Example as to their Existence and Motion is something without and what themselves are purely passive in so likewise is all their Good owing to something without them too And that their Motion and Existence is from without is plain because they have no discerning or governing Faculty they are subject to perpetual change and division and consequently cannot be present to themselves in every part so as to be all in all or produce themselves entire at once Nor have they any power of moving themselves as being in their own Nature void of Spirit and Life But now there is a middle state between these Extremes a sort of Beings inferior to that fixed immutable nature which is always consistent with it self and yet superior to the Lowest and Mechanical sort And these are moved yet not in the same manner with Bodies by a Motion impressed upon them from something else but by one internal and purely theirs And in this capacity are Souls Masters of their own and the Bodies motion to which they are united For which reason we call all those Bodies that are set into motion by a principle from within Animate and those that have none but what proceed from something without Inanimate Bodies So then the Soul gives motion both to itself and to the Body for if it received its own motion from something without and after that put the Body into motion this motion of the Body could not without any propriety of Speech be imputed to the Soul but would be wholly owing to that which first moved the Soul Now this free Being is beneath the fix'd and unchangeable Goodness and enjoys its Good by participation only and so is carried towards it but this by no Foreign Force but by its own Spontaneous Act it s own Inclinations and Desires For Inclinations and Desires and Affections and Choice are Motions proper to Souls and entirely their own Now of these the first and best being the immediate production of things Essentially and in their own nature good though with this abatement that they are not so themselves but only are desirous of Good yet they bear so near a Relation to them that they desire it with a natural and unchangeable Affection their Choice is ever uniform and consistent determined to the good part and never perverted to the worse And if by Choice we mean the preferring of one thing before another they can scarce be allowed to have any unless you will call it so because they ever take the chiesest and most perfect Good But the Souls of Men are so contrived as to link together into one Person a Heavenly and an Earthly Nature and consequently must be capable of inclining to both sides of soaring upwards or sinking downwards When they make the former their constant care their Desires and their Determinations are uniform and free and above Contradiction but when they lose this power all is inverted and out of course because they employ themselves wholly upon pursuing mean ends and only affect low Actions whereas Nature hath qualified them for the animating and moving of Bodies inanimate and purely passive and for governing those things which are incapable of procuring or partaking of any Good by their own Act and giving them a power not only of acting to please themselves but of putting other things into action at pleasure too which otherwise are not capable of any such thing Now when the Soul hath conversed too familiarly and addicted her self too much to Temporal and Corruptible things such as have but a perishing and transitory Good in them her Choice is no longer above Contradiction but attended with many Struggles and strong Oppositions directed still indeed to Objects eligible and good but then this is sometimes a real Good and sometimes a treacherous and deceitful one which upon the account of some Pleasure attending it prevails upon us And because this is most certain that true Good is always attended with true Pleasure hence it is that wherever the Soul discovers the least shadow of this she catches at it greedily without staying to consider of what kind the Pleasure is whether real and agreeable to that Good which is truly so or whether it be false and only carries a counterfeit face of Good never recollecting neither that it is necessarily attended with many Troubles and great Uneasinesses and would not be Pleasure without these to introduce and recommend it to us For he that takes pleasure in eating would have none if he had not first been Hungry nor would Drinking give a Man any but for the Thirst that afflicted him before Thus Unasiness and Pain is the constant Attendant of Pleasure and ever mingled with it So that if you suppose any Pleasure in Drinking you shall find that it comes from some remains of Thirst for the Pleasure lasts no longer than while the pain continues with it So long as we are Hungry or Dry or Cold or the like the Meat and Drink and Fire that allays these uneasinesses are agreeable to us but when once the Sense of those Pains ceases we quickly grow weary and have too much of them And what before gave satisfaction and relief soon becomes our loathing and aversion and is it self a pain to us Thus also the Men who suffer themselves to be carried away into inordinate and extravagant Enjoyments and make Pleasure the only End and Business of their Lives generally undergo a great deal of trouble and uneasiness along with it Now the Choice of this pleasant treacherous Good is the cause of all our Faults as on the contrary the Choice of true substantial Good is the Foundation of all our Vertues And indeed all the Good and Evil of our whole Lives the Happiness and Misery of them depend upon this freedom of Will and power of Choice in us For when the Will is disingaged when it proceeds from a free principle and its determinations are properly the acts of that Rational Soul of which our very Essence and Nature consists then it is directed to Objects truly Eligible and Good And for this reason Vertue which is the proper Happiness and Perfection is called in Greek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a Name which hath great affinity to a Word that signifies Eligible not only because Vertue is properly the Object but also because it is the effect of our own Choice But when the Will acts in compliance with the brutish Appetites and Inclinations and proposes their Enjoyments to it self as its own Happiness then it makes an ill Choice and fixes upon counterfeit Good instead of true So that all this Freedom and Choice is in our own disposal For the Opinions and Affections of the Soul its Inclinations and Aversions are but so many Steps towards Choice and all terminate in that at last and these are properly the motions of the Mind arising from within and not from any violent impulses from without us So that we our selves
who knows and is sensible of the Difference between them when he does it But this Misfortune happens generally from a blind Admiration of some apparent Good which so dazles our Eyes that either we do not at all discover the Evil it is attended with or if we do discern that yet we see the Thing through false Opticks such as magnifie the Good and lessen the Evil to the Eye Now it is a frequent and a reasonable Choice when we are content to take a greater Good with the Incumbrance of a less Evil As for Instance When we suffer an Incision or a Cupping and account the Evil of these Pains much too little to counterballance the Good there is in that Health which they restore to us Once more yet That all Things desire Good is farther plain from hence That supposing Evil to have a real Being and a Power of Acting whatever it did would be for its own Advantage that is in other Words for its own Good And thus much they who ascribe a Being and Operation to it confess for they pretend that it pursues after Good would fain detain it and uses all possible Endeavours not to let it go And if Evil be the Object of no Desire then is it not any primary and designed Nature But since the Condition of it is in all Particulars according to the Description here given of it it is most truly said to be an Accidental and Additional Thing superinducive to something that did subsist before but to have no Subsistence of its own Well says the Objector I allow what you say We will suppose that Evil is only an Accident a Defect and Privation of Good and an additional Disappointment of the first and original Intent of Nature And what of all this How are we advanced in the Question before us For let this be what or after what manner you please still it must have some Cause otherwise How in the Name of Wonder did it ever find the way into the World How then will you get out of this Maze You allow God to be the Cause of all Things you must grant that Evil hath some Cause and yet you tell me that God is infinitely Good and so cannot be that Cause This Objection hath been already considered and spoken to both at the Beginning of the Book where we explained this Author's Distinction of the Things that are or are not in our own Power and also in the Comment upon the XIII Chapter upon Occasion of those words Trouble not your self with wishing that Things may be just as you would have them c. But however I will speak to it once more here too and that briefly as follows God who is the Source and Original Cause of all Goodness did not only produce the highest and most excellent Things such as are good in themselves nor only those that are of a Rank something inferiour to these and of a middle Nature but the Extremes too such as are capable of falling and apt to be perverted from that which is agreeable to Nature to that which we call Evil. Thus As after those incorruptible Bodies which are always regular in their Motions and immutably good others were created subject to Change and Decay so likewise it was with Souls the same Order was observed with these too for after them which were unalterably fixed in Good others were produced liable to be seduced from it And this was done both for the greater illustration of the Wise and Mighty Creator that the Riches of his Goodness might be the more clearly seen in producing good things of all sorts as many as were capable of subsisting and also that the Universe might be full and perfect when Beings of all kinds and all Proportions were contained in it For this is a Perfection to want nothing of any kind And also to vindicate the Highest and the Middle sort which never decline or deviate from their Goodness from that Contempt which always falls upon the Lowest of any sort and such these had been if the Corruptible and Mortal things had not been Created and Supported the others Dignity by their own want of it And Corruptible they must be for it could never be that while the First and the Middle sort of Bodies continued as they are some Immutable both as to their Nature and their Operations others Immutable indeed as to their Substance but Mutable in their Motion it could not be I say that the Lowest and Sublunary Bodies should ever hold out while the violent Revolutions of the Heavenly ones were perpetually changing their Substance and putting them into unnatural Disorders For these Reasons certainly and perhaps for a great many others more important than these which are Secrets too dark and deep for us these Sublunary Bodies were made and this Region of Mortality where the Perverted Good hath its Residence For there was a Necessity that the lowest sort of Good should have a Being too and such is that which is liable to Change and Depravation Hence also there is no such thing as Evil in the Regions above us for the nature of Evil being nothing else but a Corruption of the Meanest and most Feeble Good can only subsist where that Mean and Mutable Good resides For this Reason the Soul which considered by her self is a Generous and Immutable Being is tainted with no Evil while alone in a State of Separation but being so contrived by Nature as to dwell in this lower World and be intimately united to Mortal Bodies for so the good Providence of our great Father and Creator hath ordered it making these Souls a Link to tye the Spiritual and Material World together joyning the Extreams by the common Bonds of Life it seems to bear a part in all those Distempers and Decays which Evil subjects our Bodies to by disturbing their natural Habit and Frame Though indeed I cannot think this to be Evil strictly speaking but rather Good since the Effect of it is so For by this means the simple Elements of which these Bodies are compounded come to be set free from a great Confinement and severed from other parts of Matter of a different Constitution with which they were interwoven and entangled before and so getting loose from the perpetual Combat between contrary Qualities are restored to their proper Places and their primitive Mass again in order to acquiring new Life and Vigour And if this proceeding be the occasion of perpetual Change yet neither is that Evil because every thing is resolved at last into what it was at the beginning For Water though evaporated into Air yet is by degrees congealed into Water again and so even particular Beings lose nothing by those Vicissitudes But that which ought to be a Consideration of greater Moment is that the Dissolution of Compound Bodies and the mutual change of Simple ones into each other contributes to the Advantage of the Universe in general by making the Corruption of one thing to become
ill with the Brisk and Sanguine one though each of these alone and each well coupled may be excelâ—ent Persons The next Consideration is How the Person whom we make choice of hath behaved himself to his other Friends before The third Rule which is indeed of such moment that it may be justly thought to include all is to observe Whether he be a Man governed by his Passions or his Reason When this is done we shall sind it very proper to examine into his Inclinations and see which way the Bent and Byass of his Soul lies whether they draw him to Goodness and Vertue and such Actions and Enjoyments as are commendable and befitting a Man of Piety and Honour or whether to vile and unmanly Pleasures and such as none but shameless Fellows and Scoundrels abandon themselves to We shall do well to observe farther whether these Desires and Inclinations be tractable and gentle such as are fit to be spoken with and ready to hearken to Reason or whether they be violent and unpersuadable such as mind nothing but their own Gratification and are deaf to all Arguments that would draw them off from it For Men of such Passions are always hot and peremptory and by no means fit to make Friends of Those also that are fond of the World and expect their Happiness any where but from their own Minds are very improper to fix upon For they dote upon Riches or Mistresses or Preferments and in all those things that are of a communicable nature they carve themselves too largely and are desious to engross the Whole so destroying that Equality which Friendship either supposeth or introduceth This in Riches and such instances is plain beyond a doubt and the Vain glorious discovers it as evidently too in the desires of Reputation and Applause Now it is the peculiar Excellence of those things that tend to the Soul 's Good that the Possessor hath them entirely to himself even when he imparts them to others They are not diminished but augmented by Communication For they are excited and kindled in the Breasts of those on whom we bestow them and the farther they spread the more they are scattered the more and larger they grow So that the Light of Truth and Vertue takes fire by Conversation as a Match does by the mutual Attrition of Flint and Steel that kindles by the Sparks that drop from it but loses none of the Virtue it gives away Again When Friends make true Good their End and right Reason their Rule they are sure never to differ in point of Interest for they judge of Advantage by the same common Standard Now when they are thus agreed in one Measure and judge of Pleasure and Profit and the contraries to these alike they have secured themselves against the most dangerous and usual Bane of Friendship For without a perfect Agreement in these Matters Disputes and Quarrels are always unavoidable And so much for the Choice of our Friends As for our Behaviour to the Friends thus chosen That in one Word must make Reason and Equity its constant Rule And upon this account we must never do any thing to our Friends which we would not be perfectly satisfied with when done by them to us Whatever Kindnesses they receive from us must be extenuated and thought moderately of but whatever Obligations we receive from them must be very highly esteemed and rated above their just Value The Course directly contrary to this must be observed in Failings and Miscarriages Theirs must be lessened and excused our own aggravated and severely condemned We must think nothing so strictly our own as that a Friend should not have an equal or rather indeed a greater Share and Right in it And upon all Occasions we should give them Precedence and Respect and we should do it willingly and chearfully as considering that their Honours devolve upon us and that a Friend according to the Proverb is a Man's second Self But since after all our nicest Circumspection and Care it is impossible for us to continue Men and not give some occasion of Offence this Point is to be managed very tenderly A Man that will be a Friend in good earnest ought especially to guard this Breach and to reprove what is done amiss with great Temper and Softness in Obedience to that old and truly Golden Rule Lose not a Friend on every slight Pretence Ready to pardon slow to take Offence Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That so you may admit him to a perfect and firm Reconciliation and deliver him from the Remorse of his own Mind by leaving no ground of Jealousie that he hath not still the same place in your Affection and Esteem It is certain too that our Kindness and Concern ought not to be confined to our Friend alone but extend to his Relations and Acquaintance and those whose Affairs and Successes he thinks himself interested in So that he should be as ready to serve them upon his Account as he would be upon their own Our Concern and Affection ought not to be restrained to Place neither but we should have the same and upon some Accounts a more tender Regard to our Friend in his Absence than we think our selves obliged to express when he is present with us an eminent instance whereof I could give from my personal Experience in a Friend of my own And to conclude all when once we have made a prudent Choice and laid the Foundations of Friendship in an agreeable Humour and tryed Constancy and vertuous Dispositions the Affections that will naturally follow upon such powerful Attractives will not fail to conduct us in the right Method of Conversation and all the Duties and good Offices that can be expected as the Testimonies and Endearments of Friendship will follow of Course Now what a Blessing Friendship is how rich a Treasure and how fruitful in the Advantages of Life is a Subject worthy of a long and studied Discourse but at present I shall content my self with a few Particulars only and such as occur to my present Thoughts First then Every Friend hath Two Souls and Two Bodies and it is plain from the soregoing Rules that he must needs have Two Estates And if a Man have several such Friends then his Advantages grow upon him still more and he is multiplyed into more Souls and Bodies and Estates in proportion to the number of his Friends In the Study of Wisdom and Nature Souls thus united have an infinite Advantage and the Light of Truth displays it self much more early and fully to them Nor have they less in the Exercise of Vertue by mutual Conferences and joynt Endeavours These bring their Improvements into one common Bank from whence every Man supplies his own Occasions and easily grows rich at the publick Stock Besides that such united Perfection will find a more than ordinary Blessing and Encouragement from Heaven they are secure of prudent and seasonable Advice in all their Difficulties their Motions will
the Next The Instructions he gives are built upon Humane Nature and the Foundation of them all is Man considered as a Rational Soul making use of the Body as its Instrument of Operation Upon this Account he allows all those innocent Pleasures which Nature requires and such as are necessary to keep up a Succession of Mankind in the World and so he does likewise the Enjoyment of such other Things as the Condition of the present Life makes desirable to us But then it is constantly with this Reserve that the Reasoning Faculty preserve its own Liberty so as not to be enslaved to the Body or any of its sensual Inclinations but be constantly raising it self up above these and aspiring to the Enjoyment of its own proper Happiness So that of all Outward Things which are commonly esteemed good those that can any way conduce to the promoting our real Happiness we may take the Advantage of provided it be done with due Temper and Moderation But as for such as are wholly inconsistent with that True Good we are absolutely forbidden the having any thing at all to do with them One very remarkable Excellency these Writings have That they render all who govern themselves by them truly happy in present and do not content themselves with turning Men over to a long Payment by distant Promises of their Virtues being rewarded in a Future State Not but that there most certainly shall be such a State and such Rewards For it is impossible that that Being which serves it self of the Body and its Appetites and Affections as so many Instruments to act by should not have a distinct Nature of its own a Nature that continues entire after these are lost and destroyed and consequently must needs have a Perfection of its own too peculiar and agreeable to its Essence and Nature Now though we should suppose the Soul to be mortal and that It and the Body perish both together yet he that lives according to these Directions will be sure to find his Account in them for he cannot fail of being a truly happy Man because he attains to the Perfection of his Nature and the Enjoyment of that Good which is accommodated to a Rational Soul And thus the Body of a Man which is confessedly mortal enjoys its own proper Happiness and can ask nothing farther when it attains to all that Vigor and Perfection that the Nature of a Body is capable of The Discourses themselves are short and sententious much after the manner of those Precepts which the Pythagoreans call their Memorandums or Moral Institutions Though among these indeed there is some sort of Method and Connexion and a mutual Relation almost all through as will appear hereafter when we come to consider them particularly And these Observations and Maxims though they be put into distinct Chapters are yet all upon one Subject and belong to the same Science viz. That of Amending the Life of Man They are all directed to one and the same End which is To rouze and invigorate the Reasonable Soul that it may maintain its own Dignity and exert all its Powers in such Operations as are agreeable to uncorrupt Nature The Expressions are perspicuous and easie but yet it may not be amiss a little to explain and enlarge upon them and that as well for the Writer's own sake who by this means will be more sensibly affected and carried to a closer and deeper Consideration of the Truths contained in them as for the Reader 's Benefit who perhaps not being very conversant in such kind of Writings will be led into a more perfect Understanding of them by these Explanations Now the first Thing to be cleared upon this Occasion is What sort of Persons these Instructions were designed for and what Virtues especially they are capable of cultivating in the Men that submit to be directed by them And first it is plain they are not proper for the Man of Consummate Virtue who hath absolutely purged away all the Dregs of Humane Nature for he so far as his mortal State will admit of such Perfection makes it his Business to divest himself of Flesh and Sense and all the Appetites and Passions that attend and serve the Body and is entirely taken up with the Improvement of his own Mind Much less can they sute the Circumstances of a speculative Virtue which is a Degree still higher than the former For such a Person is exalted even above the Rational Life and attains to a sort of God-like Contemplation They are adapted then more peculiarly to an inferiour Rank who lead their Lives according to the Dictates of Reason and look upon the Body as an Instrument of Action contrived for the Use of the Soul That do not confound these two nor make Either a part of the Other nor the Body and Soul both as equally constituent parts of Humane Nature For he that supposes the Man strictly speaking to consist of Body as well as Soul hath a Vulgar Notion of Things is deprest and sunk down into Matter hath no more Pretensions to Reason than a Brute and scarce deserves the Name of Man He that would answer that Character in good earnest and assert the Dignity and Prerogative of his Nature by which God hath distinguished him from Beasts must take care to preserve his Soul as Nature requires it should be in a State of Superiority over the Body so as to use and manage it not as a part of the same common Nature out as an Instrument wholly at its Government and Disposal And such a Person as this is the proper Object of those Moral and Political Vertues which the following Discourses are intended to excite Men to That the Real Essence of a Man is his Rational Soul Socrates hath undertaken to demonstrate in that Dialogue which Plato gives us between him and his beloved Alcibiades And Epictetus proceeding upon this Foundation directs his Scholars what sort of Practices and Conversation are proper to make a Man thus framed by Nature perfect For as the Body gathers Strength by Exercise and frequently repeating such Motions as are natural to it so the Soul too by exerting its Powers and the Practice of such things as are agreeable to Nature confirms it self in Habits and strengthens its own natural Constitution I would not have the Reader take it ill to be detained a little longer from the following Discourses only whilst I present him with so necessary an Introduction to them as the explaining a little this Notion which Epictetus all along takes for a granted Truth viz. That the Real Essence of the Man is his Rational Soul which makes use of the Body as its Instrument of Action For Epictetus sets before us the Operations peculiar to such a Person and becoming his Character and then makes it his Business to excite all his Scholars to get a perfect-Knowledge and employ themselves in the constant Practice of them That by such daily Exercise we may as I said
