"Discourses" - читать интересную книгу автора (Epictetus)

and prison, and poison, that he may be able to say when he is in
fetters, "Dear Crito, if it is the will of the gods that it be so, let
it be so"; and not to say, "Wretched am I, an old man; have I kept
my gray hairs for this?" Who is it that speaks thus? Do you think that
I shall name some man of no repute and of low condition? Does not
Priam say this? Does not OEdipus say this? Nay, all kings say it!
For what else is tragedy than the perturbations of men who value
externals exhibited in this kind of poetry? But if a man must learn by
fiction that no external things which are independent of the will
concern us, for this? part I should like this fiction, by the aid of
which I should live happily and undisturbed. But you must consider for
yourselves what you wish.

What then does Chrysippus teach us? The reply is, "to know that
these things are not false, from which happiness comes and
tranquillity arises. Take my books, and you will learn how true and
conformable to nature are the things which make me free from
perturbations." O great good fortune! O the great benefactor who
points out the way! To Triptolemus all men have erected temples and
altars, because he gave us food by cultivation; but to him who
discovered truth and brought it to light and communicated it to all,
not the truth which shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of
you for this reason has built an altar, or a temple, or has
dedicated a statue, or who worships God for this? Because the gods
have given the vine, or wheat, we sacrifice to them: but because
they have produced in the human mind that fruit by which they designed
to show us the truth which relates to happiness, shall we not thank
God for this?

CHAPTER 5

Against the academics

If a man, said Epictetus, opposes evident truths, it is not easy
to find arguments by which we shall make him change his opinion. But
this does not arise either from the man's strength or the teacher's
weakness; for when the man, though he has been confuted, is hardened
like a stone, how shall we then be able to deal with him by argument?

Now there are two kinds of hardening, one of the understanding,
the other of the sense of shame, when a man is resolved not to
assent to what is manifest nor to desist from contradictions. Most
of us are afraid of mortification of the body, and would contrive
all means to avoid such a thing, but we care not about the soul's
mortification. And indeed with regard to the soul, if a man be in such
a state as not to apprehend anything, or understand at all, we think
that he is in a bad condition: but if the sense of shame and modesty
are deadened, this we call even power.

Do you comprehend that you are awake? "I do not," the man replies,