Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE STANDING-GROUND OF PHILOSOPHY185The occasion l is this. One of his disciples, who hadan inclination to be a Cynic, asked him to give hisconception of that work. " Well," said he, " let us considerit at leisure. S> much I may say at once, thatwhoever sets his hand to such a work without God isheaven-struck, and will only disgrace himself publicly.For no one enters into a well-ordered house and says,{I am to be steward.' Or else its lord turning uponhim and seeing him ruling with insolence takes himand cuts him in two. So, too, it happens in thisgreat city, for here also there is a master2 of thehouse, who arranges everything in due order. Thouart a sun : thou canst make the year and the seasonsby thy revolutions, increase and nourish the fruits,raise and lay the winds, and warm sufficiently thebodies of men. Go : make thy M revolution, and movethings from the highest to the lowest. . . . Thou arta calf: when the lion shows himself, get out of hiswav, f * or thou wilt fare ill. . . . Thou art a bull :go and fight, for this is thy part and tbou canstdo it. Thou canst lead the army against Trov: bthou Agamemnon. . . . Thou canst fight a duel withHector : be thou Achilles. . . . But if Thersites hadcome up and claimed the command, either he wouldnot have got it, or he would have made an ignominiousfailure before manv witnesses. So therefore thou :_take good counsel: know thyself: examine thy conscience; attempt it not without God. First of all1 Epictetus, iii. 22, pp. 443-472. Upton's Edit.2 oiKoSecrTroTTjs, the word which occurs so often in the parables. Itis curious to compare this passage with Luke xii. 39-48. In boththere is the oiKodecrTroTTjs and the oiicovdfjLos. In the one the masterseeing the steward behaving himself in an unseemly manner, egreer In the other, 5i%oro,u?7