BOOK III. XV. 6-12
an athlete, now a gladiator, then a philosopher, after that a rhetorician, yet with your whole soul nothing, but like an ape you imitate whatever you see, and one thing after another is always striking your fancy, but what you are accustomed to bores you. For you have never gone out after anything with circumspection, nor after you have examined the whole matter all over and tested it, but you act at haphazard and half-heartedly.[1]
In the same way, when some people have seen a philosopher and heard someone speaking like Euphrates[2] (though, indeed, who can speak like him?), they wish to be philosophers themselves. Man, consider first what the business is, and then your own natural ability, what you can bear. If you wish to be a wrestler, look to your shoulders, your thighs, your loins. 10For one man has a natural talent for one thing, another for another. Do you suppose that you can do the things you do now, and yet be a philosopher? Do you suppose that you can eat in the same fashion, drink in the same fashion, give way to anger and to irritation, just as you do now? You must keep vigils, work hard, overcome certain desires, abandon your own people, be despised by a paltry slave, be laughed to scorn by those who meet you, in everything get the worst of it, in office, in honour, in court. Look these drawbacks over carefully, and then, if you think best, approach philosophy, that is, if you are willing at the price of these things to secure tranquillity, freedom, and calm. Otherwise, do not approach; don't act like
- ↑ Although the expression (lit. "with cold desire") seems a bit strange, because the fault seems to lie especially in the lack of forethought and circumspection, still it is supported by the version in the Encheiridion, and particularly by the phrase, "yet with your whole soul nothing," in § 6 above. Mere desire, without reason and deliberation, is apparently regarded by Epictetus as a weak thing.
- ↑ An eminent Stoic lecturer, highly praised by Pliny (Ep. I. 10), and a bitter enemy of Apollonius of Tyana. A specimen of his eloquence is given below, IV. 8, 17-20.
