Letters from a Stoic. Donald Robertson

Letters from a Stoic - Donald Robertson


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EIGHT ON THE PHILOSOPHER'S SECLUSION

      I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. I cry out to them: ‘Avoid whatever pleases the throng: avoid the gifts of Chance! Halt before every good which Chance brings to you, in a spirit of doubt and fear; for it is the dumb animals and fish that are deceived by tempting hopes. Do you call these things the “gifts” of Fortune? They are snares. And any man among you who wishes to live a life of safety will avoid, to the utmost of his power, these limed twigs of her favour, by which we mortals, most wretched in this respect also, are deceived; for we think that we hold them in our grasp, but they hold us in theirs.

      ‘Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life; that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind. Eat merely to relieve your hunger; drink merely to quench your thirst; dress merely to keep out the cold; house yourself merely as a protection against personal discomfort. It matters little whether the house be built of turf, or of variously coloured imported marble; understand that a man is sheltered just as well by a thatch as by a roof of gold. Despise everything that useless toil creates as an ornament and an object of beauty. And reflect that nothing except the soul is worthy of wonder; for to the soul, if it be great, naught is great.’

      Still alien is whatever you have gained

      I recall that you yourself expressed this idea much more happily and concisely:

      What Chance has made yours is not really yours.

      And a third, spoken by you still more happily, shall not be omitted:

      The good that could be given, can be removed.

      I shall not charge this up to the expense account, because I have given it to you from your own stock. Farewell.

      1 1 As contrasted with the general Stoic doctrine of taking part in the world's work.

      2 2 From Epicurus (lxxxv, 33), the famous saying of the Rhodian pilot.

      3 3 Literally ‘spun around’ by the master and dismissed to freedom.

      4 4 i.e. comedians or mimes.

      5 5 Publilius Syrius, Sententiae.

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