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

BOOK II. x.13-19were a smith and used your hammer amiss, youwould have forgotten the smith you were ; but ifyou forget the brother you are, and become anenemy instead of a brother,, will you seem toyourself to have exchanged nothing for nothing ?And if, instead of being a man, a gentle andsocial being, you have become a wild beast, a mischievous.,treacherous,, biting animal, have you lostnothing ? What, must you lose a bit of pelf so as tosuffer damage,, and does the loss of nothing elsedamage a man ? Yet, if you lost your skill in theuse of language or in music, you would regard theloss of it as damage but if ; you are going to loseself-respect and dignity and gentleness, do youthink that does not matter ? And yet those formerqualities are lost from some external cause that isbeyond the power of our will, but these latter arelost through our own fault arid it is neither noble;to have nor disgraceful to lose these former qualities,but not to have these latter,, or having hadthem to lose them., is a disgrace and a reproach anda calamity. What is lost by the victim of unnaturallust? His manhood. And by the agent? Besidea good many other things he also loses his manhoodno less than the other. What does the adultererlose ? He loses the man of self-respect that was,,the man of self-control, the gentleman, the citizen,the neighbour. What does the man lose who isgiven to anger? Something else. Who is givento fear? Somethingelse. No one is evil withoutloss and damage. Furthermore, if you look foryour loss in pelf, all those whom I have just mentionedsuffer neither injury nor loss ;nay, if it sochance, they even get gain &nd profit, when,, through279