give the finishing Stroke to Nature and be as perfect as our Condition is capable of being This is the Ground Epictetus goes upon which he does not at all attempt to prove but takes it as I said for a Fundamental Truth sufficiently plain and acknowledged before But the Method in which Socrates proceeds is this He makes use of clear and familiar Examples and tells us That a Man in Cutting for instance uses his Knife and he uses his Hand too Then inferring from hence that the Thing used considered as an Instrument is different from that which employs it he concludes that it is the Man which employs the Body as an Instrument Now in truth it is the Rational Soul and nothing else that imploys this Body in the Exercise of Arts and Trades and all manner of Operations From hence again he draws this farther Inference That that which employs the Body hath the Government and Diâ—posal of what it so employs And then he forms his Argument into this Disjunctive Syllogism Either the Soul alone or the Body alone or both together must needs be the Man Now if the Man have the command of the Body and the Body cannot command nor dispose of it self then it is evident that the Body alone cannot be the Man It is evident again that Body and Soul together cannot be the Man for the very same reason for if the Man have the Government of the Body and the Body it self have no part of that Government then it is plain this prerogative does not extend to Soul and Body both and therefore both cannot be the Man But in short if the Body in its own Nature be void of all Life and Motion and if it be the Soul which animates and moves it as we see in Handicraft Trades the Work-man is the Principle of Motion and the Tools have none but what they derive from him then it follows that the Body is to the Soul what a Tool is to the Artificer And consequently that the Soul being the Original of all Operation is truly and properly the Man So then whoever would make the Man his Care must consult the advantage and improvement of the Soul and pursue the Happiness peculiar to this For he that bestows his pains upon the Body does not it seems advance himself and his own Good properly speaking but only that of his Instrument Much more extravagant and absurd is it then to lay himself out upon Riches or any External Advantages of that kind because in so doing he pursues a very Foreign Interest one much more distant than the former For he neither makes the Man nor the Man's Instrument the Object of his Care but all terminates in those things which make for the Convenience of this Instrument only Epictet Enchiridion CHAP. I. All things whatsoever may be divided into Two Sorts those that are and those that are not within our own Power Of the former sort are our Opinions and Notions of Things * Affections This is the most convenient Rendring I could think of for the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though the Latine Impetus may do right to yet I question whether any English Word will fully express it If any this of Affection which yet I do not so nicely confine my self to in this Translation as not to render it by Paraphrase in some Places But I must own that in the midst of my Doubts what to express it by generally the Authority of our Learned Gataker in his Latine and of Meric Casuab in his English Translation of Antoninus very much prevailed with me who hath both chosen this Expression for it in that Passage of his Book which seems very pertinent and directing to this purpose Lib. III. Sect. XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gat. Affectus Casub Affections Our Affections our Desires and our Aversions And in short all our Actions of every kind are in our own power COMMENT HE calls those Things in our own power which we our selves are Masters of and which depend purely upon our own Disposal and Choice as we commonly say any thing is a Man 's own which he is not beholden to any body else for so as that it should fall within the compass of a Second Person to grant or deny it to permit or debar or any way hinder him in the Enjoyment of it Now such are the Motions and Operations of the Soul They are born and bred within us and owing solely to our own Judgment and our own Choice for indeed it is not possible for any thing without us to determine our Choice The Object of our Choice 't is confest is very often something without us but the Act of it and the Motions toward it are entirely our own and within us Such for instance are the particular Opinions we entertain and the Judgments we make of Things as that Riches or Death or the like are things in their own Nature Good or Evil or Indifferent And though we are often induced to take up this or that particular Opinion upon Trust and the Credit we give to what we hear other People say upon it yet is not their Authority or their Perswasion of such absolute efficacy as that the Opinion should not still be our own For at this rate we should make our selves as senseless Creatures as Parrots who when they call for a Cup of Sack know not what they say If we be allowed then to think at all the Opinion must be our own Act and Deed occasion'd 't is true sometimes by things without us and recommended and conveyed to us by the Instructions and Arguments of others but not infused so Mechanically as that we should be purely passive in the case Thus again The Object that moves our Affection is without us but the Affection itself is excited and arises within us For there is a great difference observable between the Internal Motion of the Mind and the External Motive or Inducement to it This Motion is not like that of Men thrust forward by another forcibly and against their Wills but such an one as when we move our own Bodies by our own Strength and of our own Accord The Case is the same with our Desires by which the Soul does as it were put her self forward and go in pursuit of the thing desired and so likewise with our Aversions too which are but a kind of turning aside or running away to avoid the Object that provokes them Now it is sufficiently manifest that of all these the First in order of Nature must be Opinion by which I understand such a Knowledge or Judgment of things as is grounded upon Reason and worthy the Character of a Man When this Opinion relates to any real or seeming Good or Evil which we apprehend our selves to be concern'd in then it presently excites either Desire or Averson and pursuant to either of these the proper Affections or Motions of the Soul For the Good must needs be desired before
be his meaning in that Advice that All Desire should for the present be wholly laid aside There is a manifest Reason why we should discharge all those Desires that concern Things without our Power for this evidently makes for our Advantage both in regard of the Disappointments and perpetual Uneasinesses that this Course delivers us from and also in Consideration of the Things themselves which though we should suppose no such Troubles and Disappointments attending them are not yet capable of bringing us any real Advantage nor that which is the proper Happiness of a Man But what shall we say to his forbidding the Desire even of those good Things which come within the Disposal of our own Wills The Reason he gives is this Because you are not yet come to this But if you were come to it there would then be no farther Occasion for Desire for this is no other than a Motion of the Mind desiring by which it reaches forward to what it is not yet come to And this seems to cut off all Desire in general for how is it possible to obtain any Good without first desiring it And especially if as hath been formerly shewn the Good and Happiness of a Man consist not so much in Actions and the effecting what we would as in the entertaining such Desires and Aversions as are agreeable to Nature and Reason what Ground can there be for suspending all our Desires and utterly forbidding us for a while to entertain any at all Or how can we imagine it possible for a Man to live vold of all Desire I add that this looks like a direct Contradiction to what went before when in the 4th Chapter he gave this Advice Since therefore the Advantages you propose â—o your self are so exceeding valuable Remember that you ought not to content your self with a cold and moderate pursuit of them For by that Pursuit he did not understand any Bodily Motion but the Eagerness of the Soul by which in the Act of Desiring she moves towards and makes after the Object And again How can we suppose any Affections and Propensions without Desire For the Order of Things insers a Necessity of Desire before there can be any such Affections and Propensions of the Soul In Answer to these Objections it may be replied that Epictetus here addresses himself to Young Beginners in Philosophy for whom it cannot be safe to indulge any Desires at all till they be first competently informed what are the Objects which they ought to fix upon And so that these Affections and Propensions of the Soul are only to be understood of those first Motions to or from its Object which the Stoicks contend are always antecedent to Desire and Aversion Or if he direct his Discourse to Men already instructed then we must not interpret the Words as they seem to sound nor suppose that he intends to cut off all Desire of the good Things in our Power absolutely speaking but only to restrain the Vehemence and Eagerness of that Aversion and Desire which in a moderate Degree he is content to allow For you see that he advises in the very same Place to make use of our Propensions and Affections of the Soul gently coolly and cautiously For we must necessarily move towards the Object in our Desires and from it in our Aversions our Desires and Aversions being antecedent to such Motions and producing them as Causes do their proper Effects Again When he advised before that Men would not content themselves with a cold and moderate pursuit of such valuable Advantages it was no part of his Intention to recommend an eager and violent Desire but rather that we should be so fixed and resolved in this prosecution as to satisfy our selves in doing what he adds immediately after the abandoning some Enjoyments for all together and the suspending of others for some convenient time Now a Vehement Degree in any of these things either the Propensities of the Mind or the Desires and Aversions of it is with great reason condemned because of the ill Consequences it is apt to have when Men shoot beyond the Mark through an Excess of Desire and attempt things above their Strength For this usually tends to the weakning of the Soul as much as overstraining injures the Body And this is an Inconvenience which many have found experimentally from that immoderate Violence and heat of Action which Men that are fond of Exercise and eager in it are most unseasonably guilty of For there are but very few Persons of such a Constitution either in Body or Mind as to be able all on the sudden to change from a bad State to a sound and good one Diogenes indeed and Crates and Zeno and such eminent Lights as these might be so happy but for the generality of People their Alterations are gradual and slow they fall by little and little and they recover themselves so too and this is such a Condition as Nature hath appointed for us with regard to the Soul as well as the Body For gentle Methods are commonly more likely to hold and a more safe way of proceeding These keep the Soul from spending its strength too fast and put some Checks upon its Forwardness which is the true way both of preserving and by degrees though but â—ow ones of consirming and increasing the vigour of it This is the true Reason why we are advised to put a Restraint upon the Affections of the Soul to move leisurely and gradually and with much coolness and caution That is to slacken the Reins by little and little and not to let loose our Desires and our Aversions nor give them their full range immediately For the Man that from a dissolute and headstrong course of Life would bring himself to the contrary Habits of Sobriety and strict Discipline must not presently leap to the distant Extream from Luxury and Excess to Abstemiousness and Fasting but he must advance by Steps and be satisfied at first with abating somewhat of his former Extravagance For what the Author of the Golden Verses hath observed is very considerable upon these Occasions The Rash use Force and with soft Pleasures Fight The Wise Retreat and save themselves by Flight Thus it is in Matters of Learning and Knowledge Young Students must admit the Ideas of things warily and not take every Appearance of Truth for an uncontestable Axiom that so if upon a Second view there be occasion to alter their Judgments it may be done with greater Readiness and Ease when their Minds are not too strongly possess'd with their first Notions Once more Epictetus advises his Scholars to move leisurely and gradually to Objects of both kinds but now if so much Caution and Coldness be necessary why does he allow our Aversions any more than our Desires for he bids us take off our Aversions from those Prejudicial things that are not in our power and bend them against those that are but at the same time he prohibits all
immediate Discoveries of Heaven for the benefit and support of Mankind such as Physick and Architecture and the like we have no more than some faint Shadows and imperfect Images remaining How I say is it possible that these and many other Calamities and monstrous Wickednesses which the present Age is perfectly overrun with should be matter of Pleasure or Contentment And who is there that can take Satisfaction I do not say in seeing or bearing a part in them but so much as to endure the very hearing them named except he be first forsaken of all Humanity and all Goodness Such Doubts as these which give sometimes great Perplexity not only to the Weak and Common Man but to the Thinking and more Accomplished Persons will receive satisfaction if either Epictetus be allowed to have any Authority in what he says or the great Governor of all things be granted to order the World in Wisdom and Justice For our Piety and our Advantage will be sure to terminate in the same Object as Epictetus himself will assure us more fully hereafter In answer therefore to the Objection I say That if all these deplorable Accidents which the Objector hath given so Tragical an Account of be really Evil and such as they are generally esteemed to be it is not possible that either any Good Man should without forfeiting that Character be pleased to have them so nor could the Providence of Almighty God be acquitted from the Imputation of being the cause of Evil to us nor could Men ever prevail with themselves to Honour or Love or pay Adoration to such a Deity For let Men pretend what they will no Arguments in the World are able to produce these Affections for the Author of Misery and Mischief It is a Principle rooted in every Creature as Epictetus will shew you to hate and decline and run away from all things that are prejudicial to it themselves or the cause of other things being so to it But whatever is for its Benefit and productive of its Happiness these things it naturally courts and admires Thus much is certain upon supposition that these Accidents are really Evil but now if notwithstanding our dreadful Apprehensions of them they be in truth no such matter but rather Good as conducing very much to some mighty Benefit and directed to excellent Purposes and that if any Evil do indeed attend these Dispensations this is what the Nature of the things is no way concern'd in but is wholly owing to the Desires and strong Impulses of our own Minds In this case it will by no means follow that he who is well enough pleased all things should be just as they are is either a Vicious or a Barbarous Man nor can we with any colour charge the Evil we find in the World upon these Occasions to Almighty God but must acquit his Providence and acknowledge it to be infinitely Wise and Good Now the Things in which all these seeming Evils are and from whence they spring must be considered in this Condition of Mortality and undergoing the vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption either as Bodies or Souls And of these Souls again some are Irrational of the same Date and Duration with the Body and having none or but very little peculiar Excellence of their own their Office and Power extends no farther than meerly the animating those Bodies to which they belong and therefore all their Motions depend upon and proceed in Conjunction with the Bodies But other Souls are Rational These have an inward principle of Motion and an Essence and Excellence distinct from their Bodies they move by their own Choice and are absolute in the disposing their own Desires and Inclinations Now the Bodies belonging to these being in their own Nature purely Mechanical and deriving their Essence from External Causes are subject to the Motions of Heavenly Bodies which influence their Generation and Corruption and the various Alterations through which they pass But if we come nearer and descend to the Immediate and Material Causes then they are moved and affected by a mutual Operation upon one another For this is agreeable to all the Reason in the World that Temporary and Corruptible things should depend upon the Eternal for their Subsistence and be obedient to their Influences Mechanical Beings upon such as are endued with a Faculty of Self-Motion and those that are contained within others upon the Ambients that contain them This is the constant Method and Rule of Nature that these should follow the others Superiour to them as having no Principle of Motion in themselves no Faculty of Choosing no Power of Determining their Deâ—ires or Affections of their Nature no Merit or Demerit from Choice or Actions but are only Good or Evil in respect and proportion to their Causes Just as the Shadows of Bodies do not choose their Sides or Shapes as they please but are necessarily determined by their Causes and their Circumstances and are never the worse or the better for those Determinations Now as to Bodies whatever Changes they undergo this Variety can be no Ill to them whether they be Compound or Simple Bodies First of all because it is what the Condition of their Nature hath made them liable to They are bound in Laws irrevocable which they may neither controul nor resist and consequently can receive no Harm by whatever they impose as having no Power to do otherwise For Ignorance would be no Evil nor the most brutish and extravagant Conversation nor would the Rational Soul be one whit the worse for either had not Nature endued her with a Faculty of Discerning and Understanding the Truth and given her a Power over the brutish Appetites by which she is enabled to subdue and over-rule them Secondly Because the Compound Bodies which consist of simple Ingredients that are of contrary Qualities such as are perpetually strugling with and usurping upon one another by Diseases and Excess of Humours are sometimes strengthned by throwing off the corrupt Parts and sometimes by Decay and Death are delivered from all that Trouble and Pain and mutual Strife of contrary Qualities in them And in this Case each of the Simples is restored to its primitive Mass and recovers it self from that Weakness which was occasioned by this Opposition of contrary Humours For as each of the Ingredients in Composition made some Impression upon its Opposite so it likewise continually received some from it and suffered by it But now when the Simples are changed according to the Changes of the contrary Qualities they return again to their own primitive Being Thus Water evaporates into the Air from whence it came and Air is turned into Fire from whence it originally was And I cannot suppose any Evil in Things of this kind though Inundations or Fires or any the most violent Changes in Nature should be the Effect of these Inequalities in the Elements that compose the Universe or though Pestilences and Earthquakes should destroy and dash in pieces the
Bodies compounded of those Elements But farther If these Things contribute to some good Effect if by the infinite Revolutions of Matter and Motion the Corruption of one Thing produces the Generation of another how then can the Corruption of any single part be Evil when at the same time it conduces to the Benefit of the whole This is a Rule which Nature it self hath made evident to us and every particular Creature practises it in slighting the Advantage of its Parts in Comparison of the Good of the Whole Thus when any Noxious Humours are redundant in the Body Nature throws them off from the Heart or Bowels or Lungs or Brain and all the parts that are principally concern'd in the functions of Life into the Hands the Feet the Skin or any of the Extream Parts she raises Blisters and causes Putrefactions to remove the Humour and is content to corrupt some parts for the preservation of the whole This is sometimes I say the work of Nature and when it is not so we endeavour to supply it by art For when Physicians and Chyrurgeons draw Sores and Cup and Scarify and Sear and cut off Limbs to save our Lives they only imitate Nature and do that by Medicines which she was able to do without them And yet there is no Wise Man that blames these Methods nor thinks those Pains Evil which he suffers upon such good Accounts From hence it appears that if Bodies subsisted by themselves alone and whatever they endured had no relation at all to the Souls of Men none of the different Changes they undergo would be esteemed Evil So that if there be any real Cause for this Complaint it must be upon the account of the Souls in those Bodies Now some of these are Irrational perfectly of a piece with the Bodies and no more than the animating part of them Their Essence their Power and their Operations subsist in and depend entirely upon and are in inseparable Conjunction with the Body But others are Rational of a Nature superiour to the Body and distinct from it acting upon a free Principle of Motion and Choice a Principle of their own by which they dispose their own Inclinations and Desires as they see fit themselves all which hath been abundantly proved already Now the Irrational Souls have not the least Sign or Footstep of Free-Agency no manner of Tendency or Appetite from within but are only the principle of Life and Activity to the Body and Consequently their Being was ordained by the same Fate and is subject to the same Casualties with the Body They have no Dignity no Merit or Demerit of their own but are more or less valuable according to the Dignity of their respective Bodies and are as irresistibly disposed to their Motions as Shadows are to their Substances It is true indeed This is more peculiarly the Condition of Plants which have only a Vegetative Soul and want the Sensitive one and are not exercised with those Motions that accompany the Desires and vehement Impulses of the Soul But Beasts are in a higher Form and are endued with this also And therefore the Souls of Brutes being considered in a middle State in a Capacity Superiour to Vegetables and yet inferiour to such as Nature hath made free Agents must in all Reason have some Resemblance some Footsteps at least of Appetites and Affections arising from within and such as shall be moved sometimes in Agreement to the Nature of its particular Species and sometimes contrary to it As when a Lion hath that Courage and Fury agreeable to its kind and this is sometimes more and sometimes less than it ought to be And in this respect the Dignities and Degrees of such Souls are different and their Lives are so too according to the Disposition which Fate and Nature hath given them which is such that they are still moved mechanically and by external Impressions For it is necessary that whatever is placed between two Extremes should in some measure partake of each of these Extremes But now the Rational Soul which is a Free Agent and hath an absolute Dominion over her own Desires and Propensions derives its Dignity from Choice she uses the Body indeed but hath all its Appetites and Passions at her Devotion This Soul therefore when she makes use of the Body only as an Instrument of Action and maintains her own Superiority over it is obstructed in all those Operations in which the Body bears a part by the Sufferings and Diseases of the Body but is not it self at all affected with those Pains From whence it was that the great Socrates used to say the Anguish was in the Leg but not in the Mind But if the Soul contract too intimate a Familiarity with the Body and grow fond of it as if it were no longer its Instrument but a part of its self or rather its very self then it communicates in all its Afflictions degenerates into Brute and esteems all the Extravagancies of Anger and Desire its own is enslaved to them descends to little Trickings and is eternally contriving how to compass those Objects and being thus corrupted and diseased in such manner as a Soul is capable of being so stands in need of Physick and strong Remedies to cure these Distempers For it is a Rule in Application that one Contrary is cured by another And thus when the Desire is depraved by Lusciousness and Pleasure and hath conformed it self to the Body too much by the Love of Sensual Enjoyments and Riches and Honours and Preserments and Posts of Authority and the like there is a necessity of meeting with Crosses and Disappointments that so the subsequent Pain in the very same Instances may correct and chastise the Excess of Pleasure we formerly took in them And this is no where more requisite than in Bodily Pains and Pleasures For this is nearest to the Soul and its Torments are received with a quicker and more tender Sense than any other When therefore the Soul hath revolted from her Supreme Commander and forsakes her own Reason abandoning her self to the Body and the World and thinking their Enjoyments and their Happiness her own and by this means grows vitiated and distempered there seems no other way to be left of putting her out of Conceit with these Things and poising the Byass that carried her to them that so she may despise them and condemn her self and return to God and right Reason again and expect all her Happiness from an Obedience to these but by making her sensible both of the Evil of her former Courses and of the Smart that follows them This only can take off the Propensity to that Pleasure which she hath felt in and by them For so long as she continues to find this she continues fond of and fastened down to these Enjoyments And no Nail takes faster hold or fixes Things closer than Pleasure and the Allurements it brings do the Soul to the Objects that occasion it And this
