The Allegory of Love

Paolo Veronese, The Allegory of Love (c. 1570) 

1. Infidelity 

2. Scorn 

3. Respect 

4. The Happy Union 

Sayings of Publilius Syrus 177

Bear without murmuring what cannot be changed. 

IMAGE: R.F. Jehanne, The Peacock Complaining to Juno  (1913) 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.8.6

But they will say, “Where has this man got his high looks and his lofty countenance?” 

 
Nay, I have not got them yet as I ought: for as yet I have not confidence in what I have learnt and assented to, I still fear my own weakness. Only let me gain confidence and then you shall see a proper aspect and a proper bearing, then I will show you the statue as it is when it is finished and polished. 
 
What think you? That this means proud looks? Heaven forbid! Does Zeus of Olympia wear proud looks? No, but his gaze is steadfast, as his should be who is to say:
 
“For my word cannot be taken back, nor can it deceive.”
 
Such will I show myself to you—faithful, self-respecting, noble, free from tumult. 
 
“Do you mean, free from death and old age and disease?” 
 
No, but as one who dies as a god, and who bears illness like a god. These are my possessions, these my faculties; all others are beyond me. I will show you the sinews of a philosopher. 
 
“What do you mean by sinews?” 
 
Will to achieve that fails not, will to avoid that falls not into evil, impulse to act appropriately, strenuous purpose, assent that is not precipitate. This is what you shall see. 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.8 
 
If you decide to pursue your moral worth first, and to seek out virtue above all else, you will inevitably be accused of putting on airs. The libertine condemns you as prudish, and the deadbeat assumes you to be haughty; they regrettably do not understand why reason and passion, discipline and serenity are meant to go together. Do not be offended when they mock your fortitude.
 
I find that the more I work on my character, the more I recognize my failings, and so I will actually feel puny instead of mighty. In those few cases where I have managed to build up a fairly reliable habit, I no longer take much notice of any achievement, as it has become like a second nature. Conversely, a sense of superiority is a surefire sign that I am getting ahead of myself, more interested in the style than in the substance. A course correction is then in order. 
 
There is being proud, and then there is being proud, one of those wonderful words that can indicate both something good and something bad. It is right for me to be confident in my convictions, where my strength on the inside just so happens to reveal itself as an assurance on the outside, but beware of any calculated pretense, where a veneer on the outside is covering for a rot on the inside. 
 
There are sages whose steely gaze can cut right through us, simply because we are awkwardly ashamed to lack their righteousness. They care nothing about the impressions they make. Then there are the peacocks who strut about and lord it over us, simply because they are secretly ashamed of themselves. There is nothing behind the impressions they make. 

Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

 
A man can indeed have the power of a god, not by his immortality but by his integrity. All too often, I am so busy looking for the good in countless diversions, when that divine spark of conscience was within me the entire time. 

—Reflection written in 7/2001 

IMAGE: Edward Burne-Jones, Fortitude (1878) 

Maxims of Goethe 69

One need only grow old to become gentler in one's judgments. I see no fault committed which I could not have committed myself. 

IMAGE: School of Rembrandt, Old Man in Prayer (c. 1640) 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.8.5

When this Craftsman has made you, do you dishonor his work? 
 
Nay, more, He not only made you, but committed you as a trust to yourself and none other. Will you not remember this, but even dishonor the trust committed to you? 
 
If God had committed some orphan to your care, would you have neglected him so? 

Yet He has entrusted your own self to you and He says, “I had none other more trustworthy than you: keep this man for me such as he is born to be, modest, faithful, high-minded, undismayed, free from passion and tumult.” 

 
After that, do you refuse to keep him so? 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.8 
 
I have a deep sympathy for those who struggle with God, simply because a day does not pass when I do not struggle with God. And of all the things I could struggle with, this one is, quite literally, the biggest one of all. 
 
No one likes to be bullied, and no one likes to feel boxed in. It hardly helps when wily and grasping men twist piety into a means for their sleazy profits, making us dubious about having confidence in any higher power. Ignore their artifices and carefully follow right reason; it will lead you wherever you need to go. 
 
