The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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172 THE STOIC CREED
was made that, in special connexions and for definite
purposes^ some indifferent things (such as mental ability,
health, bodily vigour, favourable circumstances) were
better than others, and therefore were to be pursued,
while their opposites (mental impotence, ill-health,
feebleness of body, etc.) were to be eschewed. This
was the famous distinction between "things
to be
preferred" (Trpo^y/AeVa, prceposita) and "things to be
avoided
which allowed a man
(a7ro7rpo>7y//,eVa,
rejecta)^
living in the world and wishful to discharge
his duties
to society and to himself to cultivate aptitudes, to
make selection among circumstances, to husband re
sources, and to follow definite objects
with zest and
appreciation. A certain number of indifferent things
were now conceived as having and so
"value"
were regarded as being
(dia),
according to nature," whereas
only those things that "have no value" (a7ram) were
relegated to the category of
x
contrary to nature."
But though these things having value might be pre
ferred, nothing must be done or chosen or accepted
that would lead to the deterioration of character that
was an indispensable restriction. "What, then, if a
dried fig should fall into your lap ? Take it and eat it ;
for thus far may you value even a dried fig. But if I
shall stoop down and overturn another, or be over
turned by another, and shall flatter those who have
entered in,
neither is a dried fig worth that nor any of
the things that are not good, which the philosophers
1
There was also a third class of indifferent things recognized
namely, those that were "absolutely
indifferent" (rA /ca0a7ra
such
ct5ta0o/>a), as, whether the hairs on one s head are in number
odd or even.