Discourses - Book II   

appear in an unbecoming dress to those who look on you. But now
because Zeus has made you, for this reason do you care not how you
shall appear? And yet is the artist like the artist in the other? or
the work in the one case like the other? And what work of an artist,
for instance, has in itself the faculties, which the artist shows in
making it? Is it not marble or bronze, or gold or ivory? and the
Athena of Phidias when she has once extended the hand and received
in it the figure of Victory stands in that attitude forever. But the
works of God have power of motion, they breathe, they have the faculty
of using the appearances of things, and the power of examining them.
Being the work of such an artist, do you dishonor him? And what
shall I say, not only that he made you, but also intrusted you to
yourself and made you a deposit to yourself? Will you not think of
this too, but do you also dishonor your guardianship? But if God had
intrusted an orphan to you, would you thus neglect him? He has
delivered yourself to your care, and says, "I had no one fitter to
intrust him to than yourself: keep him for me such as he is by nature,
modest, faithful, erect, unterrified, free from passion and
perturbation." And then you do not keep him such.
But some will say, "Whence has this fellow got the arrogance which
he displays and these supercilious looks?" I have not yet so much
gravity as befits a philosopher; for I do not yet feel confidence in
what I have learned and what I have assented to: I still fear my own
weakness. Let me get confidence and the, you shall see a countenance
such as I ought to have and an attitude such as I ought to have:
then I will show to you the statue, when it is perfected, when it is
polished. What do you expect? a supercilious countenance? Does the
Zeus at Olympia lift up his brow? No, his look is fixed as becomes him
who is ready to say

Irrevocable is my word and shall not fail.

Such will I show myself to you, faithful, modest, noble, free from
perturbation. "What, and immortal too, exempt from old age, and from
sickness?" No, but dying as becomes a god, sickening as becomes a god.
This power I possess; this I can do. But the rest I do not possess,
nor can I do. I will show the nerves of a philosopher. "What nerves
are these?" A desire never disappointed, an aversion which never falls
on that which it would avoid, a proper pursuit, a diligent purpose, an
assent which is not rash. These you shall see.

CHAPTER 9

That when we cannot fulfill that which the character of a man
promises, we assume the character of a philosopher

It is no common thing to do this only, to fulfill the promise of a
man's nature. For what is a man? The answer is: "A rational and mortal
being." Then, by the rational faculty, from whom are we separated?
From wild beasts. And from what others? From sheep and like animals.