Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the willπροαίρεσιςprohairesisThe willThe choosing, ruling faculty — will, moral purpose. For Epictetus it simply is the self: the one thing no tyrant, illness, or accident can compel. This translation renders it ‘the will’ and ‘the ruling faculty.’ unless itself pleases. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will; and say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens. For you will find it to be an impediment to something else, but not truly to yourself.
Part II of VI · Sections 9–17
Training Attention
προσοχή prosochē — “attention”
Drills for the moment: sickness, small losses, the banquet, the stage — every circumstance treated as a finder of the faculty it calls for.
Upon every accident, remember to turn toward yourself and inquire what faculty you have for its use. If you encounter a handsome person, you will find continence the faculty needed; if pain, then fortitude; if reviling, then patience. And when thus habituated, the phenomena of existenceφαντασίαphantasiaImpressionHow a thing appears before you have judged it. The whole discipline begins by pausing here: ‘You are but a semblance, and by no means the real thing.’ will not overwhelm you.
Never say of anything, “I have lost it,” but, “I have restored it.” Has your child died? It is restored. Has your wife died? She is restored. Has your estate been taken away? That likewise is restored. “But it was a bad man who took it.” What is it to you by whose hands he who gave it has demanded it again? While he permits you to possess it, hold it as something not your own, as do travelers at an inn.
If you would improveπροκοπήprokopēProgressThe state between fool and sage where every actual Stoic lives. The proficient blames no one, explains himself to no one, and keeps watch over himself ‘as over an enemy in ambush.’, lay aside such reasonings as these: “If I neglect my affairs, I shall not have a maintenance; if I do not punish my servant, he will be good for nothing.” For it were better to die of hunger, exempt from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with perturbation; and it is better that your servant should be bad than you unhappy.
Begin therefore with little things. Is a little oil spilled or a little wine stolen? Say to yourself, “This is the price paid for peace and tranquillityἀταραξίαataraxiaTranquillityThe calm the training buys: an even flow of life undisturbed by craving or dread. In this translation, ‘tranquillity’ and ‘serenity’ — bought, the manual insists, at a price.; and nothing is to be had for nothing.” And when you call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not come at your call; or, if he does, that he may not do what you wish. But it is not at all desirable for him, and very undesirable for you, that it should be in his power to cause you any disturbance.
If you would improveπροκοπήprokopēProgressThe state between fool and sage where every actual Stoic lives. The proficient blames no one, explains himself to no one, and keeps watch over himself ‘as over an enemy in ambush.’, be content to be thought foolish and dull with regard to externalsτὰ ἐκτόςta ektosExternalsEverything outside the will: the body, money, reputation, office, other people’s conduct. Not evil — raw material. The mistake is looking to them for help or harm.. Do not desireὄρεξιςorexisDesireThe reaching-out toward a thing as good. The beginner is told to suspend it entirely: desire aimed at externals is disappointment on a schedule. to be thought to know anything; and though you should appear to others to be somebody, distrust yourself. For be assured, it is not easy at once to keep your will in harmony with nature and to secure externals; but while you are absorbed in the one, you must of necessity neglect the other.
If you wish your children and your wife and your friends to live forever, you are foolish, for you wish things to be in your powerἐφ᾽ ἡμῖνeph' hēminUp to usThe manual’s hinge: some things depend on our choice — opinion, aim, desire, aversion — and everything else does not: body, property, reputation, office. Freedom is staked entirely on the first class. which are not so, and what belongs to others to be your own. So likewise, if you wish your servant to be without fault, you are foolish, for you wish vice not to be vice but something else. But if you wish not to be disappointed in your desiresὄρεξιςorexisDesireThe reaching-out toward a thing as good. The beginner is told to suspend it entirely: desire aimed at externals is disappointment on a schedule., that is in your own power. Exercise, therefore, what is in your power. A man’s master is he who is able to confer or remove whatever that man seeks or shuns. Whoever then would be freeἐλευθερίαeleutheriaFreedomThe slave-born philosopher’s word for the goal. Whoever wishes for nothing that depends on others cannot be compelled — that, not status, is the free man., let him wish nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave.
Remember that you must behave as at a banquet. Is anything brought round to you? Put out your hand and take a moderate share. Does it pass by you? Do not stop it. Is it not yet come? Do not yearn in desireὄρεξιςorexisDesireThe reaching-out toward a thing as good. The beginner is told to suspend it entirely: desire aimed at externals is disappointment on a schedule. toward it, but wait till it reaches you. So with regard to children, wife, office, riches; and you will some time or other be worthy to feast with the gods. And if you do not so much as take the things which are set before you, but are able even to forego them, then you will not only be worthy to feast with the gods, but to rule with them also. For, by thus doing, Diogenes and Heraclitus, and others like them, deservedly became divine, and were so recognized.
When you see anyone weeping for grief, either that his son has gone abroad or that he has suffered in his affairs, take care not to be overcome by the apparent evil, but discriminate and be ready to say, “What hurts this man is not this occurrence itself—for another man might not be hurt by it—but the view he chooses to take of it.” As far as conversation goes, however, do not disdain to accommodate yourself to him and, if need be, to groan with him. Take heed, however, not to groan inwardly, too.
Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the Author chooses—if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, see that you act it well. For this is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another.