" [1]
"Athens," said Epictetus, "is a good place,--but happiness is much better;
to be free from passions, free from disturbance."
We should endeavor to maintain ourselves in
"That blessed mood
In which the burden of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight,
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lightened." [2]
So shall we fear "neither the exile of Aristides, nor the prison of
Anaxagoras, nor the poverty of Socrates, nor the condemnation of Phocion,
but think virtue worthy our love even under such trials." [3] We should
then be, to a great extent, independent of external circumstances, for
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
"If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free;
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty." [4]
Happiness indeed depends much more on what is within than without us. When
Hamlet says the world is "a goodly prison; in which there are many
confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst," and
Rosencrantz differs from him, he rejoins wisely, "Why then, 'tis none to
you: for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to
me it is a prison.
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