2 files changed, 5932 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/6920.txt b/old/6920.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24ba4a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/6920.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5932 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Thoughts Of The Emperor Marcus Aurelius
+Antoninus, by Marcus Aurelius
+#2 in our series by Marcus Aurelius
+
+
+******************************************************
+THERE IS AN IMPROVED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WITH LINKED
+FOOTNOTES WHICH MAY BE VIEWED AS EBOOK (# 15877) at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15877
+******************************************************
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Thoughts Of The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
+
+Author: Marcus Aurelius
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6920]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 10, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS OF MARCUS AURELIUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Nield, Tom Allen, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: All the footnotes have been moved to the end of the
+text. I have also relabeled the book headings; [I., II., ... XI.] has
+been changed to [BOOK I., BOOK II., ... BOOK XI.] at the start of each
+Section. I have also added a "1. " before the first "thought" in each
+BOOK.]
+
+
+THE THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
+
+LONG'S TRANSLATION EDITED BY EDWIN GINN
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
+
+THE THOUGHTS
+
+PHILOSOPHY OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
+
+GENERAL INDEX
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Perhaps some may question the wisdom of putting out the Thoughts of
+Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to be used as a Reader by children in the
+schools. It may appear to them better suited to the mature mind. The
+principle, however, that has governed us in selecting reading for the
+young has been to secure the best that we could find in all ages for
+grown-up people. The milk and water diet provided for "my dear children"
+is not especially complimentary to them. They like to be treated like
+little men and women, capable of appreciating a good thing. One finds in
+this royal philosopher a rare generosity, sweetness and humility,
+qualities alike suited to all ages.
+
+Adopting the philosopher's robe at twelve, he remains a student all his
+life. The precepts that he would give for the government of others, he
+has practised upon himself. In his time, as in ours, there were good
+physicians for the mind and body, who could make wise prescriptions for
+the government of their neighbors, but were unable to apply them to
+themselves. The faults of our fellows are so numerous and so easy to cure
+that one is readily tempted to become the physician, while our own faults
+are so few and so unimportant that it is hardly worth while to give any
+attention to them. Hence we have a multitude of physicians for humanity
+in general, and a scarcity of individual healers.
+
+It was the doctrine of Marcus Aurelius that most of the ills of life come
+to us from our own imagination, that it was not in the power of others
+seriously to interfere with the calm, temperate life of an individual,
+and that when a fellow being did anything to us that seemed unjust he was
+acting in ignorance, and that instead of stirring up anger within us it
+should stir our pity for him. Oftentimes by careful self-examination we
+should find that the fault was more our own than that of our fellow, and
+our sufferings were rather from our own opinions than from anything real.
+The circle of man's knowledge is very limited, and the largest circles do
+not wholly include the smallest. They are intersecting and the segment
+common to any two is very small. Whatever lies outside this space does
+not exist for both. Hence arise innumerable contests. The man having the
+largest intelligence ought to be very generous to the other. Being
+thankful that he has been blessed in so many ways, he should do all in
+his power to enlighten his less favored fellow, rather than be angry with
+him on account of his misfortune. Is he not sufficiently punished in
+being denied the light?
+
+Assisting his uncle in the government of the great Roman Empire at
+seventeen, it was his aim constantly to restrain the power of the strong
+and to assist the weak. He studied the laws of his country, not for
+wisdom alone, but that he might make them more beneficial to his people.
+All his life he tried to bring his fellows to a higher level, and to
+think charitably of each other. Occupying himself a palace he lived
+simply, like other men. It was his greatest delight to retire to his
+country home and there, dwelling among his books, to meditate upon the
+great problems of life. He claimed that a man's life should be valued
+according to the value of the things to which he gave his attention. If
+his whole thought was given to clothing, feeding and housing himself
+comfortably, he should be valued like other well-housed and well-fed
+animals. He would, however, derive the greatest pleasure and benefit in
+this life by acting in accordance with reason, which demands of every
+human being that his highest faculties should govern all the rest, and
+that each should see to it that he treated his fellow kindly and
+generously and that if he could not assist him to a higher level he
+should at least not stand in his way. When he speaks of the shortness of
+time and the value of fame, riches and power, for which men strive in
+this world, he speaks not from the standpoint of one who would wish to
+obtain these things, but as a Roman emperor enjoying the highest honors
+that man might expect to attain in this world. He certainly was in a
+position to speak intelligently concerning these matters, and his
+opinions ought to have weight with the coming generations. Children may
+not prefer to read such thoughts; perhaps the majority of children do not
+prefer the Bible to other books. Still, we all think it is well for them
+to be obliged to read it. Perhaps requiring the use of such literature in
+the schools might be as valuable as the adding, subtracting, multiplying
+and dividing of interminable numbers, the memorizing of all the capes,
+bays and rivers in the world, and the dates of all the battles that have
+occurred since the creation of man. We should strive to stimulate the
+thinking powers of children, leading them to form wise judgments
+concerning the important things of life, without catering too much to
+their own wishes at an age when they cannot form an intelligent opinion
+of what is best for themselves.
