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
many that profess Philosophy and the Improvement of Wisdom and Virtue are yet of very loose Conversation notwithstanding all the Advantages of such an Employment For the different Methods of Life as that of Husbandry or Merchandise or Musick or the like are chosen by the Soul according to her former Disposition and Mens Station in the World is assigned them suitable to their Dignity and Deserts But the Management of themselves in any of these Callings is the Choice and Work of the Soul afterwards and we do not so much blame or commend Men for their Callings themselves as for their different Behaviour in them Farther yet This fatal Position or Revolution does never as some Men too boldly affirm it does cause any thing of Wickedness in us so as to make it necessary that Men born under it should be Knaves and Cheats adulterous or addicted to beastly and unnatural Lusts For though the Casters of Nativities sometimes say true when they foretell these Things yet this only happens according as we receive particular Qualities or Impressions which is done sometimes in a moderate and sometimes in an immoderate Degree And it is not the Insluence of the Stars but the Corruption of the Mind that makes Men Knavish or Lascivious or Unnatural and Brutish Those that receive these Insluences moderately and do not assist them by their own Depravity are Cautious and Wary correct the Heats of Youth and use it vertuously but those that receive them immoderately that is give way to them and promote them debase and prostitute themselves to all manner of Wickedness And what a Reflection upon Nature is this For even that which is most beneficial to us may turn to our Prejudice by a perverse Use of it The Sun gives us Light it both makes Things visible and enables us to see them And yet if a Man will be so foolish as to take too much of it to gaze upon his Rays when they shine in their full Strength he may lose his Eye-sight by his Folly But then that Folly and not the Brightness of the Sun is to be blamed if that which is the Author of Light to all the World be the Occasion of Blindness and Darkness to him Now when the Astrologers have as they think formed to themselves certain Marks and Rules whereby to know who will receive these Impressions in a due measure and who in a vicious Excess then they pronounce some Men Wise and others Subtle and Knavish accordingly Though after all I very much doubt Whether the erecting of any Schemes can furnish them with such Marks of Distinction or no. Some Things indeed are so manifest that all the World must allow them as that when the Sun is in Cancer our Bodies feel excessive Heat but some again are exceeding dark and doubtful and such as none but those who have made themselves Masters of Astrology can make any thing of Now that those Things which act constantly according to the Design and Directions of Nature that preserve the Original Constitution given them at first by their Great Creator and are endued with the greatest Power and Strength that such Things I say always act upon a good Design and properly speaking are never the Cause of any Evil seems to me very plain For all Evil is occasioned not by the Excess but by the Want of Power and if it were not so Power ought not to be reckoned among those Things that are Good And yet it is as plain that even Good Things in Excess oftentimes prove hurtful to us but then that Hurt is not owing to the Things but to our Selves And thus much may suffice in Answer to them who deny the Freedom of the Will upon the Pretence of any Fatality from the Motion or Position of the Heavens †If this Argument seem obscure in some of the Parts of it that must be imputed to the dark Notions of the Old Philosophers upon this Matter and the Superstitious Regard they had to Judicial Astrology which Simplicius himself is content only so far to comply with as to allow some considerable Influence of the Heavens upon the Bodies and Tempers of Men and that Stroke which the Complexions of People have in forming the Dispositions of their Minds Some Passages there are too which proceed upon the Hypotheses of the Pre-existence and Transmigration of Souls and their being provided with Bodies of Good or Bad Complexions here according to their Merits or Demerits in some former State But in truth this whole Notion of Judiciary Astrology is now very justly exploded as groundless and fantastical and many Modern Philosophers have proved it by very substantial Arguments to be no better See particularly Gassend in his Animadversions on the 10th Book of Diogenes Laertius But indeed to all who deny this Liberty upon any Argument whatsoever it may be replied in general That those who go about to destroy it do by no means consider or understand the Nature of the Soul but overthrow its very Original Constitution without seeming to be sensible of it For they take away all Principle of Internal and Self-Motion in which the Essence of the Soul chiefly consists For it must be either moved of its own Accord and then it is excited by a Cause within its self to its Appetites and Affections and not thrust forward and dragg'd along as Bodies are or else it is moved by an External Force and then it is purely Mechanical Again They that will not allow us to have our Actions at our own Disposal do not attend to nor are able to account for the Vital Energy of the Soul and its Assenting and Dissenting Accepting or Rejecting Power Now this is what Experience and Common Sense teaches every Man that he hath a Power of Consenting and Refusing Embracing and Declining Agreeing to or Denying and it is to no purpose to argue against that which we feel and find every Moment But all these are internal Motions begun in the Soul it self and not violent Impulses and Attractions from Things without us such as Inanimate Creatures must be moved by For this is the Difference between Animate and Inanimate Bodies that the one Sort are moved by an Internal Principle and the other are not Now according to this Distinction that which puts the Inanimate into Motion must have a Principle of Motion of its own and cannot it self be moved Mechanically For if this derived its Motion from something else too then as was urged before the Body is not moved by this but by that other cause from whence the Motion is first imparted to this and so the Body being moved no longer from within but by some forcible impression from without as all other Inanimate Creatures are must it self be concluded Inanimate Once more By denying that we have power over our Actions and a liberty of Willing or not Willing of Considering Comparing Choosing Defining Declining and the like all Moral Distinctions are lost and gone and Virtue
