1. Pindar’s Caeneus hath been taken to task by several, being improbably feigned, impenetrable by steel and impassible in his body, and soDescending into hell without a wound,And with sound foot parting in two the ground. But the Stoics’ Lapithes, as if they had carved him out of the very adamantine matter of impassibility itself, though he is not invulnerable, nor exempt from either sickness or pain, yet remains fearless, regretless, invincible, and unconstrainable in the midst of wounds, dolors, and torments, and in the very subversions of the walls of his native city, and other such like great calamities. Again, Pindar’s Caeneus is not wounded when struck; but the Stoics’ wise man is not detained when shut up in a prison, suffers no compulsion by being thrown down a precipice, is not tortured when on the rack, takes no hurt by being maimed, and when he catches a fall in wrestling he is still unconquered; when he is encompassed with a rampire, he is not besieged; and when sold by his enemies, he is still not made a prisoner. The wonderful man is like to those ships that have inscribed upon them A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE, or PROTECTING PROVIDENCE, or A PRESERVATIVE AGAINST DANGERS, and yet for all that endure storms, and are miserably shattered and overturned.
1. ὁ Πινδάρου Καινεὺς εὔθυναν ὑπεῖχεν, ἀπιθάνως ἄρρηκτος σιδήρῳ καὶ ἀπαθὴς τὸ σῶμα πλασσόμενος, εἶτα καταδὺς ἄτρωτος ὑπὸ γῆν σχίσας ὀρθῷ ποδὶ γᾶν· ὁ δὲ Στωικὸς Λαπίθης, ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀδαμαντίνης ὕλης ὑπʼ αὐτῶν τῆς ἀπαθείας κεχαλκευμένος, οὐκ ἄτρωτός ἐστιν οὐδʼ ἄνοσος οὐδʼ ἀναλγής, ἄφοβος δὲ μένει καὶ ἄλυπος καὶ ἀήττητος καὶ ἀβίαστος, τιτρωσκόμενος ἀλγῶν στρεβλούμενος, ἐν κατασκαφαῖς πατρίδος ἐν πάθεσιν, τοιούτοις. καὶ ὁ μὲν Πινδάρου Καινεὺς βαλλόμενος οὐ τιτρώσκεται, ὁ δὲ τῶν Στωικῶν σοφὸς ἐγκλειόμενος οὐ κωλύεται καὶ κατακρημνιζόμενος οὐκ ἀναγκάζεται καὶ στρεβλούμενος οὐ βασανίζεται καὶ πηρούμενος οὐ βλάπτεται καὶ πίπτων ἐν τῷ παλαίειν ἀήττητός ἐστι καὶ περιτειχιζόμενος ἀπολιόρκητος καὶ πωλούμενος; ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμίων ἀνάλωτος· οὐδὲν τῶν πλοίων διαφέρων, οἷς ἐπιγέγραπται μὲν Εὔπλοια καὶ Πρόνοια Σῴζουσα καὶ Θεραπεία, χειμάζεται δὲ καὶ συντρίβεται καὶ ἀνατρέπεται. στοιξος ἀβσιιρδιορα ποετις διξερε.
2. Euripides’s Iolaus of a feeble, superannuated old man, by means of a certain prayer, became on a sudden youthful and strong for battle; but the Stoics’ wise man was yesterday most detestable and the worst of villains, but today is changed on a sudden into a state of virtue, and is become of a wrinkled, pale fellow, and, as Aeschylus speaks,Of an old sickly wretch with stitch in’s back,Distent with rending pains as on a rack,a gallant, god-like, and beauteous person.
2. ὁ Εὐριπίδου Ἰόλαος ἐξ ἀδρανοῦς καὶ παρήλικος εὐχῇ τινι νέος καὶ ἰσχυρὸς ἐπὶ τὴν μάχην ἄφνω γέγονεν· ὁ δὲ τῶν Στωικῶν σοφὸς χθὲς μὲν ἦν αἴσχιστος ἅμα καὶ κάκιστος, τήμερον δʼ ἄφνω μεταβέβληκεν εἰς ἀρετὴν καὶ γέγονεν ἐκ ῥυσσοῦ καὶ ὠχροῦ καὶ κατʼ Αἰσχύλονἐξ ὀσφυαλγοῦς κὡδυνοσπάδος λυγροῦγέροντοςεὐπρεπὴς θεοειδὴς καλλίμορφος καὶ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ τὴν ῥυσσότητα καὶ φαλακρότητα καὶ ἀμορφίαν ἀφῄρηκεν, ὅπως φανείη καλός·
3. The Goddess Minerva took from Ulysses his wrinkles, baldness, and deformity, to make him appear a handsome man. But these men’s wise man, though old age quits not his body, but contrariwise still lays on and heaps more upon it, though he remains (for instance) hump-backed, toothless, one-eyed, is yet neither deformed, disfigured, nor ill-favored. For as beetles are said to relinquish perfumes and to pursue after ill scents; so Stoical love, having used itself to the most foul and deformed persons, if by means of philosophy they change into good form and comeliness, becomes presently disgusted.
3. ὁ δὲ τούτων σοφός, οὐκ ἀπολιπόντος τὸ σῶμα τοῦ γήρως ἀλλὰ καὶ προσεπιθέντος καὶ προσεπιχώσαντος, μένων κυρτός, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ, νωδὸς ἑτερόφθαλμος, οὔτʼ αἰσχρὸς οὔτε δύσμορφος οὔτε κακοπρόσωπός ἐστιν. ὁ γὰρ Στωικὸς ἔρως, ὥσπερ οἱ κάνθαροι λέγονται τὸ μὲν μύρον ἀπολείπειν τὰ δὲ δυσώδη διώκειν, οὕτω τοῖς αἰσχίστοις καὶ ἀμορφοτάτοις ὁμιλῶν, ὅταν εἰς εὐμορφίαν καὶ κάλλος ὑπὸ σοφίας μεταβάλωσιν, ἀποτρέπεται.
