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

BOOK II. xiv. 8-14of philosophy is that in desire they are not disappointed,and in aversion they do not fall into whatthey would avoid ;that each person passes his life tohimself, free from pain, fear, and perturbation, at thesame time maintaining with his associates both thenatural and the acquired relationships, those namelyof son, father, brother, citizen, wife, "neighbour,fellow-traveller, ruler, and subject.Something like this is our picture of the work ofthe philosopher. The next thing after this is thatwe seek the means of achievingit. We see, then,that the carpenter becomes a carpenter byfirstlearning something, the helmsman becomes a helmsmanby iirst learning something. May it not be,then, that in our case also it is not sufficient to wishto become noble and good, but that we are underthe necessity of learning something iirst? Weseek, then, what this is. Now the philosophers saythat the first thing we must learn is this : Thatthere is a God, and that He provides for thefor a man touniverse, and that it is impossibleconceal from Him, not merely his actions, but evenhis purposes and his thoughts. Next we must learnwhat the gods are like ;for whatever theircharacter is discovered to be, the man who isgoingto please and obey them must endeavour as best hecan to resemble them. If the deityis faithful, healso must be faithful if ; free, he also must be free ;if beneficent, he also must be beneficent; if highminded,he also must be high-minded, and so forth ;therefore, in everything he says and does, he mustact %s an imitator of God.Where, then, ought I to start? If you enterupon this task, J will say that in the first place you39