degree comparable to this Freedom of the Will For in truth there is no Thing no Priviledge in this lower World so desirable And there is no Body so stupid and lost as to wish that he were a Brute or a Plant rather than a Man And therefore since God displayed the Abundance of his Goodness and Power in giving Perfections inferior to this how inconsistent would it have been with that Bounty of his not to have bestowed this most excellent Priviledge upon Mankind Besides as hath been intimated formerly take away this Undetermined Propension of the Soul by which it inclines it self to Good or Evil and you undermine the very Foundations of all Virtue and in effect destroy the Nature of Man For if you suppose it impossible to be perverted to Vice you have no longer any such thing as Justice or Temperance or any other Virtue left the observing of these things may be the Excellence of an Angel or a God but impeccable and indefectable Goodness can never be the Virtue of a Man From whence it is plain that there was a necessity of leaving the Soul in a capacity of being Corrupted and of committing all that Evil consequent to such Depravation because otherwise a Gap had been left in the Creation there could have been no Medium between the Blessed Spirits above and Brutes below no such thing as Humane Nature nor Humane Vertue in the World So then we allow that this Self-determining Power by which Men are depraved is a thing of God's own Creation and appointment and yet consider withal how necessary this is to the Order and Beauty of the Universe and how many good Effects it hath In other respects we can by no means admit that he should be traduced as the Cause and Author of Evil upon this account When a Surgeon lays on a Drawing Plaister to ripen a Swelling or Cuts or Sears any part of our Bodies or lops off a Limb no Man thinks he takes these Methods to make his Patient worse but better because Reason tells us that Men in such Circumstances are never to be cured by less painful Applications Thus the Divine Justice in his deserved Vengeance suffers the Passions of the Soul to rage and swell so high because he knows the condition of our Distemper and that the smarting sometimes under the wild Suggestions of our own furious Appetites is the only way to bring us to a better Sense of our Extravagance and to recover us of our Phrensy 'T is thus that we suffer little Children to burn their Fingers that we may deter them from playing with Fire And for the same Reasons many wise Educators of Youth do not think themselves oblig'd to be always thwarting the Inclinations of those under their Charge but sometimes connive at their Follies and give them a loose there being no way so effectual for the purging of these Passions as to let them sometimes be indulged that so the Persons may be cloyed and nauseate and grow Sick of them And in these Cases it cannot be said that either those Parents and Governors or the Justice of God is the Cause of Evil but rather of Good because all this is done with a Vertuous Intent For whatever tends to the Reformation of Manners or confirming the Habits of Virtue may be as reasonably called Virtuous as those things that are done in order to the Recovery and Continuance of Health may be called wholsome For Actions do principally take their denomination and quality from the End to which they are directed So that although God were in some measure the Cause of this necessity we are in of deviating from Goodness vet cannot Moral Evil be justly laid at his Door But how far he is really the cause of our Deflection from our Duty I shall now think it becomes me to enquire God does not by any Power or immediate Act of his own cause that Aversion from Good which the Soul is guilty of when it Sins but he only gave her such a power that she might turn her self to Evil that so such a Species of free Agents might fill avoid Space in the Universe and many good effects might follow which without such an Aversion could never have been brought about God indeed is truly and properly the Cause of this Liberty of our Wills but then this is a Happiness and a Priviledge infinitely to be preferred above whatever else the World thinks most valuable and the Operation of it consists in receiving Impressions and determining it self thereupon not from any Constraint but by its own mere Pleasure Now that a Nature thus qualified is Good I cannot suppose there needs any proof we have the Confession of our Adversaries themselves to strengthen us in the Belief of it For even they who set up a Principle of Evil declare they do it because they cannot think God the Author of Evil and these very Men do not only acknowledge the Soul to be of his forming but they talk big and pretend that it is a part of his very Essence and yet notwithstanding all this they own it capable of being vitiated but so as to be vitiated by its self only For this is the manifest consequence of their other Tenets that it depends upon our own Choice whether we will overcome Evil or be overcome by it that the Vanquished in this Combat are very justly punished and the Victors largely and deservedly rewarded Now the truth is when they talk at this rate they do not well consider how directly these Notions contradict that irresistible necessity to Sin which they elsewhere make the Soul to lye under But however whether the Soul be depraved by its own Foolish Choice or whether by some fatal Violence upon it from without still the being naturally capable of such depravation is agreed on all Hands for both sides confess it to be actually depraved which it could never be without a natural Capacity of being so Therefore they tell us the First Original Good is never tainted with Evil because his Nature is above it and inconsistent with any such Defect as are also the other Goodnesses in the next degreee of Perfection to him such as in their Cant are called the Mother of Life the Creator and the Aeones So then these Men acknowledge the depravable Condition of the Soul they profess God to be the Maker of it and to have set it in this Condition and yet it is plain they think the nature of the Soul depravable as it is Good and not Evil because at the same time that they ascribe this Freedom of the Will to God they are yet superstitiously fearful of ascribing any Evil to him And this I think may very well suffice for the Nature and Origin of Evil. Let us now apply our selves to consider the Passage before us and observe how artificially Epictetus hath comprised in a very few Words the substance of those Arguments which we have here drawn out to so great a length
