All the Works of Epictetus · 83 of 100

Book III, Chapter 25

1.Consider which of the Things. which you at first proposed to yourself, you have retained, which not, and how; which give you Pleasure, which Pain, in the Reflection; and, if possible, recover yourself, where you have failed. For the Champions, in this greatest of Combats, must not grow weary; but are even content edly to bear Whipping. For this is no Combat of Wrestling or Boxing; where both he who succeeds, and he who doth not succeed, may possibly be of very great Worth, or of little; indeed may be very fortunate, or very miserable: but the Combat is for good Fortune and Happiness itself. What is the Case then? Here, even if we have renounced the Contest, no one restrains us from renewing it; nor need we wait for another Four Years, for the Return of another Olympiad; but recollecting, and recovering yourself, and returning with the same Zeal, you may renew it immediately: and even if you should again yield, you may again begin: and, if you once get the Victory, you become like one who hath never yielded. Only do not begin, from a Habit of this, to do it with Pleasure, and then, like Quails that have fled the Pit, go about as if you were a brave Champion, though you have been conquered, all the Games round. —— “The Appearance of a pretty Girl conquers me.” What then? “Have not I been conquered before? I have a mind to rail at somebody. Well: have not I railed before?” —— You talk to us just as if you had come off unhurt. Like one that should say to his Physician, who had forbidden him to bathe, “Why, did not I bathe before?” Suppose the Physician should answer him, “Well: and what was the Consequence of your Bathing? Were not you feverish? Had not you the Head-ach?” So, when you before railed at somebody, did not you act like an ill-natured Person; like an impertinent one? Have not you fed this Habit of yours, by Actions familiar to it? When you were conquered by a pretty Girl, did you come off with Impunity? Why then do you talk of what you have done before? You ought to remember it, I think, as Slaves do Whipping, so as to refrain from the same Faults. —— “But the Case is unlike: for there it is Pain that causes the Remembrance: but what is the Pain, what the Punishment, of my committing Faults? For when was I ever habituated [by any Suffering] to avoiding acting ill?” —— Therefore the Pairs of Experience, whether we will, or not, have their Use.