and engaging one Party with another when they train together And the more lusty and strong the Persons are that perform these Exercises the more effectually does this Practice attain its End So that if any Man would get a Mastery over Pleasure it is necessary whenever any entertaining Objects offer themselves to learn and practise the Contempt of them and they that would conquer Pain must use themselves to endure it and to master our Fears we must make Danger familiar to us and to slight Torments we must imitate the Patience of the Noble Lacedemonian Youths who plaid Prizes of Scourging and exercised themselves in every Thing that was painful to qualifie them for it Or do as Salust in our Times did that laid a red-hot Coal upon his Thigh and blow'd the Fire to try how long he was able to undergo the Smart For these Tryals and the principal Actions they are intended to perfect us in do not differ in Nature and Kind but in Degree and Duration only as these are easier and lighter and may be desisted from at Pleasure Since therefore Almighty God when he disposed of Mens Souls in mortal Bodies and assigned them to the Condition in which we live at present endued them with Faculties capable of managing every Accident so as to receive no Injury either from the enticing Pleasures or from the Terrors and Disasters of the World and of setting the Mind above them all the same infinite Wisdom keeps those Faculties in Exercise that they should not grow sluggish and consequently feeble and slack for want of Action and puts the Soul upon many sharp Conflicts that when there is Occasion for exerting her Powers she may not be found Unexpert and Defective This is it which hath made so many illustrious Heroes This made Hercules and Theseus and Diogenes and Socrates to become Persons of such eminent Virtue and Renown Their Characters would have been little and their Excellencies lost nor would Mankind ever have known to what wonderful Perfection an exalted Virtue can carry them if there had been no such Things as Wild Beasts and Monsters Tyrants and wicked Oppressors Mortification and severe Abstinence to perpetuate these Mens Memory and provoke the Proofs of their Courage and Resolution and recommend their Examples to Posterity Now I think no Man that considers the Matter well will doubt whether Afflictions do not better those that have supported them as they ought and add infinitely to their Fortitude and Patience For since we see by the Instances of Gladiators and the like that Use reconciles Men to the most for midable Dangers and makes them a perfect Sport and Diversion insomuch that they enter the List cheerfully and play their Prizes for a very small Consideration how can we imagine that Exercise should fail in Matters of less Difficulty and enable Men to disdain those Calamities which only they esteem insupportable who have not hardned themselves by Practice From all which we may conclude that when we consider Afflictions either in the Quality of Remedies to cure our Distempers or as Tryals and Exercises to confirm our Health and Strength they cannot be Evil with respect to the Soul which receives such mighty Benefit both these ways how harsh and unpalatable soever the Application may seem For at this rate we must run into another intolerable Absurdity and condemn all those Medicines and Exercises as Evil in respect of the Body to which though they be grievous for the present all our Recovery and all the Continuance of our Health is owing Again Whatever is done in such Proportion and Manner as Nature and Choice both require cannot be Evil for a due regard to this is just and whatever is Just is Good Nay even Cutting and Burning is not Evil to our Bodies for these considered absolutely and by themselves are insensible and the Resolution of a Compound into its Simples is not in Nature Evil to that Compound Since then we allow that Physick and Exercise Burning and Binding and Lopping off of Limbs and all the Tortures that Men use when they turn their own Executioners are not Evil but Good since we think the Persons who put us to these Pains for our Advantage deserve to be thanked and rewarded for it why do we find Fault with Almighty God when he proceeds in the same Method For alas It is not Anger nor Revenge nor Injustice or Cruelty nor any Design of Tormenting us that puts him upon these Courses but he acts with all the Skill and prudent Care of a Physician with the Faithfulness and Tenderness of a Friend with the Bowels of a Father with the kindest Intentions of our greater Benefit and to say all in one Word with all that incomprehensible Love and Goodness which is any way agreeable to the Nature and Perfections of a God Now the Remedies he administers upon such Occasions are divers Some he humbles with Diseases or Poverty or Disgrace some with the more publick Calamities of Famines or Earthquakes or Inundations or Shipwracks or Wars some he cures with such Medicines as come immediately from his own Hand and others by more remote and distant ones making Men the Ministers of his Justice and Instruments of punishing one another But still if Physick and the Methods of Cure be not Evil but Good all these and all other Remedies must be allowed to be so too notwithstanding any Uneasiness that we may feel in the Operation If any one shall scruple the calling of these Things Good because they are not eligible purely for their own sakes as all Things absolutely and truly Good must be yet at least let him forbear stigmatizing them with the Name of Evils and rather call them necessary Expedients for the attaining what is truly Good In Order to which and for the sake whereof we chuse these because that other is not to be had without them For there is no Man so sottish and senseless as to chuse Amputations and Searings or any such violent Remedies for their own sakes but yet we do it from our Desire of Health which these means must be assisting to us in And indeed the Philosophers have with great Propriety styled all those Things necessary Expedients which are so ordered as to be preliminary to our Good and such as we must make use of for it These very Things then so far as they conduce to our Good and in that respect are themselves Good some as they contribute to the Health of the Body and others to that of the Soul though indeed they be so in a Qualified Sense only and much inferiour in Dignity and Value to those Tâ—ings that are absolutely Good And it is with regard to these more excellent Things that the Generality of People look upon them and so think them comparatively Evil which yet surely is a Censure too Severe to be justified if they do not only Contribute but are Necessary to our Happiness If then the Objector's Arguments are sufficiently refuted
in that all Things that happen are so ordained of God as that Nature and Choice have both their due and as is most beneficial to Mankind every Wise Man certainly will think himself obliged to be well content Things should be just as they are unless you will suppose him to envy the Giving every Thing its Due and the Recovering such as are Distempered and need sharp Remedies he will most sincerely love and honour and adore this Excellent Physician and look upon him as the World 's great and only Benefactor Now that Calamitous Circumstances are a sort of Remedies and that the Administration of proper Physick where the case requires it is good both to the Body and Soul no Body I presume will take upon them to dispute But what course shall we take to perswade Men that this very Distemper it self of Soul or Body this miserable Condition that renders such painsul Applications necessary is Good and not Evil and that the Author of it is not the Cause of Evil to us To this purpose I shall briefly recollect what was observed before That Diseases are not Evil to the Body it self as being by Nature made subject to them and tending to a dissolution of the Compound Resolving each of its Parts and Restoring the Simple Elements to their proper Masses the Releasing them from a strange place where they were kept in Bondage and putting an end to the perpetual Combat of opposite Qualities among them Neither can the Disease of the Body be Evil to the Soul for it hath been already shewn to be its Physick and its Cure And thus Experience often shews it to be But granted that Sickness and Corruption were injurious to one particular Body yet still it appears to be for the advantage of the Soul that owns that Body and to the Constitution of the Universe in general of the Elements of which it is formed and the infinite Râ—volutions of Matter and Motion which are therefore Infinite because the Destroying of one thing becomes the Production of another Well therefore may the wise Governour of all things not value a Creature which was by Nature corruptible and a particular inconsiderable Corruption confined to a single instance when the whole Creation is benefited and the Better Ends are served and the Eternal Revolution of Things are continued and kept up by this means But perhaps you will say though all this should be admitted with regard to the Body yet what shall we account for the Diseases of the Soul The frail and distempered State she is in can neither be for the good of her self that languishes under it nor does it contribute any Advantage to the Creation in common So that the Author and Ordainer of this state must needs be the Cause of Evil to her and he that is content she should be thus deprived and seâ—s and suffers her Sicknesses must needs be an Ill-natur'd Being and therefore as to this particular the Difficulty remains still the same Now in answer to this Scruple I beg leave to refresh your Memory with what was discoursed before concerning the Cause of Evil and Vice to the Soul while we were explaining Epictetus's Distinction between what is and what is not in our own power viz. That the Good and Happiness of the Soul consists in Prudent Regular Desires and Aversions and that the Evil and Misery of it proceeds from such as are Vicious and Exorbitant Now I hope the Desires and Aversions have been sufficiently proved to be in our own Disposal and if so then we our selves are the Cause of our own Vices and Virtues This is the true ground of all that Commendation which is thought due to Good Men that their Happiness and Excellence is the Effect of their own free Choice for which reason the Greeks call Virtue by a Name which bears some Affinity to that which imports Choosing And for the same Reason Wicked Men are Condemned and Reproached because they are such through their own Sloath and Baseness of Soul when it was in their own power to be otherwise But now if these Matters proceeded from any External Causes this Virtue or Vice would be no longer Choice but blind Chance or fatal Necessity And consequently our Evil and Misery can with no colouâ— of Reason and Justice be charged upon Almighty God May we not indeed drive this Argument a great deal farther and urge that even Vice which is properly the Disease of the Soul is not positively and in all respects Evil but is it self in some degree necessary to the very Being of Virtue among Men For as our Bodies if Nature had not made them capable of Sickness and Infirmities could not properly be said at any time to enjoy a state of Health because in truth this would not be Health but a simple and fix'd Disposition above the power of Frailties and Diseases such as the Celestial Beings enjoy So the Virtues proper to Humane Souls such as Temperance and Justice and Prudence and all the rest of that Glorious Catalogue would be no such thing unless the Soul were of such a Nature as is liable to be depraved For at this rate she would be graced not with the Virtues of a Man but with the Perfections of an Angel or a God whose peculiar Excellence it is that they can never be seduced or deviate into Vice But is rooted in the very Nature of Men and Humane Virtues that they may degenerate and be corrupted If then Human Virtues in the Soul and if the Health of the Body though neither of them absolutely Uniform and Inflexible be yet Good and if the Order of Nature required that beside the First Simple and Fix'd Beings others of a Middle and of Inferior Nature should derive themselves from the great Original and common Source of all Good then there was likewise a necessity that there should be Depravations of such good things as are subject to be Depraved which have not any positive and absolute Existence of their own but only a sort of additional one cast in to those that have And in this the exceeding Goodness of God is very remarkable that he hath ordained the Dissolution of the Body which as I said does as necessarily follow upon Matter and Motion as the Shadow attends upon its Substance this Dissolution he hath made even a good thing both with regard to the Bodies so Diseased and Dissolved as they are restored back again to their Primitive Elements and so the Simples out of which they are compounded are renewed and with regard to the Souls that own and use them as they are cured and made better by this Means and also to the Universe in common by reason of that infinite Succession of Changes and Motions which these Dissolutions as I shewed before keep continually on Foot But as for Vice the Evil of the Soul and indeed the only thing which when well considered proves to be Evil of this he utterly acquits himself and hath no
before that the Way to live Easie and Happy was for a Man not to wish that things might be just as he would have them but to be well pleased that they should be just as they are And now he proves the Argument intended to be deduced from thence which is That all outward Misfortunes are to be entertained with Temper and Moderation and not only so but he removes as I conceive an Objection that might be raised against it The Argument it self seems to me to lye thus If those Calamities that happen in our Fortunes or from any External Causes were properly Ours yet even upon this Supposition we ought to suffer them with great Patience and Resignation though they were much more Disastrous than really they are when it is remembred that even these are for our Advantage But if they be not indeed ours but each of them terminates in something else and cannot extend to us then it would be the last degree of Folly to be disturbed at the Misfortunes which are none of our own Sickness he says is a Hindrance to the Body and he says very well that it is a Hindrance only not an Evil. For we have seen already that neither the Diseases nor the Dissolution of the Body is Evil but all that it does is only to put a stop to its Operations as Lameness likewise does which was Epictetus's own Infirmity so that he does not speak to us now in a Formal Speculative way but from his own Practice and Experience Thus Lameness is an Obstruction to the Parts affected and Poverty is so to a Man's Expences and way of Living but neither the one nor the other is so to the Will and the Mind unless they voluntarily submit to be obstructed by it I confess if the Body or the Foot or our Estates were our very Essence and Nature then these Hindrances would be truly and properly ours but since we subsist in none of them none but the Rational Soul only is our selves since our Bodies are no more than Instruments by which we act and our Possessions only Conveniences for ministring to our necessary Occasions and since all our Good and Evil depends upon the Choice of our own Mind and consequently cannot be restrained or obstructed by them it is evident that we our selves are not hindred by these things neither For no outward Accident whatever can put any Confinement upon us but only upon something else something which we are not And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be disordered at these Misfortunes as if they were our own because by this means we shall fall into an Evil that is properly ours upon the account of something that is not so For Discontent and a Disturbance of the Mind are truly our own Evils This I take to be the Force and Connexion of his Argument But besides this he removes at the same time an Objection drawn as the Rhetoricians use to term it Ab Utili from the point of Advantage and Convenience For it may be said upon this Occasion that Sickness and Poverty cannot possibly be for our Benefit for how is it possible that a Diseased Man should perform all the Functions of Nature as he ought or how can we deny that a Man when reduced to extream Poverty is under an absolute Constraint to bend all his Care and Pains to the relief of his Wants and furnishing himself with necessary Supports This Objection now he takes off by shewing that Sickness and Poverty and all Hardships and Inconveniences of that kind put the Will under no Consinement at all and that in this free Principle it is that the very Being of Men consists and all their Good and Evil depends entirely upon it For how is the Sick Man tied up from choosing and desiring such things as are Vertuous and Reasonable and hating and declining the contrary Or what violence can the Extreamest Poverty put upon a Man which shall be able to compel him to act contrary to the principles of Honesty and Honour Were not Diogenes and Crates and Zeno in these Circumstances And did they ever shew themselves more truly Philosophers Did they ever give more Illustrious Proofs of Virtue and Greatness of Soul of Contentment and Satisfaction and even of Abundance in the slenderest Fortune than when they chose to forego their Plenty and thought it Wisdom to exchange that for Want and no Possessions of their own at all And indeed who is there so Blind and Brutish but would be pleased and proud to sustain such a Man in his Necessities and think his Liberality a greater Obligation and Honour to himself than to the Receiver But what need we go so far for Examples of this kind when even Epictetus himself that makes this Declaration was so eminent an instance of it As to his Fortune and Condition he was a Slave Infirm in his Body Lame from a Child and one that was so much exercised with Poverty and made it so much his Choice that his little Cottage at Rome was not thought worth a Lock or a Bolt for alas there was no Temptation within nothing but a course Coverlet and a hard Mattrice upon which he lay And yet this is the very Man that tells us Lameness may obstruct the Feet but the Mind it cannot except we please to let it Thus you see he did not make it his Business as a great many do to say fine things and entertain his Readers with sublime and airy Speculations but made the Experiment himself and speaks from his own Knowledge and Practice And for this Reason his Discourses are the more valuable for they manifest a truly Great Soul in himself and will make the deeper Impression upon all others whose Minds are well disposed CHAP. XIV Vpon every fresh Accident turn your Eyes inward and examine how you are qualified to encounter it If you see any very Beautiful Person you will find Continence to oppose against the Temptation If Labour and Difficulty come in your way you will find a Remedy in Hardiness and Resolution If you lye under the obloquy of an Ill Tongue Patience and Meekness are the proper Fence against it And thus if you do but prepare and use your self by degrees no Accident whatever will be able to surprise or subdue you COMMENT AFter having advanced some strange sublime Notions and required Men to do that which the generality of the World will be sure to think Romantick and Impossible as for Example to slight the Diseases of the Body as no Evil of ours and to be well pleased let our Circumstances be what they will that things should go just as they do never to suffer ones self either to be caught with the Bait of Sensual or Worldly Pleasure or to be dejected with any outward Calamities It is but reasonable that he should apply himself in the next place to shew that these are Transactions not above the Powers of Humane Nature and that he enjoyns us nothing but
the Rise and Birth of another And by this perpetual Round it is that Matter and Motion have been sustained all this while Now it is obvious to any observing Man that both Nature and Art as was urged heretofore do frequently neglect a part when the detriment of that in particular may conduce to the good of the whole The former does it as often as our Rheums and Ulcerous Humours are thrown off from the Vitals and turned into Sores or Swellings in any of the Extream Parts And Art imitates this Method of Nature as oft as a Limb is seared or lopped off for the preservation of the Body So that upon the whole Matter these Shocks and Corruptions of Bodies deserve rather to be esteemed Good than Evil and the Cause of them the Cause of Good and not Evil Events For those Sublunary Bodies that are Simples suffer no Injury because they are subject to no Decay or Destruction And for the Evil that the Parts seems to undergo this hath been shewn to have more Good than Evil in it both in Simples and Compounds even when considered in it self but if taken with respect to the Benefit which other Creatures reap by it then it is manifestly Good So that the Distempers and Decays of Bodies take them which way you will are not Evil but produce great Good But if any one shall be scrupulous upon this occasion and quarrel with that being called Good which is confessed to be no better than a perverting of the course of Nature let not this Nice Caviller take upon him however to call it Evil in the gross Sense and common Acceptation of the Word by which we understand something utterly repugnant and irreconcileable to Good But let him rather call it a Necessity or Hardship as being not desirable for its own sake but having some tendency and contributing to that which is so For were it simply and absolutely Evil it could never be an Instrument of Good to us Now that which I mean by Necessary though it have not Charms enough of its own to recommend it yet does it deserve to be accounted Good for leading us to that which is Good and that which can become a proper Object of our Choice under any Circumstance is so far forth Good Thus we choose Incisions and Burnings and Amputations nay we are content to pay dear for them and acknowledge our selves obliged both by the Prescription and the painful Operation all which were most ridiculous to be done if we thought these things Evil. And yet I own this is but a Qualified and an Inferior Good not strictly and properly so but only in a Second and Subordinate Sense Yet so that the Creator of these things is by no means the Cause of Evil but of a necessary and meaner Good but a Good still for such we ought to esteem it since it is derived from the same Universal Fountain of Goodness though embased with some Allays and Abatements And thus much I hope may be thought sufficient in Vindication of the Nature and Cause of that Evil which Bodies are concern'd in Nothing indeed can so truly be called Evil as the Lapses and Vices of the Soul of Man and of these too much hath been said before but however we will resume the Discourse upon this Occasion and enquire afresh both into the Nature and the Cause of them And here we shall do well to take notice That the Soul is of a more excellent Nature which dwell in the Regions above us are immutably fixed in Goodness and wholly unacquainted with any Evil. There are also the Souls of Brutes of a Baser alloy than ours and standing in the middle as it were between the Vegetative Souls of Plants and our Rational ones These so far forth as they are Corporeal are liable to that Evil to which Bodies are subject but so far as concerns their Appetites and Inclinations they bear some resemblance to the Humane and the Evil they are in this respect obnoxious to is in proportion the same so that one of these will be sufficiently explained by giving an account of the other Now the Humane Soul is in a middle Station between the Souls above and those below it partakes of the Qualities of both of those more Excellent ones in the Sublimity of its Nature and the Excellence of its Understanding Of the Brutal and inferiour ones by its strict affinity to the Body and Animal Life Of both these it is the common Band by its Vital Union with the Body and by its Habitual Freedom assimilates it self sometimes to the one sort and sometimes to the other of these Natures So long as it dwells above and entertains it self with Noble and Divine Speculations it preserves its Innocence and is fixed in Goodness but when it begins to flag and droop when it sinks down from that blissful Life and grovels in the Filth of the World which by Nature it is equally apt to do then it falls into all manner of Evil. So that its own Voluntary Depression of its self into this Region of Corruption and Mortality is the true Beginning and proper Cause of all its Misery and Mischief For though the Soul be of an Amphibious Disposition yet it is not forced either upwards or downwards but acts purely by an internal Principle of its own and is in perfect Liberty Nor ought this to seem incredible in an Agent which Nature hath made Free since even those Brutes that are Amphibious dwell sometimes in the Water and sometimes upon dry Ground without being determined to either any otherwise than by their own Inclination Now when the Soul debases her self to the World and enters into a near Intimacy with the Corruptible Body and esteems this to be the other consistent part of the Humane Nature then it leads the Life of Brutes and exerts it self in such Operations only as they are capable of It s Intellectual part degenerates into Sense and Imagination and its Affections into Anger and Concupiscence By these the wretched Mortal attains to Knowledge just of the same pitch with that of other Animals such as puts him upon seeking fresh Supplies for a Body that is continually wasting and upon continuing the World by Posterity to fill the place of one that must shortly leave it and upon making the best Provision he can for his own Preservation and Defence in the mean while For these Cares are what no Mortal would have were he not endued with Sensual Faculties and Passions For what Man that is any thing Nice and Considering would endure to spend so many Days and Years upon the support of this Body when the Burden of the whole Matter comes to no more than always filling and always emptying if Sensual Inclinations did not whet his Appetite Or who could undergo the tedious fatigue by which Succession is kept up if vehement Desires did not perpetually kindle new Flames and the prospect of Prosperity make us more easie to be warmed by
