The Works of Epictetus: Discourses, Enchiridion, and Fragments

vi

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

The philosophy of Epictetus was entirely of a practical sort, quite unlike those cloudy regions of Proclus and Plotinus Neoplatonic philosophers. in which Thomas Taylor loved to wander. Whatever it was, Elizabeth Carter understood it and rendered it almost too technically. If she knew less of philosophy than "the Platonist," she knew Greek a great deal better. There is no reason to doubt that she was, as her friend Dr. Johnson declared, the best Greek scholar in England of her day. She certainly surpassed the contemporary Latin translator, Upton, whose edition of Epictetus was deservedly the standard one until that of Schweighäuser; and I have rarely examined a point disputed between her and Schweighäuser without siding with her in the end. After saying this, it is no great stretch of humility to admit my own inferiority and to claim only the advantage of writing more than a century later, and thus having more background information and a more modern style.

I hesitated for some time whether to call this book simply a revision of Elizabeth Carter's translation or a new one based on hers. The latter alternative was finally chosen—not to claim any of her credit for myself, but to save her from sharing any of my discredit. The enterprise was begun simply as a revision.