THINGS ARE WHAT THEY ARE.
1. Each thing that allures the mind or offers an advantage or is loved
by you, remember to speak of it as it is, from the smallest things
upward. If you love an earthen jar, then think, _I love an earthen jar_,
for so shall you not be troubled when it breaks. And when you kiss your
little child, or wife, think, _I kiss a mortal_; and so shall you not be
troubled when they die.
2. When you are about to take in hand some action, bethink you what it
is that you are about to do. If you go to the bath, represent to
yourself all that takes place there--the squirting of water, the
slapping, the scolding, the pilfering; and then shall you take the
matter in hand more safely, saying straightway: _I desire to be bathed,
and maintain my purpose according to Nature._ And even so with each and
every action. For thus, if aught should occur to cross you in your
bathing, this thought shall be straightway at hand: _But not this alone
did I desire; but also to maintain my purpose according to Nature.
And I shall not maintain it if I have indignation at what happens here._
3. The first difference between the vulgar man[1] and the philosopher:
The one saith, _Woe is me for my child, my brother, woe for my father_;
but the other, if ever he shall be compelled to say, _Woe is me_, checks
himself, and saith, _for myself_. For nothing that the Will willeth not
can hinder or hurt the Will, but itself only can hurt itself. If then,
indeed, we too incline to this, that when we are afflicted we accuse
ourselves, and recollect that nothing else than Opinion can cause us any
trouble or unsettlement, I swear by all the Gods we have advanced! But
as it is, we have from the beginning traveled a different road. While we
are still children, if haply we stumbled as we were gaping about, the
nurse did not chide us, but beat the stone. For what had the stone done?
Ought it to have moved out of the way for your child's folly? Again, if
we find nothing to eat after coming from the bath, never doth the tutor
check our desire, but he beats the cook. Man, we did not set thee to be
a tutor of the cook, but of our child--him shall you train, him improve.
And thus, even when full-grown, we appear as children. For a child in
music is he who hath not learned music, and in letters, one who hath not
learned letters, and in life, one undisciplined in philosophy.
4. It is not things, but the opinions about the things, that trouble
mankind. Thus Death is nothing terrible; if it were so, it would have
appeared so to Socrates. But the opinion we have about Death, that it is
terrible, _that_ it is wherein the terror lieth. When, therefore, we are
hindered or troubled or grieved, never let us blame any other than
ourselves; that is to say, our opinions. A man undisciplined in
philosophy blames others in matters in which he fares ill; one who
begins to be disciplined blames himself, one who is disciplined, neither
others nor himself.
5. Be not elated in mind at any superiority that is not of yourself. If
your horse were elated and should say, _I am beautiful_, that would be
tolerable. But when you are elated and say, _I have a beautiful horse_,
know that it is at an excellence in your horse that you are elated.
What, then, is your own? This--to make use of the appearances. So that
when you deal according to Nature in the use of appearances, then shall
you be elated, for you will then be elated at an excellence that is your
own.