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Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 1 (search)
there, but to end where nature itself has fixed our end; and that is, in contemplation and understanding, and in a scheme of life conformable to nature. Take care, then, not to die without the contemplation of these things. You take a journey to Olympia to behold the work of Phidias, and each of you thinks it a misfortune to die without a knowledge of such things; and will you have no inclination to see and understand those works for which there is no need to take a journey, but which are readyven to those who bestow no pains! Will you never perceive what you are, or for what you were born, or for what purpose you are admitted to behold this spectacle? "But there are in life some things unpleasant and difficult." And are there none at Olympia? Are you not heated? Are you not crowded? Are you not without good conveniences for bathing? Are you not wet through when it happens to rain? Do you not have uproar, and noise, and other disagreeable circumstances? But, I suppose, by comparing
Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 1 (search)
spirit; or if your servant be a long while in bringing you something to bind your head, do not croak and go into hysterics, and say, "( Everybody hates me." For who would not hate such a one? Relying for the future on these principles, walk erect and free, not trusting to bulk of body, like a wrestler; for one should not be unconquerable in the sense that an ass is. Who, then, is unconquerable? He whom the inevitable cannot overcome. For such a person I imagine every trial, and watch him as an athlete in each. He has been victorious in the first encounter. What will he do in the second? What, if he should be ex- hausted by the heat? What, if the field be Olympia? And so in other trials. If you throw money in his way, he will despise it. Is he proof against the seductions of women? What if he be tested by fame. by calumny, by praise, by death? He is able to overcome them all. If he can bear sunshine and storm, discouragement and fatigue, I pronounce him an athlete unconquered indeed.
Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 1 (search)
me," says one. Is this a youth of spirit? No; for when the occasion calls upon him, he may begin crying, and say, "I wanted to learn a little longer first." Learn what? If you did not learn these things to show them in practice, why did you learn them? I trust there must be some one among you, sitting here, who feels secret pangs of impatience, and says, " When will such a trial come to my share, as hath now fallen to his? Must I sit wasting my life in a corner, when I might be crowned at Olympia? When will any one bring the news of such a combat for me?" Such should be the disposition of you all. Even among the gladiators of Caesar, there are some who bear it very ill that they are not brought upon the stage and matched; and who offer vows to God, and address the officers, begging to fight. And will none among you appear such? I would willingly take a voyage on purpose to see how a champion of mine acts; how he meets his occasion. This is not the contest I would choose, say you.
Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 3 (search)
a fever, and laid himself down in the road; his friends would have put him into some vehicle, but he refused it, and bid them go on to the show. " This night," said he, " I will either conquer or be conquered. If I conquer the fever, I will come to the games; if it conquers me, I will descend to Hades." - C.Si febrim vicero, ad Agonem veniam: Si me vicerit febris, ad inferna descendam. Jerome adv. Jovianum, lib. ii. 34. -H. "Foolish men, why do you not stay? Do you take such a journey to Olympia to see the destruction or combat of the champions; and have you no inclination to see the combat between a man and a fever?" Such a one, who took a pride in difficult circumstances, and thought himself worthy to be a spectacle to those who passed by, was a likely per son indeed to accuse God, who had deputed him, as treating him unworthily! For what subject of accusation shall he find, - that he preserves a decency of behavior? With what does he find fault, - that he sets his own virtue i
Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 3 (search)
out the business, if one thus fails." What, have you again forgotten why you went? Do you not know that a wise and good man does nothing for appearance, but everything for the sake of having acted well? " What advantage is it, then, to him, to have acted well?" What advantage is it to one who writes down the name of Dion without a blunder? The having written it. " Is there no reward, then? " Why, do you seek any greater reward for a good man than the doing what is fair and just? And yet, at Olympia, you desire nothing else, but think it enough to be crowned victor. Does it appear to you so small and worthless a thing to be just, good, and happy? Besides, being introduced by God into this Great City [the world], and bound to discharge at this time the duties of a man, do you still want nurses and a mamma; and are you conquered and effeminated by the tears of poor weak women? Are you thus determined never to cease being an infant? Do not you know that, if one acts like a child, the olde
Epictetus, Discourses (ed. Thomas Wentworth Higginson), book 4 (search)
e portion of flesh upon earth, and to see his administration; to behold the spectacle with him, and partake of the festival for a short time? After having beheld the spectacle and the solemnity, then, as long as it is permitted you, will you not depart when he leads you out, adoring and thankful for what you have heard and seen? "No; but I would enjoy the feast still longer." So would the initiated [in the mysteries], too, be longer in their initiation; so, perhaps, would the spectators at Olympia see more combatants. But the solemnity is over. Go away. Depart like a grateful and modest person; make room for others. Others, too, must be born as you were; and when they are born must have a place, and habitations, and necessaries. But if the first do not give way, what room is there left? Why are you insatiable, unconscionable? Why do you crowd the world? " Ay, but I would have my wife and children with me too." Why, are they yours? Are they not the Giver's? Are they not his who ma