because of one miserable little leg find fault with the universe?  Will you not concede that accident to the existence of general laws?  Will you not dismiss the thought of it?  Will you not cheerfully assent to it for the sake of him who gave it.  And will you be indignant and displeased at the ordinances of Zeus, which he ordained and appointed with the Destinies, who were present and wove the web of your being?  Know you not what an atom you are compared with the whole?—­that is, as regards your body, since as regards your reason you are no whit inferior to, or less than the gods.  For the greatness of reason is not estimated by size or height, but by the doctrines which it embraces.  Will you not then lay up your treasure in those matters wherein you are equal to the gods?” And, thanks to such principles, a poor and persecuted slave was able to raise his voice in sincere and eloquent thanksgiving to that God to whom he owed his “creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life.”

Speaking of the multitude of our natural gifts, he says, “Are these the only gifts of Providence towards us?  Nay, what power of speech suffices adequately to praise, or to set them forth? for, had we but true intelligence, what duty would be more perpetually incumbent on us than both in public and in private to hymn the Divine, and bless His name and praise His benefits?  Ought we not, when we dig, and when we plough, and when we eat, to sing this hymn to God?  ’Great is God, because He hath given us these implements whereby we may till the soil; great is God, because He hath given us hands, and the means of nourishment by food, and insensible growth, and breathing sleep;’ these things in each particular we ought to hymn, and to chant the greatest and the divinest hymn, because He hath given us the power to appreciate these blessings, and continuously to use them.  What then?  Since the most of you are blinded, ought there not to be some one to fulfil this province for you, and on behalf of all to sing his hymn to God?  And what else can I do, who am a lame old man, except sing praises to God?  Now, had I been a nightingale, I should have sung the songs of a nightingale, or had I been a swan the songs of a swan; but, being a reasonable being, it is my duty to hymn God.  This is my task, and I accomplish it; nor, so far as may be granted to me, will I ever abandon this post, and you also do I exhort to this same song.”

There is an almost lyric beauty about these expressions of resignation and faith in God, and it is the utterance of such warm feelings towards Divine Providence that constitutes the chief originality of Epictetus.  It is interesting to think that the oppressed heathen philosopher found the same consolation, and enjoyed the same contentment, as the persecuted Christian Apostle.  “Whether ye eat or drink,” says St. Paul, “or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”  “Think of God,” says Epictetus, “oftener than you breathe.  Let discourse of God be renewed daily more surely than your food.”