1
When any person treats you ill or speaks ill of you,
remember that he does this or says this because he thinks
that it is his duty. It is not possible then for him to
follow that which seems right to you, but that which
seems right to himself. Accordingly if he is wrong in his
opinion, he is the person who is hurt, for he is the person
who has been deceived; for if a man shall suppose the
true conjunction2 to be false, it is not the conjunction
which is hindered, but the man who has been deceived
about it. If you proceed then from these opinions, you
will be mild in temper to him who reviles you: for say on
each occasion, It seemed so to him.
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1 See Mrs. C.'s note, in which she says' Epictetus seems to be in part mistaken here,' etc.; and I think that he is.
2 τὸ ἀληφὲς συμπεπλεγμένον is rendered in the Latin by 'verum con- junctum.' Mrs. Carter renders it by 'a true proposition,' which I suppose to be the meaning.
The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. Epictetus. George Long. translator. London. George Bell and Sons. 1890.
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