you? Who are you, and for what purpose did you come into the world?
Did not He introduce you here, did He not show you the light, did he
not give you fellow-workers, and perception, and reason? and as whom
did He introduce you here? did He not introduce you as a subject to
death, and as one to live on the earth with a little flesh, and to
observe His administration, and to join with Him in the spectacle
and the festival for a short time? Will you not, then, as long as
you have been permitted, after seeing the spectacle and the solemnity,
when he leads you out, go with adoration of Him and thanks for what
you have seen, and heard? "No; but I would, still enjoy the feast."
The initiated, too, would wish to be longer in the initiation: and
perhaps also those, at Olympia to see other athletes; but the
solemnity is ended: go away like a grateful and modest man; make
room for others: others also must be born, as you were, and being born
they must have a place, and houses and necessary things. And if the
first do not retire, what remains? Why ire you insatiable? Why are you
not content? why do you contract the world? "Yes, but I would have
my little children with me and my wife." What, are they yours? do they
not belong to the Giver, and to Him who made you? then will you not
give up what belongs to others? will you not give way to Him who is
superior? "Why, then, did He introduce me into the world on these
conditions," And if the conditions do not suit you depart. He has no
need of a spectator who is not satisfied. He wants those who join in
the festival, those who take part in the chorus, that they may
rather applaud, admire, and celebrate with hymns the solemnity. But
those who can bear no trouble, and the cowardly He will not
willingly see absent from the great assembly; for they did not when
they were present behave as they ought to do at a festival nor fill up
their place properly, but they lamented, found fault with the deity,
fortune, their companions; not seeing both what they had. and their
own powers, which they received for contrary purposes, the powers of
magnanimity, of a generous mind, manly spirit, and what we are now
inquiring about, freedom. "For what purpose, then, have I received
these things? To use them. "How long;" So long as He who his lent them
chooses. "What if they are necessary to me?" Do not attach yourself to
them and they will not be necessary: do not say to yourself that
they are necessary, and then they are not necessary.
This study you ought to practice from morning to evening, beginning,
with the smallest things and those most liable to damage, with an
earthen pot, with a cup. Then proceed in this way to a tunic to a
little dog, to a horse, to a small estate in land: then to yourself,
to your body, to the parts of your body, to your brothers. Look all
round and throw these things from you. Purge your opinions so that
nothing cleave to you of the things which are not your own, that
nothing grow to you, that nothing give you pain when it is torn from
you; and say, while you are daily exercising yourself as you do there,
not that you are philosophizing, for this is an arrogant expression,
but that you are presenting an asserter of freedom: for this is really
freedom. To this freedom Diogenes was called by Antisthenes, and he
said that he could no longer be enslaved by any man. For this reason