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

BOOK II. i.17-24it does not bite. The paltry body must beseparated from the bit of spirit, either now or later,,just as it existed apart from it before. Why are yougrieved^ then, if it be separated now ? For if it benot separated now, it will be later. ?Why So thatthe revolution of the universe may be 1accomplished ;for it has need of the things that are now coming intobeing, and the things that shall be, and the thingsthat have been accomplished. What ishardship A ?bugbear. Turn it about and learn what it is. Thepoor flesh issubjected to rough treatment,, and thenagain to smooth. If you do not find this profitable,the door stands openif you do find it profitable,;bear it. For the door must be standing open forevery emergency., and then we have no trouble,What, then, is the fruit of these doctrines?Precisely that which must needs be both the fairestand the most becoming for those who are beingtruly educated tranquillity, fearlessness, freedom.For on these matters we should not trust thetffmultitude, who say, Only the free can beeducated," but rather the philosophers, who say,"Only the educated are free." How is that?Thus: At this time 2 is freedom anything but theright to live as we wish? CfNothing else/' Tellme, then, O men, do you wish to live in error ?"We do not." Well, no one who lives in error isfree. Do you wish to live in fear, in SOITOAV, inefturmoil ?By no means." Well then, no man whothe time of Epictetus, under the Roman rule, it meantnothing more than the privilege to live the kind of life thatone pleased under the authority of the Imperial government.There is a play also on the double meaning of free, i.e. in associal and in a moral sense,219