On Tranquillity of Mind (10-14)

And yet it is also highly conducive to tranquillity of mind to examine, if possible, oneself and one’s fortunes, but if that is not possible, to observe persons of inferior fortune, and not, as most people do, compare oneself with those who are superior; as, for example, those in prison account fortunate these who have been set free[*]; and they, men born free; and free men, citizens; and citizens, in their turn, the rich; and the rich, satraps; and satraps, kings; and kings, the gods, scarcely stopping short of

desiring the power to produce thunder and lightning. Thus, through being always conscious that they lack things which are beyond them, they are never grateful for what befits their station.

I want no wealth of Gyges rich in gold,

Nor have I ever envied him; I am

Not jealous of gods’ works, nor love a great

Kingdom: such things are far beyond my ken.[*]

But he was a Thasian, one may say.[*] Yet there are others, Chians, Galatians, or Bithynians, who are not content with whatever portion of either repute or power among their own fellow-countrymen has fallen to their lot, but weep because they do not wear the patrician shoe; yet if they do wear it, they weep because they are not yet Roman praetors; if they are praetors, because they are not consuls; and if consuls, because they were proclaimed, not first, but later.[*] What is this other than collecting excuses for ingratitude to Fortune in order to chastise and punish oneself? But he, at least, who has a mind filled with salutary thoughts, knowing that the sun looks down upon countless myriads of men,

As many of us as win the fruit of the spacious earth,[*]

if he be less famous or wealthy than some others, does not sit down in sorrow and dejection, but since he knows that he lives ten thousand times better and more suitably than tens of thousands in so great a number, he will go on his way praising his own guardian spirit and his life.

Now at Olympia you cannot win the victory by selecting competitors, but in this life circumstances permit you to take pride in your superiority to many, and to be an object of envy rather than envious of the others - unless, indeed, you make a Briareus or a Heracles your opponent. Whenever, then, you are lost in admiration of a man borne in his litter as being superior to yourself, lower your eyes and gaze upon the litter-bearers also; and whenever you account happy, as the man of Hellespont[*] did, that famous Xerxes crossing his bridge, look also upon those who are digging through Athos[*] beneath the lash, and those whose ears and noses are mutilated because the bridge was broken by the current. Consider also their state of mind: they account happy your life and your fortunes.

When Socrates[*] heard one of his friends remark how expensive the city was, saying Chian wine costs a mina, a purple robe three minae, a half-pint of honey five drachmas, he took him by the hand and led him to the meal-market, Half a peck for an obol! the city is cheap; then to the olive-market, A quart for two coppers!; then to the clothesmarket, A sleeveless vest for ten drachmas! the city is cheap. We also, therefore, whenever we hear another say that our affairs are insignificant and in a

woeful plight because we are not consuls or governors, may reply, Our affairs are splendid and our life is enviable: we do not beg, or carry burdens, or live by flattery.

Yet since, however, through our folly we have grown accustomed to live with eyes fixed on everyone else rather than on ourselves, and since our nature contains much envy and malice and does not rejoice so much in our own blessings as it is pained by those which other men possess, do not look only at the splendour and notoriety of those you envy and wonder at, but open and, as it were, draw aside the gaudy curtain of their repute and outward appearance, and get inside them, and you will see many disagreeable things and many things to vex them there. Thus, when that renowned Pittacus,[*] whose fame for bravery and for wisdom and justice was great, was entertaining some guests, his wife entered in a rage and upset the table; his guests were dismayed, but Pittacus said, Every one of us has some trouble. He that has only mine is doing very well indeed.

This man’s held happy in the market-place,

But when he enters home, thrice-wretched he:

His wife rules all, commands, and always fights.

His woes are more than mine, for mine are none![*]

Many such evils attend wealth and repute and kingship, evils unknown to the vulgar, for ostentation hinders the vision.

O happy son of Atreus, child of destiny,

Blessed with a kindly guardian spirit![*]

Such felicitation comes from externals only - for his arms and horses and far-flung host of warriors; but against the emptiness of his glory the voice of his sufferings cries out in protest from the very heart:

The son of Cronus, Zeus, entangled me

In deep infatuation,[*]

and

I envy you, old man;

I envy any man whose life has passed

Free from danger, unknown and unrenowned.[*]

By such reflections also, then, it is possible to reduce the violence of our fault-finding with fate, fault-finding which, through admiration of our neighbours’ lot, both debases and destroys our own.

Further, another matter which greatly interferes with tranquillity of mind is that we do not manage our impulses, as sailors do their sails, to correspond to our capacity; in our expectations we aim at things too great; then, when we fail, we blame our destiny and our fortune instead of our own folly. For he is not unfortunate who wishes to shoot with his plough and hunt the hare with his ox, nor does a malicious destiny oppose him who cannot capture deer or boar with fishing creels or drag-nets; it is through folly and stupidity that such men attempt the impossible. And self-love is chiefly to blame, which makes men eager to be first and to be victorious in everything and insatiably desirous of engaging in everything. For not only do men demand to be at the same time rich and learned and strong and convivial

spirits and good company, and friends of kings and magistrates of cities, but unless they shall also have dogs and horses and quails and cocks that can win prizes, they are disconsolate.

The elder Dionysius[*] was not content with being the greatest tyrant of his age, but because he could not sing verses better than the poet Philoxenus or get the better of Plato in dialectic, enraged and embittered, he cast Philoxenus into the stone-quarries, and, sending Plato to Aegina, sold him into slavery. Alexander[*] was not of this temper, but when Crison, the famous sprinter, ran a race with him and appeared to slacken his pace deliberately, Alexander was very indignant. And when the Homeric Achilles[*] had first said,

Of the bronze-clad Achaeans none is a match for me,

he did well to add,

In war; but in speaking others are better than I.

