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

BOOK I. xv. i-8CHAPTER XVWhat does philosophy profess ?WHEN someone consulted Epictetus as to how hecould persuade his brother to cease being angrywith him, he replied. Philosophy does not professto secure for man any external possession. Otherwiseit would be undertaking something that liesoutside itsproper subject- matter. For as woodis the material of the carpenter,, bronze that ofthe statuary, just so each man's own life Is thesubject-matter of the art of living. Well, whatabout my brother's life? That again is the subjectmatterof his own art of living, but with respectto your art of living it comes under the categoryof externals, like a farm,, like health, like goodrepute. Philosophy promises none of these things,fcbut rather, In every circumstance I will keepthe governing principle * in a state of accord withnature/* Whose governing principle? "His inwhom I am." How, then, shall Ikeep my brotherfrom being angry at me ?Bring him to me and Iwill tell him, but I have nothing to say to you onthe subject of his anger.And when the man who was consulting him said,What I seek to know is this, how, even ifmy brotherrefuses to be reconciled with me, I may yet be inaccord with nature, Epictetus replied:Nothing greatcomes into being all at once ; why, not even does thebunch of grapes, or a If fig. you say to me now, " Jwant a fig,"I shall answer, "That requires time."Let the tree blossom first, then put forth its fruit,and finally let the fruit ripen. Now although the107