720 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



Porro redarguit etiam Philosophiam Epicteti, qui hoc utitur 

 praesupposito ; foelicitatem in iis poni debere quae in potestate 

 nostra sunt ; ne scilicet fortunae et casibus simus obnoxii l ; quasi 

 vero non multo fuerit foelicius in rectis et generosis intenti- 

 onibus et finibus, qui publicum bonum amplectantur, successu 

 destitui et frustrari, quam in omnibus quae ad privatam tantum 

 fortunam nostram referuntur voti perpetuo compotes fieri. 

 Sicut Consalvus, Neapolim digito militibus indicans, generosa 

 voce testatus est, Multo sibi optatius fore, unum pedem promo- 

 vendo, ad interitum cerium ruere ; quam unius pedis recessu, 

 vitam in multos annos producers? Cui etiam concinit Ccelestis 

 Dux et Imperator, qui pronunciavit Conscientiam bonam juye 

 esse convivium 3 ; quibus verbis aperte significat, mentem bona- 

 rum intentionum sibi consciam, utcunque successu careat, ve- 

 rius et purius et naturae magis consentaneum praebere gaudium, 

 quam universum ilium apparatum quo instrui possit homo, vel 

 ut desideriis suis fruatur vel ut animo conquiescat. 



Redarguit itidem philosophiae abusum ilium, circa Epicteti 

 tempora grassari coeptum : nempe quod philosophia versa fuerit 

 in genus quoddam vitae professorium, et tanquam in artem; 

 quasi scilicet institutum philosophiae esset, non ut pertur- 

 bationes compescerentur et extinguerentur, sed ut causae et 

 occasiones ipsarum evitarentur et summoverentur ; ideoque par- 

 ticularis quaedam vitae ratio ad hoc obtinendum ineunda esset ; 

 introducendo sane tale genus sanitatis in animum, quale fuit 



1 The moral philosophy of the Stoics is misunderstood when it is said that they 

 placed happiness in that which is in the wise man's power, in order that he may be 

 happy. They set out from the inquiry, " What is the end and purpose, the summum 

 bonum, of man's life ? " in which is involved the assumption that it has an end and 

 purpose, and that this is in its own nature attainable. And this assumption may be 

 developed into an answer to the inquiry in which it is involved. For as the wise 

 man, who is the representative of humanity in its best estate, must be capable of at- 

 taining the true end of his being, they concluded that whatever might in virtue of 

 outward circumstances be to him unattainable, must be, with reference to that end, a 

 thing indiiferent ; or, in other words, that the summum bonum must be looked for in 

 that which is in his own power. That felicity in this sense is always in the wise man's 

 power is thus not an arbitrary assertion, but results from the principle that life is not 

 merely a purposeless dream. 



2 " Desiderare piuttosto di avere al presente la sua sepoltura un palmo di terreno piu 

 avanti, che col ritirarsi indietro poche braccie allungare la vita cento anni." Guic- 

 ciard. vi. 2. 



Fernandez Consalvo of Cordova commonly called the Great Captain, and cer- 

 tainly one of the most successful soldiers of the age in which he lived, was employed 

 by the King of Spain in his Italian wars. He died at [Granada] in [December, 1515]. 

 See, for the testimony to his merits of apparently an unwilling witness, Brantome's 

 Vies des Grands Capitaines, and for a panegyrical biography, Paulus Jovius. 



9 "He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast." Proverbs, xv. li>., 

 where the Yulgate is "Secura mcns quasi juge convivium. 1 ' 



