M. But to dismiss the subtleties of the Stoics, which I am sensible I have employed more than was necessary, let us admit of three kinds of goods; and let them really be kinds of goods, provided no regard is had to the body and to external circumstances, as entitled to the appellation of good in any other sense than because we are obliged to use them: but let those other divine goods spread themselves far in every direction, and reach the very heavens.
Why, then, may I not call him happy, nay, the happiest of men, who has attained them? Shall a wise man be afraid of pain? Which is, indeed, the greatest enemy to our opinion. For I am persuaded that we are prepared and fortified sufficiently, by the disputations of the foregoing days, against our own death or that of our friends, against grief, and the other perturbations of the mind. But pain seems to be the sharpest adversary of virtue; that it is which menaces us with burning torches; that it is which threatens to crush our fortitude, and greatness of mind, and patience.
Shall virtue, then, yield to this? Shall the happy life of a wise and consistent man succumb to this? Good. Gods! how base would this be! Spartan boys will bear to have their bodies torn by rods without uttering a groan. I myself have seen at Lacedaemon troops of young men, with incredible earnestness contending together with their hands and feet, with their teeth and nails, nay, even ready to expire, rather than own themselves conquered.
Is any country of barbarians more uncivilized or desolate than India? Yet they have among them some that are held for wise men, who never wear any clothes all their life long, and who bear the snow of Caucasus, and the piercing cold of winter, without any pain; and who if they come in contact with fire endure being burned without a groan.
The women, too, in India, on the death of their husbands have a regular contest, and apply to the judge to have it determined which of them was best beloved by him; for it is customary there for one man to have many wives. She in whose favor it is determined exults greatly, and being attended by her relations, is laid on the funeral pile with her husband; the others, who are postponed, walk away very much dejected.
Custom can never be superior to nature, for nature is never to be got the better of. But our minds are infected by sloth and idleness, and luxury, and languor, and indolence: we have enervated them by opinions and bad customs. Who is there who is unacquainted with the customs of the Egyptians? Their minds being tainted by pernicious opinions, they are ready to bear any torture rather than hurt an ibis, a snake, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile; and should any one inadvertently have hurt any of these animals, he will submit to any punishment.
I am speaking of men only. As to the beasts, do they not bear cold and hunger, running about in woods, and on mountains and deserts? Will they not fight for their young ones till they are wounded? Are they afraid of any attacks or blows? I mention not what the ambitious will suffer for honor’s sake, or those who are desirous of praise on account of glory, or lovers to gratify their lust. Life is full of such instances.
Why, then, may I not call him happy, nay, the happiest of men, who has attained them? Shall a wise man be afraid of pain? Which is, indeed, the greatest enemy to our opinion. For I am persuaded that we are prepared and fortified sufficiently, by the disputations of the foregoing days, against our own death or that of our friends, against grief, and the other perturbations of the mind. But pain seems to be the sharpest adversary of virtue; that it is which menaces us with burning torches; that it is which threatens to crush our fortitude, and greatness of mind, and patience.
Shall virtue, then, yield to this? Shall the happy life of a wise and consistent man succumb to this? Good. Gods! how base would this be! Spartan boys will bear to have their bodies torn by rods without uttering a groan. I myself have seen at Lacedaemon troops of young men, with incredible earnestness contending together with their hands and feet, with their teeth and nails, nay, even ready to expire, rather than own themselves conquered.
Is any country of barbarians more uncivilized or desolate than India? Yet they have among them some that are held for wise men, who never wear any clothes all their life long, and who bear the snow of Caucasus, and the piercing cold of winter, without any pain; and who if they come in contact with fire endure being burned without a groan.
The women, too, in India, on the death of their husbands have a regular contest, and apply to the judge to have it determined which of them was best beloved by him; for it is customary there for one man to have many wives. She in whose favor it is determined exults greatly, and being attended by her relations, is laid on the funeral pile with her husband; the others, who are postponed, walk away very much dejected.
Custom can never be superior to nature, for nature is never to be got the better of. But our minds are infected by sloth and idleness, and luxury, and languor, and indolence: we have enervated them by opinions and bad customs. Who is there who is unacquainted with the customs of the Egyptians? Their minds being tainted by pernicious opinions, they are ready to bear any torture rather than hurt an ibis, a snake, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile; and should any one inadvertently have hurt any of these animals, he will submit to any punishment.
I am speaking of men only. As to the beasts, do they not bear cold and hunger, running about in woods, and on mountains and deserts? Will they not fight for their young ones till they are wounded? Are they afraid of any attacks or blows? I mention not what the ambitious will suffer for honor’s sake, or those who are desirous of praise on account of glory, or lovers to gratify their lust. Life is full of such instances.
—from Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.27
I must regularly remind myself why my aversion to “tough guy talk” has nothing to do with a fear of genuine strength, and everything to do with distaste for crude domination. To become our own masters is an expression of true power, but to lord it over others is actually a crippling weakness, for what a man fails to find within himself, he seeks to gain by diminishing others. I should be mighty in my understanding and stalwart in my love, not proud in my ignorance and vigorous in my hatred.
Observe how the haughty cry out that they have no fears, while the meek have the courage to quietly confront their fears. Some are obsessed with their appearances, and others are content with their character. So, when anyone tells me to be brave, to keep a stiff upper lip, I try to focus of my virtues instead of my vanity; let me imitate the constancy of the sage rather than the severity of the tyrant.
