Book 3
6
Some person having asked him what is Common sense, Epictetus replied, As that may be called a certain Common hearing which only distinguishes vocal sounds, and that which distinguishes musical sounds is not Common, but artificial; so there are certain things which men, who are not altogether perverted, see by the common notions which all possess. Such a constitution of the mind is named Common sense.The Greek is κοίνος νοῦς, the Communis sensus of the Romans, and our Common sense. Horace (Sat. i. 3, 65) speaks of a man who communi sensu plane caret, one who has not the sense or understanding which is the common property of men.
6
It is not easy to exhort weak young men; for neither is it easy to hold (soft) cheese with a hook.This was a proverb used by Bion, as Diogenes Laertius says. The cheese was new and soft, as the antients used it. But those who have a good natural disposition, even if you try to turn them aside, cling still more to reason. Wherefore RufusRufus is mentioned i. 1, note 12. generally attempted to discourage (his pupils), and he used this method as a test of those who had a good natural disposition and those who had not. For it was his habit to say, as a stone, if you cast it upwards, will be brought down to the earth by its own nature, so the man whose mind is naturally good, the more you repel him, the more he turns towards that to which he is naturally inclined.
To the administrator of the free cities who was an Epicurean.