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
are Masters of all these things This is the very Reason why the Laws of God and Man and the Judgment of all Wise Men make our own Freedom and Choice the Standard to measure our Actions by They look upon the Intention as a thing absolutely in our own power and pronounce of our Vices and our Vertues according to this and not according to the quality of our Actions themselves For they are not absolutely ours but are specified and distinguished become formally good or evil by our own Will and our own Choice The action of Killing is always the same considered strictly in it self but when this action is involuntary it is excused and pardoned because in such cases it is not properly ours nor in our own power Nay when done in a just Cause or in a legal way it is not only excused but applauded and highly commendable So that the formal Good or Evil of our Actions does not depend upon the Actions themselves but upon the Intention the Choice the Freedom and Power that we have in them and which give them their moral Qualities accordingly By all this it appears that Epictetus took the right Method when he began his Instructions with this consideration of things within our own power and advised us to make it the general rule of all our Conduct since all the Excellency and all the Dishonesty of our Actions all the Happiness and Misery of our Lives depends upon it But when he says in general Terms That all things may be distinguished into Two sorts some that are and some that are not in our own power we must not so understand him as if all things whatsoever were meant by it but only such as are within us or any way concern us For at that rate there would be no proportion at all betwixt the Two Opposite Parts which ought to be observed and is necessary to make a just Division And this Proportion I say would be quite lost if all things whatsoever both those that are contained in the World and those that are above and out of the World were set in opposition to the few in comparison that are within our own power But now in regard some People quarrel with this Distinction even when limited in the most cautious manner that can be and will allow us to have nothing at all in our own power And among these some assert that all our Actions Appetites and Passions proceed from Necessity and not from Choice and others make us like Stones put into motion that act mechanically by chance and without any purpose or design at all though what hath been said already upon our natural Power and the Place which our Choice and Free-Will hath and the Necessity that so it must be might suffice yet perhaps it may not be amiss to consider the Objections of those Men who would rob us of this Liberty and Power and to refute them particularly Now if by this mechanical and forced sort of Action without purpose and by pure chance they intend to say that we propose to our selves no end at all in what we do it is by no means true or if it would hold in some cases yet it is evident there are very many instances in which it will not For all Arts and Sciences nay all Natures and Beings have constantly some particular aim and end fixed to them to which they direct their Endeavours perpetually and make every action in some degree subservient And it may be said in general That there is no one Act no one Motion of any Living Creature in the whole World but is performed out of a prospect of some real or at least some seeming Good Even where the Object is Evil this Observation holds for the avoiding of that Evil is for the attaining some Good and the advantagâ— we may find in escaping from it But if this acting by Chance and without any Purpose be so understood that what we desire may prove impossible to be compassed or incapable of answering our end or hurtful when we have attained it as we say sometimes that a Man took a Medicine without any thought or to no purpose which did him no good or perhaps did him harm Neither does this Sense destroy our Free-Will for we maintain that those Desires and Aversions are in our Power which concern not only things that may be attained and turn to our Benefit when they are so but those too which cannot and which are prejudicial to us when we have them And for this Reason we affirm that our Errors and our Vices are as truly the effects of this Liberty and Choice as our greatest Vertues themselves are Those who pretend that our Opinions and Desires and in general speaking all our Choices and Intentions are necessary and not at our own Disposals as proceeding from Motives without us and not beginning of our own accord within us argue for their Opinion several ways Some of them make the Wants of Humane Nature the ground of this Necessity for we all know that a Man in extremity of Hunger or Thirst or Cold desires Meat and Drink and Warmth whether he will or no and a Person upon a Sick Bed cannot help desiring Health and Ease Some lay all upon the nature of the thing it self which is the Object of our Opinion or Desire or Aversion and contend that this excites our Passions and affects our Minds by its own Power and Evidence whether we are consenting to it or not Who is there for instance that hath attained to the least knowledge in Arithmetick and does not readily allow and firmly believe that twice Two make Four And which way shall we call such an Opinion as this the effect of Freedom and Choice and not rather of absolute Constraint arising from the evidence of the thing assented to and the impossibility of its being otherwise So again when a Man hath entertain'd a Notion of any Goodness or Excellence when he apprehends a thing to be Lovely or Prositable or the direct contrary does he not presently naturally desire the one sort and decline the other For the best Philosophers are agreed that the Object of our Desire and the final cause are the first Motives and that which sets all the rest on work And if this be true how shall we challenge that as our own Act and Deed which is so absolutely the effect of Constraint and Necessity imposed by the nature and quality of things without us that stir our Affections accordingly without any Disposal or Consent of ours Others rather think that the Disposition of the Person designing is the cause of all this necessity for this say they must needs be wrought upon according as it stands inclined nor is it in ones own Choice whether he will desire those things or not which his own Nature and Temper and Custom strongly determine him to Thus the Temperate Person finds in himself â—n habitual desire of such Actions and such Conversation as are
