Athenian, that some time he might see that beautiful Piraeus, and
the Long Walls and the Acropolis? In what condition would you see
them? As a captive, a slave and mean: and what would be the use of
it for you? "Not so: but I should see them as a free man." Show me,
how you would be free. Observe, some person has caught you, who
leads you away from your accustomed place of abode and says, "You
are my slave, for it is in my power to hinder you from living as you
please, it is in my power to treat you gently, and to humble you: when
I choose, on the contrary you are cheerful and go elated to Athens."
What do you say to him who treats you as a slave? What means have
you of finding one who will rescue you from slavery? Or cannot you
even look him in the face, but without saying more do you entreat to
be set free? Man, you ought to go gladly to prison, hastening, going
before those who lead you there. Then, I ask you, are you unwilling to
live in Rome and desire to live in Hellas? And when you must die, will
you then also fill us with your lamentations, because you will not see
Athens nor walk about in the Lyceion? Have you gone abroad for this?
was it for this reason you have sought to find some person from whom
you might receive benefit? What benefit? That you may solve syllogisms
more readily, or handle hypothetical arguments? and for this reason
did you leave brother, country, friends, your family, that you might
return when you had learned these things? So you did not go abroad
to obtain constancy of mind, nor freedom from perturbation, nor in
order that, being secure from harm, you may never complain of any
person, accuse no person, and no man may wrong you, and thus you may
maintain your relative position without impediment? This is a fine
traffic that you have gone abroad for in syllogisms and sophistical
arguments and hypothetical: if you like, take your place in the
agora and proclaim them for sale like dealers in physic. Will you
not deny even all that you have learned that you may not bring a bad
name on your theorems as useless? What harm has philosophy done you?
Wherein has Chrysippus injured you that you should prove by your
acts that his labours are useless? Were the evils that you had there
not enough, those which were the cause of your pain and lamentation,
even if you had not gone abroad? Have you added more to the list?
And if you again have other acquaintances and friends, you will have
more causes for lamentation; and the same also if you take an
affection for another country. Why, then, do you live to surround
yourself with other sorrows upon sorrows through which you are
unhappy? Then, I ask you, do you call this affection? What
affection, man! If it is a good thing, it is the cause of no evil:
if it is bad, I have nothing to do with it. I am formed by nature
for my own good: I am not formed for my own evil.
What then is the discipline for this purpose? First of all the
highest and the principal, and that which stands as it were at the
entrance, is this; when you are delighted with anything, be
delighted as with a thing which is not one of those which cannot be
taken away, but as with something of such a kind, as an earthen pot
is, or a glass cup, that, when it has been broken, you may remember
what it was and may not be troubled. So in this matter also: if you