BOOK III. XXVI. 33-38
food, which is regarded as being the most disgraceful thing for one person to ask of another?
As a lion reared in the mountains.[1]
In what did he trust? Not in reputation, or money, or office, but in his own might, that means, his judgements about the things which are under our control, and those which are not under our control. 35For these are the only things that make men free, that make men unhampered, that lift up the neck of those who have become abject, that make them look with level eyes into the faces of the rich, and the faces of tyrants. And all this was what the philosopher had to give, yet will you not come forth bold, instead of trembling for your paltry clothes and silver plate? Miserable man, have you so wasted your time down to the present?
Yes, but what if I fall ill?—You will bear illness well.—Who will nurse me?—God and your friends.—I shall have a hard bed to lie on.—But like a man.—I shall not have a suitable house.—Then you will fall ill in an unsuitable house.[2]—Who will prepare my food for me?—Those who prepare it for others also. You will be ill like Manes.[3]—And what is also the end of the illness?—Anything but death? Will you, then, realize that this epitome of all the ills that befall man, of his ignoble spirit, and his
- ↑ Homer, Odyssey, VI. 130.
- ↑ The text is very uncertain. Schenkl reads 'Ἐν ἐπιτηδείῳ οὐ νοσήσεις; which would appear to mean something like: "Will you not choose a suitable house in which to fall ill?" But that sort of reply seems scarcely to fit the context.
- ↑ That is, like a slave, for this was a typical slave name, like "Sambo" among American negroes. In particular the reference seems to be to Zeno, who, when his physicians ordered him to eat young pigeons, insisted, "Cure me as you do Manes." Musonius, frag. 18 A (p. 98, 4 ff., Hense).
