# All the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant/Book 2/Chapter 8

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CHAPTER VIII.
Wherein consists the Essence of Good.
§. 1.God is beneficial. Good is also beneficial. It should seem, then, that where the Essence of God is, there too is the Essence of Good. What then is the Essence of God? Flesh?——By no means. An Estate?——Fame?——By no means. Intelligence? Knowledge? Right Reason?——Certainly. Here then, without more ado, seek the Essence of Good. For, do you seek it in a Plant?——No.——Or in a Brute?——No.——If then you seek it only in a rational Subject, why do you seek it any where but in what is distinct from Irrationals? Plants have not the Use of the Appearances of Things; and therefore you do not apply the Term Good to them.——Good, then, requires the Use of these Appearances. And nothing else? If so, you may say, that Good, and Happiness, and Unhappiness, belong to mere Animals. But this you do not say; and you are right: for, how much soever they have the Use of the Appearances of Things, they have not the Faculty of understanding that Use; and with good Reason for they are made to be subservient to others, and not Principals themselves. Why was an Ass made? Was it as a Principal? No: but because we had need of a Back able to carry Burthens. We had needed to that he should walk; ​therefore he had the Use of the Appearances of Things added; otherwise he could not have walked. But here his Endowments end: for, if an Understanding of that Use had been likewise added, he would not, in Reason, have been subject to us, nor have done us these Services; but would have been like, and equal to ourselves. Why will you not, therefore, seek the Essence of Good in that, without which, you will not say, there can be Good in any thing?
§. 2. What then? Are not these likewise the Works of the Gods? They are: but not Principals, nor Parts of the Gods. But you are a Principal. You are a distinct Portion of the Essence of God; and contain a certain Part of him in yourself. Why then are you ignorant of your noble Birth? Why do not you consider, whence you came? Why do not you remember, when you are eating, who you are who eat; and whom you feed? When you are in the Company of Women; when you are conversing; when you are exercising; when you are disputing; do not you know, that it is a God you feed; a God you exercise? You carry a God about with you, Wretch, and know nothing. of it. Do you suppose I mean some God without you of Gold or Silver? It is within yourself you carry him; and profane him, without being sensible of it, by impure Thoughts, and unclean Actions. If even the Image of God were present, ​you would not dare to act as you do: and when God himself is within you, and hears and sees all, are not you ashamed to think and act thus; insensible of your own Nature, and hateful to God?
§. 3. After all, why are we afraid, when we send a young Man from the School, into Action, that he should behave indecently, eat indecently, converse indecently with Women: that he should either debase himself by a shabby Dress, or clothe himself too finely? Doth not he know the God within him? Doth not he know with whom he sets out? Have we Patience to hear him say, "I wish to have you with me."
Have you not God? Do you seek any other, while you have him? Or will He tell you any other than these things? If you were a Statue of Phidias, either Jupiter or Minerva, you would remember both yourself and the Artist; and, if you had any Sense, you would endeavor to do nothing unworthy of him who formed you, or of yourself: nor to appear in an unbecoming Manner, to Spectators. And are you now careless how you appear, because you are the Workmanship of Jupiter? And yet, what Comparison is there, either between the Artists, or the Things they have formed? What Work of any [human] Artist contains in itself, those Faculties which are shown, in forming it? Is it any thing but Marble, or Brass, or Gold, or Ivory? And the Minerva of Phidias, when its Hand is once extended, and a Victory placed in it, remains in that Attitude, for ever. But the Works of God are indued with Motion, Breath, the Use of the Appearances of Things, Judgment. Being, then, the Formation of such an Artist, will you dishonor him; especially, when he hath not only formed, but intrusted, and given the Guardianship of you, to yourself? Will you not only be forgetful of this, but, moreover, dishonour the Trust? If God had committed some Orphan to your Charge, would ​you have been thus careless of him? He hath delivered yourself to your Care; and says, "I had no one fitter to be trusted than you: preserve this Person for Me, such as he is by Nature; modest, faithful, sublime, unterrified, dispassionate, tranquil:" And will you not preserve him?
§. 4. But it will be said; "Whence this supercilious Look, and Gravity of Face" [in our young Philosopher]——"I have not yet so much Gravity, as the Case deserves. I do not yet trust to what I have learned, and affected to. I still fear my own Weakness. Let me but take Courage a little, and then you shall see such a Look, and such an Appearance, as I ought to have. Then I will show you the Statue, when it is finished, when it is polished. Do you think I will show you a supercilious Countenance? Heaven forbid! For Olympian Jupiter doth not lift up his Brow; but keeps a steady Countenance, as becomes him who is about to say,
—————Th' immutable Decree No Force can shake: what is, that ought to be.
Pope.
"Such will I show myself to you: faithful, modest, noble, tranquil."——"What, and immortal too, and exempt from Age and Sickness?" No. But sickening and dying as becomes a God. This is in my Power; this I can do. The other is not in my Power, nor can I do it. Shall I show you the Nerves of a Philosopher?
"What Nerves are those?"
A Desire disappointed; an Aversion unincurred; Pursuits duly exerted; a careful Resolution; an unerring Affect. These you shall see.
* ↑ See Introduction, §. 19.See 1 Cor. vi. 19. 2 Cor. vi. 16. 2 Tim. 1. 14. 1 John iii. 24. iv. 12, 13. But though the simple Expression of carrying God about with us, may seem to have some nearly parallel to it in the New Testament, yet those represent the Almighty in a more venerable Manner; as taking the Hearts of Good Men for a Temple to dwell in. But the other Expressions here of Feeding and Exercising God, and the Whole of the Paragraph, and indeed of the Stoic System, shew the real Sense of even its more decent Phrases to be vastly different from that of Scripture.
* ↑ An Allusion to the Combatants in the public Exercises. Who used to show their Shoulders, Muscles, and Nerves, as a Proof of their Strength. See B. I. c. 4. §. 4. B. II. c. 18. §. 5. B. III. c. 22 §. 5.