From Antisthenes. It is royal to do good and to be abused. It
is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose
itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and
composed by itself. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for
they care not about it. To the immortal gods and us give joy.
Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn. And one man is
born, another dies. If gods care not for me and for my children,
there is a reason for it, for the good is with me and
the just. No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion. From
Plato. But I would make this man a sufficient answer. Which is this?
Thou sayest not well if thou thinkest that a man who is good for
anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death, and should
not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether he is
doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a
bad man. For the Thus it is men of Athens in truth. Wherever
a man is placed himself thinking it the best place for him, or has
been placed by a commander there, In my opinion, he ought to stay
and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or
anything else before the baseness of deserting his post. But, my good friend,
reflect whether that which is noble and good is not something different from saving
and being saved for as to a man living such or such a time,
at least one who is really a man, Consider if this is not a
thing to be dismissed from the thoughts, and there must be no love of
life. But as to these matters, a man must entrust them to the
deity, and believe what the women say, that no man can escape his
destiny. The next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he
has to live. Look round at the courses of the stars, as if
thou wert going along with them, and constantly consider the changes of the elements
into one another. For such thoughts purge away the filth of the turen life.
This is a fine saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about
men should look also at earthly things, as if he viewed them from some
at en higher place. Should look at them in their assemblies, armies,
agricultural labors, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts
of justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations,
markets, a mixture of all things in an orderly combination of contraries. Consider
the past, such great changes of political supremacies. Thou mayst foresee also the
things which will be, For they will certainly be of like form, and
it is not possible that they should deviate from at the order of the things
which take place now. Accordingly, to have contemplated human life for forty years
is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what
more wilt thou see that which has grown from the earth to the earth,
But that which has sprung from heavenly seed back to the heavenly realms returns.
This is either a dissolution of the mutualvolution of the atoms, or a similar
dispersion of the unsentient elements, with food and drinks and cunning magic arts turning
the channel's course. To escape from death the breeze which Heaven has sent,
we must endure and toil without complaining. Another may be more expert in casting
his opponent, but he is not more social, nor more modest, nor
better discipline to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the
faults of his neighbors. Where any work can be done conformably to the reason
which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear for.
Where we are able to get profit by means of the activity which is
successful and proceeds according to our constitution. There no harm is to be suspected.
Everywhere and at all times. It is in thy power piously to acquiesce
in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about THEE,
and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal
into them without being well examined. Do not look around THEE today discover other
men's ruling principles, But look straight to this to what nature leads THEE,
both the universal in the minute nature through the things which happen to THEE,
and thy own nature through the acts which must be done by THEE. But
every being ought to do that which is according to its constitution, and all
other things have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among
irrational things, the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational
for the sake of one another. The prime principle, then, in man's
constitution is the social and the second is not to yield to the persuasions of
the body. For it is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion
to circumscribe itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the
senses or of the appetites. For both our animal but the intelligent motion claim
superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others, and with
good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them.
The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from deception.
Let then, the ruling principle, holding fast to these things, go straight
on, and it has what is its own. Consider thyself to be dead,
and to have completed thy life up to the present time, and live
according to nature the remainder which is allowed THEE love that only which happens to
THEE and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more
suitable in everything which happens. Keep before thy eyes those to whom the same
things happened, and how they were vexed and treated them as strange things,
and found fault with them. And now where are they nowhere? Why then
dost thou too choose to act in the same way? And why dost thou
not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature, to those who cause them
and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent
upon the right way of making use of the things which happen to thee?
For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for
THEE to work on. Only attend to thyself and resolve to be a good
man in every act which thou doest, and remember look within within is the
fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig.
The body ought to be compact and to show no irregularity, either in
motion or attitude, for what the mind shows in the face, by maintaining
in it the expression of intelligence and propriety that ought to be required also in
the whole body. But all of these things should be observed without affectation.
The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancers. In
respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which
are sudden and unexpected. Constantly observe who those are, whose approbation thou wishest
to have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt e
they blame those who offend involuntarily, Nor wilt thou want there approbation if thou
lookest to the sources of their opinions and appetites. Every soul, the philosopher
says, is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently, in the same way it
is deprived of justice, and temperance and benevolence in everything of the kind.
It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt
be more gentle towards all. In every pain, Let this thought be present,
that there is no dishonor in it, Nor does it make the governing
intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence, either so far as
the intelligence is rational or so far as it is social. Indeed, in
the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus a thee that pain
is neither intolerable nor everlasting. If thou bearest in mind that it has its
limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. And remember this
too, that we do not perceive that many things which are disagreeed to us
are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched
by heat, and the having no appetite. When then thou art discontented about
any of these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to pain,
take care not to feel towards thee inhuman as they feel towards men. How
do we know if Tlaus was not superior in character to Socrates? For it
is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed more skillfully
with the Sophists, and passed the night in the cold with more endurance,
and that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamus, he considered it
more noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering way in the
streets. Though as to this fact one may have great doubts if it was
true. But we ought to inquire what kind of a soul it was that
Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just towards
men and pious towards the gods. Neither idly vexed on account of men's villain,
nor yet making himself a slave to any man's ignorance, nor receiving as
strange anything that fell to his share out of the universal, nor enduring it
as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to sympathize with the effects of the miserable
flesh. Nature has not so mingled the intelligence with the composition of the body
as not to have allowed THEE the power of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under
subjection to thyself all that is thy own. For it is very possible to
be a divine man and to be recognized as such by no one. Always
bear this in mind, and another thing too, that very little, indeed
is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast despaired of becoming
a dialectician and skilled in the knowledge of nature, do not, for this
reason renounce the hope of being both free and modest, and social and obedient
to God. It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion,
in the greatest tranquility of mind, even if all the world cry out against
THEE as much as they choose, and even if wild beasts tear in pieces
the members of this needed matter which has grown around thee. For what hinders
the mind in the midst of all this, from maintaining itself in tranquility and
in a just judgment of all surrounding things, and in a ready use of
the objects which are presented to it, So that the judgment may say,
to the thing which falls under its observation, this thou art in substance reality,
though in men's opinion thou mayst appear to be of a different kind.
And the use shall say, to that which falls under the hand, thou
art the thing that I was seeking for to me, that which presents itself
as always a material for virtue, both rational and political, and in a
word, for the exercise of art which belongs to man or God. For
everything which happens has a relationship either to God or Man, and is neither
new nor difficult to handle, but usually an apt matter to work on.
The Perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day is the
last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid, nor playing the hypocrite.
The gods who are immortal are not vexed, because during so long a
time they must tolerate continually men such as they are, and so many of
them bad. And besides this, they also take care of them in all
ways. But thou, who are destined to end so soon, art thou
wearied of enduring the bad? And this too when thou art one of them.
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own
badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness,
which is impossible. Whatever the rational and political social faculty finds to be neither
intelligent nor social, it properly judges to be inferior to itself. When thou
hast done a good act and another has received it, why dost thou look
for a third thing? Besides these? As fools, do either two have
the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return. No
man is tired of receiving what is useful, But it is useful to act
according to nature. Do not then be tired of receiving what is useful by
doing it to others. The nature of the on moved to make the universe.
But now either everything that takes place comes by way of consequence or continuity,
or even the chief things towards which the ruling power of the universe directs
its own movement, are governed by no rational principle. If this is Ah
remembered, it will make THEE more tranquil in many things.