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xxvi
PREFACE.

on this subject. 2. That Epictetus, speaking of what was needful and proper for the body, had in his mind an ideal of the σεμνὸν καὶ πρέπον such as would naturally occur to a Greek, and did not judge by the merely materialistic standard to which alone, to us, his words seem applicable. 3. That though he may not have condemned the pleasures of the senses in themselves, he advised abstinence, ἄσκησις, especially in one who is only 'making advance,' as a means of helping him to realise the fact that, if occasion should require, he could cheerfully do without them. So, too, a little consideration will clear away the impression which chapters iii., xxvi., &c, of the Encheiridion might leave on the mind—the impression, namely, that Epictetus regarded the natural affections and the griefs which inevitably accompany them as being unworthy of a philosopher. He is so full of the conception that the wise man, by the aid of philosophy, may reap benefit from every ex-

perience