Discourses by Epictetus (good books to read for beginners txt) 📕

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That is which follows praise or blame. He seems to mean making the proper use of praise or of blame. ↩

By the words “Sit down” Epictetus indicates the man’s baseness and indolence, who wishes God to do for him that which he can do himself and ought to do. (Johann Schweighäuser.) ↩

So Johann Schweighäuser explains this difficult passage. Perhaps he is right. This part of the chapter is obscure. ↩

“It is observable, that this most practical of all the philosophers owns his endeavors met with little or no success among his scholars. The Apostles speak a very different language in their epistles to the first converts of Christianity: and the Acts of the Apostles, and all the monuments of the primitive ages bear testimony to the reformation of manners produced by the Gospel. This difference of success might indeed justly be expected from the difference of the two systems.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter. I have not quoted this note of Carter because I think that it is true. We do not know what was the effect of the teaching of Epictetus, unless this passage informs us, if Carter has drawn a right inference from it. The language of Paul to the Corinthians is not very different from that of Epictetus, and he speaks very unfavorably of some of his Corinthian converts. We may allow that “a reformation of manners was produced by the Gospel” in many of the converts to Christianity, but there is no evidence that this reformation was produced in all; and there is evidence that it was not. The corruptions in the early Christian church and in subsequent ages are a proof that the reforms made by the Gospel were neither universal nor permanent; and this is the result which our knowledge of human nature would lead us to expect. ↩

See book II chapter I at 13. ↩

Dirce a pure stream in Boeotia, which flows into the Ismenus. The Marcian water is the Marcian aqueduct at Rome, which was constructed 144 BC, and was the best water that Rome had. Some of the arches of this aqueduct exist. The “bright stream of Dirce” is spoken of in the Hercules Furens of Euripides (line 573). The verse in the text which we may suppose that Epictetus made, has a spondee in the fourth place, which is contrary to the rule. ↩

The “small stones” are supposed to be the marbles which decorated Athens, and the rock to be the Acropolis. ↩

In the original it is Εἰσαγωγαί. It was a name used for short commentaries on the principles of any art; such as we now call Introductions, Compendiums, Elements. Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights xvi 8. ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

The manuscripts have ἴσος εἰμί: but the emendation of Claudius Salmasius, σός εἰμι, is certain. ↩

“There are innumerable passages in St. Paul, which, in reality, bear that noble testimony which Epictetus here requires in his imaginary character. Such are those in which he glories in tribulation; speaks with a heroic contempt of life, when set in competition with the performance of his duty; rejoices in bonds and imprisonments, and the view of his approaching martyrdom; and represents afflictions as a proof of God’s love. See Acts 20:23, 24; Romans 5:3, 8:38⁠–⁠39; 2 Timothy 4:6.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter ↩

The meaning is uncertain. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

Procrustes and Sciron, two robbers who infested Attica and were destroyed by Theseus, as Plutarch tells in his life of Theseus. ↩

Marcus Aurelius Meditations x 28, “only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.” Compare Seneca, Quaestiones Naturales ii 59. ↩

See book II chapter XI at 1, and book III chapter XIV at 8. ↩

Theorems are defined by Cicero, De Fato, chapter 6, “Percepta appelle quae dicuntur Graece θεωρήματα.” ↩

This rhetorician or orator, as Epictetus names him, appears to be the same person as Theopompus of Chios, the historian. ↩

“That Epictetus does not quite correctly compare the notion of what is wholesome to the human body with the preconceived notion (anticipata notione) of moral good and bad, will be apparent to those who have carefully inquired into the various origin and principles of our notions.” —⁠Johann Schweighäuser. Also see his note on ἀνάτεινον. ↩

The topic of the desires and aversions. book III chapter II. ↩

Compare book I chapter XXVII at 10. ↩

This is the meaning of what Medea says in the Medea of Euripides. Epictetus does not give the words of the poet. ↩

Compare book IV chapter VII at 20. ↩

“If you would subject all things to yourself, subject yourself to reason.” Seneca, Epistle 37. ↩

See book I chapter VII at 1. ↩

The Pseudomenos was a treatise by Chrysippus (Diogenes Laërtius Lives vii: Chrysippus). “The Pseudomenos was a famous problem among the Stoics, and it is this. When a person says, I lie; doth he lie, or doth he not? If he lies, he speaks truth: if he speaks truth, he lies. The philosophers composed many books on this difficulty. Chrysippus wrote six. Philetas wasted himself in studying to answer it.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter ↩

Epictetus