and Vice utterly confounded there is no longer any such ground left for Praise or Dispraise Applause or Reproach Rewards or Punishments the Laws of God and Man instituted for those Purposes and enforced by these Sanctions are evacuated and the very Foundations of them all torn up and quite overturn'd And then do but consider how dismal the Consequences must be for when once we are come to this pass all Order and Society must needs be lost and nothing left us but a Life of Rapine and Violence of Misery and Confusion a Life not of Civilized Men but of Ravenous and Wild Beasts But I expect that the Adversaries of this Opinion will appeal back again to our own Experience and urge afresh What do we not often find our selves by the Tyranny of Ill Men and the over-bearing Torrent of our own Passions and the strong event of Natural Sympathies and Antipathies Do not these compel us to do and suffer many things against our Wills and such as no Man in his Senses would choose if it were in his power to avoid To this my Answer is still the same That notwithstanding all this our Liberty is not destroyed but the Choice upon these Occasions is still free and our own For here are Two things proposed and though the side we take be not eligible for its own sake and when considered absolutely yet it is so with regard to the present streights we are in and when compared with something which we avoid by this means and for this Reason it is that we make choice of it And it is utterly impossible that a Man should be carried to do any thing without the consent of his own Mind for he that seems to do a thing without his own Choice is like a Man that is thrust down a Precipice by some stronger Hand which he cannot resist and this Person is at that time under the circumstance of an Inanimate Creature he does not act at all but is purely passive in the case So that when we really do act though with never so great unwillingness and reluctancy yet still we choose to act after such and such a manner This is further evident from Men's own practice for we find that several Persons take several ways when yet the necessity that lies upon them is the same Some choose to comply with what is imposed upon them for fear of enduring some greater Evil if they refuse it and others again are peremptory in the refusing it as looking upon such compliance to be a greater Evil than any Punishment they can possibly undergo upon the account of their refusal So that even in those Actions that seem most involuntary there is still a place for Liberty and Choice For we must distinguish between what is Voluntary and what is Free That only is Voluntary which would be chosen for its own sake but that is Free when we have power to choose not only for its own sake but for the sake of avoiding some greater Mischief And indeed there are some cases in which we find both something Voluntary and something Involuntary meet for which Reason those are properly called Mix'd Actions that is when what is Eligible upon these Occasions 't is not simply and absolutely so but carries something along with it which we should never choose if we could help it And Homer very elegantly described this perplexity of Thought and this mixture of Voluntariness and Involuntariness in the Soul when he says to this purpose Great Strife in my divided Breast I find A Will consenting yet unwilling Mind These things I thought fit the rather to enlarge upon because almost all the following Pook depends upon this distinction of the things in our own power For the Design of it being wholly Moral and Instructive he lays the true Foundation here at first and shews us what we ought to place all our Happiness and all our Unhappiness in and that being at our own Disposal and endued with a Principle of Motion from within we are to expect it all from our own Actions For things that move Mechanically and necessarily as they derive their Being from so they owe all their Good and Evil they are capable of to something else and depend upon the Impressions made upon them from without both for the thing it self and for the degree of it But those Creatures that act freely and are themselves the cause of their own Motions and Operations receive all their Good and Evil from these Operations Now these Operations properly speaking with regard to Knowledge and Speculative Matters are their Opinions and Apprehensions of things but with regard to Desirable Objects and Matters of Practice they are the Appetites and Aversions and the Affections of the Soul When therefore we have just Ideas and our Notions agree with the things themselves and when we apply our Desires and our Aversions to such Objects and in such measures as we ought to do then we are properly happy and attain to that Perfection which Nature hath designed us for and made peculiar to us but when we fail in these Matters then we fail of that Happiness and Perfection too Now by our own Works I mean such as are wrought by our selves only and need nothing more to effect them but our own Choice For as to our Actions that concern things without us such as Sciences and Trades and supplying the Necessities of Humane Life and the making our selves Masters of Knowledge and the instructing others in it or any other Employments and Professions that give us Credit and Reputation in the World these are not entirely in our own power but require many Helps and external Advantages in order to the compassing of them But the regulating of our Opinions and our own Choices are properly and entirely our own Works and stand in need of no Foreign Assistances So that our Good and Evil depends upon our selves for this we may be sure of that no Man is accountable for those things that do not come within the compass of his own power But our Bodies Possessions Reputations Preferments and Places of Honour and Authority and in short every thing besides our own Actions are things out of our own power The Reason why these are said to be out of our own Power and Disposal is not because the Mind hath no part in them or contributes nothing towards them for it is plain that both our Bodies and our Estates are put into a better or a worse Condition in proportion to that provident Care the Soul takes of them or the Neglect she is guilty of with regard to them The Soul does also furnish Occasions for the acquiring Credit and Fame and by her Diligence and Wisdom it is that wâ— attain to Posts of Greatness and Government For indeed there could be no such thing as the exercise of Authority especially as the World goes now without the Choice and Consent of the Soul But because these things are not totally at
