Lectures · Lecture 19

19.1

This is what he said concerning food. He also thought it right to seek shelter for the body that accords with self-control, not the kind that is extravagant and excessive. For, straightaway, he said that one must use clothing and footwear in the same way as a full suit of armor, for the protection of the body, and not for display. Therefore, just as the finest weapons are the strongest and those most able to preserve the one using them, not those that are conspicuous and gleaming, so too the clothing and footwear that is most useful to the body is best, and not that which is able to turn the gaze of the foolish. For shelter ought to render the thing sheltered better than itself and stronger, not weaker and worse. Those, then, who contrive smoothness and softness of the flesh through their coverings make their bodies worse, since indeed the body that is enfeebled and soft is much worse than the hard and well-exercised. But those who strengthen and toughen the body by their shelter—these alone benefit the things sheltered. For this reason it is in no way good either to cover the body with many garments, or to wrap it round with bands, or to soften the hands and feet by wrapping them with felts or certain woven fabrics—at least for those who are not sick. Nor is it good to be altogether without experience of cold and heat; rather, one should shiver moderately in winter and be exposed to the sun in summer and take shelter in the shade as little as possible. And to use a single tunic is to be preferred to needing two; and to use a single tunic to using none at all, but only a cloak. And to go without footwear is better than to be shod, for the one who is able; for being shod seems to come close to being bound, whereas going unshod affords the feet much ease of movement and freedom, whenever they have been trained.

19.2

From this one can also see that the day-runners do not use footwear on their journeys, and that among athletes the runners would not be able to maintain their speed if they had to run in shoes. And since it is for the sake of shelter that we also build our houses, I say that these too should be built with a view to what is necessary for use—so as to keep off cold, and to keep off the severity of heat, and to be a defense against sun and winds for those who need it. In general, whatever a natural cave might provide, one that offers a person a moderate place to enter, this is what our house ought to provide us, being at most only so much more elaborate as to have a suitable place for storing human food. But what of courtyards surrounded by columns? What of the many-colored plasterwork? What of ceilings roofed with gold? What of the extravagance of stones, some fitted together on the floor, others set into the walls, some even brought from very far away and at very great expense? Are not all these things superfluous and unnecessary—things without which it is possible both to live and to be healthy—yet which involve the greatest trouble and come about only through much money, from which one could have benefited many people both publicly and privately? And indeed, how much more glorious it is to benefit many people than to live extravagantly! How much more noble it is to spend on human beings than to spend on wood and stones! How much more useful it is to possess many friends than to be surrounded by a great house—which is what results for the one who eagerly does good! What could anyone gain from the greatness and beauty of a house so great as what he gains from doing kindness to his city and his fellow citizens from his own resources?