THIS is the work, if any, that ought to employ
your master and preceptor, if you had one;
that you should come to him, and say:
"Epictetus,
we can no longer bear being tied down to this
paltry body, feeding and resting and cleaning it,
and hurried about with so many low cares on
its account. Are not these things indifferent,
and nothing to us, and death no evil? Are not
we relations of God, and did we not come from
Him? Suffer us to go back thither from whence
we came; suffer us, at length, to be delivered
from these fetters, that chain and weigh us
down. Here thieves and robbers, and courts of
judicature, and those who are called tyrants,
seem to have some power over us, on account
of the body and its possessions. Suffer us to
show them, that they have no power."
And in this case it would be my part to answer:
"My friends, wait for God, till He shall give the
signal, and dismiss you from this service; then
return to Him. For the present, be content to
remain in this post where He has placed you.
The time of your abode here is short, and easy
to such as are disposed like you. For what
tyrant, what robber, what thief, or what courts
of judicature are formidable to those who thus
account the body and its possessions as nothing?
Stay. Depart not inconsiderately."
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book i. §8. ¶3.
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