Epictetus | Discourses | I-15

Chapter XV

What philosophy promises.

When one consulted him, how he might persuade his brother to forbear treating him ill; — Philosophy, answered Epictetus, doth not promise to procure any outward good for man; otherwise it would admit something beyond its proper theme. For as the material of a carpenter is wood; of a statuary, brass; so of the art of living, the material is each man’s own life.

“What, then, is my brother’s life?”

That, again, is matter for his own art, but is external to you; like property, health, or reputation. Philosophy promises none of these. In every circumstance I will keep my will in harmony with nature. To whom belongs that will? To Him in whom I exist.

“But how, then, is my brother’s unkindness to be cured?”

Bring him to me, and I will tell him; but I have nothing to say to you about his unkindness.

But the inquirer still further asking for a rule for. self-government, if he should not be reconciled; Epictetus answered thus:

- No great thing is created suddenly; any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me, that you desire a fig, I answer you, that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. Since then, the fruit of a fig-tree is not brought to perfection suddenly, or in one hour; do you think to possess instantaneously and easily the fruit of the human mind? I warn you, expect it not.