200 l/-94
Chrysippus, in book four of his Ethical Investigations, and Persaeus and
Zeno. For if one truth is not more [true] than another, then neither is
one falsehood [falser] than another. So, neither is one deception [more
of a deception] than another nor is one [moral] mistake more [of a moral
mistake] than another. For he who is a hundred stades from Canopus
and he who is one stade away are [both] equally not in Canopus. So too
he who makes a larger [moral] mistake and he who makes a smaller one
are [both] equally not acting correctly. 121. But Heracleides of Tarsus,
the student of Antipater of Tarsus, and Athenodorus say that [moral]
mistakes are not equal.
They say that the wise man will participate in politics unless something
prevents him, according to Chrysippus in book one of On Ways of Lift;
for he will restrain vice and promote virtue. And he will marry, as Zeno
says in his Republic, and have children. Again, the wise man will not
hold opinions, that is, he will not assent to anything which is false. And
he will live like a Cynic. For the Cynic life is a short road to virtue, as
Apollodorus says in his Ethics. And he will even taste human flesh in
special circumstances. He alone is free, and the base men are slaves; for
freedom is the authority to act on one's own, while slavery is the privation
of [the ability] to act on one's own. 122. There is also another kind of
slavery, in the sense of subordination [to another]; and a third, in the
sense of subordination [to] and possession [by another]; its opposite is
mastery [or: despotism], and this too is base. Not only are the wise free,
but they are also kings, since kingship is a form of rule not subject to
review, which only the wise could have, as Chrysippus says in his book
On the Fact That Zeno Used Terms in Their Proper Senses. For he says
that the ruler must know about good and bad things and that none of
the base understands these things. Similarly they alone are fit for office
or for jury duty, and [they alone are] public speakers, but none of the
base are. Again, they are also free of [moral] mistakes, since they are not
subject to making [moral] mistakes. 123. And they do no harm; for they
harm neither others nor themselves. But they are not prone to pity and
forgive no one. For they do not relax the penalties which the law fixes
as relevant, since giving in and pity and equity itself are the vapidity of
a soul which aims to substitute niceness for punishment; nor does he
think that [such punishments] are too severe. Again, the wise man is
astonished at none of the things which appear to be wonders, such as
the caves of Charon or tidal ebbs or hot springs or fiery exhalations [from
the earth]. Moreover, the virtuous man will not, they say, live in solitude;
for he is naturally made for [living in a] community and for action. He will,
moreover, submit to training for the sake of [building] bodily endurance.
- They say that the wise man will pray, asking for good things