But when Megabyzus the Persian carne up to the studio of Apelles[*] and attempted to chatter about art, Apelles shut his mouth by saying, As long as you kept still, you seemed to be somebody because of your gold and purple; but now even these lads who grind the pigments are laughing at your nonsense.

But some think that the Stoics[*] are jesting when they hear that in their sect the wise man is termed not only prudent and just and brave, but also an

orator, a poet, a general, a rich man, and a king; and then they count themselves worthy of all these titles, and if they fail to get them, are vexed. Yet even among the gods different gods hold different powers: one bears the epithet War-like, another Prophetic, another Gain-bringing; and Zeus[*] dispatches Aphrodite to marriages and nuptial chambers, on the ground that she has no part in deeds of war.

There are, indeed, some pursuits which cannot by their very nature exist together, but rather are by nature opposed to each other; for example, training in rhetoric and the pursuit of mathematics require a quiet life and leisure, while political functions and the friendship of kings cannot succeed without hard work and the full occupation of one’s time. And[*] wine and indulgence in meat do indeed make the body strong and vigorous, but the soul weak [*]; and unremitting care to acquire and preserve money increases wealth, yet contempt and disdain for it is greatly conducive to progress in philosophy. Therefore not all pursuits are for everyone, but one must, obeying the Pythian[*] inscription, know one’s self, and then use one’s self for that one thing for which Nature has fitted one and not do violence to nature by dragging one’s self towards the emulation of now one sort of life, now another.

The horse is for the chariot;

The ox for the plough; beside the ship most swiftly speeds the dolphin;

And if you think to slay a boar, you must find a stout-hearted hound.[*]

But that man is out of his wits who is annoyed and pained that he is not at the same time both a lion

Bred on the mountains, sure of his strength,[*]

and a little Maltese dog cuddled in the lap of a widow.[*] But not a whit better than he is the man who wishes at the same time to be an Empedocles or a Plato or a Democritus, writing about the universe and the true nature of reality, and, like Euphorion, to be married to a wealthy old woman, or, like Medius,[*] to be one of Alexander’s boon companions and drink with him; and is vexed and grieved if he is not admired for his wealth, like Ismenias, and also for his valour, like Epameinondas. We know that runners are not discouraged because they do not carry off wrestlers’ crowns, but they exult and rejoice in their own.

Your portion is Sparta: let your crowns be for her![*]

So also Solon[*]:

But we shall not exchange with them our virtue

For their wealth, since virtue is a sure possession,

But money falls now to this man, now that.

And Strato, the natural philosopher, when he heard that Menedemus had many more pupils than he himself had, said, Why be surprised if there are more who wish to bathe than to be anointed for the contest? [*] And Aristotle,[*] writing to Antipater, said, It is not Alexander alone who has the right to be proud because he rules over many men, but no less right to be proud have they who have true notions concerning the gods. For those who have such lofty opinions of their own possessione will not be offended by their neighbours’ goods. But as it is, we do not expect the vine to bear figs nor the olive grapes,[*] but, for ourselves, if we have not at one and the same time the advantages of both the wealthy and the learned, of both commanders and philosophers, of both flatterers and the outspoken, of both the thrifty and the lavish, we slander ourselves, we are displeased, we despise ourselves as living an incomplete and trivial life.

Furthermore, we see that Nature also admonishes us; for just as she has provided different foods for different beasts and has not made them all carnivorous or seed-pickers or root-diggers, so has she

given to men a great variety of means for gaining a livelihood,

To shepherd and ploughman and fowler and to him w hom the sea

Provides with sustenance.[*]

We should, therefore, choose the calling appropriate to ourselves, cultivate it diligently, let the rest alone, and not prove that[*] Hesiod spoke inexactly when he said,

Potter is angry with potter, joiner with joiner.

For not only are men jealous of fellow-craftsmen and those who share the same life as themselves, but also the wealthy envy the learned, the famous the rich, advocates the sophists, and, by Heaven free men and patricians regard with wondering admiration and envy successful comedians in the theatre and dancers and servants in the courts of kings; and by so doing they afford themselves no small vexation and disturbance.

But that every man has within himself the storerooms of tranquillity and discontent, and that the jars containing blessings and evils are not stored on the threshold of Zeus, [*] but are in the soul, is made plain by the differences in men’s passions. For the foolish overlook and neglect good things even when they are present, because their thoughts are ever intent upon the future, but the wise by remembrance

make even those benefits that are no longer at hand to be vividly existent for themselves. For the present good, which allows us to touch it but for the smallest portion of time and then eludes our perception, seems to fools to have no further reference to us or to belong to us at all; but like that painting of a man[*] twisting rope in Hades, who permits a donkey grazing near by to eat it up as he plaits it, so insensible and thankless forgetfulness steals upon the multitude and takes possession of them, consuming every action and success, every pleasant moment of leisure and companionship and enjoyment; it does not allow life to become unified, when past is interwoven with present, but separating yesterday, as though it were different, from to-day, and to-morrow likewise, as though it were not the same as to-day, forgetfulness straightway makes every event to have never happened because it is never recalled. For those who in the Schools do away with growth and increase on the ground that Being is in a continual flux, in theory make each of us a series of persons different from oneself[*]; so those who do not preserve or recall by memory former events, but allow them to flow away, actually make themselves deficient and empty each day and dependent upon the morrow, as though what had happened last year and yesterday and the day before had no relation to them nor had happened to them at all.