Ch. 15
To or against those who obstinately persist in what they have determined.
WHEN some persons have heard these words, that a man
ought to be constant (firm), and that [the will is naturally
free and not subject to compulsion, but that all other
things are subject to hindrance, to slavery, and are in the
power of others, they suppose that they ought without
deviation to abide by every thing which they have determined. But in the first place that which has been determined ought to be sound (true). I require tone (sinews)
in the body, but such as exists in a healthy body, in an
athletic body; but if it is plain to me that you have the
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tone of a phrensied man and you boast of it, I shall say to
you, man, seek the physician: this is not tone, but atony
(deficiency in right tone). In a different way something
of the same kind is felt by those who listen to these discourses in a wrong manner; which was the case with one
of my companions who for no reason resolved to starve
himself to death.320 I heard of it when it was the third
day of his abstinence from food and I went to inquire what
had happened. I have resolved, he said.But still tell me
what it was which induced you to resolve; for if you have
resolved rightly, we shall sit with you and assist you to
depart; but if you have made an unreasonable resolution,
change your mind.We ought to keep to our determinations.
What are you doing, man? We ought to keep not to all
our determinations, but to those which are right; for if
you are now persuaded that it is night, do not change your
mind, if you think fit, but persist and say, we ought to
abide by our determinations. Will you not make the
beginning and lay the foundation in an inquiry whether
the determination is sound or not sound, and so then build
on it firmness and security? But if you lay a rotten and
ruinous foundation, will not your miserable little building
fall down the sooner, the more and the stronger are the
materials which you shall lay on it? Without any reason
would you withdraw from us out of life a man who is a
friend, and a companion, a citizen of the same city, both
the great and the small city?321 Then while you are committing murder and destroying a man who has done no
wrong, do you say that you ought to abide by your determinations? And if it ever in any way came into your
head to kill me, ought you to abide by your determinations?
Now this man was with difficulty persuaded to change
his mind. But it is impossible to convince some persons
at present; so that I seem now to know, what I did not
know before, the meaning of the common saying, That
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you can neither persuade nor break a fool.322 May it
never be my lot to have a wise fool for my friend: nothing
is more untractable, 'I am determined,' the man says.
Madmen are also; but the more firmly they form a judgment on things which do not exist,
the more ellebore323
they require. Will you not act like a sick man and call in
the physician?I am sick, master, help me; consider
what I must do: it is my duty to obey you. So it is here
also: I know not what I ought to do, but I am come to
learn.Not so; but speak to me about other things: upon
this I have determined.What other things? for what is
greater and more useful than for you to be persuaded that
it is not sufficient to have made your determination and
not to change it. This is the tone (energy) of madness,
not of health.I will die, if you compel me to this.Why,
man? What has happened?I have determinedI have
had a lucky escape that you have not determined to kill
meI take no money.324 Why?I have determinedBe
assured that with the very tone (energy) which you now
use in refusing to take, there is nothing to hinder you at
some time from inclining without reason to take money and
then saying, I have determined. As in a distempered
body, subject to defluxions, the humour inclines sometimes
to these parts, and then to those, so too a sickly soul knows
not which way to incline: but if to this inclination and
movement there is added a tone (obstinate resolution),
then the evil becomes past help and cure.
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