them These Arguments have been in some measure insisted on before and I take them to be abundantly clear in this point that though our Passions and Appetites be the Cause of Moral Evil yet they are extreamly Beneficial to the Creatures in which Nature hath implanted them as being necessary to their Constitution and giving a Relish to some of the most indispensible Actions of Life Upon all which accounts even these cannot with any Justice be called Evil nor God who infused them the Cause of it But the truth of the Matter is this The Soul is by Nature superior to this Body and Animal Life and hath a commanding power over them put into her Hands this Dignity and Power so long as she preserves keeping her Subjects under and at their due distance while she uses the Body as her Instrument and converts all its Functions to her own Use and Benefit so long all is well and there is no danger of Evil. But when once she forgets that the Divine Image is stampt upon her when she lays by the Ensigns of Government and gives away the Reins out of her own Hands when she sinks down into the Dregs of Flesh and Sense by preferring the Impetuous Temptations of Pleasure before the Mild and gentle Perswasions of Reason and enters into a strict Union with the Brutish part then Reason acts against its own Principles divests it self of its Despotick Power and basely submits to be governed by its Slave and this Confusion in the Soul is the Root of all Evil an Evil not owing to the more Excellent and Rational part while it maintains its own Station nor to the Inferior and Sensual while that keeps within its due Bounds but to the inverting of these the violent Usurpation of the one and the tame Submission of the other that is The perverse Choice of Degenerating into Body and Matter rather than forming ones self after the similitude of the Excellent Spirits above us But still all this as I said is Choice and not Constraint it is still Liberty though Liberty abused And here I would bespeak the Reader 's Attention a little to weigh the Reasons I am about to give why Choice and Volition must needs be the Souls own Act and Deed an Internal Motion of ours and not the Effect of any Compulsion from without I have already urged the Clearness of this Truth at large and that the Soul only is concern'd and acts purely upon the principles of her own Native Freedom in the Choice of the Worse no less than the Better part Thus much I apprehend to have been plainly proved from the Example of Almighty God himself the Determinations of all Wise Laws and well Constituted Governments and the Judgment of Sober and Knowing Men who all agree in this That the Merits of Men are not to be measured by the Fact it self or the Events of things but by the Will and Intention of the Person And accordingly their Rewards and Punishments their Censures and their Commendations are all proportioned to the Intention because this alone is entirely in a Man 's own power and consequently it is the only thing he can be accountable for From hence it comes to pass that whatever is done by Constraint and Irresistible Force though the Crime be never so grievous is yet pardoned or acquitted and the Guilt imputed not to the Party that did it but to the Person that forced him to the doing of it For he that used that Force did it Voluntary but he that was born down by it had no Will of his own concerned in the Fact but became the mere Instrument of effecting it against the Inclination of his own Mind Since then our own Choice is the Cause of Evil and since that Choice is the Souls Voluntary Act owing to no manner of Compulsion but it s own internal mere Motion what can we charge Evil upon so justly as upon the Soul But yet though the Soul be the Cause of Evil it is not the Cause of it considered as Evil for nothing ever is or can be chosen under that Notion But it disguises it self and deludes us with an Appearance of Good and when we choose that seeming Good we take at the same time the real Evil that lay concealed under it And thus much in effect was said before too And now having thus discovered the true Origine of Evil it is fit we proclaim to all the World That God is not chargeable with any Sin because it is not He but the Soul that does Evil and that freely and willingly too For were the Soul under any Constraint to do amiss then indeed there would be a colourable Pretence to lay the Blame on God who had suffered her to lye under so fatal a Necessity and had not left her free to rescue and save her self Though in truth upon this Presumption nothing that the Soul was forced to do could be strictly Evil. But now since the Soul is left to her self and acts purely by her own free Choice she must be content to bear all the Blame If it shall be farther objected That all this does not yet acquit Almighty God for that it is still his Act to allow Men this Liberty and leave them to themselves and that he ought not to permit them in the Choice of Evil then we are to consider that one of these Two Things must have been the Consequence of such a Proceeding Either First That after he had given Man a Rational Soul capable of choosing sometimes Good and sometimes Evil he must have chained up his Will and made it impossible for him to choose any thing but Good Or else that it ought never to have had this Indifference at all but to have been so framed at first that the Choice of Evil should have been naturally impossible One of these Two Things the Objector must say or he says nothing at all to the purpose Now the former of these is manifestly absurd for to what purpose was the Will left Free and Undetermined either way if the Determining it self one way was afterwards to be debarred it This would have been utterly to take away the power of Choosing for Choice and Necessity are things Inconsistent and where the Mind is so tied up that it can choose but one thing there properly speaking it can choose nothing As to the latter It must be remembred in the First Place that no Evil is ever chosen when the Mind apprehends it to be Evil But the Objector seems to think it were very convenient if this Freedom of the Will which is so Absolute in the Determining of it self sometimes to real Good and sometimes to that which deceives it with a false Appearance of being so were quite taken away Imagining it to be no Good to be sure and perhaps some great Evil But alas he does not consider how many things there are in the World that are accounted exceeding Good which yet are not really in any
as to call their Behaviour to Account nor to be profuse in their Praises nor free in making Comparisons between one Man and another as That this Lady is handsomer than That or this Man Braver or Honester than That or the like Now there is nothing more evident than that this Topick does in a more than ordinary manner divert the Soul from its self and its own Business for it makes Men busie and curious and impertinent extreamly inquisitive and troublesome where they have nothing to do But why should this you 'll say do so more than any other And what can our talking of other Men have in it worse than the Subjects mentioned before To this we may reply That the Person to whom the Advice is here directed being one who hath made some progress in Philosophy as not so likely to entertain himself with those trivial Matters as with something that relates to Mankind and their Affairs and Actions So that it was convenient to draw him off from those things especially which his own Inclinanations would most dispose him to and therefore he adds that Emphatical Caution But above all things Besides though it be true That the same Affections are stirred in us by both Discourses alike for we are insensibly drawn in to love and hate things and Men by talking of them yet there is one peculiar Vice attends our Conversation when we pretend to give Characters of other people which is That it strangely swells one with Vanity and Pride and Contempt of others For whoever he be that pretends to sit in Judgment upon other Mens Conduct does it out of some imagined Excellence in himself which he fansies gives him a Right to arraign his Neighbours And besides any mistake in our Judgments of Men is more inexcusable and of infinitely worse Consequenee than if we pronounce wrong in those other trifling Matters and therefore we should be very sparing and tender in this Point To prove the Importance of this Advice yet more he proceeds farther and lays a restraint upon our Ears as well as our Tongue And indeed with good Reason for our Imaginations and inconvenient Desires are cherished by hearing the Subjects that minister such Thoughts spoken of by others as well as by speaking of them our selves And besides those who give themselves these indecent Liberties if some person of Gravity and Authority sit by and do not check them take advantage of his Patience and grow perfectly careless they then think they have a priviledge of saying what they will and no Shame nor Sense of Decency hath any longer power upon them Therefore he directs us to take all the prudent Methods we can of putting a stop to such Discourse and turning it to some other more manly and becoming Topick But because this is not to be done at all times nor will every Company bear it therefore says he if you are fallen in among Men of ill Tempers no Breeding or vicious Conversation for these are the persons he calls people of another Kidney yet at least discountenance them by your Silence and preserve your self from Infection by withdrawing from their Discourse into your own Breast CHAP. XLIII Laugh but upon few Occasions and when you do let it not be much nor loud COMMENT AFter the former General Precept of an even Temper and Uniform Behaviour to which he tells his Proficient in Philosophy nothing will more effectually conduce than a prudent Frugality in Discourse the next restraint he puts is upon the Excesses of Mirth which are commonly expressed by Laughter and perhaps by this of Joy he might design that we should understand him to extend his Rules to the contrary Extream of Grief too Now Laughter is a sort of Evacuation which the Mind gives it self a kind of Vent which it finds for Joy when it is full and runs over The very nature and manner of it seems to speak thus much the swelling of the Lungs the Interruptions of Breath and Reverberations of the Air and that cackling noise which resembles the purling of Waters All these betray an extraordinary Vehemence and Emotion in the Soul and Body both and confess plainly That neither of them are then in that sedate and steady Temper which Nature and Reason find most agreeable The same Inconveniences follow upon the other Extream and immoderate Sorrow and indulged Tears give as great a shock to a Man's Judgment and Consistence with himself which indeed is never to be preserved but by just measures and a constant moderation in every thing For this Reason it is that he condemns the laughing upon every occasion as an Argument of insufferable Levity But if there happens any thing which may justly provoke Laughter as we are not absolutely to decline it for fear we be suspected to want this property of Humane Nature and appear unreasonably sour and morose yet at least it must be allowed That there are very few things in Conversation which will justifie it A man that is eternally upon the Giggle shews a mighty defect of Judgment and that every little occasion of mirth is master of his Temper when it thus blows him up into excessive Joy For this reason it ought not to be frequent nor to continue long at a time for so I understand his forbidding it to be much nor should it be noisy and violent and convulsive but shew the Evenness and Government of the Mind by being modest and scarce exceeding a Smile which moves the Lips a little yet so as to make no great alteration in the Face CHAP. XLIV If it be possible avoid Swearing altogether but if you cannot do that absolutely yet be sure to decline it as much as you can COMMENT THE First place in this Catalogue of Duties which respect our selves was due to the restraining those Eruptions and Vehemencies of Passion which give a disturbance to the Quiet of our Minds and render our Behaviour Irregular and Inconsistent The next he assigns to that wherein the Honour of God is concerned For the very Nature of an Oath consists in this That it invokes Almighty God as a Witness and introduces him as a Mediator and a Bondsman to undertake for our Honesty and Truth Now to make bold with God upon every trivial Occasion and few of the Affairs of Mankind are any better is to take a very unbecoming Freedom and such as argues great want of Reverence for so tremendous a Majesty Respect and Duty then ought to make us decline an Oath and so as if we can possibly help it never to bind our Souls with so Sacred an Engagement at all And a man that is duly cautious and tender in these matters would rather undergo some Trouble or pay some Forfeiture than allow himself the Liberty of swearing But if there be any urgent and unavoidable Necessity for doing it as if that Testimony of my Truth be required to rescue my Friend or my Relation from the Injuries of an Oppressor or a
False Accuser or if my Country and the Peace of it command this Assurance of my Fidelity in such Cases and other such like we may take an Oath indeed but then we must be sure not to prostitute our Consciences For when once we have brought our selves under so solemn an Obligation and engaged God as a Witness and a Party in it no Consideration must ever prevail with us to be unfaithful to our Promise or untrue in our Assertions CHAP. XLV Decline all Publick Entertainments and mixed Companies but if any extraordinary occasion call you to them keep a strict Guard upon your self lest you be infected with rude and vulgar Conversation For know that though a Man be never so clear himself yet by frequenting Company that are tainted he will of necessity contract some Pollution from them COMMENT THE former Chapter was intended to give us a due and awful regard to God and to check those Liberties which light thoughts of his Majesty are apt to encourage in us His next design is to chain up that many-headed Monster Desire and in order hereunto he prescribes Rules and sets Bounds to several instances of it beginning with those which are most necessary for the sustenance of Life and so proceeding to others that make Provision for the Body till at last he instances in those which Nature is most prone to And there was good reason here to give a particular Advertisement concerning Feasts and large Companies in regard there is so mighty a difference observable between those of Philosophers and those of common Men. The Eating and Drinking part and all the Jollity which is the End and Business of most Invitations Men of Sense have always look'd upon as the least part of a Feast And their Meetings have been designed only for Opportunities to improve one another by mutual Conference wise Diâ—courses assiduous Enquiry into the Truth and a free Communication of each others Studies and Opinions This is exceeding plain to their immortal Honour from those admirable Pieces of Plato and Xenophon and Plutarch and others that go by the Name of their Symposia and are an account of the Discourses that passed when Friends met to eat and drink together But the Entertainments of the greatest part of the World propose nothing to themselves but Luxury and Excess and the gratifying Men's Palates and sensual Appetites They are not the Entertainment of a Man but the Cramming and Gorging of a Brute and most justly fall under the Reproach of an old Observation The Table that gives us Meat without Discourse is not so properly a Table as a Manger A good Man therefore will be careful how he mingles himself in such Meetings and decline them as much as is possible But if any extraordinary occasion draw him abroad such as a Solemn Festival the Invitation of a Parent a common Meeting of Friends or Relations or Civility and Complaisance where the thing cannot in good Manners be refused then the next care is That we keep a strict guard upon our selves That we awaken our Reason and call up all our Powers that they watch the Motions of the Mind and keep her under a severe Confinement for fear she ramble abroad and indulge her self in the Diversions of the Company and by degrees degenerate into their Follies For there is a strange Contagion in Vice and no Disease conveys it self more insensibly or more fatally than sensual and brutish Inclinations do Whoever therefore allows himself in the Conversation of Persons addicted to them and grows accustomed to their Vices for that I take to be the meaning of frequenting them will soon contract their Pollutions his own Innocence and Purity will not be able to secure him In these cases the least touch leaves a Tincture behind it And this indeed is the proper Notion of Pollution the soiling a clean thing with an unclean and thereby casting a Blemish and Stain upon it CHAP. XLVI Let Vse Necessity be the Rule of all the Provisions you make for the Body Chuse you Meat and Drink Apparel House and Retinue of such Kinds and in such proportions as will most conduce to these Purposes But as for all beyond this which ministers to Vanity or Luxury retrench and despise it COMMENT THE necessary Supports and Conveniences of the Body must first be acquired and then made use of but Epictetus hath inverted this Order for he gives us Directions for the Use of them here and reserves the Procuring of them to be treated of hereafter It were a thing perhaps much to be wished and would make greatly for the Honour of Humane Nature that so noble a Being as the Rational Soul should be independent and not stand in need of these outward Conveniences But however whatever Glories belong to that Soul considered in its self yet it s own Immortality will not suffice in this indigent and precarious state where it is joined to a mortal and corruptible Body and acts in and by it But still though this Consideration exposes it to some wants yet it shews us withal That those Wants are not many For the Body being the Instrument of the Soul can need no more than just what will qualifie it for service and action this is the true measure of our Expences upon it and all beyond savours of Luxury and Extravagance When the Carpenter chuses an Axe and sees afterwards that it be kept in good order he concerns himself no farther than to consider the Size and the Shape and the Sharpness of the Edge He is not sollicitous to have the Head gilded nor the Handle studded with Pearl or Diamonds and the reason is because such costly Ornaments would not only be superfluous but prejudicial they would be extreamly ridiculous and singular too and they would be a hindrance to his Tools and render them less fit for the Uses they were designed to serve Just thus ought we to behave our selves to this Body of ours this Instrument of our Soul being concerned our selves for no other Supplies but such as may contribute to the making it of constant use to us That which should determine our Choice in Meats and Drinks should be the Consideration which is most natural and the most ready at hand for those that are so are generally the most simple most easie of digestion and most wholesome For we are to remember that the Animal Life in us must be supported but that Nature hath not made Varieties and Quelques Choses necessary to this purpose And therefore we may very well dispense with the Niceties of the Kitchin and Preserving-Room and all the arts of studied Luxury for the only Business we have to do is to repair the Decays of a Body that is perpetually wasting and that this may be done at a much easier rate is very plain from the Examples of those whom necessitous Circumstances compel to a plain and course Diet who yet generally have more Strength and better Health than those that indulge
