Discipline of pain.
371. Still more effective is active training[46]. Happy was the Spartan youth who came to Cleanthes to ask him whether pain was not a good; his education had taught him that this was a more practical question than that other, whether pain is an evil[47]. Recruits cry out at the slightest wound, and are more afraid of the surgeon’s touch than of the sword; on the other hand veterans watch the life-blood draining away without a sigh[48]. Some men groan at a box on the ear, whilst others smile under the scourge[49]. Inexperience therefore is the chief cause for weakness under pain; familiarity with it brings strength[50].
Disappointed ambition.
372. The Grief that gives way to pain of mind has very various forms; but that which is due to disappointed ambition is perhaps the most typical. Even men who had overcome the fear of death were known to shudder at the bitterness of soul (aegritudo animi) which accompanies defeat in a contested election (repulsa) in a republic, or displacement from the favour of the powerful under a monarchy[51]. For this malady the complete remedy is found in the paradox that ‘the wise man is king,’ that virtue can never be unseated from the curule chair[52]; temporary alleviations may be found, even by philosophers, in biting sarcasms aimed at the incapacity of one’s fellow-citizens[53]. It may be in the abstract the duty of a good man to take part in politics; but experience shows that the State has yet to be discovered which can tolerate a sage, or which a sage can tolerate[54]. Hence we find even Stoic teachers relapsing into practical Epicureanism, and bidding their followers to let the community go hang, and to reserve their energies for some nobler occupation[55]. To these lapses from sound principle we need not attach any serious importance; the individual Stoic did not always live up to his creed.
Restlessness.
373. Restlessness is grief of mind without known cause; the unquiet soul rushes hither and thither, vainly seeking to be free from its own company[56]. The lesson that Horace had pressed a century earlier, that disquiet can only be cured by quiet, has not been learnt[57]. In Homer Achilles tosses on his bed in fever, lying first on his face, then on his back, never long at rest in any position; and so to-day our wealthy man first travels to luxurious Campania, then to the primitive district of the Bruttii; north and south are tried in turn, and alike disapproved, whilst after all the fault is not in the place, but in the man[58]. In this temper men come to hate leisure and complain that they have nothing to do[59]. This folly reaches an extreme when men trust themselves to the sea, take the chance of death without burial, and place themselves in positions in which human skill may avail nothing[60]. It even leads to great political disasters, as when Xerxes attacks Greece because he is weary of Asia, and Alexander invades India because the known world is too small for him[61]. The times will come, when men will seek novelty by travelling through the air or under the sea; they will force their way through the cold of the poles and the damp heat of the forests of Africa. The remedy lies either in humbler submission to the will of the deity, or in a sense of humour which sees the absurdity of taking so much trouble for so little advantage[62].
Pity.
374. Pity is that weakness of a feeble mind, which causes it to collapse at the sight of another man’s troubles[63], wrongly believing them to be evils. Pity looks at the result, not at the cause, and it is most keenly felt by women of all ages, who are distressed by the tears even of the most abandoned criminals, and would gladly burst open the doors of the gaols to release them[64]. The cause of pity lies in a too rapid assent; we are caught napping by every sight that strikes on our senses. If we see a man weeping, we say ‘he is undone’: if we see a poor man, we say ‘he is wretched; he has nothing to eat[65].’ Now we Stoics have a bad name, as though we recommended to governors a system of harsh punishments[66]; but, on the contrary, none value more highly than we the royal virtue of clemency[67]. Only let it be considered that a wise man must keep a calm and untroubled mind, if only that he may be ready to give prompt help to those who need it; a saving hand to the shipwrecked, shelter to the exile, the dead body of her son to a mother’s tears. The wise man will not pity, but help[68].
Sensibility.
375. Nearly akin to the evil of pity is that sensitiveness to the sufferings of others which leads men, contrary reason, to turn the other way and avoid the sight of them. Of this weakness Epictetus gives us a lively picture: