The Good Book (6 page)

12. Be assured, then, that when your own cup likewise is broken, you ought to be affected just as when another’s cup is broken.

13. Apply this in like manner to greater things, seeing illness and death, and grief for others, as what will happen because it must.

14. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 16

  1. As a mark is not set up for the sake of missing the aim, so neither does the nature of evil exist in the world.

  2. If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would be angry.

  3. Why then do you feel no shame in handing over your mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who tries to persuade you for his own advantage?

  4. In every affair consider what precedes and follows, and then undertake it.

  5. Otherwise you will begin with enthusiasm; but not having thought of the consequences, when some of them appear you will shamefully desist.

  6. ‘I would conquer at the Games.’ But consider what precedes and follows, and then, if it is for your advantage, engage in the affair:

  7. You must conform to rules, submit to a diet, refrain from dainties; exercise your body, whether you choose it or not, at a stated hour, in heat and cold; you must drink no cold water, nor sometimes even wine.

  8. In a word, you must give yourself up to your master, as to a physician. Then, in the combat, you may be thrown into a ditch, dislocate your arm, turn your ankle, swallow dust, be whipped, and, after all, not gain the victory.

  9. When you have evaluated all this, if your inclination still holds, then do it, and with a will, with all your might; and for the sake of the good that comes of it, even if you do not win.

10. Otherwise you will behave like children who play at wrestling, or at gladiators, sometimes blow a trumpet, and sometimes act a tragedy when they have seen and admired it.

11. Thus you too will be at one time a wrestler, at another a gladiator, now a philosopher, then an orator; but unless you do it with your whole will, you will be nothing at all.

12. Like an ape, you will mimic all you see, and one thing after another is sure to please you, but will fall out of favour as soon as it becomes familiar.

13. For unless you enter upon things with forethought and resolution to do your best, but instead rashly and with a cold inclination only, you will be a mimic and a playing child merely in all you do.

14. Consider first, then, what the matter is, and to what your own nature is suited.

15. If you would be a wrestler, consider your shoulders, your back, your thighs; for different persons are made for different things.

16. Do you think that you can act the fool, and be a philosopher? You must watch, you must labour, you must get the better of certain appetites,

17. You must set at their true value the honours and blandishments of the world.

18. When you have considered all these things round, approach, if you please; if, by parting with them, you have a mind to purchase freedom and strength of mind.

19. If not, do not come here; do not, like children, be for a while a philosopher, then a publican, then an orator, then an officer.

20. You must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to things within or without you; that is, be either wise, or one who is led by others to do their will.

21. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 17

  1. Prescribe a character and form of conduct to yourself, which you can keep both when alone and in company.

  2. Be a listener, speak what is necessary, remember few words are better than many.

  3. Enter into discourse when occasion calls for it, but not on vulgar and fruitless subjects, and principally not of men, so as either to blame, or praise, or make comparisons.

  4. If you are able by your own conversation, bring over that of your company to proper subjects; if you happen to be among strangers, be for the most part silent.

  5. Do not allow your laughter to be too much, nor on many occasions, nor profuse.

  6. Avoid swearing, if possible, altogether; if not, as far as you are able.

  7. Avoid vulgar entertainments; but, if occasion calls you to them, keep alert, that you may not imperceptibly slide into vulgar manners.

  8. For be assured that however sound a person is himself, yet, if his companion is infected, he who converses with him will be infected likewise.

  9. Do not be troublesome and full of reproofs to those who use liberties, nor frequently boast that you yourself do not: people are various, and merit sympathy.

10. If anyone tells you that such a person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: ‘He does not know my other faults, else he would not have mentioned only these.’

11. Abstain from declamations and derision and violent emotions. When you are going to confer with anyone, and particularly with those in a superior station, represent to yourself how Socrates or Zeno would behave in such a case.

12. When you are going to anyone in power, represent to yourself that you will not find him at home; that you will not be admitted; that the doors will not be opened to you; that he will take no notice of your petition.

13. If, with all this, it is your duty to go, bear what happens, and never say, ‘It was not worth so much.’

14. For if you went with a reason that was right, the disdain of the powerful will not make it wrong.

15. In parties of conversation, avoid a frequent and excessive mention of your own actions and dangers.

16. For, however agreeable it may be to yourself to mention the risks you have run, it is not equally agreeable to others to hear your adventures.

17. If you are struck by the appearance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against being hurried away by it; but let the affair wait your leisure, and procure yourself some delay.

18. Then bring to your mind both points of time: that in which you will enjoy the pleasure, and that in which you might have to repent and reproach yourself after you have enjoyed it;

19. And set before yourself, in opposition to these, how you will be glad and applaud yourself if you abstain.

20. And even though it should appear to you a seasonable gratification, take heed that its enticing, and agreeable and attractive force may not subdue you;

21. But set in opposition to this how much better it is to be conscious of gaining a victory over what leads you astray.

22. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 18

  1. When you do anything from a clear judgement that it ought to be done, never delay to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it.

  2. When eating with others, to choose the largest share is suitable to the bodily appetite, but inconsistent with the social nature of the occasion.

  3. When you eat with another, then, remember not only the value to the body of those things which are set before you,

  4. But also the value of that behaviour which ought to be observed towards the person who gives the entertainment.

  5. If you have assumed a character above your strength, you have both made an ill figure in that and quitted one which you might have supported.

  6. When walking, you are careful not to step on a nail or turn your foot; so likewise be careful not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind.

  7. The body is to everyone the measure of the possessions proper for it, just as the foot is of the shoe.

  8. If, therefore, you stop at this, you will keep the measure; but if you move beyond it, you must necessarily be carried forward, as down a cliff;

  9. As in the case of a shoe, if you go beyond its fitness to the foot, it comes first to be gilded, then purple, and then studded with jewels.

10. For to that which once exceeds a due measure, there is no bound.

11. Though it is good to take thought for our exercises, for eating and drinking proportionately, and discharging the animal functions,

12. These should be done in due measure, for most of our attention should be engaged in the care of the understanding.

13. When any person harms you, or speaks badly of you, remember that he acts or speaks from a supposition of its being his right.

14. Now, it is not possible that he should follow what appears right to you, but what appears so to himself.

15. Therefore, if he judges from a wrong appearance, he is the person hurt, since he is the person deceived.

16. For if anyone should suppose a true proposition to be false, the proposition is not hurt, but he who is deceived about it.

17. Setting out, then, from these principles, you will bear with fortitude a person who reviles you, for you will say upon every occasion, ‘It seemed so to him.’

18. Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot.

19. If your brother acts unjustly, do not lay hold on the action by the handle of his injustice, for by that it cannot be carried;

20. But by the opposite, that he is your brother, that he was brought up with you; and thus you will lay hold on it, as it is to be carried.

21. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 19

  1. When you have brought yourself to supply the necessities of your body at a small price, don’t pique yourself upon it;

  2. Nor, if you drink only water, say on every occasion, ‘I drink only water.’

  3. But first consider how much the poor are more sparing and patient of hardship than those who have a sufficiency, or are rich.

  4. But if at any time you would inure yourself by exercise to labour, and bearing hard trials, do it for your own sake, and not for the world.

  5. These reasonings are unconnected, though foolish people think them:

  6. ‘I am richer than you, therefore I am better’; ‘I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better’.

  7. The true connection is this: ‘I am richer than you, therefore my property is greater than yours’; ‘I am more eloquent than you, therefore my style is better than yours’.

  8. But a human being, after all, is neither property nor style.

  9. Does anyone bathe in a very short time? Do not say that he does it ill, but in a short time.

10. Does anyone drink a great quantity of wine? Do not say that he does ill, but that he drinks a great quantity.

11. For, unless you perfectly understand the principle from which anyone acts, how should you know if he acts ill?

12. Thus you will not run the hazard of assenting to any appearances but such as you fully comprehend.

13. Never call yourself wise, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about wisdom, but act conformably to it.

14. Thus, when taking food in company, do not talk about how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought.

15. If ever any talk should happen among the unlearned concerning learned things, be you, for the most part, silent.

16. For there is great danger in immediately throwing out what you have not digested.

17. And if anyone tells you that you know nothing, and you are not angered by what he says, you may be sure that you have begun to be wise.

18. For sheep do not regurgitate the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk.

19. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show off knowledge to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested.

20. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 20

  1. The first and most necessary topic in the search for wisdom is the use of moral imjunctions, such as, ‘We ought not to lie’;

  2. The second is that of demonstrations, such as, ‘What is the origin of our obligation not to lie?’

  3. The third gives strength and articulation to the other two, such as, ‘What is the logical basis of this demonstration?’

  4. For what is demonstration? What is consequence? What is contradiction? What is truth? What is falsehood?

  5. The third topic, then, is necessary on the account of the second, and the second on the account of the first.

  6. But the most necessary, and that whereon we ought to act, is the first.

  7. Yet we act just on the contrary: we spend all our time on the third topic, and employ all our diligence about that, and entirely neglect the first.

  8. Therefore, at the same time that we lie, let us already be prepared to show how it is demonstrated that lying is not right;