Wisdom and Sobriety and worse by Perverseness and a Dissolute Behaviour and can confirm it self in each of these Courses by the frequent Repetition of Acts suitable to them then the Soul is the true Cause of all this Though in truth it must not be admitted for a general Rule neither That the Liberty and Power of the Will is to be judged of by Mens being able to do Things contrary to one another For those Souls that are immediately united to the Original Good prefer that constantly and yet the Freedom of their Choice is still the same for that Preference is no more constrained and necessary than if they took Evil instead of it But it is their Excellence and Perfection that they continue stedfast in their own Good and never suffer themselves to be drawn off to the contrary But as for our Souls which are more remotely descended from that great Original their Desires are according to their Tempers and Dispositions those of them that are well disposed have good Desires and those that are ill have evil ones But still these Souls of ours are capable of great Alterations they frequently recover themselves from Vice to Virtue by Reformation and better Care they decline too and sink down from Virtue to Vice by Supineness and a foolish Neglect and both these Changes are wrought in them by their own voluntary Choice and not by any Force or Necessity that compels them to it So that there can be no manner of Pretence for charging any part of our Wickedness upon God He created the Soul after such a manner indeed as to leave it capable of being corrupted because its Essence is not of the first and best sort of Natures but hath a Mixture of the middle and the lowest and this Mixture was fit that so all might remain in its Perfection and the first and best continue still such without degenerating into Barrenness and Imperfection and Matter God therefore who is infinitely good himself made the Soul in a Condition that might be perverted and it is an Argument of his Mercy and the exceeding Riches of his Goodness that he did so For he hath set it above the reach of all external Violence and Necessity and made it impossible for it to be corrupted without its own Consent There is one Argument more still behind which pretends That a fatal Revolution of the Heavens hath so strong and absolute a Power upon us as not only to influence our Actions but even to determine our Choice and all our Inclinationss and leave us no Liberty at all to dispose of our selves but only the empty Name of such a Liberty Now to these we may answer That if the Rational Soul be Eternal and Immortal which I shall not go about to prove that being foreign to this Subject but desire at present to take for granted though it must be confest not in all Points agreeable to the Doctrin of the Stoicks in this particular but If the Soul I say be Eternal and Immortal it cannot be allowed to receive its Being or to have its Dependance upon Matter and Motion It s Instrument indeed that is the Animal taken in the gross by which I mean the Body animated by the Soul may owe its Nature and its Changes to such Causes For material Causes produce material Effects and these may differ according as those Causes are differently disposed with regard to Things here below And the Instrument is formed so as to be proper and serviceable to the Soul whose Business it is to make use of it now as the difference of Tools teaches us to distinguish the several Professions that use them so as to say These belong to the Carpenter's those to the Mason's and others to the Smith's Trade and not only to distinguish the Trades themselves but the Skill and Capacity of the Artificers themselves to judge of their Designs and Intentions and the Perfection of the Work it self for those who are Masters of their Trade have better Tools and use them with greater Dexterity than others In like manner they who have attained to the Knowledge of Astrology find out the Nature and Temper of the Instrument the Body from the different Constitution of Material Causes and from hence make their Conjectures of the Disposition of the Soul and this is the Reason why they often guess aright For indeed the Generality of Souls when falling under ill Management and the Conversation of naughty Men a sort of Degradation inflicted upon them by way of Punishment for the loss of their primitive Purity addict themselves too much to the Body and are govern'd and subdu'd by it so as to use it no longer as their Instrument of Action but to look upon it as a part and piece of their own Essence and conform their Desires to its brutish Appetites and Inclinations Besides this Position and fatal Revolution of the Heavens carries some sort of Agreement to the Production of the Souls united to Bodies under it yet not so as to impose any absolute Necessity upon their Appetites and Inclinations but only to infer a Resemblance of their Temper For as in Cities there are some particular solemn Seasons and Places that give us good Grounds to distinguish the Persons assembled in them as the Days and Places of Publick Worship commonly call those that are wise and religious and well-disposed together and those that are set apart for Pomp and publick Sports gather the Rabble and the Idle and the Dissolute so that the observing these Solemnities gives us a clear Knowledge of the People that attend upon them By the same Reason the particular Seasons and Places the Houses and Conjunctions of the Planets may be able to give us some Light into the Temper of the Souls united to Bodies under them as carrying some Affinity to the Conjunctions under which Men are born For when God in his Justice hath ordained such a particular Position and all the Fatalities consequent to it then those Souls which have deserved his Vengeance are brought under that Position For Likeness and Affinity of Tempers hath a strange Power of bringing all that agree in it together This fatal Revolution then does by no means constrain or bind up the Soul nor take away its native Freedom but the Soul only bears some Resemblance to the Temper of this Revolution and is framed agreeably to such a Body as it self hath deserved to be given it for its Use and by this means gives Men an Opportunity of learning its particular Desires and Inclinations from the considering of the Consteilations that People are born under Again the Souls chuse their particular Ways of living according to their former Dignity and Disposition but still the behaving themselves well or ill in each of these Ways is left in their own Power And upon this Account we see many who have chosen a Way of Trade and Business and great Temptation yet continue very honest and good Men in it and
her Disposal and she is not the sole and absolute Mistress of them but must be beholding to the favourable concurrence of several other things to compass them therefore they are said not to be in our own power Thus the Body requires sound Seminal Principles and a strong Constitution convenient Diet and moderate Exercise a wholsom Dwelling a good Air and sweet Water and its Strength and Ability to perform the functions of Nature will depend upon all these And yet these are all of them things so far out of our own reach that we can neither bestow them upon our selves nor keep off the contrary Inconveniences when we would When a more Potent Enemy rushes in and assaults us we would be glad to lye undiscovered but cannot make our selves Invisible When we are Sick we desire a speedy Recovery and yet our Wishes do not bring it to pass The cafe is the same with our Wealth and Possessions too for they are owing to a World of fortunate Accidents that contribute to our getting them and to as many unfortunate Accidents that conspire to deprive us of them Accidents too mighty for us to struggle with or prevent Reputation and Fame is no more in our power than Riches For though by the management of our selves we give the Occasions of Esteem or Dis-esteem yet still the Opinion is not ours but theirs that entertain it and when we have done all we can we lye at their mercy to think what they please of us Hence it comes to pass that some who are profane and irreligious Men at the bottom gain the Character of Piety and Vertue and impose not upon others only but sometimes upon themselves too with a false appearance of Religion And yet on the other hand others who have no Notions of a Deity but what are highly reverent and becoming that never charge God with any of our Frailties or Imperfections or behave themselves like Men that think so of him are mistaken by some People for Insidels and Atheists And thus the Reserved and Temperate Conversation is despised and traduced by some for meer Senselesness and Stupidity So that the being well esteemed of is by no means in our own power but depends upon the pleasure of those that think well or ill of us Posts of Authority and Government cannot subsist without Inferiors to be governed and subordinate Officers to assist in the governing of them And particularly in such States as allow Places to be bought and sold and make Preferment the price not of Merit but Money There a Man that wants a Purse cannot rise though he would never so fain From whence we conclude that all things of this Nature are not in our own power because they are not our Works nor such as follow upon our Choice of them I only add one Remark more here which is That of all the things said to be out of our power the Body is first mentioned and that for this very good Reason because the Wants of this expose us to all the rest For Money is at the bottom of all Wars and Contentions and this we cannot be without but must seek it in order to the providing convenient Food and Raiment and supplying the Necessities of the Body CHAP. II. The things in our own power are in their own Nature Free not capable of being countermanded or hindered but those that are not in our power are Feeble Servile liable to Opposition and not ours but anothers COMMENT AFter having distinguished between those things that are and those that are not in our own power he proceeds in the next place to describe the Qualities proper to each of them The former sort he tells us are Free because it is not in the power of any other Thing or Person either to compel us to them or to keep us back from them Nor is the management and the enjoyment of them at any Bodies Disposal but our own for this is the true notion of Freedom to govern ones self as one pleases and be under the command and direction of no other whatsoever But the things out of our power that are subject to be given or withheld we are not Masters of but they in whose power it is to communicate them to us or keep them from us and therefore these are not Free but Servile and at the pleasure of others So again those things are Self-sufficient and consequently firm and strong but these that depend upon the assistance of another are weak and indigent Again Those cannot be countermanded as being in a Man 's own Power For who can pretend to correct my Opinions and compel me to such or such particular Notions Who is able to put a restraint upon my Desires or my Aversions But now the things that are not in our power are so contrived as to depend upon the Inclinations of other People and may have them or lose them as they please And accordingly these are subject to many Hindrances and Disappointments so as either never to be at all or to be destroyed again when they have been never to be put into my Hands or to be snatched away from me after that I am possessed of them Once more It is evident that the things in our power are our own because they are our Actions and this Consideration gives us the greatest propriety in them that can be But those that depend upon the pleasure of any Body else are properly anothers From whence we must infer that every kind of Good or Evil which respects the things in our power is properly ours as for instance True or False Apprehensions and Opinions Regular or Irregular Desires and the like These are the things that make a Man happy or unhappy But for the things out of our power they are none of ours Those that relate to the Body belong not to the Man strictly speaking but only to our Shell and our Instrument of Action But if we talk of a little Reputation an empty and popular Applause alas this is something much more remote and consequently of little or no concern at all to us CHAP. III. Remember then that if you mistake those things for Free which Nature hath made Servile and fancy That your own which is indeed another's you shall be sure to meet with many Hindrances and Disappointments much Trouble and great Distractions and be continually finding fault both with God and Man But if you take things right as they really are look upon no more to be your own than indeed is so and all that to be anothers which really belongs to him no body shall ever be able to put any constraint upon you no body shall check or disappoint you you shall accuse no body shall complain of nothing shall never do any thing unwillingly shall receive harm from no body shall have no Enemy for no Man will be able to do you any prejudice COMMENT HE had told us before what was and what was not in our own power
one continual Labour in vain ever striving to reconcile Contradictions full of perpetual Inconsistencies and Remorses Dislike of one 's own Actions and eternal Self-Condemnation So that it must needs be infinitely painful and detestable But it is worth our taking Notice that Epictetus upon these Occasions does frequently in the following Discourses admonish and awaken us with a Remember The Reason of which is that he addresses himself to the Rational Soul which though it be naturally and essentially endued with just Idea's of Things and hath an inbred Faculty of discerning and adhering to Truth yet finds but too often that this Eye of Reason is darkned hath dim and confused Representations of Things imposed upon it by the material Principle to which it is united and by this means is betrayed into Ignorance and Forgetfulness the true Cause of all its Miscarriages and all its Miseries So that considered in these Circumstances it stands in need of a continual Monitor to rouze it into Thought and Remembrance But when he says that A Man who proposes to himself Advantages so valuable ought not to be content with a moderate Prosecution of them This Expression is not to be understood as we take it when used to distinguish between Moderation and Excess but is intended here of the Defect and signifies a supine Neglect and cold Indifference For where our Happiness and our All is at stake there as Pindar expresses himself Distress and Danger should our Courage fire Move Generous Thoughts and brave Resolves inspire CHAP. V. When therefore any frightful and discouraging Imagination assaults you harden your self and meet it boldly with this Reflection That it is only your Apprehension of Things and not the real Nature of the Things themselves Then bring it to the Test and examine it by such Rules of Morality as you are Master of but especially by this most material Distinction Of Things that are or are not in our Power And if upon Enquiry it be found one of the latter sort remember that it is what you are not at all concerned in and slight it accordingly COMMENT HE had told us That the Man who proposed to himself the Attainment of Virtue and Happiness must be constant and indefatigable and not suffer the World or any of its Temptations to seduce or draw him off from the pursuit of it But since even they who do make these Things their Study and Care are yet subject to frequent Fancies and Apprehensions some that put them upon desiring some of those external Advantages and others that terrifie them with Calamities of that kind he informs us here how to manage such Apprehensions so as to receive no Inconvenience from them And these Apprehensions he calls frightful and discouraging because they are extravagant and unreasonable and embitter ones Life with a World of Terrors and Troubles by the Excess and Irregularity of their Motions In the following Discourses he advises more at large not to be hurried away and immediately transported with any Imagination whether it tend to Hope or Fear And here he says much the same Thing in fewer Words That a Man ought to harden and set himself against it and disarm it of all its Force by this Consideration That it is but a Fancy of our own and no more Now our Fancies we know do sometimes give us the Representations of Things as they really are as Things that are really Pleasant and Beneficial and sometimes they delude us with wild Inconsistencies gaudy Vanities and empty Dreams But the Strength of these Representations depends upon the Impressions which they make in our Minds and this is exceedingly weakned by making that single Consideration habitual to us That there is very often a wide Difference between the Things themselves and the Representations of them to us For when once we are thus fixed no Violence they can use will be able to justle out our Reason nor pervert our Judgment which he tells us assoon as we have allayed the Heat of the Imagination and made our Minds quiet and calm should be presently employed in a nice Examination of the Idea represented to us Now there are several Rules to try it by Some taken from the Nature of these Idea's themselves and the Things they represent as Whether they be such Objects as tend to the Good of the Mind or whether they only concern our Bodies or our Fortunes Whether they contribute to any real Advantage or whether Pleasure is the only Thing they can pretend to Whether what they propose be feasible or not There is likewise another Method which proceeds upon the Judgment of Wise and Unwise Men and the Concern they express for them but especially upon the Judgment and Determination of Almighty God For that which God himself and Wise and Good Men have approved of every one that consults the Safety and Happiness of his Soul must needs be convinced will challenge his greatest Care and Concern as on the contrary Whatever they dislike and condemn ought by all means to be detested and avoided And no Man yet ever arrived to that Degree of Folly or was so far blinded by Passion and Lust as to persuade himself that Injustice and Luxury and Excess were Things well-pleasing to God But though there are many Rules which may be serviceable to us in distinguishing between the several Idea's and the Things they represent yet there is one peculiar to Men considered as Men and which is of general use upon all Occasions And this depends upon that Distinction of Things that Are and Things that are Not in our own Power For if the Object that presents its self as a Thing inviting our Desire or provoking our Aversion be out of our own Disposal the ready Course to be taken is to satisfie our Selves and to dismiss it with this Answer That this is no part of our Concern For it is impossible for any Thing to be strictly Good or Evil to us which is not within our own Power for the Freedom of the Will is the true specifick Difference of Humane Nature The very Being of a Creature thus qualified necessarily infers this Prerogative That all its Good and all its Evil should depend merely upon its own Choice CHAP. VI. Remember That the Thing which recommends any Desire is a Promise and Prospect of obtaining the Object you are in pursuit of as on the contrary the Thing which your Aversion aims at and proposes to you is the escaping the Evil you fear And in these Cases he that is balked of his Desires is an unfortunate and he that is overtaken by the Mischief he declines is a miserable Man But now if you confine your Aversions to those Evils only which are at the Disposal of your own Will you can never be overtaken by any Calamity you would decline but if you extend them to such Things as Sickness or Poverty or Death you will of Necessity be miserable CHAP. VII Let your Aversions then be taken off
is the Reason why our skilful and tender Physician mingles Bitter with our Sweets and makes what we are fondest of to become nauseous and painful to us he deals with us as Nurses do with sucking Children and puts Wormwood and Mustard upon the Breast to wean our Affections and make us loath Things that are no longer convenient for us In such Cases then the first Choices of our Minds are determined to the less of two Evils they prefer Death before Bodily Pain and Afflictions and had rather be quite out of the Body than miserable in it a Wish which no Man would ever make if he were always easie and prosperous And thus by Degrees we are wrought up to an Hatred and Aversion of present Pleasure by a Prospect and Dread of a much greater and more complicated Misery that attends it As Children are brought off from what is hurtful to them at first by a Principle of Fear Or a Man that loves any Meat or Drink prejudicial to his Health and hath found by Experience that it gives him Gripings or is offensive to his Stomach is content afterwards to forbear the gratifying his Palate provided that Abstinence will but secure his Ease and prevent the much more lasting Pains which that short Pleasure uses to bring after it This is the Case of most of us For alas How very few are there that will be content to forego even those Pleasures which they are satisfied ought not to be indulged so long as they find no Trouble or Inconvenience from them Now the Truth is this abstaining from Pleasure for fear of some greater Pain is not so properly the subduing or destroying our Passion as the exchanging of one Passion for another For we are willing to make a saving Bargain and barter the Pleasure of Enjoyment away for the Pleasure of Ease and Security And thus one Passion rises up in Succession to another But yet this is a very good Method to begin with while we retain our silly Childish Dispositions that we may grow jealous and fearful of those Things to which our Inclinations lead us most and when this Distaste is once given then by considering their Nature and observing that besides their being vicious the very Uneasiness and Troubles that attend them are more exquisite and more various than the Pleasures they afford and so returning to Reason and finding that our Happiness is really within our own selves and expected in vain from the Delights of the Body or the Advantages of the World and thus by degrees growing conscious of some Resemblance between Us and God and reverencing his Image in our Souls we thuse a wise and good Life now no longer out of Fear but from the more generous Principles of a vertuous and well-instructed Mind For even Children when they grow wiser come at last to decline and to do those Things out of Judgment and Inclination which at first nothing but Fear and the Rod could have driven them to And this is the Design of our good God and his tender Care over us That the Soul should neither cling too fast to the Body and its Pleasures and the Enjoyments of the World nor yet abstain from them when driven only by a Principle of Fear but from its own free generous Choice as considering that all our Good and all our Evil consists in our own Choice and our own Aversions So that all the healing Methods of his Providence are directed to no other purpose than this to restore the Soul to Reason and Prudence and the preferring a Vertuous Life Just as the most eminent Physicians when they proceed to such smarting Severities as Cutting and Burning and the like do it only with a Design to reduce the Body to its natural and healthful Temper and to enable the Parts that were before obstructed to perform their proper Functions again Now punishment is the best Cure for Wickedness and this is the peculiar Use and Benefit of those Calamities which we account Evils And as we are commonly very angry at our Physicians when they torture and put us to Pain so do Men likewise generally take it ill to have these sharper Remedies of Providence applied to them But they are only the Childish and Effeminate the Foolish and Unthinking Part of the World that do so For whoever will give himself the Trouble of making a diligent Observation of himself and others upon Occasion of the several Accidents that befall him and takes Notice of the Dispositions of his Soul by what Springs they 're moved and how they 're corrected and changed I make no question will readily acknowledge That Afflictions are generally the first Occasion of Mens conquering their Inclinations and coming up to a due Contempt of the Body and the World or as our great Author expresses himself of all those Things that are out of our own Power But as the Physick applied to our Bodies is of two sores the one Restorative the other Preservative one to purge off our Diseases and correct the Noxious Humours by Drugs of contrary Qualities the other to continue and confirm Health by convenient Diet due Regimen and moderate Exercise And as some Exercises require great Labour and Activity and are fit only for hardy and robust Bodies so this excellent Physician of our Souls does not only administer to the Sick and Diseased and recover them by Sufferings and Misfortunes but he exercises the Sound and Healthful and by so doing adds to their Strength and Vigour and renders their Virtue more conspicuous a Pattern to others and a Provocation to be good And this is but necessary for the Souls of Men even the Good and Vertuous stand in need of Exercise to confirm them no less than healthful Bodies do And Hippocrates's Maxim will hold good upon this Occasion too That Motion gives Strength but Sloth and Inactivity wastes it And the Reason is plain for those Things which are so ordered that they are continually as perfect as Nature intended them and are continually employed in such Operations as Nature appointed for them perform these Operations with great Readiness and Dexterity But those that are not thus continually must imitate and supply the Want of that perpetual Motion by their own Practice that so they may not forget by Disuse and find themselves at a Loss when any urgent Occasion calls for the exerting their Powers For whatever is sometimes in and at other Times out of Motion confesses its own Weakness of which this Vicissitude is the Effect and that Weakness must be worn off and Strength acquired by Action Now all Exercise consists in the same Acts frequently repeated the very same I say with that principal Act for the sake of which we use this Exercise Thus in the Olympick Sports the Exercise used to perfect them in Wrestling is Wrestling very often and that in order to the Caestus and Cuffing is the inuring themselves to Blows Thus Men learn the Art of War by imitating Action
