Who then is a Stoic?
Show me a man moulded to the pattern of the judgments that he utters, in the same way as we call
a statue Phidian that is moulded according to the art of Phidias. Show me one who is sick and yet
happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.
Show him me. By the gods I would fain see a Stoic. Nay you cannot show me a finished Stoic;
then show me one in the moulding, one who has set his feet on the path. Do me this kindness, do
not grudge an old man like me a sight I never saw till now. What! You think you are going to
show me the Zeus of Phidias or his Athena, that work of ivory and gold? It is a soul I want; let one
of you show me the soul of a man who wishes to be at one with God, and to blame God or man no
longer, to fail in nothing, to feel no misfortune, to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy--one
who (why wrap up my meaning?) desires to change his manhood for godhead, and who in this
poor body of his has his purpose set upon communion with God. Show him to me. Nay, you
cannot.
Epictetus is never weary of showing how we should deal with what are considered misfortunes,
which he does often by means of homely dialogues.
Like the Christians, he holds that we should love our enemies. In general, in common with other
Stoics, he despises pleasure, but there is a kind of happiness that is not to be despised. "Athens is
beautiful. Yes, but happiness is far more beautiful--freedom from passion and disturbance, the
sense that your affairs depend on no one" (p. 428). Every man is an actor in a play, in which God
has assigned the parts; it is our duty to perform our part worthily, whatever it may be.
There is great sincerity and simplicity in the writings which record the teaching of Epictetus.
(They are written down from notes by his pupil Arrian.) His morality is lofty and unworldly; in a
situation in which a man's main duty is to resist tyrannical power, it would be difficult to find
anything more helpful. In some respects, for instance in recognizing the brotherhood of man and
in teaching the equality of slaves, it is superior to anything to be found in Plato or Aristotle or any
philosopher whose thought is inspired by the City State. The actual world, in the time of
Epictetus, was very inferior to the Athens of Pericles; but the evil in what existed liberated his