When you have recourse to divination, remember that
you do not know how it will turn out, but that you are
come to inquire from the diviner. But of what kind it
is, you know when you come, if indeed you are a philo-
sopher. For if it is any of the things which are not in
our power, it is absolutely necessary that it must be
neither good nor bad. Do not then bring to the diviner
desire or aversion (ἔκκλισιν): if you do, you will approach
him with fear. But having determined in your mind that
every thing which shall turn out (result) is indifferent,
and does not concern you, and whatever it may be, for it
will be in your power to use it well, and no man will
hinder this, come then with confidence to the Gods as
your advisers. And then when any advice shall have
been given, remember whom you have taken as advisers,
and whom you will have neglected, if you do not obey
them. And go to divination, as Socrates said that you
ought, about those matters in which all the inquiry has
reference to the result, and in which means are not given
either by reason nor by any other art for knowing the
thing which is the subject of the inquiry. Wherefore
when we ought to share a friend's danger or that of our
country, you must not consult the diviner whether you
ought to share it. For even if the diviner shall tell you
that the signs of the victims are unlucky, it is plain that
this is a token of death or mutilation of part of the body
or of exile. But reason prevails that even with these
risks we should share the dangers of our friend and of
our country. Therefore attend to the greater diviner, the
Pythian God, who ejected from the temple him who did
not assist his friend when he was being murdered.1
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1 The story is told by Aelian (iii. c. 44), and by Simplicius in his commentary on the Encheiridion (p. 411, ed. Schweig.). Upton.
The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. Epictetus. George Long. translator. London. George Bell and Sons. 1890.
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