Ch. 24
Concerning a person whom he treated with disregard.
When a certain person said to him, "I have
often come to you with a desire of hearing you,
and you have never given me any answer; but now, if
possible, I entreat you to say something to me," -
Do you think, replied Epictetus, that as in other things,
so in speaking, there is an art by which he who understands it speaks skilfully, and he who does not
unskilfully?
" I do think so."
He, then, who by speaking both benefits himself,
and is able to benefit others, must speak skilfully;
but he who injures and is injured, must be unskilful
in this art. For you may find some speakers injured,
and others benefited. And are all hearers benefited
by what they hear? Or will you find some benefited,
and some hurt?
" Both."
Then those who hear skilfully are benefited, and
those who hear unskilfully, hurt.
" Granted."
Is there any art of hearing, then, as well as of
speaking?
" It seems so."
If you please, consider it thus. To whom think you
that the practice of music belongs?
" To a musician."
To whom the proper formation of a statue?
"To a sculptor."
And do you not imagine some art necessary even to
view a statue skilfully?
"I do."
If, therefore, to speak properly belongs to one who
is skilful, do you not see that to hear profitably belongs likewise to one who is skilful? For the present, however, if you please, let us say no more of
doing things perfectly and profitably, since we are
both far enough from anything of that kind; but this
seems to be universally confessed, that he who would
hear philosophers needs some kind of exercise in
hearing. Is it not so? Tell me, then, on what I
shall speak to you. On what subject are you able
to hear me?
" On good and evil."
The good and evil of what, - of a horse?
" No."
Of an ox?
" No."
What, then; of a man?
" Yes."
Do we know, then, what man is; what is his nature, what our idea of him, and how far our ears are
open in this respect to him? Nay, do you understand what Nature is; or are you able in any degree
to comprehend me when I come to say, " But I must
use demonstration to you "? How should you? Do
you comprehend what demonstration is, or how a
thing is demonstrated, or by what methods; or what
resembles a demonstration, and yet is not a demonstration? Do you know what true or false is; what
is consequent upon anything, and what contradictory;
suitable, or dissonant? But I must excite you to
study philosophy. How shall I show you that contradiction among the generality of mankind, by which
they differ concerning good and evil, profitable and
unprofitable, when you know not what contradiction
means? Show me, then, what I shall gain by discoursing with you? Excite an inclination in me, as
a proper pasture excites an inclination to eating, in a
sheep; for if you offer him a stone or a piece of
bread, he will not be excited. Thus we too have certain natural inclinations to speaking, when the hearer
appears to be somebody, when he gives us encouragement; but if he sits by like a stone or a tuft of grass,
how can he excite any desire in a man? Does a vine
say to an husbandman, "Take care of me"? No;
but invites him to take care of it, by showing him
that, if he does, it will reward him for his care. Who
is there, whom bright and agreeable children do not
attract to play, and creep, and prattle with them?
But who was ever taken with an inclination to divert
himself or bray with an ass; for be the creature ever
so little, it is still a little ass.
"Why then do you say nothing to me?"
I have only this to say to you; that whoever is utterly ignorant what he is and wherefore he was born,
and in what kind of a universe and in what society;
what things are good and what evil, what fair and
what base; who understands neither discourse nor
demonstration, nor what is true nor what is false,
nor is able to distinguish between them; such a one
will neither exert his desires, nor aversions, nor pursuits conformably to Nature; he will neither aim,
nor assent, nor deny, nor suspend his judgment conformably to Nature; but will wander up and down,
entirely deaf and blind, supposing himself to be somebody, while he is nobody. Is there anything new in
all this? Is not this ignorance the cause of all the
errors that have happened, from the very origin of
mankind? Why did Agamemnon and Achilles differ? Was it not for want of knowing what is advantageous, what disadvantageous? Does not one of
them say it is advantageous to restore Chryseis to
her father; the other, that it is not? Does not one
say that he ought to take away the prize of the
other; the other, that he ought not? Did they not
by these means forget who they were, and for what
purpose they had come there? Why, what did you
come for, man, - to win mistresses, or to fight?
"To fight." With whom, - Trojans or Greeks?
"With the Trojans." Leaving Hector, then, do you
draw your sword upon your own king? And do you,
good sir, forgetting the duties of a king, -
Intrusted with a nation and its cares, Homer, Iliad, 2.25.
go to squabbling about a girl with the bravest of your
allies, whom you ought by every method to conciliate and preserve? And will you be inferior to a
subtle priest who pays his court anxiously to you fine
gladiators? You see the effects produced by ignorance of what is truly advantageous.
" But I am rich, as well as other people." What,
richer than Agamemnon? "But I am handsome
too." What, handsomer than Achilles? "But I
have fine hair too." Had not Achilles finer and
brighter? Yet he never combed it exquisitely, nor
curled it. "But I am strong too." Can you lift
such a stone, then, as Hector or Ajax? "But I am
of a noble family too." Is your mother a goddess,
or your father descended from Zeus? And what
good did all this do Achilles, when he sat crying
for a girl? "But I am an orator." And was not
he? Do you not see how he treated the most eloquent of the Greeks, - Odysseus and Phoenix, - how
he struck them dumb? This is all I have to say to
you; and even this against my inclination.
"Why so?"
Because you have not excited me to it. For what
can I see in you to excite me, as spirited horses their
riders? Your person? That you disfigure. Your
dress? That is effeminate. Your behavior. Your
look? Absolutely nothing. When you would hear
a philosopher, do not say to him, "You tell me
nothing;" but only show yourself fit and worthy to
hear; and you will find how you will move him to
speak.