We may learn the wish (will) of nature from the things
in which we do not differ from one another: for instance,
when your neighbour's slave has broken his cup, or any
thing else, we are ready to say forthwith, that it is one
of the things which happen. You must know then that
when your cup also is broken, you ought to think as you
did when your neighbour's cup was broken. Transfer this
reflection to greater things also. Is another man's child.
or wife dead? There is no one who would not say, this
is an event incident to man. But when a man's own
child or wife is dead, forthwith he calls out, Wo to me,
how wretched I am. But we ought to remember how we
feel when we hear that it has happened to others.
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The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. Epictetus. George Long. translator. London. George Bell and Sons. 1890.
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