V
Rufus used to say, If you have leisure to praise me, what I say is
naught. In truth he spoke in such wise, that each of us who sat there,
though that some one had accused him to Rufus:--so surely did he lay his
finger on the very deeds we did: so surely display the faults of each
before his very eyes.
VI
But what saith God?--"Had it been possible, Epictetus, I would have made
both that body of thine and thy possessions free and unimpeded, but as
it is, be not deceived:--it is not thine own; it is but finely tempered
clay. Since then this I could not do, I have given thee a portion of
Myself, in the power of desiring and declining and of pursuing and
avoiding, and is a word the power of dealing with the things of sense.
And if thou neglect not this, but place all that thou hast therein, thou
shalt never be let or hindered; thou shalt never lament; thou shalt
not blame or flatter any. What then? Seemth this to thee a little
thing?"--God forbid!--"Be content then therewith!"
And so I pray the Gods.
VII
What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard?--
It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.
VIII
"Aye, but to debase myself thus were unworthy of me."
"That," said Epictetus, "is for you to consider, not for me.
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