Epictetus began by laying down the broad comprehensive statement that there are some things which are in our power, and depend upon ourselves; other things which are beyond our power, and wholly independent of us. The things which are in our power are our opinions, our aims, our desires, our aversions--in a word, _our actions_. The things beyond our power are bodily accidents, possessions, fame, rank, and whatever lies _beyond_ the sphere of our actions. To the former of these classes of things our whole attention must be confined. In that region we may be noble, unperturbed, and free; in the other we shall be dependent, frustrated, querulous, miserable. Both classes cannot be successfully attended to; they are antagonistic, antipathetic; we cannot serve God and Mammon.
Now, if we take a right view of all these things which in no way depend on ourselves we shall regard them as mere semblances--as shadows which are to be distinguished from the true substance. We shall not look upon them as fit subjects for aversion or desire. Sin and cruelty, and falsehood we may hate, because we can avoid them if we will; but we must look upon sickness, and poverty, and death as things which are _not_ fit subjects for our avoidance, because they lie wholly beyond our control.
This, then,--endurance of the inevitable, avoidance of the evil--is the keynote of the Epictetean philosophy. It has been summed up in the three words, [Greek: Anechou kai apechou], "_sustine et abstine_," "Bear and forbear,"--bear whatever God assigns to you, abstain from that which He forbids.
The earlier part of the _Manual_ is devoted to practical advice which may enable men to endure nobly. For instance, "If there be anything," says Epictetus, "which you highly value or tenderly love, estimate at the same time its true nature. Is it some possession? remember that it may be destroyed. Is it wife or child? remember that they may die." "Death," says an epitaph in Chester Cathedral--
"Death, the great monitor, comes oft to prove, 'Tis dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love."
"Desire nothing too much. If you are going to the public baths and are annoyed or hindered by the rudeness, the pushing, the abuse, the thievish propensities of others, do not lose your temper: remind yourself that it is more important that you should keep your will in harmony with nature than that you should bathe. And so with all troubles; men suffer far less from the things themselves than from the opinions they have of them."