what we are capable of discharging To this purpose he proves that the Great Creator to whom the Soul of Man owes its Being was pleased to give it such a Frame and Temper that it should not be constantly determined to Sublime and Heavenly things nor always dwell above as the Blessed Spirits the Angels and those other of a Divine and still more Excellent Nature do but hath ordered the Matter so that this should sometimes be degraded to a State of Matter and Motion and Mortality be joyned to the Body and converse with Frail and Corruptible things But though he hath subjected the Soul to these Hazards and Tryals yet he hath endued her with particular Faculties and Powers suitable to each occasion by means whereof she may both engage with all the Accidents that can assault her and come off without Loss nay and vanquish and keep them under too Against such as tempt us with an Appearance of Pleasure he proposes Continence and this he rather chose to mention than those higher Degrees of absolute Chastity and Temperance in consideration that the Persons now addrest to are but Imperfect and Young Proficients in Virtue Now these Objects stir the Passions up to Rebellion and beget a Combat between Reason and them but by Discipline and a strict hand over ones self they are subdued and reduced to Obedience again And this is a true Description of that which we properly call a Continent Life as on the contrary that Man is properly said to be Incontinent whose Reason is impotent and tho it may struggle for a while yet yields at last to the stronger Insults of Passion But now in Persons who have attained to the Perfection of Wisdom and Virtue the Passions and Appetites which as I hinted before are the Child to be trained up in every one of our Minds are in absolute Subjection to Reason without any Dispute or Mutiny at all so that they are moved and directed entirely towards such Objects and at such Times and in such Measures as this sees fit to prescribe to them And this is truly Temperance which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being that which secures the Reason and preserves the Government and Prerogative of the intelligent Part in us For when this is brought under and distracted by Passion the Mind is torn in pieces and destroyed But while it maintains its own Superiority over the Affections it continues vigorous and sound So again to Persons that are Masters in Philosophy Fortitude is always a present Security against all Difficulty and Pain it keeps the very Out-guards of the Soul and suffers nothing of this kind to get the least Footing there but perseveres without any Perplexity or Disturbance and looks upon all the Hardships that come in its Way as so many Tryals to exercise it But the Proficients who are less expert must be content with Hardiness and Resolution such as may maintain its Post and make a gallant Resistance and prevent the Sinkings of the Soul by enabling it to continue the Fight and ward against the Blows when Trouble and Pains assault it For a constant and vigorous Opposition and hardening ones self against Difficulties will conquer all our Eâ—â—eminancy and Passion and make Reason and Virtue triumphant and by such Conquests frequently gained and prudently managed our Passions will be used to the Yoke submit to Discipline and obey without Reluctancy And when a Man hath brought himself to this Pass there will be no farther Trouble to exercise his Patience He is now above it all for he neither desires any Thing that is capable of giving him Disappointment nor does he make any Thing his Aversion that can overtake him whether he will or no and consequently can have no Trouble and Pain which always must proceed from one of these Causes Against Scandal and an Ill Tongue he tells us we shall find our best Defence in Meekness For in truth Scandal in its own Nature hath nothing that can afflict us and all that uses to do so is not what is said but the Judgments and Reflections we pass upon it which we ever aggravate to our selves according as we are blown up with Vanity or transported with Anger For all that Scandal can do without this is only to make us condemn the Defamer And for the proceeding regularly in this Condemnation without Heat or Prejudice we shall do well to consider wherein the Defamer is really to blame and that it is upon one of these two Accounts that he slanders and asperses us either falsly or out of Malice Now the Scandal it self may very well be born with because it is not capable of doing us any real Injury and so in truth may the Party that raises or spreads it too when we consider that the Injury is done not to Us but Himself for so it is in reality when his own Mind is the Sufferer by doing an ill and a base Thing Nay if this be too little we may consider farther that Scandal is always capable of being made an Advantage to us It is manifestly so when false and when it is true we gain this by it That it discovers our own Faults and Failings and either shews us something we did not know before or which though we did know yet we were apt to indulge upon a Presumption that no Body knew it but our selves And this very Consideration is of great Importance to restrain young Proficients in Virtue For such tho they are not come up to that noble Principle of practising Virtue for its own sake will yet give check to many exorbitant Passions and abstain from gross Evils out of Shame and Tenderness to their own Reputation And indeed this must be said in behalf of Ambition and a Desire of Praise that though it be a Passion it self yet it is of excellent Use for the moderating and correcting all the rest For this Reason it hath been called by a pertinent Allusion the Shirt of the Passions Because it sits closest to the Soul and when the Mind hath by the help of this put off all other Passions it divests it self of this last of all that so it may come to Virtue naked and stripp'd of all its former Prejudices and Incumbrances For this Reason says Epictetus we must not suffer our selves to be surprised or over-born by any Accident that would engage our Minds and draw them off to any External Advantages or Calamities so as that we should be discomposed with any false Idea's of its being Good or Evil. Nor must we give too great a Scope to our Desires and our Aversions nor let them be too hasty in their Motions but call up the Powers within us to our Assistance and when we have found which are the Succours proper for each Circumstance to rally them together and enter the Lists with Resolution and ward off every Accident accordingly CHAP. XV. Never use your self to say upon any Occasion That you have lost any
as to forget both Virtue and our Selves When they are given to us we must not receive them even then voraciously and with too much seeming Transport but decently and gently that so we may keep our selves above them and use them prudently without suffering our Affections to be over-power'd and wholly immerst in them Now the Condition of Men in the World is here represented by People met together at a Common Entertainment where Almighty God makes the Invitation and the Feast and every one of the Guests partakes of the Provision according as his own Appetite stands affected Some behave themselves with a prudent Reserve like well-bred Persons as the Dictates of Reason and Nature direct them and in a manner acceptable to the Master of the Feast so as to seem a Guest worthy of the Gods Others again are insolent and unruly greedy and gluttonous injure themselves and displease the Great Lord that receives them But the especial Excellency is yet behind For if you are a Person of so exalted a Virtue as not only to wait with Patience and accept with Modesty but even to decline and slight these worldly Advantages that the Generality of Mankind dote upon so infinitely and can deny your self what the Master of the Feast offers to you this is the utmost Perfection Mortality is capable of the World is no longer worthy of such a Person he hath transcended Humane Nature it self and is not only fit to be a Guest to the Gods but to be admitted into a share of that Dignity and those Divine Excellencies which he hath wrought himself up to so near a Resemblance of This was the Case of Crates and Diogenes the latter of which exprest so just a Contempt of the World that when Alexander the Great saw him basking in the warm Sun and asked what he should do for him he desired no more than only that he would stand out of his Sun-shine Which Answer gave so true an Idea of the Gallantry of his Soul that this mighty Conqueror thought that Philosopher a Braver and Greater Man than himself in all his Triumphs and said that he could wish if that were possible to be Diogenes but if not then his second Wish should be to continue Alexander Thus then the Good Providence that constitutes this mortal State and mingles Mens Circumstances in it as it sees most suitable and convenient advances those Persons to the Table of the Gods who manage the Incumbrances of the Body and the World according to the Directions they have given us and temper all their Actions with Prudence and Moderation But when Men do not only manage but transcend the World and its Enjoyments when they get quite above these Things and exercise an absolute Mastery over them then the same Providence calls up those Souls that so well imitate the Divine Excellencies into a sort of Partnership and Government and makes them as it were its Assistants in the disposing of Things here below For what can we think less of them while they sit enthroned on high and look down and order all Things with such undisturbed Security and so Imperial a Sway as if themselves were no longer a part of this Universe but like those Beings above were distinct and separate from it and governed their own World For this Reason Epictetus says Heraclitus and Diogenes that had a generous Disdain for these Things were justly esteemed and in reality were Divine Persons And indeed they are truly so that live up to the utmost Perfection of their Nature and divest themselves of all Concerns for the Body and the World They are spiritualized already and have no more to do with any Impressions of Flesh and Sense This is the utmost Perfection of a Humane Mind and whatever is absolutely perfect is Divine because it is of God who is the Source and Sum of all Perfection CHAP. XXII When you see a Neighbour in Tears and hear him lament the Absence of his Son the Hazards of his Voyage into some remote Part of the World or the Loss of his Estate keep upon your Guard for fear lest some false Idea's that may rise upon these Occasions surprise you into a Mistake as if this Man were really miserable upon the Account of these outward Accidents But be sure to distinguish wisely and tell your self immediately that the Thing which really afflicts this Person is not really the Accident it self for other People under his Circumstances are not equally afflicted with it but merely the Opinion which he hath formed to himself concerning this Accident-Notwithstanding all which you may be allowed as far as Expressions and outward Behaviour go to comply with him and if Occasion require to bear a part in his Sighs and Tears too but then you must be sure to take care that this Compliance does not infect your Mind nor betray you to an inward and real Sorrow upon any such Account COMMENT AS this Consideration That the desirable Things of this World are not cannot be our Happiness though we should suppose a Man never so prosperous should restrain our Eagerness and check our too forward Desires after them so that other Reflection that no External Misfortunes can make us truly miserable should be an Argument no less prevailing to buoy up our Spirits and make us entertain them with Courage and Resolution To this purpose our Author urges the following Instance of a Man in great Grief and Lamentation for some Calamity the Death or the Distance of a Darling Child the Loss of an Estate and being reduced to extreme Poverty or the like And the Caution he gives upon such Occasions is that the Spectators would not suffer themselves to be born down by the Torrent of this Man's Tears and carried into an Erroneous Opinion of his being made miserable by any of these Disasters For they are to recollect themselves and consider that no Mans Happiness or Unhappiness does or ever can depend upon his Successes in the World or any of the Good or Bad Events from without But if this be so how comes it then to pass that this Person is so infinitely afflicted as if some real Ill had happened to him The Accident it is plain cannot be Evil in its own Nature for were it so all Persons that lay under the same Misfortune would feel the same Impressions and be carried to an equal Excess of Grief For this is a Rule in Nature that Natural Qualities have always the same Operation and what feels hot to one will feel so to every one that touches it At this rate then every one that buries a Son must mourn and lament and yet Anaxagoras when News was brought him of the Death of his made Answer with all the Bravery and Unconcernedness in the World Well I knew my Child could be no more than mortal But what then iâ— the true Cause of all this Melancholy Nothing else but the Man 's own Notions of this Accident this is the Root of
he was to appear in and the other did not so The Beggar behaved himself as a Beggar should do and the King sunk beneath the Grandeur of his Post and this Behaviour was the proper Business of the Actors themselves though the choosing whether they should personate a King or a Beggar was not Just thus we find in this vast Theatre of the World How many Emperors and Wealthy and Strong Lusty Men have spoiled their Parts while the Poor the Lame the Slave the Despised Epictetus performed his with the approbation of his Great Master and to the wonder of all the Spectators For though his Part had less of Pomp and Shew than theirs yet he studied the Character throughly and kept it up to the very last and answered the Design and Directions of the Poet that destin'd him to it This was his proper Business and therefore this Commendation is due to him for it For as no Man's Happiness or Misery can consist in any thing but what falls within his own Choice so neither will any Wise Man allow that either Praise or Commendation Honour or Infamy belongs properly to any thing else And consequently it is not the Part but the manner of acting it that every Man distinguishes himself by CHAP. XXIV When the Ravens croak or any other Ominous thing happens let not any Superstitious Fancies disturb or affright you But haâ—â— immediate recourse to this Distinction 〈◊〉 the quieting your Fears That nothing of this kind can Bode Ill to you To your Body or your Estate or your Reputation or your Wife or your Children 't is possible it may but as for your Self 't is in your own power to make every thing auspicious to you because whatever Disaster happens in any of the forementioned Respects you may if you please reap some very considerable Advantage from it COMMENT THis Chapter seems to me to be misplaced and would be more Methodical if set before the former and immediately after that which begins with these Words If you see a Neighbour in Tears c. For having told us there that a Man ought not to be too sensibly affected with the excessive Passion of those who think themselves unhappy for the loss of any of the Comforts of this World nor sympathize so far as to imagine that such a one is really Miserable upon any of these Accounts since a Man's Happiness or his Wretchedness does not consist in any outward Prosperous or Adverse Events but purely in the use of his own Free-Will and the Practice or Neglect of what God and Nature have made entirely the Object of his own Choice and Power here he adds that if any inauspicious Bird or other Omen seem to foretel Mischief and Ill-luck this ought not to terrify or discompose us But though we should suppose them to carry any ill portent to our Bodies or our Fortunes yet we must distinguish between these and our selves and consider that our own Happiness and Misery depends upon our own Disposal and can come from nothing but our selves Do but resolve then not to make your self unhappy and all the most direful Significations of Misfortune and all the Misfortunes consequent to those Significations shall never be able to do it Your Body 't is true may be Sick or Dye your Reputation may be Blasted your Estate Destroyed or Wasted your Wife or Children taken from you but still all this does not reach your Self that is your Reasoning Mind This can never be Miserable nay it must and will be Happy in despight of all these Ill-bodings except you consent to your own Wretchedness For all your Good and Evil depends wholly upon your self Nay which is more and the greatest Security imaginable these very Misfortunes shall conspire to render you yet more Happy for out of this Bitter you may gather Sweetness and convert what is generally mistaken for Misery to your own mighty Benefit And the greater those Calamities are the more considerable will the Advantage be provided you manage them prudently and behave your self decently under them Now it is plain from hence that these are not Evils properly speaking for whatever is so must always do hurt and can never change its Nature so far as to contribute to any good effect Since then these may be so ordered as to become subservient to your Good and since no Ill can come to you but what your self must be instrumental in and accessary to you must of necessity grant that all Omens and all the Evils threatned by them are not cannot be Evils to you your self unless you please to make them so and that all they can pretend to is to affect something that belongs or bears some distant Relation to you CHAP. XXV It is in your power always to come off Conqueror provided you will never engage in any Combats but such whose Successes will be determined by your own Choice COMMENT HE had said just before that no Ominous Predictions Boded any ill to Men except they brought the Evil upon themselves because it is in the power of every one not to be Miserable And this Chapter I take to be a farther Prosecution of that Argument and added by way of Proof and Confirmation to the former For it is in our own power never to enter the Lists with any External Accidents that is so to restrain our Desires and Aversions as not to concern our selves with them for if we stake our Happiness upon the Success of such an Encounter we must needs retire with Loss because such Desires will meet with frequent Disappointments and such Aversions cannot always deliver us from the Dangers we fear Let all our Combats therefore be consined to our selves and such things as Nature hath put in the power of our own Wills for whenyou strive with your own Desires and Aversions and Opinions the Prize is in your own Hands and you may rest secure of Danger or Disappointment This he had shewn at large formerly and this is in effect the same thing as to say that a Man shall never be vanquished but always come off triumphantly And if this be true then it is no less evidently so that it is in a Man 's own Power never to be Miserable For he that is Miserable is a Subdued Man and if it depend upon one's own Choice whether any Evil shall happen to him then it must needs be in his own Breast too whether any Omens or Predictions shall portend Ill to him So that Epictetus had reason when he pronounced so peremptorily that no inauspicious Events are signified to any Man unless himself conspire to make them so That is unless he engage in such Disputes as he is not qualified for and where the Victory is doubtful at least if not sure to go against him And this is done by every one who overlooks his own Mind and places his Happiness and Unhappiness in the Events of Fortune and Affairs of the World CHAP. XXVI Take heed when you see
For in regard the Choice of Good and the Refusing of Evil are the Object and Ground of all Moral Instructions whatsoever it was proper for him to shew that the Nature of Evil was something very odd and out of Course In some Sense it has a Being and in some Sense it is denyed to have any it has no Existence of its own and yet it is a sort of supernumerary and a very untoward addition to Nature In the mean while this shews that we ought not to make it ouâ— Choice because Nature never made it hers and whenever it got into the World it was never brought in by Design but came in by chance No Man ever proposed it as the End of any Action no Artificer ever drew his Model for it The Mason proposes the House he is Building and the Carpenter the Door he is Plaining for his End but neither the one nor the other ever works only that he may work ill Epictetus his Argument then lies in the following Syllogism Evil is the missing of the Mark For what Nature hath given a real and a designed Existence to is the Mark and the compassing of that is the hitting of the Mark. Now if what Nature really made and designed be not the missing of the Mark as it is not but the hitting it indeed and if Evil be the missing of the Mark then iâ— is plain that Evil can be none of those things which have a real and a designed Existence Now that Evil is properly the missing of the Mark is plain from what hath been spoken to this point already For suppose a Man makes Pleasure his Mark he aims at it as a Good and Desirable thing he le ts fly accordingly his Imaginations I mean which indeed fly swifter than any Arrow out of a Bow But if he do not attain the Good he desires but shoot wide or short of it 't is plain this Man is worsted and hath missed his Mark. And again that something to which Nature designed and gave a Being is constantly the Mark every Man aims at and the obtaining those things the hitting of his Mark is no less evident from the Instances I gave of the Mason and the Carpenter Now when the Author says there is no such real Being as Evil in the World you are to understand that Nature never formed or designed any such thing And then if you please you may take his Minor Proposition singly by it self which consists of those Words As no Man sets up a Mark with a Design to shoot beside it For this intimates that Evil is a missing of one's Aim without mentioning the Major which implies that the principal Design and real work of Nature is never the missing but the hitting of the Mark and so add the Conclusion which is this Therefore Evil is none of the principal Designs or real Works of Nature It may likewise be put all together into one single Hypothetical Proposition thus If no Man sets up a Mark on purpose to shoot besides it then there is no such real Being as Evil in the World For if there were such a thing then it would be proposed as the End or Product of Action But Evil is never proposed as a thing to be produced or obtained but as a thing to be declined for Evil is always the Object of our Refusal and Aversion So that at this rate it would follow that there is a Mark set up only that it may not be hit which is contrary to common Sense and the Practice of all Mankind And therefore there can be no such thing in Nature as Evil because Evil is not capable of being the End of any Action in Nature CHAP. XXXIV If any one should take upon him to expose your Body to be abused by every Man you meet you would resent it as an insupportable Insolence and Affront And ought you not then to be much ashamed of your self for enslaving and exposing you Mind to every one that is disposed to take the Advantage For so indeed you do when you put it in the power of every Malicious Tongue to disturb the inward peace and order of your Breast For this Reason before you attempt any thing weigh diligently with your self the several Difficulties it is like to be incumbred with the Circumstances preliminary to and consequent upon it For unless you come well settled with this Consideration you will afterwards be discouraged and what you begun with Eagerness and Vigor you will desist from with Cowardice and Shame CHAP. XXXV You are extremely desirous to win the Olympick Crown I wish the same for my self too and look upon it as an Immortal Honour But not so fast Consider the Preparations necessary to such an Vndertaking and the Accidents that may follow upon it and then let me hear you say you 'll attempt it You must be confined to a strict Regimen must be cramm'd with Meat when you have no Appetite must abstain wholly from Boiled Meats must exercise whether you be disposed to it or no whether it be hot or cold must drink nothing but what is warm nor any Wine but in such Proportions as shall be thought proper for you In a Word you must resign your self up to your Governor with as absolute an Obedience as you would to a Physician When all this Hardship is mastered you have all the Chances of Combat to go through still And here it is many a Man's Fortune to break an Arm or put out a Leg to be thrown by his Adversary and get nothing but a mouthful of Dust for his Pains and as it may happen to be lashed and beaten and become the Jest and Scorn of the Spectators Lay all these Things together and then perhaps your Courage may be cooled But if upon considering them well you nevertheless retain your Resolution then are you fit to set about the Pursuit of what you so much desire Otherwise you will come off like Little Children who in their Sports act sometimes Wrestlers and sometimes Fidlers now they are Fencers and play Prizes then they turn Trumpeters and go to War and by and by build a Stage and act Plays Just so we shall have you one while an Olympick Fighter and another a Gladiator by and by an Orator and after that a Philosopher but nothing long except a ridiculous Whiffler a mere Ape that mimick all you see and venture at all Professions but stick to none And all this is occasioned by your taking Things upon you Hand over Head without being seasoned and duly prepared for them but either with a rash Heat or fickle Inâ—lination Thus it is with many People when they see an eminent Philosopher or hear him quoted with Admiration and Respect as How excellently did Socrates write on such a Subject sure no Man was ever like him nothing will serve their Turn but these Hotspurs must needs be Philosophers too and each of them does not doubt but he shall make a Socrates in
