Page:Discourses of Epictetus volume 2 Oldfather 1928.djvu/459



Rufus. From the remarks of Epictetus on friendship

Such was, and is, and will be, the nature of the universe, and it is not possible for the things that come into being to come into being otherwise than they now do. And not only has mankind participated in this process of change and transformation, and all the other living beings upon earth, but also those which are divine, and, by Zeus, even the four elements, which are changed and transformed upwards and downwards, as earth becomes water, and water air, and air again is transformed into ether; and there is the same kind of transformation also downwards. If a man endeavours to incline his mind to these things, and to persuade himself to accept of his own accord what needs must befall him, he will have a very reasonable and harmonious life.

A philosopher who is well known in the Stoic school ''brought out of his handbag the fifth book of the Discourses of the philosopher Epictetus, which had been arranged by Arrian, and agree, no doubt, with the writings of Zeno and Chrysippus. In that book, written of course in Greek, we find, a passage to this purport: Things seen by the mind (which the philosophers call'' φαντασίας), whereby the intellect of man is struck at the very first sight of anything which penetrates to the mind, are not subject to his will, nor to his 449