Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-22

, The old Romans not only had death
and disease to contend with, but they
had Punishment and sudden death aC
| the hands of tyrantS to beware.
Pity, therefore, became with them a
! sort of evil, not in itself, but as II
| thing conducting to weakness.
Epictetus must have thought long and
| long before he decided to adopt that
boy. Picture him in his little hut, try
| ing his best to be immune to the lures
OF helpless infancy.
No doubt he lectured himself then
as he did his pupils, but 1t did him no
good. A man who believed that all
there was to life was doing the will of
| God, after doing ones best to asceI =
tain that will, could not stand by and
| fail to do his personal duty.
1t was the personal side Of 1t which
| stirred EpictetuS to action. He ante
dated the wise American, Emerson, who
scorned the incredible pity which pro-
| fessed tenderness about wild men thou
sands of miles away, yet would not
turn a hand to relieve suffering at
home.
Epictetus was content to take the
world as it was and as 1t came to him
Theoretically he knew that thousands
of pitiful cases existed, but he worried
only over those he knew about.
| X * * x
He knew of one small boy about to
| be exposed to starvation and his soul
rebelled at the thought of it.
IF take this boy" perhaps he
! thought, II will be doing what 1 can
If others would do as well with the
wrongs they personally know of, the
world would be better"
If every one would do what his best
! instincts tell him to do, the world to-
day would see far, far better life than
| it has ever known.
When Epictetus took the boy, no
doubt he tried at first to bring him
up himself His very poverty would
! have made him attempt the feat. All
| he had, tradition tells u.s. was his house
straw bed and an earthenware lamp
after some one had stolen his iron lamp.
| Probably he had the images of few
! household gods, as was the custom OF
| the time, and maybe pot or pan. One
must think, too, that so studious a man
had several books of the type then In
vogue. Not many--such a teacher
taught mostly out of his head Yet we
insist he had a book or two.
It was into this little dwelling al
Nicopolis, in Epirus, there came the
squalling. kicking baby to upset the
peace and quiet of a philosopher as
surely as a modern one can do the
same.
| X y X X
| Epictetus solved his new problem by
| hiring an old woman to live at his
house and take care of the baby.
No doubt there was many a moment
afterward when he regretted the ad-
vent of the baby and its nurse.
Which one worried him the more II
| would be impossible to say at this late
date, but our guess is that the old lady
| took the BOBBY prize.
We like to think of Epictetus casting
a kindly eye on the baby and watching
| its growth and mental development
with great interest.
From such a house. and under such
a tutor. we might expect to get great
man, but history is silent on the matter
| No one knows what became of Epic
tetuS' boy. what his name was, or what
became of him. He is numbered among
the millions who left no name behino
them; he is remembered only because
great and good man came into his
| life. Unknown, he stands as a syInbo
! Of kindness in action.