Now be a true friend and tell me this: when you first set out to study philosophy, many doors were open to you; you passed by the others and came to the Stoic door; you deigned to enter through that door on the way to Virtue, thinking it the only true one which revealed the straight path; the rest led into blind alleys. Now what was your reason for this? What at that time made you certain? Please do not think of yourself as you are now, for, half-wise or wise, you can now make better judgments than we who are many. Answer as the layman you then were and I am now.
I don’t see your point, Lycinus.
My question was not very complicated really. There have been many philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes, and your own predecessors, Chrysippus, Zeno, and the rest. Now, what persuaded you to leave the rest alone and choose to base your studies on the particular one you did? Did Apollo send you back from Delphi, like Chaerephon,
It wasn’t like that, Lycinus. I never even asked Apollo about it.
Did you think it not worth consulting the god about, or did you think you could make the better choice on your own without his help?
I did think so.
Well then, please teach me this first, how, right at the beginning, we can distinguish the best, the true philosophy, the one we must choose, leaving aside the others.
I will tell you. I saw that most people took to this one, so I guessed it was the best.
How many more Stoics are there than Epicureans or Platonists or Peripatetics? You obviously took a count of them as in a show of hands.
I didn’t count. I made an estimate.
So you are not prepared to teach me. You are cheating when you tell me you decide such a matter by guesswork and weight of numbers. You’re hiding the truth from me.
It wasn’t just that, Lycinus. I also heard everybody saying that the Epicureans were sensual and lovers of pleasure, that the Peripatetics loved riches and wrangling, and that the Platonists were puffed up and loved glory. But a lot of people said that the Stoics were manly and understood everything and that the man who went this way was the only king, the only rich man, the only wise man, and everything rolled into one.