The Enchiridion

The Library of Liberal Arts OSKAR PIEST, _General Editor_ [NUMBER EIGHT] EPICTETUS The Enchiridion The Enchiridion By EPICTETUS Translated by THOMAS W. HIGGINSON With an Introduction by ALBERT SALOMON _Professor of Sociology New School for Social Research_ THE LIBERAL ARTS PRESS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1948 THE LIBERAL ARTS PRESS, INC.

First Edition, _October, 1948_ Reprinted _December, 1950_; _August, 1954_ Second Edition, _November, 1955_ Published at 153 West 72nd Street, New York 23, N. Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS Note on the Text Introduction Selected Bibliography The Enchiridion NOTE ON THE TEXT The text of the second edition is a reprint of the first edition except for a few minor corrections in style, punctuation, and spelling, which have been revised to conform to current American usage.

The editorial staff of the publishers has added a few explanatory notes which are set in brackets and marked “Ed.” INTRODUCTION The little book by Epictetus called _Enchiridion_ or “manual” has played a disproportionately large role in the rise of modern attitudes and modern philosophy.

As soon as it had been translated into the vernacular languages, it became a bestseller among independent intellectuals, among anti-Christian thinkers, and among philosophers of a subjective cast. Montaigne had a copy of the _Enchiridion_ among his books.

Pascal violently rejected the megalomaniac pride of the Stoic philosopher. Frederick the Great carried the book with him on all campaigns. It was a source of inspiration and encouragement to Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, in the serious illness which ended only in his death; many pages of his diaries contain passages copied from the _Enchiridion_.

It has been studied and widely quoted by Scottish philosophers like Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson who valued Stoic moral philosophy for its reconciliation of social dependency and personal independence. That there was a rebirth of Stoicism in the centuries of rebirth which marked the emergence of the modern age was not mere chance.