WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.560 From Antisthenes. It is royal to do good and to be abused. It 2 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.759 is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose 3 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:12.080 itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and 4 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:16.519 composed by itself. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for 5 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:20.879 they care not about it. To the immortal gods and us give joy. 6 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:24.879 Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn. And one man is 7 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:28.760 born, another dies. If gods care not for me and for my children, 8 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.199 there is a reason for it, for the good is with me and 9 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:36.079 the just. No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion. From 10 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:40.880 Plato. But I would make this man a sufficient answer. Which is this? 11 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:45.359 Thou sayest not well if thou thinkest that a man who is good for 12 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:48.880 anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death, and should 13 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:52.960 not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether he is 14 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.719 doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a 15 00:00:56.759 --> 00:01:02.079 bad man. For the Thus it is men of Athens in truth. Wherever 16 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:04.400 a man is placed himself thinking it the best place for him, or has 17 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:08.840 been placed by a commander there, In my opinion, he ought to stay 18 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.560 and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or 19 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:19.480 anything else before the baseness of deserting his post. But, my good friend, 20 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.159 reflect whether that which is noble and good is not something different from saving 21 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:26.840 and being saved for as to a man living such or such a time, 22 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:30.040 at least one who is really a man, Consider if this is not a 23 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:34.040 thing to be dismissed from the thoughts, and there must be no love of 24 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:37.920 life. But as to these matters, a man must entrust them to the 25 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.959 deity, and believe what the women say, that no man can escape his 26 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:46.519 destiny. The next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he 27 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.519 has to live. Look round at the courses of the stars, as if 28 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.319 thou wert going along with them, and constantly consider the changes of the elements 29 00:01:53.319 --> 00:02:00.599 into one another. For such thoughts purge away the filth of the turen life. 30 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:04.200 This is a fine saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about 31 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.680 men should look also at earthly things, as if he viewed them from some 32 00:02:07.919 --> 00:02:12.000 at en higher place. Should look at them in their assemblies, armies, 33 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.520 agricultural labors, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts 34 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:22.080 of justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations, 35 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:27.199 markets, a mixture of all things in an orderly combination of contraries. Consider 36 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.919 the past, such great changes of political supremacies. Thou mayst foresee also the 37 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:36.199 things which will be, For they will certainly be of like form, and 38 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:39.520 it is not possible that they should deviate from at the order of the things 39 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:44.879 which take place now. Accordingly, to have contemplated human life for forty years 40 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.960 is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what 41 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.199 more wilt thou see that which has grown from the earth to the earth, 42 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.840 But that which has sprung from heavenly seed back to the heavenly realms returns. 43 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:00.840 This is either a dissolution of the mutualvolution of the atoms, or a similar 44 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:07.759 dispersion of the unsentient elements, with food and drinks and cunning magic arts turning 45 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.719 the channel's course. To escape from death the breeze which Heaven has sent, 46 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:15.680 we must endure and toil without complaining. Another may be more expert in casting 47 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:20.039 his opponent, but he is not more social, nor more modest, nor 48 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.439 better discipline to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the 49 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:28.599 faults of his neighbors. Where any work can be done conformably to the reason 50 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.400 which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear for. 51 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:36.400 Where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is 52 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:40.479 successful and proceeds according to our constitution. There no harm is to be suspected. 53 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:46.439 Everywhere and at all times. It is in thy power piously to acquiesce 54 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:51.280 in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about THEE, 55 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:55.520 and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal 56 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:00.639 into them without being well examined. Do not look around THEE today discover other 57 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.879 men's ruling principles, But look straight to this to what nature leads THEE, 58 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:09.039 both the universal in the minute nature through the things which happen to THEE, 59 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.960 and thy own nature through the acts which must be done by THEE. But 60 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:16.920 every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution, and all 61 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:23.279 other things have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among 62 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:30.079 irrational things, the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational 63 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.040 for the sake of one another. The prime principle, then, in man's 64 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:39.759 constitution is the social and the second is not to yield to the persuasions of 65 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:44.399 the body. For it is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion 66 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:48.439 to circumscribe itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the 67 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:56.120 senses or of the appetites. For both our animal but the intelligent motion claim 68 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:00.079 superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others, and with 69 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:03.639 good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them. 70 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:09.639 The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from deception. 71 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:15.279 Let then, the ruling principle, holding fast to these things, go straight 72 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.600 on, and it has what is its own. Consider thyself to be dead, 73 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:24.319 and to have completed thy life up to the present time, and live 74 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:29.319 according to nature the remainder which is allowed THEE love that only which happens to 75 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.879 THEE and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more 76 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:38.519 suitable in everything which happens. Keep before thy eyes those to whom the same 77 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:43.680 things happened, and how they were vexed and treated them as strange things, 78 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:47.279 and found fault with them. And now where are they nowhere? Why then 79 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:53.360 dost thou too choose to act in the same way? And why dost thou 80 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:57.720 not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature, to those who cause them 81 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.879 and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent 82 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:04.079 upon the right way of making use of the things which happen to thee? 83 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:09.079 For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for 84 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:13.439 THEE to work on. Only attend to thyself and resolve to be a good 85 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:18.360 man in every act which thou doest, and remember look within within is the 86 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:23.199 fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig. 87 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.920 The body ought to be compact and to show no irregularity, either in 88 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:30.000 motion or attitude, for what the mind shows in the face, by maintaining 89 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:34.959 in it the expression of intelligence and propriety that ought to be required also in 90 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:40.360 the whole body. But all of these things should be observed without affectation. 