to be impious and profane." What has happened to you? "I have been
judged to be impious and profane?" Nothing else? "Nothing else." But
if the same person had passed judgment on an hypothetical syllogism,
and had made a declaration, "the conclusion that, if it is day, it
is light, I declare to be false," what has happened to the
hypothetical syllogism? who is judged in this case? who has been
condemned? the hypothetical syllogism, or the man who has been
deceived by it? Does he, then, who has the power of making any
declaration about you know what is pious or impious? Has he studied
it, and has he learned it? Where? From whom? Then is it the fact
that a musician pays no regard to him who declares that the lowest
chord in the lyre is the highest; nor yet a geometrician, if he
declares that the lines from the centre of a circle to the
circumference are not equal; and shall he who is really instructed pay
any regard to the uninstructed man when he pronounces judgment on what
is pious and what is impious, on what is just and unjust? Oh, the
signal wrong done by the instructed. Did they learn this here?
Will you not leave the small arguments about these matters to
others, to lazy fellows, that they may sit in a corner and receive
their sorry pay, or grumble that no one gives them anything; and
will you not come forward and make use of what you have learned? For
it is not these small arguments that are wanted now: the writings of
the Stoics are full of them. What then is the thing which is wanted? A
man who shall apply them, one who by his acts shall bear testimony
to his words. Assume, I, entreat you, this character, that we may no
longer use in the schools the examples of the ancients but may have
some example of our own.
To whom then does the contemplation of these matters belong? To
him who has leisure, for man is an animal that loves contemplation.
But it is shameful to contemplate these things as runaway slaves do;
we should sit, as in a theatre, free from distraction, and listen at
one time to the tragic actor, at another time to the lute-player;
and not do as slaves do. As soon as the slave has taken his station he
praises the actor and at the same time looks round: then if any one
calls out his master's name, the slave is immediately frightened and
disturbed. It is shameful for philosophers thus to contemplate the
works of nature. For what is a master? Man is not the master of man;
but death is, and life and pleasure and pain; for if he comes
without these things, bring Caesar to me and you will see how firm I
am. But when he shall come with these things, thundering and
lightning, and when I am afraid of them, what do I do then except to
recognize my master like the runaway slave? But so long as I have
any respite from these terrors, as a runaway slave stands in the
theatre, so do I: I bathe, I drink, I sing; but all this I do with
terror and uneasiness. But if I shall release myself from my
masters, that is from those things by means of which masters are
formidable, what further trouble have I, what master have I still?
"What then, ought we to publish these things to all men?" No, but we
ought to accommodate ourselves to the ignorant and to say: "This man
recommends to me that which he thinks good for himself: I excuse him."