Such a fortitude is only possible when my conscience is firmly grounded, when my awareness of the good runs so deep that my convictions can tame my concupiscence. Despite what the technocrats would tell us, this cannot be achieved by simply earning some degree; the habits of an honorable soul are the result of continuous personal reflection, and they grow from a willingness to seek out the causes over merely following the rules. I will find happiness when I choose to act with virtue, and I will choose to act with virtue when I grasp my nature to the best of my ability.
In other words, don’t believe them when they order you to try harder, when the real trick is to understand more thoroughly and carefully. Like a skilled craftsman who can feel his way around his materials with his eyes closed, the sage acts with integrity because he can barely imagine doing otherwise. If I am certain the poison will kill me, I will not drink it, and I if I am certain the vice will harm my soul, I will not embrace it. Socrates was not off base when he suggested that evil always stems from ignorance.
This calling transcends the various schools and sects, such that the Academic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean are all able to agree that mindfulness is the key to serenity. The Stoics insisted that virtue was the only human good, while the Peripatetics argued that the body and fortune could also be considered as goods, but Cicero explains how even in the case of the latter, external circumstances can only receive their value from the way they are employed by our internal judgments. Though we should not ignore the critical differences, let us first attend to the basic principles.
Despite both its prevalence and its intensity, there is a remedy for pain: its control over us decreases as our dedication to the virtues increases, just as anything feels lesser in the presence of something greater. A flea can look like a monster under a magnifying glass, until I place it next to an elephant. Once the blessings of character are truly discerned, pain does not have to drag us into grief and fear, because it can be transformed into an opportunity for excellence before it traps in a cycle of suffering.
I am not from Sparta, the Caucuses, India, or Egypt, so I cannot speak to their customs, past or present, yet I do recognize what all of these stories share in common. If I believe it to be important enough, I will go through hell and high water to achieve it, and I will bear any burden to defend what I perceive to be right and good, even if it kills me. Living well is more meaningful than merely living.
If you think me too romantic and sentimental when I say that I would not hesitate to die for my wife, you need only go downtown to see what the bankers and the lawyers are willing to surrender for the sake of their riches. We have obviously chosen radically different priorities, and I would hope that mine are slightly more in harmony with Nature, but we all, for better or for worse, define ourselves by our conceptions of an absolute. Just keep in mind how the tycoon can so easily lose his prize, while mine can never be taken from me.
I must regularly remind myself why my aversion to “tough guy talk” has nothing to do with a fear of genuine strength, and everything to do with distaste for crude domination. To become our own masters is an expression of true power, but to lord it over others is actually a crippling weakness, for what a man fails to find within himself, he seeks to gain by diminishing others. I should be mighty in my understanding and stalwart in my love, not proud in my ignorance and vigorous in my hatred.
Observe how the haughty cry out that they have no fears, while the meek have the courage to quietly confront their fears. Some are obsessed with their appearances, and others are content with their character. So, when anyone tells me to be brave, to keep a stiff upper lip, I try to focus of my virtues instead of my vanity; let me imitate the constancy of the sage rather than the severity of the tyrant.
Such a fortitude is only possible when my conscience is firmly grounded, when my awareness of the good runs so deep that my convictions can tame my concupiscence. Despite what the technocrats would tell us, this cannot be achieved by simply earning some degree; the habits of an honorable soul are the result of continuous personal reflection, and they grow from a willingness to seek out the causes over merely following the rules. I will find happiness when I choose to act with virtue, and I will choose to act with virtue when I grasp my nature to the best of my ability.
In other words, don’t believe them when they order you to try harder, when the real trick is to understand more thoroughly and carefully. Like a skilled craftsman who can feel his way around his materials with his eyes closed, the sage acts with integrity because he can barely imagine doing otherwise. If I am certain the poison will kill me, I will not drink it, and I if I am certain the vice will harm my soul, I will not embrace it. Socrates was not off base when he suggested that evil always stems from ignorance.
This calling transcends the various schools and sects, such that the Academic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean are all able to agree that mindfulness is the key to serenity. The Stoics insisted that virtue was the only human good, while the Peripatetics argued that the body and fortune could also be considered as goods, but Cicero explains how even in the case of the latter, external circumstances can only receive their value from the way they are employed by our internal judgments. Though we should not ignore the critical differences, let us first attend to the basic principles.
Despite both its prevalence and its intensity, there is a remedy for pain: its control over us decreases as our dedication to the virtues increases, just as anything feels lesser in the presence of something greater. A flea can look like a monster under a magnifying glass, until I place it next to an elephant. Once the blessings of character are truly discerned, pain does not have to drag us into grief and fear, because it can be transformed into an opportunity for excellence before it traps in a cycle of suffering.
I am not from Sparta, the Caucuses, India, or Egypt, so I cannot speak to their customs, past or present, yet I do recognize what all of these stories share in common. If I believe it to be important enough, I will go through hell and high water to achieve it, and I will bear any burden to defend what I perceive to be right and good, even if it kills me. Living well is more meaningful than merely living.
If you think me too romantic and sentimental when I say that I would not hesitate to die for my wife, you need only go downtown to see what the bankers and the lawyers are willing to surrender for the sake of their riches. We have obviously chosen radically different priorities, and I would hope that mine are slightly more in harmony with Nature, but we all, for better or for worse, define ourselves by our conceptions of an absolute. Just keep in mind how the tycoon can so easily lose his prize, while mine can never be taken from me.
—Reflection written in 3/1999
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