family and of
the state, but in some respects only. For there is a point at which a
state may attain such a degree of unity as to be no longer a state, or
at which, without actually ceasing to exist, it will become an inferior
state, like harmony passing into unison, or rhythm which has been
reduced to single foot. The state is a plurality, which should be
united and made into a community by education.[15]

There is a chapter in the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, entitled: "To or
against those who obstinately Persist in what they have determined."
{101} There could, I think, be no better formulation of purpose grown
hard and unworthily self-sufficient. This form of materialism I have
termed _egoism_ and _bigotry_, since the purpose may be either personal
or social in scope. But in either case the diagnosis of Epictetus goes
to the root of the evil. He thus describes his experience with one of
his companions, "who for no reason resolved to starve himself to death":

I heard of it when it was the third day of his abstinence from food,
and I went to inquire what had happened.

"I have resolved," he said.

"But still tell me what it was which induced you to resolve; for if you
have resolved rightly, we shall sit with you and assist you to depart;
but if you have made an unreasonable resolution, change your mind."

"We ought to keep our determinations."

"What are you doing, man? We ought to keep not to all our
determinations, but to those which are right; for if you are now
persuaded that it is right, do not change your mind, if you think fit,
but persist and say, we ought to abide by our determinations. Will you
not make the beginning and lay the foundation in an inquiry whether the
determination is sound or not sound, and so then build on it firmness
and security?" . . .

Now this man was with difficulty persuaded to change his mind. But it
is impossible to convince some persons at present; so that I seem now
to know, what I did not know before, the meaning of the common saying,
That you can neither persuade nor break a fool. May it never be my lot
to have a wise fool for my friend: nothing is more untractable. "I
{102} am determined," the man says. Madmen are also; but the more
firmly they form a judgment on things which do not exist, the more
ellebore they require.[16]

The wise fool is, as Epictetus says, more intractable than the aimless
and unwitting fool; because there is substance to his folly