Most importantly, recognize why a conscious union with the Divine is the ultimate liberation, for a knowledge of self can only become possible through a knowledge of its place within the whole. God is the total context of where we come from and where we are going, the absolute measure of meaning and purpose. 
 
Observe how Epictetus presents God’s assignment to us as an honor, not as a burden. Whether or not we have any faith in Him, He still believes in our capacity to take charge of our own affairs, to discover our own paths. As a song from my youth once said, “If you love somebody, set them free.” 
 
I fondly remember a summer spent in rural Austria, where my uncle would manage a small church, considered too obscure for the bishop to assign a regular pastor. After being shown the ropes, no pun intended, I was given the responsibility of ringing the bells three times a day for the Angelus. I don’t think I have ever felt more proud, more trusted, more significant. 
 
The locals laughed at how seriously I took the task, but I think of it still whenever I doubt my worth. Every thought and deed, however humble, should be like a call to prayer. The bigwigs won’t notice your gratitude and your service, but you will know, and God will know. 
 
My cat likes to “help” me when I go out in the morning to fetch the mail. Though he makes the process more involved by getting underfoot and stopping to roll in the grass, he is eager to do his part, in his peculiar way. He takes a joy in his duty, as should we all. 
 
And what does God ask of me? No more than to be a man of character, let the chips fall where they may. If I can take that to be a privilege instead of a punishment, asking for nothing else, I will no longer grumble against Providence. 

—Reflection written in 7/2001 

IMAGE: Lucas Cranach, The Creation (1534) 

Henry David Thoreau 8

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (28 February, 1840) 

IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Ulrich von Hutten's Grave (c. 1824) 

Birds for My Mother 6

Ralph Waldo Emerson 13

Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him. 

—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Greatness 

IMAGE: Ludwig Deutsch, The Scholars (1901) 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.8.4

Again, when we send a young man from school to the world of action, why is it that we fear that he may do something amiss—in eating, in relations with women, that he may be humbled by wearing rags, or puffed up by fine clothes? He does not know the God that is in him, he knows not in whose company he is going.
 
 Can we allow him to say, “I would fain have you with me”? Have you not God there? and, having Him, do you look for anyone else? Will He tell you anything different from this? 
 
Why, if you were a statue wrought by Phidias—his Zeus or his Athena—you would have remembered what you are and the Craftsman who made you, and if you had any intelligence, you would have tried to do nothing unworthy of him who made you or of yourself, and to bear yourself becomingly in men's eyes.
 
But as it is, do you, whom Zeus has made, for that reason take no thought what manner of man you will  show yourself? 
 
Yet what comparison is there between the one artificer and the other or the one work and the other? What work of art, for instance, has in itself the faculties of which it gives indication in its structure? Is it not stone or bronze or gold or ivory? 
 
Even the Athena of Phidias having once for all stretched out her hand and received the Victory upon it stands thus for all time, but the works of God are endowed with movement and breath, and have the faculty of dealing with impressions and of testing them. 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.8 
 
I was sometimes frustrated when my parents tried to offer last-minute advice as I was leaving the house for the day, what I then called “nagging”, though I now understand that it wasn’t really about what to wear, or how to speak, or who to seek out for company. They were concerned about what stood behind all of those details, hoping I would have the good sense to keep my priorities straight, to reflect upon where I came from, and where I was meant to go. 
 
A young man, especially one raised in the old school, may think that he is expected to be prim and proper, and to become respectable by performing on cue. Though my family certainly did have refined manners, they perceived such impressions to merely be outer marks of an inner character, which I slowly learned was their only true intention for me. There can be no such thing as honor without virtue. 
 
As I was growing up, a variety of strangers would insert themselves into my life, lecturing me on what I needed to fit their standards of success. The lists grew longer and longer, and the routines became ever more elaborate, and the supposed rewards were always just beyond the horizon. 
 
