Epictetus Volume 1
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page 24, segment 1/2
INTRODUCTION
problem of right living.^ The regular class exercises were clearly reading and interpretation of
1
characteristic portions of Stoic philosophical works,,
;
problems in
somewhat as in an oral examination
formal logic,, these apparently conducted by assistants,
or advanced pupils ; and the preparation of themes
or essays on a large scale which required much
writing and allowed an ambitious pupil to imitate
the style of celebrated authors. The Master supervised the formal instruction in logic, even though
might be conducted by others,, but there is no
that he delivered systematic lectures,
although he clearly made special preparation to
it
indication
criticize
the interpretations of his pupils (I. 10, 8).
From the nature of the comments, which presuppose
a fair elementary training in literature, we can feel
sure that only young men and not boys were admitted to the school, and there are some remarks
which sound very much like introductions to the
general subject of study, while others are pretty
clearly addressed to those who were about to leave
constituting, in fact, an early and somewhat
rudimentary variety of Commencement Address?
Some of the pupils were preparing to teach, but the
majority, no doubt, like Arrian, were of high social
position and contemplated entering the public service.
For a proper understanding of the Discourses it
is important to bear in mind their true character,
1
Colardeau, pp. 71113, has an. admirable discussion of
the method and technique of instruction employed.
In
view of the singularly valuable nature of the material it
seems strange that more attention has not been paid to
Epicfcetus in the history of ancient education.
z
See Halbauer, p. 45 ff., for a good discussion of those
points and a critique of the views of
page 24, segment 2/2
Bruns, Colardeau, and
Harbmann,
xiv
page 25, segment 1/2
INTRODUCTION
which Halbauer in a valuable study has most clearly
stated thus (p. 56)
"The Diatribae are not the
curriculum proper, nor even a part of that curriculum. On the contrary, this consisted of readings
from the Stoic writings, while the Diatribae
:
accompany the formal instruction, dwell on this
point or on that., which Epictetus regarded as of
special importance, above all give him an opportunity for familiar discourse with his pupils, and
with them in a friendly spirit their
personal affairs." They are not, therefore, a formal
presentation of Stoic philosophy, so that it is unfair
to criticize their lack of system and their relative
neglect of logic and physics, upon which the other
for discussing
Stoics laid such stress, for they were not designed
as formal lectures, and the class exercises had dwelt
satis superque, as Epictetus must have felt, upon
the physics and logic, which were after all only
the foundation of conduct, the subject in which
he was primarily interested. They are class-room
comment, in the frank and open spirit which was
characteristic of the man, containing not a little of
what we should now be inclined to restrict to a
private conference, often closely connected, no
doubt, with the readings and themes, but quite as
1
often, apparently, little more than obiter dicta.
1
The arrangement of topics by
Of. Bonhoffer, 1890, 22.
Arrian is a point which, seems not to have been discussed
as fully as it deserves. Hartmann's view, that the order
is that of exact chronological sequence, seems to be an
exaggeration of what may be in the main correct, but I
think I can trace evidences of a somewhat formal nature in
some of the groupings, and it seems not unlikely that a few
of the chapters contain remarks delivered on several occasions.
However,
page 25, segment 2/2
this is a point which requires an elaborate
investigation and cannot be discussed here.
xv
VOL. I.
b
page 26
INTRODUCTION
They constitute a remarkable self-revelation of a
character of extraordinary strength, elevation,, and
sweetness, and despite their frequent repetitions
and occasional obscurity must ever rank high in the
literature of personal portrayal, even were one
inclined to disregard their moral elevation.
For
Epictetus was without doubt, as the great wit and
cynic Luciaii calls him, "a marvellous old man/'
It may not be amiss to dwell a few moments
upon the outstanding features of his personality,
before saying a few words upon his doctrines, for
his doctrines, or at all events the varying emphasis
laid on his doctrines, were to a marked degree
influenced by the kind of man that he was.