4. He that in the Stoics’ account was in the forenoon (for example) the worst man in the world is in the afternoon best of men; and he that falls asleep a very sot, dunce, miscreant, and brute, nay, by Jove, a slave and a beggar to boot, rises up the same day a prince, a rich and a happy man, and (which is yet more) a continent, just, determined, and unprepossessed person;—not by shooting forth out of a young and tender body a downy beard or the sprouting tokens of mature youth, but by having in a feeble, soft, unmanful, and undetermined mind, a perfect intellect, a consummate prudence, a godlike disposition, an unprejudiced science, and an unalterable habit. All this time his viciousness gives not the least ground in order to it, but he becomes in an instant, I had almost said, of the vilest brute, a sort of hero, genius, or God. For he that receives his virtue from the Stoics’ portico may say, “Ask what thou wilt, it shall be granted thee.” It brings wealth along with it, it contains kingship in it, it confers fortune; it renders men prosperous, and makes them to want nothing and to have a sufficiency of every thing. though they have not one drachm of silver in the house.
4. ὁ παρὰ τοῖς Στωικοῖς κάκιστος, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ πρωῒ, δείλης ἄριστος· καὶ καταδαρθὼν ἔμπληκτος καὶ ἀμαθὴς καὶ ἄδικος καὶ, ἀκόλαστος καὶ ναὶ μὰ Δία δοῦλος καὶ πένης καὶ ἄπορος αὐθημερὸν ἀνί σταται καὶ βασιλεὺς καὶ πλούσιος καὶ ὄλβιος γεγονώς, σώφρων τε καὶ δίκαιος καὶ βέβαιος καὶ ἀδόξαστος· οὐ γένεια φύσας οὐδʼ ἥβην ἐν σώματι νέῳ καὶ ἁπαλῷ, ἀλλʼ ἐν ἀσθενεῖ καὶ ἁπαλῇ ψυχῇ καὶ ἀνάνδρῳ καὶ ἀβεβαίῳ νοῦν τέλειον, ἄκραν φρόνησιν, ἰσόθεον διάθεσιν, ἀδόξαστον ἐπιστήμην καὶ ἀμετάπτωτον ἕξιν ἐσχηκώς, οὐδὲν ἐνδούσης πρότερον αὐτῷ τῆς μοχθηρίας, ἀλλʼ ἐξαίφνης, ὀλίγου δέω εἰπεῖν, ἣρως τις ἢ δαίμων ἢ θεὸς ἐκ θηρίων τοῦ κακίστου γενόμενος. ἐκ τῆς Στοᾶς; γὰρ λαβόντα τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔστιν εἰπεῖν εὖξαι τί βούλει, πάντα σοι γενήσεται πλοῦτον φέρει, βασιλείαν ἔχει, τύχην δίδωσιν, εὐπότμους ποιεῖ καὶ ἀπροσδεεῖς καὶ αὐτάρκεις, μίαν οἴκοθεν δραχμὴν οὐκ ἔχοντας ὁ μὲν γὰρ ποιητικὸς;
5. The fabular relations of the poets are so careful of decorum, that they never leave a Hercules destitute of necessaries; but those still spring, as out of some fountain, as well for him as for his companions. But he that hath received of the Stoics Amalthaea becomes indeed a rich man, but he begs his victuals of other men; he is a king, but resolves syllogisms for hire; he is the only man that hath all things, but yet he pays rent for the house he lives in, and oftentimes buys bread with borrowed money, or else begs it of those that have nothing themselves.
5. μῦθος τὸ κατὰ λόγον φυλάττων οὐδαμοῦ προλείπει τὸν Ἡρακλέα τῶν ἀναγκαίων δεόμενον, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐκ πηγῆς ἐπιρρεῖ αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς συνοῦσιν ὁ δὲ τὴν Στωικὴν λαβὼν Ἀμάλθειαν πλούσιος μὲν γέγονεν, ἐρανίζεται δὲ τροφὴν παρʼ ἑτέρων· καὶ βασιλεὺς μέν ἐστι μισθοῦ δʼ ἀναλύει συλλογισμούς καὶ πάντα μὲν ἔχει μόνος ἐνοίκιον δὲ τελεῖ καὶ ἄλφιτʼ ὠνεῖται, πολλάκις δανειζόμενος ἢ μεταιτῶν παρὰ τῶν οὐδὲν ἐχόντων.
6. The king of Ithaca begs with a design that none may know who he is, and makes himself “As like a dirty sorry beggar ” as he can. But he that is of the Portico, while he bawls and cries out, It is I only that am a king, It is I only that am a rich man, is yet many times seen at other people’s doors saying:On poor Hipponax, pray, some pity take,Bestow an old cast coat for heaven’s sake;I’m well nigh dead with cold, and all o’er quake.
6. καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἰθακησίων βασιλεὺς προσαιτεῖ λανθάνειν ὅς ἐστι, βουλόμενος καὶ ποιῶν ἑαυτὸν ὡς μάλιστα πτωχῷ λευγαλέῳ ἐναλίγκιον· ὁ δʼ ἐκ τῆς Στοᾶς βοῶν μέγα καὶ κεκραγώς ἐγὼ μόνος· εἰμὶ βασιλεύς, ἐγὼ μόνος εἰμὶ πλούσιος ὁρᾶται πολλάκις ἐπʼ ἀλλοτρίαις θύραις λέγωνδὸς χλαῖναν Ἱππώνακτι· κάρτα γὰρ ῥιγῶκαὶ βαμβακύζω.