have been contrary to his method of teaching to make a formal discussion of the Will, after the manner of modern philosophers. He does not touch on the question of man's will as dependent on the will of God, or as acting in opposition to it. God has made man as free as he could be in such a body, in which he must live on the earth. This body is not man's own, but it is clay finely tempered; and God has also given to man a small portion of himself, in a word, the faculty of using the appearances of things, of which faculty. Epictetus says, "if you will take care of this faculty and consider it your only possession, you will never be hindered, never meet with impediments, you will not lament, you will not blame, you will not flatter any person" (i. c. 1). He says (iv. c. 12) that God "has placed me with myself, and has put my will in obedience to myself alone, and has given me rules for the right use of it."
The word of Epictetus which I have always translated by Will is προαίρεσις, which is literally a 'preference,' a choice of one thing before another, or before any other thing; a description which is sufficiently intelligible.[1]
- ↑ H. Stephanus in his Greek Lexicon (s. v. Αἰρέω) has a long discussion on the word προαίρεσις: which is not satisfactory. He objects to the translation by the old scholars of προαίρεσις by 'Electio,' choice, because προαίρεσις, he says, is not 'Electio,' but it is that which follows from the choice itself. "For," he adds, "Electio is the act of 'choosing, of selection,' and Electio can only be in the mind, when we have chosen this or that." This distinction is trifling. When he says that "προαίρεσις applies to him who out of several things selects one after deliberation and prefers it to others," he says right, and this is sufficient. He then discusses whether προαίρεσις should be rendered, when Aristotle uses it strictly, by 'Propositum' or 'Consilium,' and he decides in favour of 'Propositum.' At the beginning of Aristotle's Ethic he translates πᾶσα προαίρεσις by 'Propositum omne,' or 'Consilium omne:' but he prefers 'Propositum.' He objects to the Latin translation of προαίρεσις by 'Voluntas' in cases where Aristotle uses the word strictly, for Aristotle makes a distinction between προαίρεσις and βούλησις. A distinction between προαίρεσις and βούλησις is certain, and it is plain. But Stephanus does not seem to know that
