Ch. 5
Against those who on account of sickness go away
home.
I AM sick here, said one of the pupils, and I wish to return
home.At home, I suppose, you were free from sickness.
Do you not consider whether you are doing any thing here
which may be useful to the exercise of your will, that it
may be corrected? For if you are doing nothing towards
this end, it was to no purpose that you came. Go away.
Look after your affairs at home. For if your ruling power
cannot be maintained in a state conformable to nature, it
is possible that your land can, that you will be able to
increase your money, you will take care of your father in
his old age, frequent the public place, hold magisterial
office: being bad you will do badly any thing else that you
have to do. But if you understand yourself, and know
that you are casting away certain bad opinions and adopting
others in their place, and if you have changed your state of
life from things which are not within your will to things
which are within your will, and if you ever say, Alas! you
are not saying what you say on account of your father, or
your brother, but on account of yourself, do you still allege
your sickness? Do you not know that both disease and
death must surprise us while we are doing something?
the husbandman while he is tilling the ground, the sailor
while he is on his voyage? what would you be doing when
death surprises you, for you must be surprised when you
are doing something? If you can be doing anything better
than this when you are surprised, do it. For I wish to be
surprised by disease or death when I am looking after
nothing else than my own will, that I may be free from
perturbation, that I may be free from hindrance, free from
compulsion, and in a state of liberty. I wish to be found
practising these things that I may be able to say to God,
Have I in any respect transgressed thy commands? have I
in any respect wrongly used the powers which thou gavest
me? have I misused my perceptions or my preconceptions
[p. 210]
(προλήψεσι)?452 have I ever blamed thee? have I ever found
fault with thy administration? I have been sick, because
it was thy will, and so have others, but I was content to
be sick. I have been poor because it was thy will, but I
was content also. I have not filled a magisterial office,
because it was not thy pleasure that I should: I have
never desired it Hast thou ever seen me for this reason
discontented? have I not always approached thee with a
cheerful countenance, ready to do thy commands and to
obey thy signals? Is it now thy will that I should depart
from the assemblage of men? I depart. I give thee all
thanks that thou hast allowed me to join in this thy
assemblage of men and to see thy works, and to comprehend
this thy administration. May death surprise me while I
am thinking of these things, while I am thus writing and
reading.
But my mother will not hold my head when I am sick.
Go to your mother then; for you are a fit person to have
your head held when you are sick.But at home I used to
lie down on a delicious bed.Go away to your bed: indeed
you are fit to lie on such a bed even when you are in
health: do not then lose what you can do there (at home).
But what does Socrates say?453 As one man, he says, is
pleased with improving his land, another with improving
his horse, so I am daily pleased in observing that I am
growing better. Better in what? in using nice little
words? Man, do not say that. In little matters of specu-
lation (θεωρήματα)? what are you saying?And indeed I
do not see what else there is on which philosophers employ
their time.Does it seem nothing to you to have never
found fault with any person, neither with God nor man? to
have blamed nobody? to carry the same face always in going
out and coming in? This is what Socrates knew, and yet
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he never said that he knew any thing or taught any thing.454
But if any man asked for nice little words or little speculations, he would carry him to Protagoras or to Hippias;
and if any man came to ask for potherbs, he would carry
him to the gardener. Who then among you 'has this
purpose (motive to action)? for if indeed you had it, you
would both be content in sickness, and in hunger, and in
death. If any among you has been in love with a charming
girl, he knows that I say what is true.455