91 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:44.360 The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancers. In 92 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:47.720 respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which 93 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:54.360 are sudden and unexpected. Constantly observe who those are, whose approbation thou wishest 94 00:06:54.360 --> 00:07:00.040 to have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt e 95 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:03.959 they blame those who offend involuntarily, Nor wilt thou want there approbation if thou 96 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:10.279 lookest to the sources of their opinions and appetites. Every soul, the philosopher 97 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:14.879 says, is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently, in the same way it 98 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.920 is deprived of justice, and temperance and benevolence in everything of the kind. 99 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:24.040 It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt 100 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:28.920 be more gentle towards all. In every pain, Let this thought be present, 101 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.319 that there is no dishonor in it, Nor does it make the governing 102 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:36.800 intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence, either so far as 103 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:42.360 the intelligence is rational or so far as it is social. Indeed, in 104 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:46.519 the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus a thee that pain 105 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:50.439 is neither intolerable nor everlasting. If thou bearest in mind that it has its 106 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:56.199 limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. And remember this 107 00:07:56.279 --> 00:08:00.720 too, that we do not perceive that many things which are disagreeed to us 108 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:05.720 are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched 109 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:11.040 by heat, and the having no appetite. When then thou art discontented about 110 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.560 any of these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to pain, 111 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:18.639 take care not to feel towards thee inhuman as they feel towards men. How 112 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:24.240 do we know if Tlaus was not superior in character to Socrates? For it 113 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:28.560 is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed more skillfully 114 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.559 with the Sophists, and passed the night in the cold with more endurance, 115 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.360 and that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamus, he considered it 116 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:41.559 more noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering way in the 117 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:45.799 streets. Though as to this fact one may have great doubts if it was 118 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:50.799 true. But we ought to inquire what kind of a soul it was that 119 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:54.519 Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just towards 120 00:08:54.519 --> 00:09:00.000 men and pious towards the gods. Neither idly vexed on account of men's villain, 121 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:03.200 nor yet making himself a slave to any man's ignorance, nor receiving as 122 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:09.279 strange anything that fell to his share out of the universal, nor enduring it 123 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:15.559 as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to sympathize with the effects of the miserable 124 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:20.159 flesh. Nature has not so mingled the intelligence with the composition of the body 125 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:26.240 as not to have allowed THEE the power of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under 126 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:31.159 subjection to thyself all that is thy own. For it is very possible to 127 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:35.159 be a divine man and to be recognized as such by no one. Always 128 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:39.759 bear this in mind, and another thing too, that very little, indeed 129 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:43.840 is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast despaired of becoming 130 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:48.080 a dialectician and skilled in the knowledge of nature, do not, for this 131 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:54.159 reason renounce the hope of being both free and modest, and social and obedient 132 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:58.559 to God. It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion, 133 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:03.000 in the greatest tranquility of mind, even if all the world cry out against 134 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:09.320 THEE as much as they choose, and even if wild beasts tear in pieces 135 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.440 the members of this needed matter which has grown around thee. For what hinders 136 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.039 the mind in the midst of all this, from maintaining itself in tranquility and 137 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:22.600 in a just judgment of all surrounding things, and in a ready use of 138 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:28.159 the objects which are presented to it, So that the judgment may say, 139 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:33.120 to the thing which falls under its observation, this thou art in substance reality, 140 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:37.480 though in men's opinion thou mayst appear to be of a different kind. 141 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:41.159 And the use shall say, to that which falls under the hand, thou 142 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:43.879 art the thing that I was seeking for to me, that which presents itself 143 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:48.960 as always a material for virtue, both rational and political, and in a 144 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.799 word, for the exercise of art which belongs to man or God. For 145 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:58.279 everything which happens has a relationship either to God or Man, and is neither 146 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.600 new nor difficult to handle, but usually an apt matter to work on. 147 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:05.679 The Perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day is the 148 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:11.159 last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid, nor playing the hypocrite. 149 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:13.279 The gods who are immortal are not vexed, because during so long a 150 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:18.240 time they must tolerate continually men such as they are, and so many of 151 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:22.559 them bad. And besides this, they also take care of them in all 152 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.200 ways. But thou, who are destined to end so soon, art thou 153 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:30.519 wearied of enduring the bad? And this too when thou art one of them. 154 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.720 It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own 155 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:37.759 badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, 156 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:43.679 which is impossible. Whatever the rational and political social faculty finds to be neither 157 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:50.039 intelligent nor social, it properly judges to be inferior to itself. When thou 158 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:54.440 hast done a good act and another has received it, why dost thou look 159 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:58.440 for a third thing? Besides these? As fools, do either two have 160 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:01.759 the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return. No 161 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:05.840 man is tired of receiving what is useful, But it is useful to act 162 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:11.399 according to nature. Do not then be tired of receiving what is useful by 163 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:15.080 doing it to others. The nature of the on moved to make the universe. 164 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:20.639 But now either everything that takes place comes by way of consequence or continuity, 165 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.679 or even the chief things towards which the ruling power of the universe directs 166 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:31.120 its own movement, are governed by no rational principle. If this is Ah 167 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:33.799 remembered, it will make THEE more tranquil in many things.