Epictetus | The Manual | Enchiridion | 51-53

Epictetus

The Manual | Enchiridion | 51-53

Section 51

1 How long will you still wait to think yourself worthy of the best things, and in nothing to transgress against the distinctions set up by the reason?

You have received the philosophical principles which you ought to accept, and you have accepted them. What sort of a teacher, then, do you still wait for, that you should put off reforming yourself until he arrives?

 You are no longer a lad, but already a full-grown man:

If you are now neglectful and easy-going, and always making one delay after another, and fixing first one day and then another, after which you will pay attention to yourself,

then without realizing it you will make no progress, but, living and dying, will continue to be a layman throughout.

2 Make up your mind, therefore, before it is too late, that the fitting thing for you to do is to live as a mature man who is making progress, and let everything which seems to you to be best be for you a law that must not be transgressed.

And if you meet anything that is laborious, or sweet, or held in high repute, or in no repute, remember that now is the contest, and here before you are the Olympic games,

and that it is impossible to delay any longer, and that it depends on a single day and a single action, whether progress is lost or saved.

3 This is the way Socrates became what he was, by paying attention to nothing but his reason in everything that he encountered.

And even if you are not yet a Socrates, still you ought to live as one who wishes to be a Socrates.

Section 52

1 The first and most necessary division in philosophy is that which has to do with the application of the principles, as, for example, Do not lie!

The second deals with the demonstrations, as, for example: How comes it that we ought not to lie?

The third confirms and discriminates between these processes, as, for example:

How does it come that this is a proof? For what is a proof, what is logical consequence, what contradiction, what truth, what falsehood?

2 Therefore, the third division is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first; while the most necessary of all, and the one in which we ought to rest, is the first.

But we do the opposite; for we spend our time in the third division, and all our zeal is devoted to it, while we utterly neglect the first.

Wherefore, we lie, indeed, but are ready with the arguments which prove that one ought not to lie.

Section 53

1 Upon every occasion we ought to have the following thoughts at our command:

Lead thou me on, O Zeus, and Destiny,
To that goal long ago to me assigned.
I'll follow and not falter; if my will
Prove weak and craven, still I'll follow on.

2 "Whoso has rightly with necessity complied,
We count him wise, and skilled in things divine."

3 "Well, O Crito, if so it is pleasing to the gods, so let it be."

4 "Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot hurt me."