The Shepherd, November 2008
I am ashamed even to mention stinking out the air with sweet-smelling vapours, and smearing the body with perfumes. Neither should we give ourselves over to the pleasures that depend on the senses of touch and taste. Those devoted to the pursuit of such pleasures are forced to live like animals, all their attention focused on the belly and the organs below it.
In a word, we should make light of the body in every part, assuming we do not wish to be buried alive in its pleasures, as though in slime. Or to put it slightly better, we should embrace the body only so far as it cooperates with us in the pursuit of wisdom. This is what Plato advises, speaking somewhat like Paul when the Apostle exhorts us to “make no provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts” (Rom.13:14). After all, there are people who are so attentive to their bodies, setting out to be as physically fit and fine as they can, but who quite forget that they even have souls! As though the soul were utterly worthless, although actually it is the proper master of the body! That is like caring for the tools but neglecting the craft for which the tools exist.
We must do the opposite: tame the body, holding it in check, as we would the headlong rushing of some wild animal. We must get the body under control with the rod of reason, beating down the surges of passion, calming them to sleep.36 We should not loosen up, let every physical pleasure have its way, and allow our minds to be swept away head-over-heels, like a charioteer with unruly horses who run riot. Remember what Pythagoras said to one of his disciples who was putting on weight through muscle-building and heavy eating: “Please stop making your prison even more wretched for you to live in!” For the same reason Plato apparently set up his Academy in the unhealthy part of Attica, to trim back the excess of bodily health, as a gardener trims excessive growth from a vine. I myself have heard doctors say that it can even be dangerous to go to extremes of great bodily fitness.
The madness of wanting to be rich:
lessons from Solon, Theognis, Diogenes, and Socrates
Excessive concern for the body, then, is not good for the body itself, and is a hindrance to the inner life. And it is sheer madness to make the mind the slave of Master Body. Yet surely, if we should make light of the body, we ought to be slow to feel admiration for any other human possession. To what purpose shall we devote riches, if we put no great value on mere bodily pleasures? Perhaps the purpose of riches is that we get some thrill from staying awake all night to guard our buried treasures, like the dragon-guards of mythology!
However, if a man’s training has liberated him from bondage to earthly possessions, he is unlikely to choose anything sordid or shameful in word or deed. He will have no regard for anything in excess of his needs, not even for the gold-dust of Lydia or the wealth of the gold-gathering ants.37 In fact, the less he needs it, he will spurn it all the more. And of course, he will define “need” in terms of the requirements of nature, not pleasure. Those who go beyond what is necessary are like men charging pell-mell down a hill: they have nothing to obstruct them in their downward rush, and find it impossible to stop. The more they have, the more they require to gratify their desires. As Solon, son of Execestides, says: “Of wealth, no limit has been revealed to men.” We should accept Theognis too as a teacher in these matters: “I am not eager to be rich, nor do I pray for riches. All I wish is to have enough to live on, and to suffer no evil.”
I also admire the scorn of Diogenes for all human possessions, when he declared himself richer than the Great King38 because he needed less to live on than the Great King. But for people today, it seems that nothing will be enough except all the silver of Pythias the Mysian,39 umpteen acres of land, and herds of cattle past counting. In my opinion, though, we should not pine for wealth if we do not have it; and if we do have it, we should not pride ourselves on the mere fact of having wealth, but on the good use to which we are putting it. Socrates expressed it well. When he saw a wealthy man giving himself airs and graces because of his wealth, Socrates said he would not think highly of him until he had found out by experience that the man also knew how to use his wealth. Phidias40 made a statue of Zeus for the Elians, and Polyclitus41 made a statue of Hera for the Argives. Suppose the sculptors had prided themselves on the gold and ivory in their statues. Wouldn’t they have been ridiculed for boasting in a wealth they did not own, instead of the artistry that enabled them to fashion the gold into something still more pleasing and precious? But we become just as shameful, if we do not think that it is the virtue of a man that counts to make him beautiful.
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