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

BOOK II. xvi. 41-45mindedness. Lift up your neck at last like a manescaped from bondage, be bold to look towards Godeeand say, Use me henceforward for whatever Thouwilt ; I am of one mind with Thee ;I am Thine ;I crave exemption from nothing that seems goodin Thy sight where Thou ; wilt, lead me ;in whatraiment Thou wilt, clothe me. Wouldst Thou haveme to hold office, or remain in private life ;toremain here or go into exile to be; poor or be rich ?I will defend all these Thy acts before men I will;show what the true nature of each thing is." Nay,you will not ; sit rather in the house as girls do xand wait for your mammy until she feeds you If!Heracles had sat about at home, what would he2have amounted to? He would have been Eurystheusand no Heracles. Come, how many acquaintancesand friends did lie have with him as he went up anddown through the whole world ?Nay, he had nodearer friend than God. That is why he wasbelieved to be a son of God, and was. It was thereforein obedience to His will that he went aboutclearing away wickedness and lawlessness. But youare no Heracles, you say, and you cannot clear awaythe wickedness of other men, nay, nor are you even aTheseus, to clear away the ills of Attica merely. Verywell, clear away your own then. From just here,from out your own mind, cast not Procrustes andSciron, 3 but grief, fear, desire, envy, joy at others'ills ;cast out greed, effeminacy, incontincncy. These2The craven, Hlay-al-home king, under whose ordersII oracles performed his "labours."3Two fatnoiiH robbers who infested the road betweenAihenH and Megara and were given their just deserts byThoHeus.335