Ch. 15
That we ought to proceed with circumspection to
every thing.
508
IN every act consider what precedes and what follows, and
then proceed to the act. If you do not consider, you will
at first begin with spirit, since you have not thought at all
of the things which follow; but afterwards when some
consequences have shown themselves, you will basely
desist (from that which you have begun).I wish to
conquer at the Olympic games.[And I too, by the gods:
for it is a fine thing]. But consider here what precedes
and what follows; and then, if it is for your good, under-
take the thing. You must act according to rules, follow
strict diet, abstain from delicacies, exercise yourself by
compulsion at fixed times, in heat, in cold; drink no cold
[p. 235]
water, nor wine, when there is opportunity of drinking it.509
In a word you must surrender yourself to the trainer, as
you do to a physician. Next in the contest, you must be
covered with sand,510 sometimes dislocate a hand, sprain an
ankle, swallow a quantity of dust, be scourged with the
whip; and after undergoing all this, you must sometimes
be conquered. After reckoning all these things, if you
have still an inclination, go to the athletic practice. If
you do not reckon them, observe you will behave like
children who at one time play as wrestlers, then as
gladiators, then blow a trumpet, then act a tragedy, when
they have seen and admired such things. So you also do:
you are at one time a wrestler (athlete), then a gladiator,
then a philosopher, then a rhetorician; but with your
whole soul you are nothing: like the ape you imitate all
that you see; and always one thing after another pleases
you, but that which becomes familiar displeases you. For
you have never undertaken any thing after consideration,
nor after having explored the whole matter and put it to a
strict examination; but you have undertaken it at hazard
and with a cold desire. Thus some persons having seen a
philosopher and having heard one speak like Euphrates511
and yet who can speak like him?wish to be philosophers
themselves.
Man, consider first what the matter is (which you pro-
pose to do), then your own nature also, what it is able to
bear. If you are a wrestler, look at your shoulders, your
thighs, your loins: for different men are naturally formed
for different things. Do you think that, if you do (what
[p. 236]
you are doing daily), you can be a philosopher? Do you
think that you can eat as you do now, drink as you do
now, and in the same way be angry and out of humour?
You must watch, labour, conquer certain desires, you must
depart from your kinsmen, be despised by your slave,
laughed at by those who meet you, in every thing you
must be in an inferior condition, as to magisterial office, in
honours, in courts of justice. When you have considered
all these things completely, then, if you think proper,
approach to philosophy, if you would gain in exchange
for these things freedom from perturbations, liberty, tran-
quillity. If you have not considered these things, do not
approach philosophy: do not act like children, at one time
a philosopher, then a tax collector, then a rhetorician, then
a procurator (officer) of Caesar. These things are not
consistent. You must be one man either good or bad:
you must either labour at your own ruling faculty or at
external things: you must either labour at things within
or at external things: that is, you must either occupy the
place of a philosopher or that of one of the vulgar.
A person said to Rufus512 when Galba was murdered, Is
the world now governed by Providence? But Rufus
replied, Did I ever incidentally form an argument from
Galba that the world is governed by Providence?
