Volume 1 - Discourses - Books I - II - College of Stoic Philosophers

BOOK L ix. 20-27for flattery? Why shall one man envy another?Why shall he admire those who have great possessions,or those who are stationed in places of power,especially if they be both strong and prone to anger ?For what will they do to us ? As for what they havepower to do, we shall pay no heed thereto ;as forthe things we care about, over them they have nopower. Who, then, will ever again be ruler over theman who is thus disposed?How did Socrates feel with regard to these matters?Why, how else than as that man ought to feel whohas been convinced that he is akin to the gods?IC If you tell me now/' says he, " c We will acquityou on these conditions, namely,, that you will nolonger engage in these discussions which you haveconducted hitherto, nor trouble either the young orthe old among us,' I will answer, c You make yourselvesridiculous by thinking that, if your generalhad stationed me at any post, I ought to hold andmaintain it and choose rather to die ten thousandtimes than to desert it, but if God has stationed usin some place and in some manner of life we oughtto desert that.' " xThis is what it means for a manto be in very truth a kinsman of the gods. We,however, think of ourselves as though we were merebellies, entrails, and genitals, just because we havefear, because we have appetite, and we flatter thosewho have power to help us in these matters, and thesesame men we fear.A certain man asked me to write to Rome in hisbehalf. Now he had met with what most menaccount misfortune :though he had formerly beeneminent and wealthy, he had afterwards lost everythingand was living here. 2 And I wrote in humble