This, then, we should practice and cultivate first
of all, like the man who threw a stone at his dog, but
missed her and hit his stepmother, whereupon he
exclaimed, ‘Not so bad after all!’
1 For it is
possible to change the direction of Fortune when she
has given us things we do not wish. Diogenes
2 was
driven into exile : ‘Not so bad after all!’ for after
his exile he began to lead the life of a philosopher.
Zeno
3 of Citium had one merchantman remaining ;
when he learned that this had been sunk at sea and
lost with all its cargo, he cried, ‘Much obliged,
Fortune! You also drive me to the philosopher's
cloak.’
4
What, then, prevents our imitating such men as
these? Have you failed in your canvass for an office?
You will be able to live in the country and look after
your own affairs. Were you repulsed in wooing the
friendship of some great man? Your life will be free
from danger and trouble. Have you, again, become
occupied with matters which take all your time and
fill you with cares?
Nor shall hot water so soften the limbs,
[p. 185]
as Pindar
5 has it, since high repute and honour conjoined with a measure of power make
Labour pleasant and toil to be sweet toil.6
Have you, by reason of slander or envy, become the
butt of jeers and cat-calls? The breeze is favouring
that bears you to the Muses and the Academy,
7 as it
was for Plato
8 when he was buffeted by the storm
of Dionysius's friendship.
For this reason it will also help greatly toward
tranquillity of mind to observe that famous men have
suffered nothing at all from evils the same as yours.
Does childlessness, for example, vex you? Consider
the kings
9 of Rome, of whom not one was able to
bequeath the kingdom to a son. Are you distressed
by your present poverty? Well, what Boeotian
rather than Epameinondas, what Roman rather than
Fabricius, would you have preferred to be? ‘But
my wife has been seduced.’ Have you, then, not
read the inscription at Delphi,
The lord of land and sea, King Agis, put me here10;
and have you not heard that Alcibiades
11 seduced
Agis's wife, Timaea, and that, whispering to her handmaids, she called her child Alcibiades? But this did
not prevent Agis from being the most celebrated and
[p. 187]
the greatest of Greeks. Just as the licentiousness
of his daughter did not prevent Stilpo
12 from leading the most cheerful life of all the philosophers
of his time ; on the contrary, when Metrocles reproached him, he asked, ‘Is this my fault or hers?’
And when Metrocles replied, ‘Her fault, but your
misfortune,’ he said, ‘What do you mean? Are
not faults also slips?’
‘Certainly,’ said Metrocles.
‘And are not slips also mischances of those who
have slipped?’ Metrocles agreed. ‘And are not
mischances also misfortunes of those whose mischances they are?’ By this gentle and philosophic
argument he showed the Cynics abuse to be but
idle yapping.
