physician?"
"Surely."
"And these things the best you possess, or have you anything
more precious?"
"What can you mean?"
"I mean that which employs these; which weights all things;
which takes counsel and resolve."
"Oh, you mean the soul."
"You take me rightly; I do mean the soul. By Heaven, I hold
that far more precious than all else I possess. Can you show me
then what care you bestow on a soul? For it can scarcely be
thought that a man of your wisdom and consideration in the city
would suffer your most precious possession to go to ruin through
carelessness and neglect."
"Certainly not."
"Well, do you take care of it yourself? Did any one teach
you the right method, or did you discover it yourself?"
Now here comes in the danger: first, that the great man may
answer, "Why, what is that to you, my good fellow? are you my
master?" And then, if you persist in troubling him, may raise his
hand to strike you. It is a practice of which I was myself a warm
admirer until such experiences as these befell me.

LXV

When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and
saying, "I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,"
Epictetus replied, "I too have conversed with many rich men, yet
I am not rich!"

LXVI

We see that a carpenter becomes a carpenter by learning
certain things: that a pilot, by learning certain things, becomes
a pilot. Possibly also in the present case the mere desire to be
wise and good is not enough. It is necessary to learn certain
things. This is then the object of our search. The Philosophers
would have us first learn that there is a God, and that His
Providence directs the Universe; further, that to hide from Him
not only one's acts but even one's thoughts and intentions is
impossible; secondly, what the nature of God is. Whatever that
nature is discovered to be, the man who would please and obey Him
must strive with all his might to be made like unto him. If the
Divine is faithful, he also must be faithful; if free, he also
must be free; if beneficent, he also must be beneficent; if
magnanimous, he also must be magnanimous. Thus as an imitator of
God must he follow Him in every deed and word.

LXVII