well to all Mankind and rejoycing at the Prosperity of others And here we shall do well to observe what a mighty Good he makes this seeming Evil to contain and how prodigious an Honour this Disrespect derives upon us For this indeed is the very Quality of the Mind that brings us to the truest and nearest resemblance of God which is the greatest Happiness that any of his Creatures can possibly attain to For God is himself of absolute and unbounded Power being indeed the only Source of whatever limited Power is communicated to any other Beings And as his Power is infinitely great so his Will is infinitely Good From hence it comes to pass that he would have all things good and not any thing Evil so far as that can be And because his Will can intend nothing but what his Power is able to accomplish therefore he does really make all things Good and this he does not niggardly and grudgingly but communicates to every Creature of his own Goodness in as large Proportions as the Condition of each Creature is capable of enjoying Now the Soul of Man does not resemble God in infinite and uncontroulable Power 't is true for this is a Perfection of the Divine Nature which our Constitution cannot receive and besides there are many Degrees of intermediate Beings which though much inferior to God are yet much superior to us in point of Power But still in the other part of his Excellence he hath condescended to make us like himself and given us the honour of a Will Free and Unbounded a Will capable of extending its good Wishes and kind Inclinations to all the World provided we have but the Grace to make this good use of it It is therefore an instance of his wonderful Wisdom and adorable Goodness that he hath made this to be his Image and Similitude in our Souls because this is the true and proper principle of all Operation and Action And though the Soul cannot punctually make all things Good as God can and does yet it goes as far as it can in making them so and for the rest it does its part by wishing that Good which it cannot give them For that indeed is perfect and true Volition when the Person willing exerts his whole Strength and all the Faculties assist and concur with it for we have the absolute Disposal of our own Minds and so the wishing well to all Mankind is what any Man may do if he please And indeed a truly Good Man goes farther than all this he wishes the Prosperity of all Men whatsoever and he stops not there but extends his Kindness to Creatures of different Species to Brutes and Plants and even Inanimate things in a word to all that make up this great Body of the World of which himself is a part 'T is true he cannot make those Wishes effectual to all because as I said the Willing is a Perfection given us by Nature but the power of Effecting is not for this requires the Cooperation of many other Causes the Permission of the Gods and the Concurrence of several Agents which we cannot command And for this Reason it is that all our Virtue consists in our Will the Merit of all our Actions is measured by that and all the Happiness and Misery of our Lives made to depend upon the Good or Ill use of it And thus you have the force of this Argument proceeding upon a Supposition that these things are Good But if on the other hand the Respects denied to the Philosopher and paid to others be Evil this can be no ground of dissatisfaction but ministers a fresh occasion of Joy Not upon his account indeed who hath them but upon your own who have them not And at this rate the Good Man can never be Melancholy at the want of these things nor look upon it as any disparagement to his Person or diminution of his Happiness but is sure to be pleased let the Event be what it will that is either for others good Success if it be Good or for his own Escape if it be otherwise And thus all angry Resentments are taken off in point of Interest and Advantage for though we allow these things to be what conduce to our Happiness yet it is a much greater Happiness to aspire after a Resemblance of the Divine Perfections which the missing of them gives Men an opportunity to do and if they rather tend to make us Miserable then the Being without them is not so properly a Want as a Deliverance After this he proceeds to Two other Topicks the Possibility of obtaining them and the Reasonableness of expecting them From the former of these he argues that it is not to be imagined that one who never makes his Court should have the same Priviledges with one that is eternally labouring to ingratiate himself And this must consist of all the Ceremonious Fopperies and Servile Submissions imaginable the waiting at the Great Man's Rising expecting his coming out cringing and bowing in the Streets the Court and all Places of publick Concourse the Commending all he does though never so Base and admiring all he says though never so Senseless And therefore for a Philosoper and a Man of Honour and Truth who cannot submit to these unworthy Methods of insinuating himself to meet with the same Countenance and Marks of Kindness with those that prostitute themselves at this rate for them is as the World goes absolutely impossible Nay it is not only unreasonable upon that account to expect them but in point of Justice too it argues a Man greedy and insatiable when he expects his Meal and yet will not consent to pay his Ordinary It is desiring to invade another's Right and ingross to your self what he hath already bought and paid for For though he left no Mony under his Plate yet he gave that purchase which you would have thought much too dear And consequently as he shews by that instance of the Lettice you that went without the Dinner have as good a Bargain at least as he that was admitted to it He had the Varieties indeed but then you have your Liberty you did not inslave your self so far as to laugh at his dull Jests nor to commend what your better Sense could not like nor to bear the affected Coldness of his Welcome nor the tedious Attendance in an Anti-Chamber In short you were not the Subject of his haughty Negligence and stiff Formality nor the Jest of his saucy Servants All this you must have been content with to have Dined with his Greatness if you expect it upon easier Terms you are mistaken for it will come no cheaper and if you expect it without paying as others do it argues you greedy and an unfair Chapman And this Character is not consistent with that of a Good Man so that you must change your Temper and be more moderate in your expectances of this kind CHAP. XXXIII * The Condition of Nature and our
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
