as Nature would have it, and so remain. Think you this a small
matter? Not so! but the greatest thing there is. Well, does it
need but a short time? Can it be grasped by a passer-by?--grasp
it, if you can!
Then you will say, "Yes, I met Epictetus!"
Aye, just as you might a statue or a monument. You saw me!
and that is all. But a man who meets a man is one who learns the
other's mind, and lets him see is in turn. Learn my mind--show me
yours; and then go and say that you met me. Let us try each
other; if I have any wrong principle, rid me of it; if you have,
out with it. That is what meeting a philosopher means. Not so,
you think; this is only a flying visit; while we are hiring the
ship, we can see Epictetus too! Let us see what he has to say.
Then on leaving you cry, "Out on Epictetus for a worthless
fellow, provincial and barbarous of speech!" What else indeed did
you come to judge of?

XCIV

Whether you will or no, you are poorer than I!
"What then do I lack?"
What you have not: Constancy of mind, such as Nature would
have it be: Tranquillity. Patron or no patron, what care I? but
you do care. I am richer than you: I am not racked with anxiety
as to what Caesar may think of me; I flatter none on that
account. This is what I have, instead of vessels of gold and
silver! your vessels may be of gold, but your reason, your
principles, your accepted views, your inclinations, your desires
are of earthenware.

XCV

To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems
great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children
thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to
pull out the nuts and figs it contains: if they fill the hand,
they cannot pull it out again, and then they fall to tears.--
"Let go a few of them, and then you can draw out the rest!"--
You, too, let your desire go! covet not many things, and you will
obtain.

XCVI

Pittacus wronged by one whom he had it in his power to
punish, let him go free, saying, Forgiveness is better than
revenge. The one shows native gentleness, the other savagery.

XCVII

"My brother ought not to have treated me thus."