Page:Encheiridion of Epictetus - Rolleston 1881.pdf/26

xx have called the 'discovery' of Stoicism is a discovery rather of capacities than of actualities; of capacities as yet undeveloped, but which it is for man's good to develop; which must indeed sooner or later be developed, on the principle that the growth of the human spirit will follow the line of least resistance. So when Epictetus declares that the things wherein we are subject to powers outside of ourselves and uncontrollable by our will are not matters of vital concern to us, he does not mean to say that the majority of mankind do not feel themselves vitally and almost exclusively concerned in those very things. He merely asserts that to lose this overpowering concern in things beyond our control is possible to human nature, and is for our good; and this being so, the fact that certain men have realised this possibility in their lives and proclaimed it to the world cannot but make it easier for other men to realise it also.

But while to some minds the teaching of the