Kitap 4
1
Will you then say that there is nothing independent, which is in your own power alone, and unalienable? See if you have anything of this sort. I do not know. But consider it thus: can any one make you assent to a falsehood? No one. In the matter of assent, then, you are unrestrained and unhindered. Agreed. Well, and can any one compel you to exert your aims towards what you do not like? He can. For when he threatens me with death, or fetters, he thus compels me. If, then, you were to despise dying or being fettered, would you any longer regard him? No. Is despising death, then, an action in our power, or is it not? It is. Is it therefore in your power also to exert your aims towards anything, or is it not? Agreed that it is. But in whose power is my avoiding anything? This, too, is in your own. What then if, when I am exerting myself to walk, any one should restrain me? What part of you can he restrain? Can he restrain your assent? No, but my body. Ay, as he may a stone. Be it so. But still I cease to walk. And who claimed that walking was one of the actions that cannot be restrained? For I only said that your exerting yourself towards it could not be restrained. But wherever the body and its assistance are essential, you have already heard that nothing is in your power. Be this, too, agreed. And can any one compel you to desire against your Will? No one. Or to propose, or intend, or, in short, not to be beguiled by the appearances of things? Nor this. But when I desire anything, he can restrain me from obtaining what I desire. If you desire anything that is truly within your reach, and that cannot be restrained, how can he restrain you? By no means. And pray who claims that he who longs for what depends on another will be free from restraint?