And first of all I should observe that he had
the point of view of a man who had suffered from
slavery and abhorred it, but had not been altogether
able to escape its influence. He was predisposed
to suffer, to renounce, to yield, and to accept
whatever burden might be laid upon him. 1 He
was not a revolutionist, or a cultured gentleman, or
a statesman, as were other Stoics before and after.
Many of the good things of life which others
enjoyed as a matter of course he had grown accustomed never to demand for himself ; and the social
obligations for the maintenance and advancement
of order and civilization, towards which men of
higher station were sensitive, clearly did not weigh
His whole teaching
heavily upon his conscience.
was to make men free and happy by a severe
restriction of effort to the realm of the moral
1
Compare the excellent remarks of E, V. Arnold upon
this point, Encyclop.,
etc.,
324.
page 27
INTRODUCTION
nature. 1
The
celebrated life-formula, av^xov
/col
which one feels inclined to retranslate as
" Endure and
Renounce," in order to give it once
more the definite meaning of which the cliche,
(f
Bear and Forbear/' has almost robbed it, is, to
speak frankly, with all its wisdom, and humility,
and purificatory power, not a sufficient programme
for a highly organized society making towards an
envisaged goal of general improvement.
And again, in youth he must have been almost
consumed by a passion for freedom.
1 know no
man upon whose lips the idea more frequently
The words <e free " (adjective and verb) and
occurs.
" freedom "
appear some 130 times in Epictetus,
OLTT^XOV,
that
that
is,
with a relative frequency about
six
times
of their occurrence in the New Testament
and twice that of their occurrence in Marcus
Aurelius, to take contemporary works of somewhat
the same general content.
And with the attainment of his personal freedom there must have
come such an up welling of gratitude to God as
that which finds expression in the beautiful hymn
of praise concluding the sixteenth chapter of the
first book, so that, while most Stoics assumed or
at least recognized the possibility of a kind of
immortality, he could wholly dispense with that
desire for the survival of personality after death
which even Marcus Aurelius felt to be almost
2
necessary for his own austere ideal of happiness.
1
See Zeller's admirable discussion of tins topic, p. 776.
" Sich aber als Menschheit
(und nicht nur als Individuum) ebenso vergeudet xu fiihlen, wie wir die einzelne
Bliithe von der Natur vergeudet sehen, ist ein Gefiihl iiber
alle Gefuhle.
Wer ist aber desselben fahig? " F. Nietzsche
MensMichcs, AllzumenschUches, I. 51.
2
:
,xvii
b 2
page 28
INTRODUCTION
Almost as characteristic was
his intensity.
He
speaks much of tranquillity, as might be expected
of a Stoic, but he was not one of those for whom
that virtue is to be achieved only by Henry James's
formula of successive accumulations of fe endless"
amounts of history, and tradition, and taste. His
was a tranquillity, if there really be such a thing,
of moral fervour, and of religious devotion.
His
vehemence gave him an extraordinarily firm and
clean-cut character, and made him a singularly
impressive teacher, as Arrian in the introductory
For he was enormously interested
epistle attests.
in his teaching, knowing well that in this gift
lay his single talent made great efforts to present
his material in the simplest terms and in wellarranged sequence and sharply reproved those who
blamed the stupidity of their pupils for what was
;
;
due to their own incompetence in instruction.
It
gave a notable vigour to his vocabulary and
utterance, his TrapprjcrLa, or freedom of speech, suo
quamgue rem nomine appellate, as Cicero (Ad. Fam.
also
IX. 22, 1) characterizes that Stoic virtue, which
few exemplified more effectively than Epictetiis
but it also, it must be confessed, made him somewhat intolerant of the opinions of others, were they
philosophic or religious, in a fashion which for
better or for worse was rapidly gaining ground in
;
his day. 1
But he was at the same time extremely modest.
et
philosopher," he speaks
of
his
own
frankly
failings, blames himself quite
as much as his pupils for the failure of his instruction ofttimes to produce its perfect work, and quotes
He never calls himself a
^ See Bonlioffer's remarks
upon this point (1911, 346),
page 29
INTRODUCTION
freely the disrespectful remarks of others about him.
