. . . Once more, Epictetus advises his scholars to move leisurely and gradually to objects of both kinds; but now, if so much caution and coldness be necessary, why does he allow our aversions, any more than our desires? For he bids us take off our aversions from those prejudicial things that are not in our power, and bend them against those that are; and yet at the same time he prohibits all manner of desire, and, for some time, will not permit us to indulge that at all.
One probable account of this may be taken from the nature and condition of men, who are beginning to reform. The first step towards a good life is to throw off all the venom and corruption of a bad one; and until the breast has discharged itself of this, no nourishment can be had from any principles of virtue infused into it.
What the great Hippocrates has most excellently observed concerning our bodies, is much more truly applicable to our souls: that so long as a man continues full of gross and noxious humors, the nourishment he receives, does not feed him, so much as his distemper. For the vicious principles, which had taken possession, corrupt all the good ones that are put to them.
Sometimes they make us disrelish them, as unpleasant; sometime dread and avoid them, as hurtful and injurious to us; sometimes condemn them as evil, and reject them as impossible to be complied with. And all this while, the disease gathers more strength, and grows upon us, by bringing us to a contempt of better principles, after a pretense of having tried, and found them defective.
Thus at last it becomes incurable, and will not so much as suffer us to admit of any arguments or actions, that might advance us in virtue, but produces in us a loathing of all those remedies, that contribute to our recovery.
Just as in the jaundice, when the vitiated palate thinks honey bitter, a man nauseates it presently, and will never endure to taste honey after, in order to the removing that prejudice. Thus the aversions are allowed in young beginners, because the method of their cure requires it; and the first step towards a reformation, is, by growing into a dislike of vice, to put themselves into a condition of receiving virtuous principles and good instructions.
This discourse is also excellently well suited to such persons, in regard it shows them the right way to liberty, and security, and an easy mind, that so their lives may be pleasant and sweet to them, which indeed is the very thing all creatures aim at.
Now, though an absolute freedom from passion, and a conversation in all points agreeable to the rules of decency, and nature, be the proper excellency, which we ought to desire and pursue, yet beginners must satisfy themselves with less; and think they do very well, when they can abate of their passions, and reduce them within some reasonable bounds, though they cannot gain an absolute mastery over them.
They must expect to relapse sometimes, and are not so much to be condemned for falling, as encouraged and commended, when they rise again. Such as these therefore are not yet arrived to the perfection of those things which should be the object of their desires: and this I take to be the meaning of that expression, "this is not come to your turn yet"; i.e. the imperfect state you are in, has not qualified you for such desires: for when we aim at something that exceeds our capacity, and find we cannot reach it, then troubles and disappointments, and a sinking of our spirits, and sometimes a desponding mind, follow upon it.
Men violently bent upon things above their strength, slight such as are proportionable to it, and think them vile and despicable; because they judge of them by way of comparison with greater. And yet it is by small beginnings only, that we can ever arrive at great perfection’s; and before we can cope with things above us, we must practice upon less, and make ourselves masters of such as we are a match for.
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