Then the strangers disappeared, as suddenly as they had arrived, to be replaced by entirely new ones; the transition was usually marked by a quick handshake and a pat on the back. The common thread was a training in manipulating the circumstances, in gaining leverage, and in building a network of accomplices. 
 
But did I really need any of that to be a good man, and thereby to be a happy man? Through all of it, I was being led astray, because none of those strangers were telling me what my eccentric family was patiently attempting to teach me: God is already present inside you. There is your glory. Settling for anything less will be a betrayal of your dignity. 
 
There is never any doubt that the statue was crafted by a sculptor, and so its beauty is always a testament to its maker. So why do I continue to question my own origin, and to obstruct my own destiny? To occupy myself with fleeting pleasures, gaudy trinkets, and petty bickering is a waste of my gifts, like using a gold bar as a paperweight. 
 
That value, however, is not in how much it glitters, or in what else it might be used to buy, but in the power to know myself and to master myself. While the Athena Parthenos was simply a lifeless image, I possess both vitality and awareness: what greater proof do I need of my Divine beginning, as well as my Divine end? It is best that I listen to my family, who would lift me up, instead of those strangers, who would sell me short. 

—Reflection written in 7/2001 

Own the Day

Owls 5

Delphic Maxims 78

Ἀκούων ὅρα 

Discern what you have heard 

IMAGE: Joseph Severn, Keats Listening to a Nightingale on Hampstead Heath (1845) 

The Mother Road 6

Epictetus, Discourses 2.8.3

“What do you mean? Are not they too God's works?” 
 
They are, but not His principal works, nor parts of the Divine. But you are a principal work, a fragment of God Himself, you have in yourself a part of Him. 
 
Why then are you ignorant of your high birth? Why do you not know whence you have come? Will you not remember, when you eat, who you are that eat, and whom you are feeding, and the same in your relations with women? When you take part in society, or training, or conversation, do you not know that it is God you are nourishing and training? 
 
You bear God about with you, poor wretch, and know it not. Do you think I speak of some external god of silver or gold? No, you bear Him about within you and are unaware that you are defiling Him with unclean thoughts and foul actions. 
 
If an image of God were present, you would not dare to do any of the things you do; yet when God Himself is present within you and sees and hears all things, you are not ashamed of thinking and acting thus: O slow to understand your nature, and estranged from God! 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.8 
 
The higher and the lower, the more and the less self-sufficient, are made to be in harmony with one another, not to be in conflict. I should recognize this when I look at my own powers, at the ordering of a community, or at the arrangement of Nature as a whole: one will come as another goes, one will lead as another follows, and one will fulfill its role over here as another fulfills its role over there. 
 
Wherever there is matter devoid of mind, that matter is under the authority of more perfect mind, as the passive is moved by the active. Though the animal lacks its own awareness, it has its necessary part to play in the causality of Providence, a plan in which we can freely participate. That the means are subordinate to the end, the unconscious to the conscious, hardly makes the donkey or the goat insignificant. 
 
Without becoming too puffed up, we must remember that, for all the weakness in the flesh, we contain within us a finite portion of the infinite Divine. The simple proof of this is in the presence of reason, the ability to govern ourselves through our own judgments. It is precisely because wisdom and virtue are inviolable that we can still remain serene in the face of hardships like poverty, disease, or scorn. 
 
To lose sight of this is to abandon the very core of our humanity, and thereby to become bitter about every obstacle and cynical about the prospect of happiness. When food, sex, or education are just vehicles for lust, gluttony, or pride, we have forgotten the God within us. When we worship money, which is only a means, we are neglectful of the proper end, which is to live in understanding and in love. 
 
Give the name of anything that is best, and you are speaking of nothing less than the Absolute. 
 
What is now often called “Modern” Stoicism has little place for piety, because, like so much contemporary philosophy, it sadly begins and ends with the promotion of the self. Passages such as this are glossed over or described as obsolete, and yet Stoic thinking is woefully incomplete without its “physics”, without the context of Nature. Without God, man is nothing, and with God, man is everything. 
 
