All the Works of Epictetus · 16 of 100

Book I, Chapter 14

1.When a Person asked him, How any one might be convinced, that each of his Actions are under the Inspection of God? Do not you think, says Epictetus, that all Things are mutually bound together and united?

I do.

Well: and do not you think, that Things on Earth feel the Influence of the heavenly Bodies?

Yes.

Else how could the Trees so regularly, as if by God’s express Command, bud, blossom, bring forth Fruit, and ripen it: then let it drop, and shed their Leaves, and lie contracted within themselves in Quiet and Repose; all when He speaks the Word? Whence, again, are there seen, on the Increase and Decrease of the Moon, and the Approach and Departure of the Sun, so great Vicissitudes and Changes, to the direct contrary, in earthly Things? Have then the very Leaves, and our own Bodies, this Connection and Sympathy with the Whole; and have not our Souls much more? But our Souls are thus connected and intimately joined to God, as being indeed Members, and distinct Portions, of his Essence: and must not He be sensible of every Movement of them, as belonging, and connatural to himself? Can even you think of the divine Administration, and every other divine Subject, and together with these of human Affairs also? Can you at once receive Impressions on your Senses and your Understanding from a thousand Objects? At once assent to some things, deny or suspend your Judgment concerning others, and preserve in your Mind Impressions from so many and various Objects, and whenever you are moved by [the Traces of] them, hit on Ideas similar to those which first impressed you? Can you retain a Variety of Arts, and the Memorials of ten thousand Things? And is not God capable of surveying all Things, and being present with all, and receiving a certain Communication from all? Is the Sun capable of illuminating so great a Portion of the Universe, and of leaving only that small Part of it unilluminated, which is covered by the Shadow of the Earth: and cannot He who made and revolves the Sun, a small Part of himself, if compared with the Whole; cannot He perceive all Things?

2.“But I cannot (say you) attend to all Things at once.” Why, doth any one tell you, that you have equal Power with Jupiter? No: but nevertheless He has assigned to each Man a Director, his own good Genius, and committed him to his Guardianship: a Director, whose Vigilance no Slumbers interrupt, and whom no false Reasonings can deceive. For, to what better and more careful Guardian could he have committed us? So that when you have shut your Doors, and darkened your Room, remember, never to say that you are alone; for you are not: but God is within, and your Genius is within: and what need have they of Light, to see what you are doing? To this God you likewise ought to swear such an Oath as the Soldiers do to Cæsar. For do they, in order to receive their Pay, swear to prefer before all things, the Safety of Cæsar: and will not you swear, who have received so many and so great Favours: or, if you have sworn, will you not stand to it? And what must you swear? Never to disobey, nor accuse, nor murmur at any of the Things appointed by him: nor unwillingly to do or suffer any thing necessary. Is this Oath like the former? In the first, Persons swear not to honour any other beyond Cæsar; in the last, beyond all, to honour themselves.