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their own sake, but because through them signs are given; nor do we
look with wonder on the crow or raven, but on God, who through them
gives signs?
I go then to the interpreter of these things and the sacrificer, and
I say, "Inspect the viscera for me, and tell me what signs they give."
The man takes the viscera, opens them, and interprets them: "Man,"
he says, "you have a will free by nature from hindrance and compulsion;
this is written here in the viscera. I will show you this first in
the matter of assent. Can any man hinder you from assenting to the
truth? No man can. Can any man compel you to receive what is false?
No man can. You see that in this matter you have the faculty of the
will free from hindrance, free from compulsion, unimpeded." Well,
then, in the matter of desire and pursuit of an object, is it otherwise?
And what can overcome pursuit except another pursuit? And what can
overcome desire and aversion except another desire and aversion? But,
you object: "If you place before me the fear of death, you do compel
me." No, it is not what is placed before you that compels, but your
opinion that it is better to do so-and-so than to die. In this matter,
then, it is your opinion that compelled you: that is, will compelled
will. For if God had made that part of Himself, which He took from
Himself and gave to us, of such a nature as to be hindered or compelled
either by Himself or by another, He would not then be God nor would
He be taking care of us as He ought. "This," says the diviner, "I
find in the victims: these are the things which are signified to you.
If you choose, you are free; if you choose, you will blame no one:
you will charge no one. All will be at the same time according to
your mind and the mind of God." For the sake of this divination I
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go to this diviner and to the philosopher, not admiring him for this
interpretation, but admiring the things which he interprets.
Chapter 18
That we ought not to he angry with the errors of others
If what philosophers say is true, that all men have one principle,
as in the case of assent the persuasion that a thing is so, and in
the case of dissent the persuasion that a thing is not so, and in
the case of a suspense of judgment the persuasion that a thing is
uncertain, so also in the case of a movement toward anything the persuasion
that a thing is for a man's advantage, and it is impossible to think
that one thing is advantageous and to desire another, and to judge
one thing to be proper and to move toward another, why then are we
angry with the many? "They are thieves and robbers," you may say.
What do you mean by thieves and robbers? "They are mistaken about
good and evil." Ought we then to be angry with them, or to pity them?
But show them their error, and you will see how they desist from their
errors. If they do not see their errors, they have nothing superior
to their present opinion.
"Ought not then this robber and this adulterer to be destroyed?" By
no means say so, but speak rather in this way: "This man who has been
mistaken and deceived about the most important things, and blinded,
not in the faculty of vision which distinguishes white and black,
but in the faculty which distinguishes good and bad, should we not
destroy him?" If you speak thus, you will see how inhuman this is
which you say, and that it is just as if you would say, "Ought we
not to destroy this blind and deaf man?" But if the greatest harm
is the privation of the greatest things, and the greatest thing in
every man is the will or choice such as it ought to be, and a man
is deprived of this will, why are you also angry with him? Man, you
ought not to be affected contrary to nature by the bad things of another.
Pity him rather: drop this readiness to be offended and to hate, and
these words which the many utter: "These accursed and odious fellows."
How have you been made so wise at once? and how are you so peevish?
Why then are we angry? Is it because we value so much the things of
which these men rob us? Do not admire your clothes, and then you will
not be angry with the thief. Do not admire the beauty of your wife,
and you will not be angry with the adulterer. Learn that a thief and
an adulterer have no place in the things which are yours, but in those
which belong to others and which are not in your power. If you dismiss
these things and consider them as nothing, with whom are you still
angry? But so long as you value these things, be angry with yourself
rather than with the thief and the adulterer. Consider the matter
thus: you have fine clothes; your neighbor has not: you have a window;
you wish to air the clothes. The thief does not know wherein man's
good consists, but he thinks that it consists in having fine clothes,
the very thing which you also think. Must he not then come and take
them away? When you show a cake to greedy persons, and swallow it
all yourself, do you expect them not to snatch it from you? Do not
provoke them: do not have a window: do not air your clothes. I also
lately had an iron lamp placed by the side of my household gods: hearing
a noise at the door, I ran down, and found that the lamp had been
carried off. I reflected that he who had taken the lamp had done nothing
strange. What then? To-morrow, I said, you will find an earthen lamp:
for a man only loses that which he has. "I have lost my garment."
The reason is that you had a garment. "I have pain in my head." Have
you any pain in your horns? Why then are you troubled? for we only
lose those things, we have only pains about those things which we
possess.
"But the tyrant will chain." What? the leg. "He will take away." What?
the neck. What then will he not chain and not take away? the will.
This is why the ancients taught the maxim, "Know thyself." Therefore
we ought to exercise ourselves in small things and, beginning with
them, to proceed to the greater. "I have pain in the head." Do not
say, "Alas!" "I have pain in the ear." Do not say, "Alas!" And I do
not say that you are not allowed to groan, but do not groan inwardly;
and if your slave is slow in bringing a bandage, do not cry out and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]