Duty Observance and awful Concern to consider him as the Means made use of by God to bring us into the World to remember that his provident Care and Tenderness sustained the Being he gave us and that our Preservation as well as our Production is in a great measure owing to Him And therefore Children should look upon themselves as Debtors to their Parents and pay back all their Kindness with much Gratitude and large Interest They should give most ready Obedience to all their Commands except such as tend to the detriment of the Soul and in these cases their Compliance is dispensed with because they are under a higher Engagement to the Father of Spirits and must not displease him at any rate And yet upon these occasions too they should endeavour to give as little Offence as is possible and though their Refusal may and ought to be resolute yet Modesty must temper their Zeal and contrive that it may be respectful too In all other Matters we are to serve them with our utmost power both in our Bodies and our Goods For if the Persons and the Possessions of Slaves are at the absolute disposal of those whom Fortune and Purchase have made their Masters how much more ought ours to be at the Command of them whom Nature made the Cause of our very Being For this reason we ought to submit to their Correction with much more easiness and patience than Servants do to their Masters and if to their Blows then certainly rather still to their Reproaches and hard Usage The ancient Romans had a Law grounded it seems upon the Dignity of this Relation the absolute Right it gave the infinite Trouble Parents are at for the sake of their Children the unlimitted Subjection due to them presuming favourably withal of the natural Affection of Parents that gave the Parents a Power if they pleased to sell their Children and if they killed them call'd them to no account for it And the Times of greater Antiquity still bore so great a Reverence to Parents as almost to venture to call them Gods But finding some check from the incommunicable Devotion due to the Divine Nature they called their Parents Brothers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that intimating what profound Respect belonged to their Parents themselves when even their collateral Relations were complemented with the Name of something Divine in them Now indeed in the Discharge of our Duty to Parents the first and principal Motive is the equity of the thing and the acting as becomes Men that make Pretensions to Wisdom and Vertue which this is most highly agreeable to And after this we should represent to our selves the Divine Justice and Vengeance which is very likely to punish us in our own kind and we have a great deal of reason to expect that we shall hereafter find the same measure from our Children which we give our Parents now So again if a Brother deal unjustly by you let it be your part to answer all the Particulars of the Relation between you and make good that Covenant which Nature hath ratified and made unalterable For though the World be a wide place yet you can have no other Parents nor Brethren nor Kinsmen but those you have And therefore since you must take them upon Content and there is no remedy behave your self as though you had made them your own Choice Consider too that his Behaviour toward you is not in your own power to determine but yours toward him is And therefore you should not so much regard his Actions which you cannot help nor are in any degree responsible for as what is agreeable to your own Duty and fit for you to do for in this consists all the real Advantage and Prejudice that can happen to you He can do you no harm let him design never so much provided you do but depend upon your own selâ— for your Good and Evil But if you ramble abroad and expect to find it there you are the worse then indeed though not by your Brother's Malice but your own Mistakes that place Happiness and Misery in things without you Add to all this the Advantage of winning him over by good usage for if your Forbearance and Meekness and Affection can render him not only your Brother but your Friend too these two Relations meeting in one and joining Forces will make the Union wonderful close and strong Now the Duties that we owe to our Masters and Teachers whose Business it is to instruct us in Wisdom and Vertue are much of the same nature with those due to Parents though in some respects I confess the Obligations seem to be greater in the case before us For these Persons nourish and train up not our Bodies but which is much more considerable our Souls that is our very selves They do it too upon a different Principle not constrained to it by Nature and Necessity like our Parents and by such an instinct as Brutes obey no less than Men but they do it out of a free Choice and a Desire to promote Goodness and Vertue And this makes a near Approach to and is a lively Resemblance of the Divine Bounty which takes Compassion upon sunk and lapsed Souls and is perpetually retrieving them from their Misery and restoring them to the Bliss they have lost Now these Observances must needs be peculiarly due to our Instructors because we ought to look upon their Instructions as coming out of the mouth of God Himself and consequentâ—y submit to them without troubling our selves to find out peevish Cavils and frivolous Exceptions against them For certainly it is not easie to conceive how he whose End and Profession it is to inform us in true Wisdom and Goodness should impose any thing upon us but what tends to the furthering so excellent a Design But now if our Parents take the pains to teach us and thus to the Engagement of being our Parents that other be added of being our Teachers too then we are to pay them all that Observance and Respect which can be challenged upon both these accounts We must then look upon them as the very Image of God reverence them as the Formers of our Souls as well as of our Bodies and like God the Causes to which not our Being only but also our Well-being ought to be ascribed The next thing that offers it self is the Duty of Friends and of this I shall treat with what Clearness but withal what Brevity so weighty and useful a Subject will bear The first thing to be regarded here is The Choice of Friends The next is How to use and keep those we have chosen and upon these things all the Benefits of Friendship depend The first thing we should look at in our Choice of Friends is Likeness of Temper and Disposition For there are several Humours which though very good when single yet will make but â—ill Musick when brought together The Sour and Phlegmatick and Cold Temper will suit but
you The same Argument holds as strong with regard to Motion too for if we trace this up to its beginning we shall find that those Bodies which made the first Impressions were either such as moved by an Internal Power and Principle of their own or such as were fixed themselves and had no share in the Motion they impressed upon others For whatever is moved Mechanically is moved by something else and that again by some other thing and so on for ever But such an account as this of Motion in Infinitum is neither possible to be nor to be conceived For at this rate if there were no Beginning of Motion the only Consequence from hence must needs be That there would be no Mover nor no Moved Bodies at all And if we will allow any Beginning as allow it we must that First Mover must be either endued with a principle of Self-motion or it must have no motion at all But the latter of these it cannot be neither for this is evident in all motion that fix'd Bodies are so far from communicating motion to those Bodies that have it not that on the contrary they check and stop it in those that have and dispose them always to continue in the same State and Posture without any manner of alteration So that free motion must at last be resolved to be the first Cause of Mechanical Now the Things that are concerned in mechanical motion are such as are subject to Generation and Corruption to Augmentation and Diminution and to any sort of Alteration whether that refer to the Qualities of the Things themselves or whether to their Local Distances and Situations For whatever is produced could never produce it self because then it must have had a Being before it was produced and so begin to be both before and after it self And whatever receives increase is not augmented by it self for Augmentation is nothing else but the addition of something which it had not before So again whatever is altered is altered by some other thing and not from it self for alteration is properly the introducing of a contrary Quality So likewise Local motion cannot be from the Body moving for since all motions are subject to the Rules I have here laid down and Generation Corruption Augmentation and Alteration are all but so many Effects of motion it is plain this must be derived from something else and could not set it self on going Those things therefore which are in the Course of Nature superiour to these Productions and the Causes of necessary motion must needs be capable of moving themselves For if we should suppose but one minute in perfect Repose nothing would ever move again except some Free Self-moving Agent began the Dance For whatever is once six'd is disposed to continue so to all Eternity and whatever moves mechanically must wait for the leisure of some other Body and cannot stir till it receive the impression and is put into action Now whatever the first Principles of Things are 't is necessary that they should be of a simple Nature For all mix'd Bodies are compounded of Simples and consequently the Ingredients must have a Priority in Nature before the Composition that is made up of them And now let us consider some of the grossest and most obvious Bodies and so by degrees ascend higher to try at last whether it be possible for us to conceive Body to be such a Principle as Reason will tell us the first Principles of all things must needs have been or whether it will not be impossible to conceive that these Bodies which we see move and subsist should ever have had that Motion and that Existence from themselves For whatever moves it self is called Self-moving either because one part of it is active and the other passive in this motion or else because the whole is active and the whole passive Now if we imagine one part to communicate and the other only to receive the Impression still the same Question will return for that part which begins the motion whether this be done from a Principle of its own or from any external Impulse and so up till at last you must be forced to stop at something which must be acknowledged an entire moving and entire moved The same is to be said of Self-existence too for whatever is originally and properly must be an entire Existence and the sole and entire Cause of its own Existence And whatever is so must be indivisible and without Parts For whatever consists of Parts and is capable of being divided could never unite its whole self to its whole self so as to be entirely moving and entirely moved entirely subsisting and yet the entire Cause of so subsisting at the same time Again It is no less impossible that any Bodies should be of a simple Nature for they must of necessity consist of Matter and Form and several other Properties that must go to the compleating of their Nature such as Magnitude and Figure and Colour and sundry other Qualities which are not original and causal Species themselves but only participations of these produced in some Matter without Form that partakes of them For where these Original Forms lie there every thing is in its true Essence and Perfection and there is no need of any Matter unform'd to receive them But when those Originals are communicated then there must of necessity be some Matter to receive them which till it hath done is it self void of Form Since then the First Principles of Things are incorporeal and indivisible since their Nature must be simple and that they are properly Efficient Causes since their Existence and their Motion must be entirely from themselves and since it hath been shewed that Bodies are not in any degree capable of these Qualifications it must needs I think be concluded that Body could not be the First Principle nor the Universe owing to any such Original Where then shall we find such a self-moving Agent as infuses Motion into the necessary ones and may be considered as a Cause with respect to them This sure must be something that moves from an internal Principle But still if this Motion from within were derived from something else and not from it self we should not call this an Internal Motion but an External Impulse as we do in Bodies For if I by a Staff that is in my Hand move a Stone though both my Staff and my Hand contribute to that Motion more immediately yet I my self am the true and proper Cause of it What shall we say then moves Bodies from within What indeed but the Soul For animated Bodies are moved from an internal Principle and all Bodies so moved are Animates If then it be the Soul which gives an internal motion to Bodies and if this internal Mover be self-moving it remains that the Soul is a free and spontaneous Mover the cause of Productions and beginning of Motions containing in her self the several Patterns and Measures and
the Motions that measâ—re it are taken and derive their Being there we may contemplate the Primitive Causes of much greater Antiquity than those we observed in the Self-moving Agent and there we shall see them lie in all their Perfections Immovable Eternal Entire United to each other so as that each should be all by Virtue of this intimate Conjunction and yet the intelâ—ectual Differences between them should remain distinct and unconfused For what account can be given of so many different Forms in the World but only that the Great God and Creator of the World produces these as he thinks fit to separate and distinguish the Causes of them in his own Mind which yet we must not suppose to make such actual and incommunicable differences between the Originals as we observe between the Copies of them here Nor are the Distinctions of the differing sorts of Souls the same with those of Bodies Each of the Eight Heavens we see and the Constellations peculiar to them are a part of the whole Heaven taken together a full and integral Part and yet each hath its Essence and Influences and Operations proper to it self And so likewise the Forms of Sublunary as well as Celestial Bodies that are always the same as that of a Man a Horse a Vine a Fig-tree each of these are perfect and full though not in Individuals as the Heavenly Bodies are yet according to the various Species with which they fill the World and the Essential Differences which distinguish them from one another Just thus it is with those more simple and Intellectual Considerations of which these Forms are compounded such as Essence Motion Repose Identity Beauty Truth Proportion and all those other Metaphysical Qualities belonging to the Composition of Bodies each of which is perfect in its own kind and hath a distinct Form of its own and many Differences peculiar to it self only And if this be the Case in so many Inferiour Beings how much more perfect and entire shall every thing subsist in the great Soul of the World These are the spontaneous Causes of the Bodies here below and all their differences lie united there According to this Pattern all things here are formed but that Pattern abundantly more perfect and pure and exact than any of its Resemblances Much more persect still then are these Divine and Intellectual Forms than any Corporeal ones of which they are the great Originals For these are united not by any mutual Contact or Continuity of Matter or bodily Mixture but by the Coalition of indivisible Forms And this Union being such as still presents the Distinctions between them clear and unconsus'd makes each of them perfect in it self and qualifies it to be the common Principle and Root of all the Forms of its own likeness and kind from the highest to the lowest Now the several distinct Principles of things derive their Causal Power and Dignity from some One Superiour Principle For it is plain that many could not exist without an antecedent Cause For which Reason each of Many is One but not such a One as was before those Many For the One of Many is a part of that Number and is distinguished from the rest by some particular Qualifications which give him a Being a part to himself But the One before Many was the Cause of those Many he comprehended them all within himself existed before them is the Cause of Causes the first Principle of all Principles and the God of Gods for thus all the World by the meer Dictates of Nature have agreed to call and to adore him He is likewise the Supreme and Original Goodness For all Effects have a natural desire and tendency to the respective Properties of their first Cause Now that which all things desire is Good and consequently the first Cause must be the Original and the Supreme Good So likewise he must be the Original and Supreme Power For every Cause hath the highest Power in its own kind and consequently the first Cause of all must needs exceed them all in Power and have all of every kind He must needs be endued with perfect Knowledge too for how can we imagine him ignorant of any thing which himself hath made It is no less evident too from hence that the World and all things were produced by him without any difficulty at all Thus by considering of particulars we are at last arrived to a general Demonstration and from the parts have learnt the whole for indeed we had no other way of coming to the Knowledge of it but by its parts the whole it self is too vast for our Comprehension and our Understandings are so feeble as often to mistake a very small part for the whole And the result of the Argument is this That as all Things and Causes are derived at last from one Cause so they ought to pay all manner of Honour and Adoration to that Cause for this is the Stem and Root of them all and therefore it is not an empty Name only but Similitude in Nature too by which every Cause is allied to this Universal One. For the very Power and Privilege of being Causes and the Honour that is due to them when compared with their Effects is the free Gift of this Supreme Cause to all the inferiour and particular ones Now if any man think it too great an Honour for these lower and limited ones to be called Causes or Principles as well as that original and general one it must be owned in the first place That there is some Colour for this Scruple because this seems to argue an equality of Causal Power But then this may easily be remedied by calling These barely Causes and That the First and Universal Cause And though it be true that each particular Principle is a first and general one with respect to others of less extent and power contained under it as there is one Principle of Gracefulness with regard to the Body another with regard to that of the Mind and a third of Gracefulness in general that comprehends them both yet in Truth and strict Propriety of Speech none is the First Principle but that which hath no other before or above it and so likewise we may and do say by way of Eminence the First and Supreme Cause the First and Supreme God and the First and Supreme Good Moreover we must take notice that this First Cause which is above and before all things cannot possibly have any proper Name and such as may give us an adequate Idea of his Nature For every Name is given for distinction's sake and to express something peculiar but since all distinguishing Properties whatever flow from and are in Him all we can do is to sum up the most valuable Perfections of his Creatures and then ascribe them to Him For this Reason as I hinted at the beginning of this Discourse the Greeks made choice of a name for God derived from the Heavenly Bodies and the swiftness of their
their Palates and fare sumptuously This we shall soon be convinced of if we do but compare Country-men with Courtiers Servants with their Masters and in general poor People with rich For Superfluities and dainty Meats do but oppress Nature they are treacherous Delights and carry a kind of secret Poison in them Hence it is that we see the Constitutions of men that live deliciously so miserably broken and instead of good Nourishment all their Food turns into Corruption and ill Humours Catarrhs and Vapours and all the wretched Consequences of weak Stomachs and indigested Fumes The Health therefore of the Body and the preserving it in a vigorous and active state should prescribe to us both for the kind and the quantity of our Diet otherwise we shall be but the worse for the Care and Expence we are at about it and by a very impertinent and mistaken Tenderness render this Instrument less capable of doing the Soul Service and perhaps too quite break or wear it out the faster Now it is a very great happiness to have been brought up sparingly and used to a plain Diet from ones Cradle for by this means there will be no strife between Nature and Appetite but that which is most for the Benefit of the Body will be likewise most agreeable to the Palate and a Man lies under no Temptation of destroying the one for the sake of gratifying the other The same Rule ought to take place in our Apparel too in which Socrates gave himself so little trouble that we are told he wore the same Clothes both in Winter and Summer Now I can allow a man to indulge himself to degrees of Tenderness which would make him seem a perfect Epicure in comparison of Socrates and yet I should think he might content himself too with wearing such Linen and Woollen as our own Country affords and to change these for warmth or coolness as the Seasons of the Year shall make it most easie and convenient for him But for foreign Vanities and fantastick Dresses such as put us upon fishing all the East and Western Rivers for Pearl and fleaing whole Forests for Furrs and Ermins and rifling the India's for Silks and exchanging substantial Gold and Silver for the Cobwebs of Worms this can be nothing else but Foppery and Nonsense the marks of a profligate Mind and the scandal of an Age abandoned to Luxury and Madness So again for our Houses Crates is said to have satisfied himself with a Tub though at the same time he had a very fine Wife which would have given him a fair pretence for a more spacious Dwelling This is a piece of mortification not required at our hands and Epictetus is well contented we should have a House and all Conveniences about it provided that both the Proportion and the Finishing be contrived for Use and not for Pomp and Excess It is fit there should be a decent apartment for the Men and another for the Females of the Family tho' indeed these distinct apartments are not absolutely necessary neither But to talk of thirty or forty Lodging-Rooms of inlaid Floors and Marble Hearths of Carvings and Paintings and Fret-work and different apartments suited to the several Months of the Year this is not to supply our Necessity but to gratifie our Curiosity and Pride And it hath this farther Inconvenience in it That a man used to such Things is condemned to a perpetual uneasiness whenever his own Occasions call him to a Place where he cannot be equally accommodated or when the change of his Fortunes reduce him to a necessity of parting with those Conveniences which at the Expence of so much Labour and Treasure he hath provided for himself I might add too and that very seasonably That a Man who hath used himself to take delight in these things cannot escape the folly and misery of placing his Happiness in them and so utterly neglect the Improvement of his own Mind and forget the true Felicity of Humane Nature And if by any misfortune as indeed there are a great many that may contribute to it he lose these Enjoyments he must consequently be exposed to all the Excesses of Passion and an impotent Mind and imagine himself wretched to the very last degree Though in truth to any one that esteems things rightly it will appear that he was much more unhappy and had more just occasions of lamenting his own Condition when in the midst of his so-much-admired Gaiety and Splendour The number of our Retinue and use of our Servants are subject to the same Limitations the occasion we have for them and the proportion of our Estates For Servants should be always kept so as to have enough of that which is necessary and convenient for them and yet be always in Employment too So that we must cut the middle way between the two Extreams Idleness and Indulgence on the one hand and Barbarity and Slavery on the other But as for vast Crowds of Pages and Foot-men such as have nothing to do but to make way in the Streets or to make appearance to run before a Chair or hang behind a Coach the Masters would do well to consider that so many Attendants are in plain terms but so many Keepers And sure there cannot be a greater slavery than to have so many Eyes continually upon you to have every Motion watched every Discourse over-heard no freedom or privacy left no retirement safe from their Observation and in a word nothing done or said without their Knowledge and sawcy Censures upon it and you But besides the insupportable Inconvenience of them in ones own Family they are often very troublesome and injurious to others knavish and vexatious to Tradesmen shirking out of Markets and Shops rude and insolent to their Betters guilty of a thousand Violences and Affronts and all this upon a Confidence of their own Strength that their Master's Authority will protect them or their Fellow-Servants stand by them in their Rogueries and be able to bear them out against all opposition By these wicked Qualities and their abominable Idleness they grow lewd and debauched and are the worst Enemies commonly that their Masters have Who all the while for the State of keeping these Rake-hells about them are forced to break their own rest and undergo many Hardships and submit to the mean Arts of Flattery and making their Court and become Slaves their own selves and which is worst of all abandon the Rules of Wisdom and Vertue But if Men will be so fond of a profligate Life the matter is not great if they pay dear for their Vanity and therefore let them go on till Repentance makes them wiser As for the Philosopher who conforms himself to Epictetus his Rules a very moderate Attendance will serve his turn for his Concerns with the World are not like to be very great and he will not think himself too good to do all that he can in his own Person without being troublesome to others So
