CHAPTER 19
What is the condition of a common kind of man and of a philosopher
The first difference between a common person and a philosopher is
this: the common person says, "Woe to me for my little child, for my
brother, for my father." The philosopher, if he shall ever be
compelled to say, "Woe to me," stops and says, "but for myself." For
nothing which is independent of the will can hinder or damage the
will, and the will can only hinder or damage itself. If, then, we
ourselves incline in this direction, so as, when we are unlucky, to
blame ourselves and to remember that nothing else is the cause of
perturbation or loss of tranquillity except our own opinion, I swear
to you by all the gods that we have made progress. But in the
present state of affairs we have gone another way from the
beginning. For example, while we were still children, the nurse, if we
ever stumbled through want of care, did not chide us, but would beat
the stone. But what did the stone do? Ought the stone to have moved on
account of your child's folly? Again, if we find nothing to eat on
coming out of the bath, the pedagogue never checks our appetite, but
he flogs the cook. Man, did we make you the pedagogue of the cook
and not of the child? Correct the child, improve him. In this way even
when we are grown up we are like children. For he who is unmusical
is a child in music; he who is without letters is a child in learning:
he who is untaught, is a child in life.
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