The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
200 THE STOIC CREED
and strictly demanded personal cleanliness or purity.
This they did on two grounds
:
"
first, in order that you
in order
may do the acts pertaining to a man ; then, that you may not be offensive to those
with whom you
come in contact." Although it does not quite reach
the doctrine that "cleanliness is next to godliness,"
the teaching in the chapter in Epictetus on the subject
(Diss. iv. n) is in striking contrast to the doctrine of
"the
sanctity of dirt" preached and practised by
mediaeval ascetics. "If nature entrusted you with a
horse, would you overlook him and neglect him ? And
now think you that you have been entrusted with your
own body as with a horse. Wash it, wipe it, take care
that no one turn away from you, that no one get out of
your way. But who does not get out of the way of
a dirty man?" Further still, the Stoics maintained
that the man who neglects his body is lacking
in the perception of beauty, and so rules himself
out of court so far as philosophy
is concerned. For
not even by the appearance of the body ought we
to drive away the many from philosophy ; but, as in
other things the philosopher
should show himself
cheerful and undisturbed, so also in things relating to
the body.
*
See, ye men, that I have nothing, that I
want nothing ;
see how I am houseless and cityless
and a fugitive, if so it be, and without a hearth I live
more free from trouble and more prosperous than all of
noble lineage and than the rich. But look at my little
body also that it is not spoiled by my austere mode of
life. But if a man says this to me who has the
appearance and countenance of a condemned man,
which of the gods will persuade me to approach