This is not a matter of religious posturing or of tribal loyalties, for it is in the unity of beings with Being, of creatures with the Creator, that all things are perfected. This is the pedigree of our noble birth. 

—Reflection written in 7/2001 

IMAGE: Jacob Jordaens, Jupiter (c. 1650) 

Birds for My Mother 5

IMAGE by Espen Helland 

The Basel Dance of Death 10

Matthäus Merian, The Basel Dance of Death: The Duchess (1616) 

"Lady Duchess, be in good spirits.
Although you are of noble blood,
Greatly esteemed upon this earth,
you are still dear and precious to me." 

"Alas God, by the poor sound of the lute, 
Must I go away with this terrible creature?
Today a duchess, and never more.
Alas, terror and distress, oh woe, oh woe!" 

Epictetus, Discourses 2.8.2

Take the ass, for instance, is it born to be of primary importance? No; it is born because we had need of a back able to bear burdens. 
 
Nay, more, we had need that it should walk; therefore it has further received the power of dealing with impressions, for else it could not have walked. Beyond that its powers cease. 
 
But if the ass itself had received the power to understand how it deals with impressions, then it is plain that reason would have required that it should not have been subject to us or have supplied these needs, but should have been our equal and like ourselves. 
 
Will you not then seek the true nature of the good in that, the want of which makes you refuse to predicate good of other things? 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.8 
 
As someone who has long had a special bond with animals, I usually find myself in an awkward place, between those who would elevate a beast as if it were no different from a man, and those who would diminish a beast as if it were merely an instrument for a man. Some succumb to their sentimentality, while others succumb to their cruelty, and in both cases, placid reason has surrendered to fierce passion. 
 
While I am immensely fond of donkeys, almost as much as I am of goats, I will not seek to convince them of anything by means of a logical demonstration. At the same time, I will not beat them with a stick if they fail to obey my wishes. 
 
The ass is a creature of the flesh, and it responds to its impressions through instincts, which must be respected as such. I, however, am additionally a creature of reason, and I respond to my impressions through judgements, which are the very prerequisites for articulating morality. The ass does not understand about right and wrong, nor should it. I, however, am defined by my awareness of right and wrong, as my highest calling. 
 
With apologies for the play on words, a conscience proceeds from a consciousness. 
 
Accordingly, when we speak of a “good dog” or a “naughty kitty”, we are using such words in a broader, more casual sense, insofar as we perceive the pet’s actions to agree or disagree with our own estimation of benefit or harm. The dog or the cat certainly do matter, but such value is only apparent to a mind that grasps order and purpose. In a narrower, more formal sense, benefit and harm become possible by the discernment of design. 
 
Just as God’s intellect instills this meaning, so man’s intellect discovers this meaning. 
 
Does this mean that the donkey, the goat, the dog, and the cat are there to be exploited however I please? No, they are there to be of service to the whole, and it is my deliberate responsibility to care for them with a regard for their place within Nature. This is why I think of property as a form of stewardship, not as a form of domination. 
 
Observe how the man who does not comprehend his own dignity is unable to comprehend the dignity of anything else. I cannot rule what is on the outside if I cannot rule what is on the inside. 

—Reflection written in 7/2001 

IMAGE: Joos de Momper the Younger, Mountainous Landscape with Figures and a Donkey ( c. 1630) 

Ellis Walker, Epictetus in Poetical Paraphrase 55

LV. 

