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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAPTER III.: CONCERNING SUCH AS RECOMMEND PERSONS TO THE PHILOSOPHERS - The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments

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CHAPTER III.: CONCERNING SUCH AS RECOMMEND PERSONS TO THE PHILOSOPHERS - Epictetus, The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments [100 AD]

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The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments. A Translation from the Greek based on that of Elizabeth Carter, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1865).

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CHAPTER III.

CONCERNING SUCH AS RECOMMEND PERSONS TO THE PHILOSOPHERS

DIOGENES rightly answered one who desired letters of recommendation from him: “At first sight he will know you to be a man; and whether you are a good or a bad man, if he has any skill in distinguishing, he will know likewise; and, if he has not, he will never know it, though I should write a thousand times.” Just as if you were a piece of coin, and should desire to be recommended to any person as good, in order to be tried; — if it be to an assayer, he will know your value, for you will recommend yourself.

We ought, therefore, in life also, to have something analogous to this skill in gold; that one may be able to say, like the assayer, Bring me whatever piece you will, and I will find out its value; or, as I would say with regard to syllogisms, Bring me whomsoever you will, and I will distinguish for you, whether he knows how to solve syllogisms, or not. Why? Because I can do that myself, and have that faculty which is necessary for one, who can discern persons skilled in such solutions. But how do I act in life? I sometimes call a thing good; at other times, bad. What is the cause of this? Something contrary to what occurs to me in syllogisms, — ignorance, and inexperience.