a golden thing is beautiful, since itself doth not? Clearly it is the faculty which es of rammar, and the other faculties, and proves their uses, and shows the fit occasions? None else than this

2 Thus the Gods, as it was fit they should, place that only in our pohich is the ht use of appearances; but other things are not in our power Was it that they did not wish it? I indeed think that had they been able they had s also; but this they could in no way do For being on the earth, and bound up with this flesh and with these associates, hoas it possible that as regards these we should not be hindered by external things? But what saith Zeus? ”Epictetus, if it were possible, I would have made both this thy little body and thy little property free and unhaet not now that this is but finely te of thine own And since I could not do this, I have given thee a part of ourselves, this power of desiring and disliking, and pursuing, avoiding, and rejecting, and, in brief, the use of appearances Have a care, then, of this, hold this only for thine own, and thou shalt never be hindered or hampered, thou shalt not lament, thou shalt not blame, thou shalt never flatter anymatters? _God forbid_ Are you, then, not content with them? _At least I pray the Gods Iin our power to care for, and to cleave to, we rather choose to be careful of s, even to the flesh, and to possessions, and to brother and friend, and child and slave And being thus bound tous down So, if the weather be not fair for sailing, we sit down distraught and are ever peering forth to see how stands the wind _It is north_ And what is that to us? _When will the ind blow?_ When it shall seeood to it, friend; or to aeolus For it was not thee, but aeolus whoht to devise hoe s that are our own, and to use the others as their nature is And what, then, is their nature? As it may please God

CHAPTER IV

THE NATURE OF THE GOOD

1 The subject for the good and wise man is his own master-faculty, as the body is for the physician and the trainer, and the soil is the subject for the husbandood and wiseto Nature For it is the nature of every soul to consent to what is good and to reject what is evil, and to hold back about what is uncertain; and thus to be ood and to avoid the evil, and neither way towards what is neither good nor evil

For as it is not lawful for the er or the seller of herbs to reject Caesar's coin, but if one present it, then, whether he will or no, he ive up what is sold for it, so it is also with the soul When the Good appears, straightway the soul is moved towards it, and from the Evil And never doth the soul reject any clear appearance of the good, no eth every movement both of God and man

2 The nature and essence of the Good is in a certain disposition of the Will; likewise that of the Evil What, then, are outward things? Matter for the Will, about which being occupied it shall attain its own good or evil How shall it attain the Good? Through not being dazzled with admiration of what it works on[1] For our opinions of this, when right,make it evil This law hath God established, and saith, ”If thou wouldst have aught of good, have it fros are true (and if we are not fools or hypocrites), that Good, for s are nothing to us, why are we still troubled? why do we fear? The things for which we have been zealous are in no other s that are in others' poe are not concerned What difficulty have ? _But direct me_, sayest thou And why shall I direct thee? hath not God directed thee? hath He not given thee that which is thine own unhindered and unhampered, and hindered and hampered that which is not thine own? And what direction, ord of command didst thou receive fro which is thine own-covet not that which is alien to thee

And faithfulness is thine, and reverence is thine: who, then, can rob thee of these things? Who can hinder thee to use them, if not thyself?

But thyself can do it, and how? When thou art zealous about things not thine own, and hast cast away the things that are” With such counsels and coreater than he? as, of what others hast thou need? _But perchance these are none of his co the proofs of the philosophers, bring the things thou hast often heard, bring the things that thyself hast spoken, bring what thou hast read, bring what thou hast pondered

CHAPTER V

THE PROMISE OF PHILOSOPHY

1 Of things that exist, some are in our oer, sos that are in our oer are our opinions, impulses, pursuits, avoidances, and, in brief, all that is of our own doing Of things that are not in our oer are the body, possessions, reputation, authority, and, in brief, all that is not of our own doing And the things that are in our oer are in their nature free, not liable to hindrance or es that are not in our oer are strengthless, servile, subject, alien

2 Res by their nature subject to be free, and things alien to be your proper concern, you will be hampered, you will lament, you will be troubled, you will blame Gods and men But if you hold that only to be your ohich is so, and the alien for what it is, alien, then none shall ever compel you, none shall hinder you, you will bla unwillingly, none shall harm you, you shall have no foe, for you shall suffer no injury

3 Aih, remember that it is no moderate passion ith you s you must utterly renounce, and put some, for the present, aside For if, let us say, you aiather riches, then you are like, through ais also, to miss these lower ends; and shall h which alone freedo to every harsh appearance-_Thou art an Appearance and not at all the thing thou appearest to be_ Then examine it, and prove it by the rules you have, but first and above all by this, whether it concern so that is not in our oer And if the latter, then be the thought at hand: _It is nothing to Me_

CHAPTER VI