motion And thus we style him Holy and Just and Merciful and Good and Lord and Omnipotent and sometimes take the Confidence to use such Appellations as we think applicable to some of the Sons of men And thus much shall suffice at present for the First of the Three Points before us which pretends to shew That there are First Causes of Things and that GOD is the truly First and Original of them all And though I have pass'd over several Steps that might have been taken in running from Effects to their Causes and would perhaps have made the Demonstration more gradual and compleat yet I must be content to enlarge no farther as being duly sensible that some Persons will think what is already done a great deal too much and that these Excursions are by no means agreeable to my first Design which was to give as compendious an Illustration as I could to this Manual of Epictetus The next Assertion to be proved was That this God governs and disposes all Things by his Providence which though it be I presume largely demonstrated upon several Occasions in the foregoing Chapters shall yet be allowed a particular Consideration in this place For some People are ready enough to acknowledge the Being and the Perfections of God they acquiesce in his Power and Goodness and Wisdom but as for the Affairs of the World these they do not suppose him to regard at all nor be in the least concerned for them as being too little and low and in no degree deserving his Care And indeed the greatest Temptation to this Opinion they frankly own to be ministred by the very unequal Distribution of Things here below and the monstrous Irregularities that the Government of the World seems chargeable withal They observe some exceedingly wicked Men high in Power and Preferments their Estates plentiful and growing their Health sound and uninterrupted and thus they continue a prosperous and pleasant Life to extream old Age go down to their Graves gently and peaceably and frequently leave their Posterity Heirs of their good Fortune and transmit their ill-gotten Wealth to succeeding Generations In the mean while many Persons eminently vertuous and good are miserably oppress'd by the Insolence and Barbarity of those wicked Great Ones and yet for all this Injustice there is no Vengeance that we can observe overtakes the Oppressor nor any Comfort or Reward to support the Sufferer These as was hinted before are the Speculations that give Men the Confidence to dispute against GOD. Some have been so far emboldened by them as to deny his very Being but others in compliance with the universal Consent of Mankind and the natural Intimations we have of Him are content to allow his Nature and Perfections but can by no means allow his Providence and especially when it happens to be their own case and their particular Misfortunes have given an edge to the Objection and made it enter deeper and more sensibly For then they can by no means be persuaded that so great an Inequality can be consistent with Providence or that GOD can interest Himself in the Management of the World and yet do a thing so unworthy his Justice and so contrary to his Nature as to suffer insulting Wickedness to pass unpunished and injured Vertue to perish unredressed Now the first Return I shall make to this Objection shall be in more general terms by desiring the Person who proposes it to answer me to the several Parts of this dis-junctive Argument If there be a God and not a Providence then the Reason must be either want of Knowledge and a due Sense that these Things ought to be his Care or if he knows that they ought and yet does not make them so then this must proceed either from want of Power or want of Will For the want of Power there may be two Causes assigned either that the Burden and Difficulty of Governing the World is so great that GOD is not able punctually to discharge it or else That these are Matters so very mean and inconsiderable that they escape his Notice and are not worth his Care and Observation If the Sufficiency of his Power be granted and the Want of Will be insisted upon this may likewise be imputed to two Reasons Either That he indulges his own Ease and will not take the pains or else as was argued before That these Matters are of so mean Consideration that tho' he could attend to the most minute Circumstances of them if he so pleased yet he does not do it as thinking it more becoming the Greatness of his Majesty to sleight and overlook them This dis-junctive Argument being thus proposed in the general the several Branches of it may be replied to as follows That admitting God to be such a Being as hath been here described perfect in Wisdom and Knowledge absolute and uncontroulable in Power and of Goodness incomprehensible and withal the Original Cause and Author of all Things produced from and by Himself and being so many parcels as it were of his own Divinity it is not possible first he should be ignorant that the Products of his own Nature and the Works of his own Hands require his Care For this were to represent him more insensible than the wildest and most stupid of all brute Beasts since even these express a very tender regard for the Creatures to whom they give Birth and Being It is as absurd every whit to say in the next place That this is a Care too weighty and above his Power and Comprehension For how is it possible to conceive an Effect greater and stronger than the Cause to which it entirely owes its Production And no less so thirdly to alledge That these Matters are neglected because too little and low to fall within his Observation For sure had they been so despicable he would never have created them at all The want of Will is no more occasion of such a Neglect than the want of Power To suppose this Care omitted only for the indulging his own Ease and to avoid the Interruption of his Pleasures would be to six upon him the Infirmities and Passions of Men nay and such as are peculiar to the worst and most profligate of Men too For not only humane Reason but natural instinct infuses an anxious Tenderness into Brutes such as suffers them to decline no pains for the Provision and Support of their Off-spring Nor can we in any reason imagine such want of Will from a Consideration of the Vileness of these Things since nothing certainly is contemptible in His Eyes who created it and whatever he thought worthy the Honour of receiving its Existence from him he cannot think unworthy that of his Protection and Care So that when you have made the most of this Argument that it can possibly bear still every part meets you with some intolerable absurdity and no one of these Considerations nor all of them put together can ever induce a Man who believes that