He
is severe in the condemnation of the
unrepentant
sinner, but charitable towards the naive wrongdoer, going so far, in fact, in this direction as to
advocate principles which would lead to the abolition
1
He is much more an
mercy than a messenger of vengeance. 2
And this aspect of his character comes out most
of
all
capital punishment.
angel of
clearly perhaps in his attitude towards children, for
with them a man can be more nearly himself than
with his sophisticated associates. No ancient author
speaks as frequently of them, or as sympathetically.
3
They are one of his favourite parables, and though
he is well aware that a child is only an incomplete
man, he likes their straightforwardness in play,
he claps his hands to them and returns their
"
Merry Saturnalia !" greeting, yearns to get down
on hands and knees and talk baby talk with them.
There is, of course, a sense in which Pascal's
stricture of Stoic pride applies to Epictetus, for
the Stoic virtues were somewhat self-consciously
erected upon the basis of self-respect and selfbut a more humble and charitable Stoic
reliance
;
would have been impossible to find, and what
pride there is belongs to the system and not to
Towards God he is always devout,
the man. 4
it
1
2
3
I.
18, especially sections 5 ft
See Colardeau, p. 209 ff., and Zeller,
p.
780 f.
Of. Rentier's interesting study.
4
IPascaVs judgment (to say nothing of the grotesque
misconceptions of J. B. Rousseau) was undoubtedly influenced by his preoccupation with the JthicJieiridion, which,
as necessarily in such a compendium of doctrine, is more
Stoic than Epiotetean, and suppresses many of the more
amiable traits of personality. The actual man of the
xix
page 30
INTRODUCTION
grateful, humble, and there
of that exaltation of self
is
a little trace in
him
which in some of the
Stoics tended to accord to the ideal man a moi-al
elevation that made him sometimes the equal if not
in certain aspects almost the superior of God. 1
His doctrines were the conventional
ones
of
Stoicism, representing rather the teaching of the
early Stoics than that of the middle and later
There
schools, as Bonhoffer has elaborately proven.
is, accordingly, no occasion to dwell at length upon
for the sake of those who may wish
to fit a particular teaching into his general scheme,
a very brief outline may here be attempted. 2
Every man bears the exclusive responsibility
himself for his own good or evil, since it is impossible to imagine a moral order in which one
them, but
person does the wrong and another, the innocent,
suffers.
Therefore, good and evil can be only those
which
things
depend entirely upon our moral
purpose, what we generally call, but from the
Stoic's point of view a little inaccurately, our free
1 As
expressed, e.g., in Seneca, De JTrov. VI. 6: Hoc est
quo deum antecedatis : ille extra patientiam maloritm est, vos
supra patientiam. Of. also Zeller, 257.
2 I am.
following here in the main, but not uniformly,
Von Arnim's admirable summary.
is a very much more attractive figure than the
imaginary reconstruction of the man from the abstracted
principles of the Manual ; there he is a man, hero a statue
(Martha, 162 f.). It would go hard with many to have
their personal traits deduced from the evidence supplied by
the grammars, indices, or even confessions of faith that
they have written; especially hard if the compendium
were drawn up somewhat mechanically by another's hand.
Discourses
xx
page 31
INTRODUCTION
they cannot consist in any of those things
which others can do either to us or for us. Man's
highest good lies in the reason., which distinguishes
him from other animals. This reason shows itself
in assent or dissent,, in desire or
aversion,, and in
choice or refusal,, 1 which in turn are based
upon
an external impression., ^avrao-ia, that is., a
prime
datum, a "constant/* beyond our power to alter.
But we remain free in regard to our attitude
towards them. The use which we make of the
external impressions is our one chief concern, and
upon the right kind of use depends exclusively
our happiness.
