Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPICTETUS, OR STOICISM IN THE COTTAGE. 197nothing like the hair-shirt, and dirt, and macerationof many a later hermit. "If a Cynic is an object otcompassion, he seems to be a beggar all ; personsturn away from him, all are offended with him : forneither ought he to appear dirty, so that he shall notalso in this respect drive away men ;but his veryroughness ought to be clean and attractive." ^Or, again, " We ought not by the appearance ofthe body to deter the multitude from philosophy;but as in other things a philosopher should showhimself cheerful and tranquil, so also he should inthe things that relate to the body. See, ye men, thatI have nothing, that I want nothing ;see how I amwithout a house, and without a city,and an exile, ifithappens to be so, and without a hearth, I. live morefree from trouble and more happily than all of noblebirth, and than the rich. But look at my poor bodyalso, and observe that it is not injured by my hardway of living. But if a man says this to me whohas the appearance and face of a condemned man,what god shall persuade me to approach philosophy,if it makes men such persons ? Far from it, I wouldnot choose to do so even if I were going to become awise man. I indeed would rather that a young man,who ismaking his first movements towards philosophy,should come to me with his hair carefully trimmedthan with it dirty and rough, for there is seen in hima certain notion of beauty and a desire of that whichisbecoming ;and where he supposesit to be, therealso he strives that it shall be." -'Diss. iii. 22.^ Ibid, iv. II.