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

BOOK I. vi. 17-26only, mere use is sufficient, but where a being hasalso the faculty of understanding the use, unless theprinciple of propriety be added, he will never attainhis end. What then ? Each of the animals God constitutes,one to be eaten, another to serve in farming,another to produce cheese, and yet another for someother similar use to ; perform these functions whatneed have they to understand external impressionsand to be able to diiferentiate between them ? ButGod has brought man into the world to be a spectatorof Himself and of His works, and not merely aspectator, but also an interpreter. Wherefore, it isshameful for man to begin and end just where theirrational animals do ;he should rather begin wherethey do, but end where nature has ended in dealingwith us. Now she did not end until she reachedcontemplation and understanding and a manner oflife harmonious with nature. Take heed, therefore,lest you die without ever having been spectators ofthese things.But you travel to Olyinpia to behold the work * ofPheidias, and each of you regardsit as a misfortune todie without seeing such sights ; yet when there is noneed to travel at all, but where Zeus is already, andispresent in his works, will you not yearn to beholdthese works and know them ? Will you decline,therefore, to perceive either who you are, or for whatyou have been born, or what that ispurpose forwhich you have received sight? But some unpleasantand hard things happen in life. And dothey not happen at Olympia Do ? you not swelter ?Are you not cramped and crowded Do ?you not1The famous gold and ivory statue of Zeus.45