Ch. 21
Of inconsistency.
391
SOME things men readily confess, and other things they do
not. No one then will confess that he is a fool or without
understanding; but quite the contrary you will hear all
men saying, I wish that I had fortune equal to my understanding. But men readily confess that they are timid,
and they say: I am rather timid, I confess; but as to
other respects you will not find me to be foolish. A man
will not readily confess that he is intemperate; and that
he is unjust, he will not confess at all. He will by no
means confess that he is envious or a busy body. Most
men will confess that they are compassionate. What
then is the reason?The chief thing (the ruling thing)
is inconsistency and confusion in the things which relate
to good and evil. But different men have different reasons;
and generally what they imagine to be base, they do not
confess at all. But they suppose timidity to be a characteristic of a good disposition, and compassion also; but
silliness to be the absolute characteristic of a slave. And
they do not at all admit (confess) the things which are.
offences against society. But in the case of most errors
for this reason chiefly they are induced to confess them,
because they imagine that there is something involuntary
in them as in timidity and compassion; and if a man
confess that he is in any respect intemperate, he alleges
love (or passion) as an excuse for what is involuntary.
But men do not imagine injustice to be at all involuntary.
There is also in jealousy, as they suppose, something involuntary; and for this reason they confess to jealousy
also.
Living then among such men, who are so confused, so
ignorant of what they say, and of the evils which they
have or have not, and why they have them, or how they
shall be relieved of them, I think it is worth the trouble
[p. 174]
for a man to watch constantly (and to ask) whether I also
am one of them, what imagination I have about myself,
how I conduct myself, whether I conduct myself as a
prudent man, whether I conduct myself as a temperate
man, whether I ever say this, that I have been taught to
be prepared for every thing that may happen. Have I
the consciousness, which a man who knows nothing ought
to have, that I know nothing? Do I go to my teacher as
men go to oracles, prepared to obey? or do I like a snivel-
ling boy go to my school to learn history and understand
the books which I did not understand before, and, if it
should happen so, to explain them also to others?Man,
you have had a fight in the house with a poor slave, you
have turned the family upside down, you have frightened
the neighbours, and you come to me392 as if you were a wise
man, and you take your seat and judge how I have explained some word, and low I have babbled whatever
came into my head. You come full of envy, and humbled,
because you bring nothing from home;393 and you sit
during the discussion thinking of nothing else than how
your father is disposed towards you and your brother.
'What are they saying about me there? now they think
that I am improving, and are saying, He will return with
all knowledge. I wish I could learn every thing before I
return: but much labour is necessary, and no one sends
me any thing, and the baths at Nicopolis are dirty; every
thing is bad at home, and bad here.'
Then they say, no one gains any profit from the school.
Why, who comes to the school? who comes for the
purpose of being improved? who comes to present his
opinions to be purified? who comes to learn what he is in
want of? Why do you wonder then if you carry back
from the school the very things which you bring into it?
For you come not to lay aside (your principles) or to correct
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them or to receive other principles in place of them. By
no means, nor any thing like it. You rather look to this,
whether you possess already that for which you come.
You wish to prattle about theorems? What then? Do you
not become greater triflers? Do not your little theorems
give you some opportunity of display? You solve sophistical syllogisms.394 Do you not examine the assumptions
of the syllogism named the Liar?395 Do you not examine
hypothetical syllogisms? Why then are you still vexed if
you receive the things for which you come to the school?
Yes; but if my child die or my brother, or if I must
die or be racked, what good will these things do me396 ?
Well, did you come for this? for this do you sit by my
side? did you ever for this light your lamp or keep
awake? or, when you went out to the walking place,
did you ever propose any appearance that had been presented to you instead of a syllogism, and did you and your
friends discuss it together? Where and when? Then you
say, Theorems are useless. To whom? To such as make
a bad use of them. For eyesalves are not useless to those
who use them as they ought and when they ought.
Fomentations are not useless. Dum-bells397 are not useless;
but they are useless to some, useful to others. If you ask
me now if syllogisms are useful, I will tell you that they
are useful, and if you choose, I will prove it.398 How then
will they in any way be useful to me? Man, did you ask
if they are useful to you, or did you ask generally? Let
him who is suffering from dysentery, ask me if vinegar is
useful; I will say that it is useful.Will it then be useful
to me?I will say, no. Seek first for the discharge to
be stopped and the ulcers to be closed. And do you, O
men, first cure the ulcers and stop the discharge; be tranquil in your mind, bring it free from distraction into the
school, and you will know what power reason has.
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