soul, desiring to be of one mind with God, no more to lay blame
on God or man, to suffer nothing to disappoint, nothing to cross
him, to yield neither to anger, envy, nor jealousy--in a word,
why disguise the matter? one that from a man would fan become a
God; one that while still imprisioned in this dead body makes
fellowship with God his aim. Show me him!--Ah, you cannot! Then
why mock yourselves and delude others? why stalk about tricked
out in other men's attrire, thieves and robbers that you are of
names and things to which you can show no title!

LXXIX

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you
have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is
within your powers.

LXXX

Fellow, you have come to blows at home with a slave: you
have turned the household upside down, and thrown the
neighbourhood into confusion; and do you come to me then with
airs of assumed modesty--do you sit down like a sage and
criticise my explanantion of the readings, and whatever idle
babble you say has come into my head? Have you come full of envy,
and dejected because nothing is sent you from home; and while the
discussion is going on, do you sit brooding on nothing but how
your father or your brother are disposed towards you:--"What are
they saying about me there? at this moment they imagine I am
making progress and saying, He will return perfectly omniscient!
I wish I could become omniscient before I return; but that would
be very troublesome. No one sends me anything--the baths at
Nicopolis are dirty; things are wretched at home and wretched
here." And then they say, "Nobody is any the better for the
School."--Who comes to the School with a sincere wish to learn:
to submit his principles to correction and himself to treatment?
Who, to gain a sense of his wants? Why then be surprised if you
carry home from the School exactly what you bring into it?

LXXXI

"Epictetus, I have often come desiring to hear you speak,
and you have never given me any answer; now if possible, I
entreat you, say something to me."
"Is there, do you think," replied Epictetus, "an art of
speaking as of other things, if it is to be done skilfully and
with profit to the hearer?"
"Yes."
"And are all profited by what they hear, or only some among
them? So that it seems there is an art of hearing as well as of
speaking. . . . To make a statue needs skill: to view a statue