Be not elated at any excellence not your own. If
a horse should be elated, and say, " I am handsome,"
it might be endurable. But when you are elated, and
say, " I have a handsome horse," know that you are
elated only on the merit of the horse. What then is
your own? The use of the phenomena of existence.
So that when you are in harmony with nature in this
[p. 2219]
respect, you will be elated with some reason; for you
will be elated at some good of your own.
The Works of Epictetus: His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Epictetus. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. translator. New York. Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.
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