Page:Discourses of Epictetus.djvu/37

Rh did what he recommends (Fragments, cxviii., cxix.): "Let your talk of God be renewed every day rather than your food"; and "Think of God more frequently than you breathe." I see no other conclusion that such a man could come to than this, that God exists without doubt, and that He is incomprehensible to such feeble creatures as man who lives in so feeble a body. See p. 21, note 5.

We must now see what means God has given to His children for doing their duty. Epictetus begins by showing what things God has put in our power, and what things he has not (i. c. 1; Encheir. 1). "That which is best of all and supreme over all is the only thing which the gods have placed in our power, the right use of appearances; but all other things they have not placed in our power"; and the reason of this limitation of man's power is, "that as we exist on the earth and are bound to such a body and to such companions, how was it possible for us not to be hindered as to these things by externals?" He says again (Encheirid. 1): "Of things some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion, movement towards a thing, desire, aversion (turning from a thing); and in a word, whatever are our own acts: not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices (magisterial power), and in a word, whatever are not our own acts. And the things in our power are by nature free, not subject to restraint nor hindrance: but the things not in our power are weak, slavish, subject to restraint, in the power of others." This is his notion of man's freedom. On this notion all his system rests. He says (i. c. 17): "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."

He says (i. c. 1; iii. c. 3; and elsewhere) that the right