We see with delight that one of the _Discourses_ of Epictetus was _On the Tenderness and Forbearance due to Sinners_; and he abounds in exhortations to forbearance in judging others.

In one of his _Fragments_ he tells the following anecdote:--A person who had seen a poor ship-wrecked and almost dying pirate took pity on him, carried him home, gave him clothes, and furnished him with all the necessaries of life.

Somebody reproached him for doing good to the wicked--"I have honoured," he replied, "not the man, but humanity in his person." But one fact more is known in the life of Epictetus, Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian, succeeded his far nobler brother the Emperor Titus; and in the course of his reign a decree was passed which banished all the philosophers from Italy.

Epictetus was not exempted from this unjust and absurd decree.

That he bore it with equanimity may be inferred from the approval with which he tells an anecdote about Agrippinus, who while his cause was being tried in the Senate went on with all his usual avocations, and on being informed on his return from bathing that he had been condemned, quietly asked, "To death or banishment ?" "To banishment," said the messenger.