In the realm of judgement the
truth or falsity of the external
impression is to be
will;
Here our concern is to assent to the true
impression, reject the false, and suspend judgement
This is an act of the
regarding the uncertain.
moral purpose,, or free will
should never
forget this responsibility, and never assent to an
external impression without this
preliminary testing.
In order to escape from
misled
fallacious
decided.
We
being
by
reasoning in the formation of these judgements we
need instruction in logic, although Epictetus warns
against undue devotion to the subtleties of the
subject.
Corresponding to assent or dissent in the realm
of the intellectual are desire or aversion in the
realm of good and evil, which is the most important
1
This triple division of philosophy, with especial but
exclusive application to ethics, is the only notably
original element which the minute studies of many investigators have found in Epictetus, and it is rather a pedagogical device for lucid presentation than an innovation in
thought. See Bonhoffer, 1890, 22 ff. Zeller. p. 769 especinot
;
:
ally More, p. 107f.
xxi
page 32
INTRODUCTION
to attain one's
thing for man, since from failing
what one would
desire,, and from encountering
and sorrows of manavoid, come all the passions
In every desire or aversion there is implicit
kind.
a value-judgement concerning the good or evil^ of
the particular thing involved, and these in turn
rest upon general judgements (Soy/xara) regarding
If we are to make the proper
things of value.
use of our freedom in the field of desire or aversion
we must have the correct judgements concerning
that
good and evil. Now the correct judgement is,
of our moral purpose is
nojthing outside the realm
either good or evil.
Nothing,, therefore, of that
kind can rightly be the object of desire or aversion,
hence we should restrict the will to the field in
which alone it is free, and cannot, therefore, come
But herein we need not merely the
to grief.
correct theoretical conviction, but also continual
and it is this which
practice in application (acr/c^cri?),
to his pupils, for it
Epictetus attempts to impart
is the foundation of his whole system of education.
choice or refusal belongs
Finally, in the field of
l
of man, his intelligent action
the
duty
(jo *a/%ov)
in human and social relations.
Externals, which
are neither good nor evil, and so indifferent (<JSuxbecause not subject to our control, play a
(popa),
certain role, none the less, as matters with which
we have to deal, indeed, but should regard no
more seriously than players treat the actual ball
with which they play, in comparison with the game
It is characteristic of Epictetus that, although
itself.
he recognizes this part of Stoic doctrine in which
the theoretical indifference of externals is in practice
1
xxn
On the use of this term, cf. More, p. 116, 12.
page 33
INTRODUCTION
largely abandoned, lie manifests but slight interest
in it.
Among duties lie is concerned principally with
those of a social character.
Nature places us in
certain relations to other persons, and these determine our obligations to parents,, brothers, children,
kinsmen, friends, fellow-citizens, and mankind in
We ought to have the sense of fellowship
and partnership (KQLVWLKQL), that is, in thought and
in action we ought to remember the social organization in which we have been placed by the divine
order.
The shortcomings of our fellow-men are to
be met with patience and charity, and we should
not allow ourselves to grow indignant over them, for
they too are a necessary element in the universal plan.
general.
The religious possibilities of Stoicism are developed further by Epictetus than by any otherThe conviction that
representative of the school.
the universe is wholly governed by an all-wise,
divine Providence is for him one of the principal
All things,
supports of the doctrine of values.
even apparent evils, are the will of God, comprehended in his univei*sal plan, and therefore good
from the point of view of the whole. It is our
moral duty to elevate ourselves to this conception,
The man who
to see things as God sees them.
reconciles his will to the will of God, and so
recognizes that every event is necessary and reasonable for the best interest of the whole, feels no
discontent with anything outside the control of
His happiness he finds in filling the
his free will.
role which God has assigned him, becoming thereby
a voluntary co-worker with God, and in filling this
rdle no man can hinder him.
xxiii