of Children for an affectionate and tender Care of her Husband and for submitting CHAP. LXIV When any Man does you an Injury or reflects upon your Good Name consider with your self that he does this out of a Persuasion that it is no more than what you deserve and what becomes him to say or do And it cannot be expected that your Opinion of things but his own should give Law to his Behaviour Now if that Opinion of his be Erroneous the Misfortune is not yours but his who is thus led into Mistakes concerning you For the Truth of a Proposition is not shaken one whit by a Man's supposing it to be false the Consequence is not the worse but the Person that judges amiss of it is Such Considerations as these may serve to dispose you to Patience and Meekness and by degrees you will be able to bear the most scurrilous Reproaches and think the bitterest and most insolent Traducer worth no other return than this mild Answer That these it seems are his Thoughts of you and it is not strange that Man should vent his own Opinion freely and act according to it COMMENT THis Chapter is plainly intended to persuade us to bearing of Injuries with Meekness and Moderation and the Arguments made use of to this purpose are Two The first proceeds upon a Foundation evident to common Sense and confirmed by the Practice and Experience of all the World which is That every Man acts in agreement with his own particular Notions of things and does what at the instant of doing it appears to him fittest to be done And therefore if his Apprehensions differ from ours as it cannot be any great Matter of Wonder so neither does it minister any just Cause of Resentment because he follows the Dictates of his Breast and I follow mine and so do all the World So that it would be a most extravagant and senseless thing for me to be angry for his acting according to Nature and upon a Principle universally consented to by all Mankind But you will say perhaps That his following his own Opinion is not the thing you quarrel with but the entertaining an ill Opinion of you for which there is no Ground or Colour of Justice Now upon Examination of this Pretence too it will be found that you have not at all mended the Matter but that this is as ridiculous and absurd a Passion as the other For if he have done you no harm where is the Provocation and that it is plain he hath not for no body is the worse for it but himself He that thinks he does well when he really does ill and mistakes Falsehood for Truth is under a dangerous Delusion and suffers extreamly by his Error And therefore the Man that injures your Person or your Reputation does but wound himself all the while And this he does more effectually and to his own greater Prejudice than it is possible for you in the height of all your desired Revenge or for the most Potent and malicious Enemy in the World to do For whatever the world commonly esteems most noxious can reach no farther than the Body or the External Enjoyments and consequently does not in strict speaking hurt the Man himself But Error is a Blemish upon the Soul an Evil that affects his Essence and taints the very distinguishing Character of the Humane Nature Now that the Person who entertains this false Opinion and not he concerning whom it is entertained receives all the Prejudice by it he proves beyond all Contradiction by the Instance of a compleat Proposition For suppose one should say If it be Day then the Sun is above the Horizon and another Person should maintain that this is false his standing out against it does not in any degree weaken the Truth of the Assertion nor invalidate the necessary dependence of the Two Parts of it upon each other It remains in the same Perfection still but the person who judges amiss concerning it does not so Thus the Man that affronts or traduces you contrary to all the Rules of Justice and Honour and Duty injures himself but you continue untouch'd and neither the Edge of his Weapon nor the Venom of his Tongue can enter you Especially if you are as you ought to be fully convinced that there is no such thing as Good or Evil to be had from any thing but what falls within the Compass of our own Choice When therefore you have called up your Reason and have reflected first how natural it is for every Man to be governed by his own Sense of things and then that the Injury does not really reach you but falls back upon the Person who vainly intended it for you this will cool your Passion and fill you with a generous Disdain you will think his impotent Malice deserves to be slighted only and may check both his Folly and your own Resentment with some such scornful return as this That he does but what all the World do for though all are not of the same mind yet in that vast variety of Opinions every man acts according to his own CHAP. LXV Every thing hath two Handles the one soft and manageable the other such as will not endure to be touched If then your Brother do you an Injury do not take it by the hot and the hard handle by representing to your self all the aggravating Circumstances of the Fact but look rather on the soft side and extenuate it as much as is possible by considering the nearness of the Relation and the long Friendship and Familiarity Obligations to Kindness which a single Provocation ought not to dissolve And thus you will take the accident by its manageable handle COMMENT ALL the parts of this material World are composed of different Principles and contrary Qualities From whence it comes to pass that in some respects they agree and can subsist together and in others they are opposite and incompatible and destructive of one another Thus the Fire hath the two Qualities of hot and dry most remarkable in it with regard to its heat it agrees well with the Air and is compatible with it but its drought is repugnant to the moisture of the Air and contends with it and destroys it And this Observation holds in Moral as well as Natural Philosophy For thus an Injury received from a Brother hath two handles and is capable of different Constructions and different Resentments according to that handle we take it by Consider the Man my Brother my Friend my old Play-fellow and Acquaintance and this is the soft and pliable side it disposes me to Patience and Reconciliation and Kindness But if you turn the other side and regard only the Wrong the Indignity the unnatural Usage of so near a Relation this is the untractable part it will not bear the touch and disposes to nothing but Rage and Revenge Now it is plain that what we esteem light and very tolerable is entertained by us with easiness