to be used and commanded us to this purpose That those wants of the Body which are necessary to be supplied so as to render it serviceable to the Soul ought to determine in this point By which means all superfluities are cut off and every thing that tends only to Luxury and vain Pomp. Now he tells us what proportion we ought to be content with and what should be the measure of our Labours and our Desires in the getting an Estate and this he says is the Body too For the end of getting these things is that we may use them so that as far as they are of use to us so far and in such proportions may we desire and endeavour after them and they are only so far useful as they become serviceable to the Body and supply its necessities Consequently then the Body and its wants which determine how far these things are capable of being used do also determine how far they are fit to be desired and what measure of them a Man ought in reason to sit down satisfied with Let us look then at the Foot for instance and see what wants it labours under and what supplies are sufficient for it and when we have done so we shall find that good plain Leather is all it needs A good upper Leather to keep the Foot tight and warm and a stout Sole to defend the Ball of the Foot from being hurt by what it treads upon But now if a Man bear regard to Ornament and Luxury as well as Use and Convenience then nothing less than Gold and Purple and Jewels will serve the turn and one of these Extravagancies only serves to make way for another For it seems the Romans were grown so curious and vain as to wear rich Purple Shooes and Shooes set with precious Stones and these were more exquisite and modish Vanities than gilded ones Now just thus it is in the getting and the spâ—nding an Estate When a Man hath once transgressed those bounds which Nature and Necessity have set him he wanders no body knows whether and is continually adding one foolish Expence to another and one idle whimsie to another till at last he be plunged over Head and Ears in Luxury and Vanity For these were the only Causes of seducing him at first and when once he had broke loose from his measures a thousand imaginary wants presented themselves and every one of these gave him as great a disturbance as if they had been real ones At first he wanted only ten thousand pound then twenty and when he was possess'd of this he wanted forty as much as even he did the first Ten so he would a hundred if he had forty and so to all Eternity for he has now let his Desires loose and these are a boundless Ocean never to be filled Now nothing is more evident than that those Desires which do not keep within the bounds of Use and Convenience do and must needs be infinite and insatiable Not only because this is the last Fence and there is nothing left to stop them afterwards but because we see plainly that when they exceed these things they quickly neglect and disregard them too forget the ends to which they are directed and instead of preserving sometimes destroy the Body Thus we often ruine our Health and distort our Limbs only for Ornament and Fashion and make those very things our Diseases which Nature intended for Remedies against them And possibly upon this account more particularly Epictetus might make choice of a Shooe to illustrate his Argument For this instance is the more emphatical and significant because if we do not take care to fit the Foot but make it bigger than it ought to be for Beauty and Ornament it hinders our going instead of helping us and oftentimes makes us stumble and fall very dangerously So that it is plain the Considerations which relate to our using the things of the World will give us great light into that part of our Duty which relates to the getting of them and the Rules we are to be governed by are in a great measure the same in both Cases And these Chapters too which prescribe to us the Rules and the Duty of Moderation both in using and getting an Estate may in my Opinion be very properly referred to the same common Head of Justice with the former CHAP. LXII When Women are grown up to Fourteen they begin to be courted and caressed then they think that the recommending themselves to the Affections of the Men is the only business they have to attend to and so presently fall to tricking and dressing and practising all the little engaging Arts peculiar to their Sex In these they place all their hopes as they do all their happiness in the success of them But it is fit they should be given to understand that there are other attractives much more powerful than these That the Respect we pay them is not due to their Beauty so much as to their Modesty and Innocence and unaffected Vertue And that these are the true the irresistible Charms such as will make the surest and most lasting Conquests COMMENT SInce he had in the foregoing Discourses allowed his Philosopher to marry it was but reasonable that he should instruct him here what Methods are most proper to be made use of in the choice of a Wife and which are the most necessary and desirable Qualifications for her This therefore he does in short but very significant Observations shewing what a wise Man should chiefly regard and exposing at the same time the mischiefs that the generality of Men fall into by taking wrong measures Most people says he when they are disposed to marry look out for a young and a beautiful Mistress then they cringe and flatter and adore her keep a mighty distance and accost her in the most respectful and submissive Terms imaginable and the end of all this is no other than the Enjoyment of her Person The Women know the meaning of all this well enough and manage themselves accordingly they dress and trick and set of their Persons to the best advantage and these are the Arts they study to recommend themselves by Now in truth though we declaim against this Vanity and Folly in the Sex yet the Men are much more to blame than they For the Original of all this Vanity is from our selves and the Folly is ours when we pay so much respect upon accounts that so little deserve it It is in our power to reform what we condemn and it is our Duty to do it We should shew them that no Beauty hath any Charms but the inward one of the Mind and that a gracefulness in their Manners is much more engaging than that of their Person and Mien That Meekness and Obedience and Modesty are the true and lasting Ornaments For she that has these is qualified as she ought to be for the management and governing of a Family for the bearing and educating
gather a number of Spectators †The Account given of this passage by Casaubon in his Notes on this Chapter seems much more pertinent and satisfactory than this given here by Simplicius He tells us that the Asceticks formerly amongst other Trials in which they exercised themselves used to practise the enduring of Cold To which purpose in a Frosty Winter's Morning it was very common to go out into the Streets and Publick Places and there â—ling round one of the Brass or Marble Statues And because this was very justly suspected to be done more to get the Observation and Applause of a gizing Râ—bble than out of any good design upon themselves therefore Epictetus chuses that instance of exposing Vain-glory upon these Accounts This is a very clear and natural account of the place and seems grounded upon Authorities sufficient to give it the preference before that of Simplicius See Casaub in Epictet Not. 57. like those Wretches who when they run away from the violence of too mighty an Enemy implore the assistance of the People and get upon the Statues to cry help that they may be more seen and sooner get a Rabble about them Their business being only to draw Company together in their own defence and make themselves and their Oppression more conspicuous and deplorable But if you will be mortifying do it privately and in good earnest when you are extreme thirsty take cold Water into your Mouth and though your Entrails are ready to to be burnt up yet spit it out again and when you have thus subdued the importunate Clamours of Nature and Necessity tell no body what you have done This is mortification and severity indeed but the things of this kind that are done to be seen and commended of Men shew plainly that the bent of the Soul lies outwards that the Man is more concerned for the Fame of the World than the real and intrinsick Goodness of the Action and lays a greater stress upon their Praise or Dispraise than upon the Approbation or the Reproaches of his own Conscience Besides he loses all the real Good of his Abstinence and Severity and profanes a vertuous Action by an end so base and indirect as Popular Applause Now that the practising such Austerities as these upon ones self is of excellent use Experience daily demonstrates For by this buffeting of the Body we keep that and its sensual Inclinations under and reduce them so low as not only to prevent any rebellious Insurrections against Reason but to bring them to a willing and ready compliance even with those of its Commands which are of hardest digestion to Flesh and Sense And there is moreover this mighty Convenience in it that these voluntary Hardships fit and prepare us for necessary and unavoidable ones Every Man's Circumstances are fickle and changeable and sure when any Affliction as Want or the like happens to us it is no small advantage for the body to be so habituated as to bear those Evils without any great alteration or reluctancy which it is not possible to run away from This gains us an absolute Mastery over the World and sets us above all the uncertainties of Humane Affairs when it is no longer in the power of the most spightful Fortune to hurt us for whatever extremity of suffering she can possibly drive us to is only what we have by long Custom made easie and familiar to our selves before CHAP. LXXI It is the peculiar Quality and a Character of an undisciplin'd Man and a Man of the World to expect no advantage and to apprehend no mischief from himself but all from Objects without him Whereas the Philosopher quite centrary looks only inward and apprehends no Good or Evil can happen to him but from himself alone CHAP. LXXII The marks that a Proficient in Philosophy may be known by are such as these He is not inquisitive or busie in other Men's Matters so as to censure or to commend to accuâ—â— or to complain of anybody He never talks big of himself nor magnifies his own Vertue or Wisdom When he falls under any hindrance or disappointment in his Designs he blames none but himself If any Person commend him he smiles within himself and receives it with a secret Disdain and if other People find fault with him he is not at all solicitous in his own vindication His whole behaviour is like that of a sick Man upon recovery full of caution and fear lest he should relapse again and injure his advances toward health before it be confirmed and perfectly sound As for desire he hath utterly abandoned it except what depends upon his own self and Aversions he hath none but to such Objects only as are vicious and repugnant to Nature and Reason The Affections and Appetites which Nature made strong he hath abated and taken off all the edge and eagerness of them If he be disparaged and pass for an ignorant or insensible Man he values it not And to sam up all in a word he is exceeding jealous of himself and observes every Motion of his Mind as rigorously as a Man would watch a Thief or an Enemy that lies lurking to rob or kill him COMMENT HE hath now gone through all the instructive part of his Book and is drawing on towards a Conclusion And the Substance of what he chuses to close up all with is this most necessary Caution That we must not content our selves with reading or understanding or remembring Rules of Morality but take care that they influence our Lives and be transcribed in all our Actions And that no Man who addicts himself to the Study of Philosophy must propose so mean an end as only the informing his Judgment the filling his Head with curious Notions or furnishing his Tongue with Matter of learned Discourse but the reforming of his Vices and bettering his Conversation as considering that the Design of Moral Precepts is never answered by any thing short of Practice To this purpose he first describes to us three sorts of People whose Characters are so comprehensive that all Mankind come under some one or other of them For every Person whatsoever is either a secular Man one that lives at the common rate and minds the Affairs of the World and this is one extreme Or else he is a Philosopher who hath abandoned all other Care and Concern but what relates to Vertue and the Improvement of his own Mind and this is the other opposite Extreme Or else he must be one of a rank between both these neither so untaught as the secular and common Man nor yet so accomplished as the Philosopher but such a one as hath renounced the World and is aspiring to a Moral Perfection These are called Proficients and to them the several Exhortations that have lately fallen under our Consideration are particularly directed But of these we are to take notice that Epictetus makes two sorts some that are young Beginners and lately entred into this Discipline and
hath disclaimed and is running away from and that Vertue which he is moving towards the Perfection of In this State we cannot but suppose him frequently to reflect upon his former Misery and like a Patient who is in a way of Recovery but far from perfect Health to be exceeding jealous and tender fearful of a Relapse and cautious of indulging himself in any Liberties which may keep him back from a sound and confirmed State And therefore this Jealousie must needs make him a curious Observer of his own Actions and as severe in his Sentences upon them as if they were done by an Enemy And this Rigour is of excellent use because it srees the Mind of all that partial Fondness which we are too much inclined to and which oftentimes make us either wholly over-look our own and our Friend's Faults or at least pass very gentle and favourable Constructions upon them And indeed this is the only way to make us honest and sincere for a dissolute Man hath no Principles to restrain him but is * See Erasm Adag in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Proverb A Limber Leather that will stretch and bend to any thing and you never know where to have him CHAP. LXXIII If you observe any Man value himself for understanding Chrysippus his Book thoroughly and giving a just Explanation of it represent to your self the intolerable Absurdity of such a Man's Pride by this single Reflection That if Chrysippus his Writings had not been obscure this Expounder would have had nothing to brag of Well but what is it that I think most worthy my Study Why my Duty resulting from the Condition of my Nature I Desire to know then who it is that can teach me this Duty and I am told Chrysippus can Vpon this Information I apply my self to the reading his Book I read but I do not understand him My next Care then is to look out a good Expositor In all this I have done no great Matter For when by the help of this Exposition I comprehend his Meaning yet still I want the Practical part and this in truth is the only valuable Progress For if I rest in the Author or the Commentator and content my self with a bare Vnderstanding or apt Explication I have forgot the Matter I took in hand and am no longer studying the Perfections of a Philosopher but those of a Grammarian The Difference is only this That whereas I have chosen Chrysippus to exercise my Talent upon he would have pitched rather upon Homer or some other Classick Author But this I am sure of that the more capable I am thought of explaining Chrysippus the more I ought to be out of Countenance if what I can teach others so well I do not take due care to practise as exactly my self COMMENT AFter having distinguished Mankind into three Classes and represented the Qualities proper to each of them and also made a short recapitulation of the Directions given before at large to his Proficient he now begins to enter upon the concluding Part inculcating in this and the following Chapters that Rule which alone can give Life and Energy to all the rest viz. That the reducing these Precepts into Practice must be our chief Study and Care and that the Good Works which they are excellently accommodated to produce is the genuine Fruit expected from them and the very End for which they were composed and communicated For what an Eminent Orator said once upon a like Occasion is extreamly applicable to the Case now in Hand That Words without Actions are but mere Air and empty Sound To this purpose he says a Man should reflect feriously with himself what his meaning is when he reads such Moral â—nstructions and puts his Mind upon a sedulous Enquiry after its true and proper Happiness The Answer to this Question will be That he intends to examine into Humane Nature and see what is the Constitution and true Condition of it And from thence to pursue his Enquiry farther and consider what Actions and what Sentiments are agreeable to this Nature what Impressions are fit for a Creature so framed to admit and indulge and what are to be stifled and restrained as incongruous and unseemly Well upon due Reflection I find that I have a Principle of Reason and a Body but these not equal in Authority or Value for my Reason is the Character of my Nature it challenges a Right over my Body and commands it as an Instrument subservient to it and over-ruled by it The Inference then from hence is plainly this That God and Nature designed I should live a Life of Reason and not of Sense and that all my bodily Passions should conform themselves to the Commands of their Lawful Superior that all my Fears and all my Desires should be reduced into due Order and pay Homage to the more illuâ—trious Perfections of the Soul But still I am at a loss how this is to be effected and am told That Chrysippus hath written an excelleat 〈◊〉 to this purpose I fall immediately to reâ—ding his Book but find it so abstruse and dark that I can make nothing at all of it I am directed to a good Commentary and by the help of this I understand him perfectly But all this while here is very little good done and but small praise due either to the intelligent Reader or the perspicuous Commentator For when Chrysippus wrote this he did not only intend to be understood and expounded but had a farther and much better End in it viz. That both his Reader and his Interpreter should practise what he had written If then I do this I attain to the Benefit the Writings were properly intended for and they have had their due and full effect upon me But if I delight in the Author or applaud the Expositor never so much if I am skill'd in all his Criticisms see through all his Intricaâ—ies admire the weight of his Sentences or the turn of his Style in short if I master every Difficulty and have every Attainment but only that of Practice I am not one whit improved in my Business The Title of a more nice and exact Grammarian I may indeed have some pretension to but can lay no claim at all to that of a Philosopher For this Talent of explaining an Author's Meaning is properly the Qualification of a Grammarian the only difference is That Chrysippus is an Author something out of his way and Homer a much more likely Man to come under his Consideration But there is another difference which is much more to my Disadvantage for a Man may read Homer or explain him and rest there and yet not be the worse if he be never the better for it Whereas with Chrysippus it is much otherwise for the unâ—difying Reader in this case cannot be innocent And those who do not mend by his Precepts contract a deeper guilt and incurr a juster and more severe Condemnation For would it
consider his own Abilities and not aim at things above our him Ch 59. 477 The Integrity of the Mind should be our great Care Ch. 60. 479 Nature is soon satisfied but extravagant Desires never Ch. 61. 482 Modesty in a Wife is a more valuable Excellence than Beauty Ch. 62. 486 The Body deserves but little of our Time and Pains but the Mind is worthy of them all Ch. 63. 488 What other People say or think of us is not so much our Concern as theirs Ch. 64. 490 We should take every thing by its best handle Ch. 59 494 No Man is really the better for any external Advantages Ch. 66. 499 Of rash Censures Ch. 67. 501 Vertue is to be shewn not in wise Harangues but good Actions Ch. 68. â—05 Of forwardness in Instructing and how our Improvement in Knowledge should be manifested Ch. 69. 505 c. Against Ostentation Ch. 70. 513 Every Man's Happiness and Misery is from himself Ch. 71. 518 The Character of a Proficient in Wisdom and Goodness Ch. 72. 518 c. Practice is the End of all Moral Knowledge Ch. 73. 527 We must mind our Duty strictly and despise the Censures of ehe World Ch. 74. 532 Against deferring a good Life Ch. 75. 534 True Wisdom consists not in learned Disputes about Vertue but in the Practice of it Ch. 76. 542 The Duty of Self-Resignation and Submission to the Divine Will Ch. 77 78 79. 547 The Conclusion 551 The Author's absence and the Printer's oversight have occasioned these following Mistakes which disturb the Sense and the Reader is therefore desired to correct them ERRATA PAge 4 Line 22 r. it must p. 10 Note l 10. r. have both p. 14. l. 21. r. Unites p. 17 l. 8 del to l. 9 r. from without p. 18l 5 f. without r. with p. 19. l. 11 12 r. given f. to please r. as they please p. 21 l. 5 r. it 's proper p. 16. l. 31. r. one's own p. 28 l. 33 r. desiring p. 40 l. 4 after what del a. p. 43 l. 14 f. Desining r. Desiring l. 17 f. such r. just l. 33 after selves r. forced by c. l. 35 f. strong Event r. strong Bent. p. 45 l. 7 f. when r. which l. 15 f. 't is r is l. 18 r. describes p. 51 l. 8 r. and we may p. 67 l. ult r. he tells us p. 77 l. 8 r. cure requires p. 79. l. 5. r. And that these p. 90 l. â—3 r. nor is it true p. 97 l. 22 r. Pay p. 124 l. 25 r. was not able p. 138 l. 27 r. how shall we p. 140 l. 20 r. it is rooted p. 141 l. 31 del done p. 144. l. 8 r. hath p. â—50 l. ult f. Transactions r. â—erfections p. 179 l. 17 for they r. we p. 185 l. 21 f. them r. it l. 31 after as dele not p. 199 l. 4 dele you p. 204. l. 4 r. Preference p. 206 l. 7. r. Mind p. 207 l. 20 f. ill r. all p. 210 l. 12 13 r. rendred the Thâ—ughts of them p. 2â—3 l. 17 f. great r. reall p. 226 l. 15 r. Dishonourable p. 227 f. happy r. unhappy l. ult f. Idleness r. Vileneâ—s p. 230 l. 13 f. on r. in p. 242 l. 26 r. Unreasonable p. 275 l. 26 r. superinduced 281 l. ult f. Soul is r. Souls p. 283 l. 19 f. consistent r. constituent p. 284 l. 12 f. Prosperitâ— r. Posterity p. 289 l. 26 r. in the observing these things This may be c. p. 320 l. 8 f. Companion r. Comparison p. 321 l. 2 f. Reasons r. Personâ— l. 17 r. bears to you p. 324 l. 5 f. may reflect r. may have respect 335 l. 2 f. He r. we p. 343 l. 12 f. Flesh r. Helps p. 354 l. 7. r. Reverent p. 357 l. 12 r. check l. 13 r. render p. 362 l. 25 for no r. any p. 363 l. 1 r. never not been p. 366 l. 21 after done r. it p. 373 l. 16 for presents r. preserves p. 389 l. 20 r. beâ—it p. 390 l. 23 r. This represents p. 392 l. 10 f. Disputes r. Diseases p. 395 l. â— f. than r. that p. 396 l. 23 r. themselves p. 402 l. 3 after is dele p. 411 verse 6 r. Rewards p. 418 l. 25 r. was not p. 431 l. 12 r. reduces p. 432 l. 10 r. make an Appearance p. 444. l. 3 read the Satisfaction p. 451 l. 12. r. can congratulate p. 456 l. 8 r. not to be p. 458 Ch. LIV l. 6 f. them r. it p. 462 l. 2 f. or r. and. l. 83 dele if p. 466 l. 23 f. l. e r. it p. 468 l. 23 f. one r. 〈◊〉 p. 469 l. 2 f. an Action r. Action and. p. 471 l. 8 r. Groundâ— l. 16 r. of what Constractions l. 22 r. a seeming Evil. p. 480 l. 13 f. slatter r. fasten p. 484 l. 16 f. even r. ever p. 492 l. 22 f. compleat r. complex p. 49â— after Familiarity r. between you p. 500 l. 25 f. laboured r. elaborate p. 502 l. 13 after it r. is p. 507 l. 25 f. imperious r. impious p. 510 l. 23 r. Sophitters Men who c. l. 29. r. Theoetetus p. 521 l. 1 f. this read his p. 525 l. 6 read Remembrancer l. 31 r. makes p. 531 l. 9 dele value himself Chap LXXV p. 542 dele all the Interrogatives p. 546 l. 2 r. at the same time BOOKS Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh and Richard Sare FAbles of Aesop and other eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions By Sir Roger L'Estrange Folio The Genuine Epistles of St. Barnabas St. Ignatius St. Clement St. Polycarp the Shepherd of Hermas and the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp Translated from the Greek by Willi. Wake D. D. Octavo Seneca's Morals by way of Abstract Octavo Erasmus's Colloquies Octavo Tully's Offices in English Twelves Bona's Guide to Eternity the Four last by Sir Roger L'Estrange Compleat Setts consisting of Eight Volumes of Letters writ by a Turkish Spy who lived 45 Years undiscovered at Paris giving an impartial Account to the Divan at Constantinople of the most remarkable Transactions of Europe during the said Time Twelves Humane Prudence or The Art by which a Man may raise himself and Fortune to Grandeur The Sixth Edition Twelves Moral Maxims and Reflexions in Four Parts Written in French by the Duke of Rochefoncault now made English Twelves