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1 Epictetus refers to the rhetorical divisions of a speech.
2 Xenophon (Mem. iv. c. 8, 4) has reported this saying of Socrates on the authority of Hermogenes. Compare the Apology of Xenophon near the beginning.
3 Schweighaeuser says that he can extract no sense out of this passage. I leave it as it is.
4 There is some difficulty here in the original. See Schweig.'s note.
5 The words may mean either what I have written in the text, or 'and so he lost his suit.'
6 “The meaning is, You must not ask for advice when you are come into a difficulty, but every man ought to have such principles as to be ready on all occasions to act as he ought; just as he who knows how to write can write any name which is proposed to him.”—Wolf.
7 “The reader must know that these dissertations were spoken extempore, and that one thing after another would come into the thoughts of the speaker. So the reader will not be surprised that when the discourse is on the maintenance of firmness or freedom from perturbations, Epictetus should now speak of philosophical preparation, which is most efficient for the maintenance of firmness.”—Wolf. See also Schweig.'s note on section 21, “Suggest something me:” and ii. 24.
8 In the Encheiridion or Manual (c. 14) it is written, 'Every man's master is he who has the power to give to a man or take away that which he would have or not have: whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither seek any thing or avoid any thing which is in the power of others: if he does not act thus, he will be a slave.'
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