Good Man and desires to distinguish himself by a Life conformable to the best Reason proposes an End agreeable to such a Life and consequently cannot have any pretence to preferr himself before another for any advantages of Eloquence that he hath above him For there is a wide difference between such a one's Eloquence and himself Nor is this the essential Property and Prerogative of his Nature that he should receive his Denomination from it as every Artificer is distinguished by his Profession So that all the boast that can be allowed him in this case comes only to thus much My Language is better than yours And this Instance is what I the rather have chosen to insist upon because I imagine Epictetus his main intention here was to give his Philosopher a check for that superstitious Nicety very common among them of being over-curious and laboured in their Compositions and spending too much time and pains about Words But because this was a tender point that other Instance of the Richer Man's exalting himself is added the better to cover his Design and make the Reproof the softer CHAP. LXVII If any Man bathes too soon do not you presently say He hath done ill in it but only that he did it early If a Man drink a great deal of Wine do not censure him for having done ill but only say That he drinks a great deal For how is it possible for you to know whether he did ill or no unless you were conscious of his Intentions and saw the Grounds he went upon And this Caution which I here advise you is the only way to prevent that common Injury and Inconvenience of determining rashly upon outward appearances and pronouncing peremptorily concerning things that you do not know COMMENT HE would have us proceed in our Judgment of Men's Actions with great accuracy and circumspection Not to be too forward in giving our Opinion of any kind either in praise or dispraise acquitting or condemning of them till we are first well satisfied of the Person 's Intention what Reasons he proceeded upon and what End he directed it to For these are the very Considerations that make an Action formally good or evil and according as these vary they may deserve a very different Interpretation Thus a man may give Blows and do good in it if this be intended to correct a Fault he may give one Sustenance to his prejudice if it be designed to feed his Disease nay matters may be so ordered that Stealing shall be an Act of Justice and Restitution an Injury as if the Object of both be a Mad-man's Sword If then we would deal honestly and fairly we must judge of Actions according to the Circumstances that appear to us and as they are in themselves When we see a man bathe before the usual Hour all we should say of it That he hath done it early without pretending to determine the Quality of the Fact or calling it good or evil till we know what it was that moved him to do so Possibly he was obliged to sit up all Night and wanted this Refreshment to supply his loss of Sleep Now this and the like are very material Considerations for a man's motives and intention quite alter the nature of the thing You ought not then to be too hasty in passing Judgment upon this Bathing out of course for till these things are known the Quality of the Fact does not lie before you nor have you any matter to proceed upon Thus again a man may drink a larger proportion of Wine than ordinary and there may be several Reasons that will justifie him in it the Constitution of his Body or the Season of the Year or the Temperament of the Air may make it necessary And consequently what rash and busie People are apt to condemn when well enquired into proves no more than Duty and Prudence done to satisfie Nature or to support the Spirits in faint sultry Weather or to keep out moist Foggs or pestilential Vapours Now if we do thus as he advises and stop at the Actions themselves without presuming to applaud or to condemn them till we have throughly examined into the Grounds of them and are satisfied of the man's Disposition and Design we decline an Injustice and an Inconvenience which otherwise it is impossible to avoid And that is the knowing one thing and judging another the determining more than we have Evidence for For in both the Instances before us nothing appears but the outward Act and its Circumstances that the Bathing was early that the Wine was much but the Causes of these do not appear upon which depends the moral Good or Evil of the thing and yet the busie World are ever giving their definitive Sentence in this point too And what can be more rash more injurious more absurd than this from what they do see peremptorily to pronounce of what they do not see Now since men's Minds and the secret Springs of their Actions do so very seldom fall within our notice I take Epictetus his Design here to be the dissuading us in general from judging men at all And indeed it is but prudent for our own sakes as well as sit for theirs to be very sparing in this particular that by suspending our Judgment we may not fall under the shame of retracting it afterwards upon better Information And therefore he would not have us over-forward either in our Censures or our Commendations though he levelled this Chapter chiefly no doubt against the Condemning side because the Injury done by rash Censures is generally greater and because the Evil is a great deal more popular for the World is not rash only but ill-natured too they are apt and glad to find Faults and forward sometimes to make them This base practice therefore lay more directly to the Author's purpose which was to instruct us in another Branch of Justice one indeed no less necessary than any of the rest viz. That which concerns our Neighbour's Reputation CHAP. LXVIII Never profess your self a Philosopher nor talk much of Rules and wise Observations among the Ignorant and Vulgar but let your Rules be seen in your Practice Thus when you are at a Publick Entertainment discourse not of Temperance and Moderation to the Company but let your own Example teach it them and remember that Socrates upon all occasions declined Ostentation insomuch that when some Persons in derision came to him and desired him to recommend them to a Philosopher he carried them to some that profess'd themselves such without expressing the least Indignation at the Affront they had put upon him CHAP. LXIX Nay if you happen in Conversation with ignorant and common Men though they start a Discourse concerning some Point in Philosophy do you forbear joining with them in it For when Men are forward to vent their Notions it is a shrewd sign they are not well digested It is possible your Silence may be interpreted Ignorance and that some of the