When some idea, that excites desire,
Courts you in all its best and gay attire;
As when your fancy lays you on a bed
Of roses, and twines myrtle round your head,
Near am'rous shady groves, and purling springs,
While hov'ring Cupids fan you with their wings;
While you in the dear fetters are confin'd,
Of some soft beauty's arms, that's fair as kind;
Take heed lest here so far you do pursue
That fancy'd pleasure, as to wish it true:
You're just upon the precipice's brink,
Pause then a little, and take time to think;
Examine well the object, and compare
Th' unequal periods, which allotted are
To weeping penitence, and short-liv'd bliss,
How long the one, how short the other is;
Joy in a nimble moment ends its race
And rueful, pale repentance takes its place,
And moves with a sad, sullen, heavy pace,
Attended all the way with groans and cries,
Self-accusations, sighs, and warry eyes.
Think then what joy, and pleasure you will find;
That is, what peace, and quiet in your mind,
How you will praise yourself, and bless your care,
When you escape the dang'rous pleasing snare.
But if you think the pleasure may content;
So safe, agreeable, convenient,
As that you'll have no reason to repent;
Take heed you be not by its sweets subdu'd,
Dragg'd by its smiling force to servitude:
And think how much  'tis better to be free,
The conqu'ror of such pow'rful charms to be,
And triumph in so great a victory.

William Hogarth, Taste in High Life

I would say that the mania for fashion is merely ridiculous, if I did not also see how much harm it does to its flunkies. Every follower believes himself to be the trendsetter, and we end up with a remarkable contradiction, where conformity is taken to be originality. 

If one blindly follows the herd, for a lack of confidence in simply being oneself, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to take the latest trend to ever greater extremes. Once the ungainly apparatus collapses under its own weight, we turn to the next craze, and the entire process repeats itself, driven by an intensity of passion at the expense of a modesty in reason. 

I have now been around long enough to see many extravagant styles come and go, and even to see those same styles return once more, as if they were entirely new. What we mocked a decade ago is again in vogue, with little hope of convincing the hapless consumers that they have unwittingly turned themselves into slaves. 

It is most noticeable in clothing or in music, but it seeps into every aspect of our lives, because it is really about the quality of our thinking. Before we know it, we are bound to obedience in our religion, our politics, and our morals. Needless to say, this is not the life suitable for a creature gifted with the power of free judgment. 

So many of Hogarth's works are critical of restrictive standards, exposing how a surrender to the mob is a surrender of one's conscience. This particular painting is a work of lighthearted satire, yet one must wonder how the little vanities in the parlor are indicative of much greater vanities in the wider world. 

An older, well-to-do couple are decked out in the latest attire of the 1740's, quite oblivious to how superficial and decadent they have become. The woman's exaggerated hoop dress stands out the most, though I also can't help but notice the man's overblown hat, his pointy shoes, and the long braid on his wig. They are engrossed in examining a cup and a saucer, while a pet monkey, also dressed for success, is looking over a receipt for their recent purchase at an auction. 

To the left, a younger woman pets a young African servant, whose grin could just as easily be one of mockery as of deference. Her elaborate dress and his gaudy turban cannot hide the condescension of the gesture. The entire scene is so artificially cultured that is has fallen right back into being vulgar. 

The pictures on the wall continue to lampoon the outsized hooped skirts, with one pasted on a classical nude, and another causing a woman to become trapped in a sedan chair. I think of the bell-bottoms in the 1970's, the parachute pants of the 1980's, and the baseball caps of the 1990's. The more things change, the more they stay the same. . . . 

William Hogarth, Taste in High Life (painting, c. 1742) 

William Hogarth, Taste in High Life (engraving, 1746) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 21

21. 

Οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος ἐμαυτὸν λυπεῖν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄλλον πώποτε ἑκὼν ἐλύπησα. 

Far be it from me to allow disquiet in my own soul—I who never wittingly or willingly have put another to allowing vexation of spirit. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.42 

21. 

 'Twere strange with others to be reasonable, 

But with myself tempestuous and sore; 

I ought to be like fountains, estimable 

To him who quaffs, but to themselves much more. 

The fountain giveth drink to all athirst, 

And for that office is sought out and singled; 

But as it sparkles up, each drop ’s a-burst 

With image of blue sky and green earth mingled. 

So have I been, will be, to every one— 

If hurtful, unwilling so, but willingly befriending; 

Then what disquiet shall to me be done 

By me, a spray from earth, and thither tending! 

As willingly ne’er did I others vex, 

Say why shall I myself myself perplex? 

IMAGE: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, At the Fountain (1897)