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

BOOK II. i. 6-1 1purpose, it is only in regard to matters of this kindthat it is right to employ caution ; but if the thingswhich lie outside the province of the moral purposeand are not under our control are nothing to us, weought to employ confidence in regard to them. Andso we shall be at one and the same time bothcautious and confident, yes, and,, by Zeus, confidentbecause of our caution. For because we are cautiousabout the things which are really evil, the resultwill be that we shall have confidence in regard tothe things which are not of that nature.However, we act like deer : when the hinds arefrightened by the feathers I and run away from them,where do they turn, and to what do they fiy forrefuge as a safe retreat ? Why, to the nets ;and sothey perish because they have confused the objectsof fear with the objects of confidence. So it iswith us also; where do we show fear? Aboutthe things which lie outside the province of themoral purpose. Again, in what do we behave withconfidence as if there were no danger? In thethings which lie within the province of the moralpurpose.To be deceived, or to act impetuously, orto do something shameless, or with base passion todesire something, makes no difference to us, if onlyin the matters which lie outside the province of thewill we succeed in our aim. But where death, orexile, or hardship, or ignominy faces us, there we showthe of spirit running away, there we show violentagitation. Therefore, as might be expected of thosemen who err in matters of the greatest concern, wetransform our natural confidence into boldness,desperateness, recklessness, shamelessness, while ournatural caution and s.elf-respectwe transform into215