The Works of Epictetus: Discourses, Enchiridion, and Fragments

ix

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

have always ready: that there is nothing good or evil save in the Will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them" (II. 38). This last point is singularly identical with the wise Quaker motto on which Elizabeth Fry A famous English prison reformer. based her remarkable practical successes—"to follow, not force Providence."

These simple principles are developed pithily in the Enchiridion, or Manual, and more elaborately in the Discourses. Neither work was written by Epictetus himself, but both were transcribed from his spoken words. In the sixth century, the Enchiridion was made the subject of an elaborate Greek commentary by Simplicius, which was translated into English by Stanhope and was later used as the text for a commentary longer than itself by Milton's adversary, Salmasius.

There is no stain upon the consistent nobility of these Discourses. One can point out some omissions and some areas where our complex human nature eludes the simple system of Epictetus. But everything here is noble. All the common complaints against Stoic philosophy—all charges of arrogance, uncharitableness, cold isolation, or the approval of suicide—are refuted entirely by his clear statements. "What is the first business of one who studies...