CHAPTER IV.
THE "MANUAL" AND "FRAGMENTS" OF EPICTETUS.
It is nearly certain that Epictetus never committed any of his doctrines to writing.

Like his great exemplar.

Socrates, he contented himself with oral instruction, and the bulk of what has come down to us in his name consists in the _Discourses_ reproduced for us by his pupil Arrian.

It was the ambition of Arrian "to be to Epictetus what Xenophon had been to Socrates," that is, to hand down to posterity a noble and faithful picture of the manner in which his master had lived and taught.

With this view, he wrote four books on Epictetus,--a life, which is now unhappily lost; a book of conversation or "table talk," which is also lost; and two books which have come down to us, viz.