+
+At our first reading of the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, we
+marked many sentences that appeared to us specially good; in the second,
+twice as many more. Where all is good it is hard to emphasize, but we
+will cite just one of his reflections, as illustrating the trend of his
+mind: "I have often wondered," he says, "how it is that every man loves
+himself more than all the rest of men, and yet sets less value on his own
+opinion of himself than on the opinion of others."
+
+We have given Long's translation of the Thoughts complete, as published
+by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., but we have omitted some unimportant
+portions of the biography and philosophy in the interest of space and
+economy. We have also given the philosophy in a supplement, thinking it
+better that it should come after the Thoughts themselves. We shall issue
+a pocket edition on very thin paper for the convenience of such as wish
+to make a special study of the work. We also propose to issue a similar
+edition of the writings of Epictetus.
+
+EDWIN GINN.
+
+January 20, 1893.
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
+
+
+M. Antoninus, the son of Annius Verus and Domitia Calvilla, was born at
+Rome, A.D. 121. The Emperor T. Antoninus Pius married Faustina, the
+sister of Annius Verus, and was consequently the uncle of M. Antoninus.
+When Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius and declared him his successor in the
+empire, Antoninus Pius adopted both L. Ceionius Commodus and M.
+Antoninus, generally called M. Aurelius Antoninus.
+
+The youth was most carefully brought up. He thanks the gods (I. 17) that
+he had good grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teachers,
+good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good. He had
+the happy fortune to witness the example of his uncle and adoptive
+father, Antoninus Pius, and he has recorded in his work (I. 16; VI. 30)
+the virtues of this excellent man and prudent ruler. Like many young
+Romans he tried his hand at poetry and studied rhetoric. There are
+letters extant showing the great affection of the pupil for the master,
+and the master's great hopes of his industrious pupil.
+
+When he was eleven years old he assumed the dress of philosophers,
+something plain and coarse, became a hard student, and lived a most
+laborious, abstemious life, even so far as to injure his health. He
+abandoned poetry and rhetoric for philosophy, and attached himself to the
+sect of the Stoics. But he did not neglect the study of law, which was a
+useful preparation for the high place which he was designed to fill. We
+must suppose that he learned the Roman discipline of arms, which was a
+necessary part of the education of a man who afterwards led his troops to
+battle against a warlike race.
+
+Antoninus has recorded in his first book the names of his teachers, and
+the obligations which he owed to each of them. The way in which he speaks
+of what he learned from them might seem to savor of vanity or self-
+praise, if we look carelessly at the way in which he has expressed
+himself; but if anyone draws this conclusion, he will be mistaken.
+Antoninus means to commemorate the merits of his several teachers, what
+they taught, and what a pupil might learn from them. Besides, this book,
+like the eleven other books, was for his own use; and if we may trust the
+note at the end of the first book, it was written during one of M.
+Antoninus' campaigns against the Quadi, at a time when the commemoration
+of the virtues of his illustrious teachers might remind him of their
+lessons and the practical uses which he might derive from them.
+
+Among his teachers of philosophy was Sextus of Chaeroneia, a grandson of
+Plutarch. What he learned from this excellent man is told by himself (I.
+9). His favorite teacher was Rusticus (I. 7), a philosopher, and also a
+man of practical good sense in public affairs. Rusticus was the adviser
+of Antoninus after he became emperor. Young men who are destined for high
+places are not often fortunate in those who are about them, their
+companions and teachers; and I do not know any example of a young prince
+having had an education which can be compared with that of M. Antoninus.
+Such a body of teachers distinguished by their acquirements and their
+character will hardly be collected again; and as to the pupil, we have
+not had one like him since.
+
+Hadrian died in July, A.D. 138, and was succeeded by Antoninus Pius. M.
+Antoninus married Faustina, his cousin, the daughter of Pius, probably
+about A.D. 146, for he had a daughter born in A.D. 147. He received from
+his adoptive father the title of Caesar, and was associated with him in
+the administration of the state. The father and the adopted son lived
+together in perfect friendship and confidence. Antoninus was a dutiful
+son, and the emperor Pius loved and esteemed him.
+
+Antoninus Pius died A.D. 161. The Senate, it is said, urged M. Antoninus
+to take the sole administration of the empire, but he associated with
+himself the other adopted son of Pius, L. Ceionius Commodus, who is
+generally called L. Verus. Thus Rome for the first time had two emperors.
+Verus was an indolent man of pleasure, and unworthy of his station.
+Antoninus however bore with him, and it is said that Verus had sense
+enough to pay to his colleague the respect due to his character. A
+virtuous emperor and a loose partner lived together in peace, and their
+alliance was strengthened by Antoninus giving to Verus for wife his
+daughter Lucilla.
+
+The reign of Antoninus was first troubled by a Parthian war, in which
+Verus was sent to command; but he did nothing, and the success that was
+obtained by the Romans in Armenia and on the Euphrates and Tigris was due
+to his generals. This Parthian war ended in A.D. 165. Aurelius and Verus
+had a triumph (A.D. 166) for the victories in the East. A pestilence
+followed, which carried off great numbers in Rome and Italy, and spread
+to the west of Europe.
+
+The north of Italy was also threatened by the rude people beyond the Alps
+from the borders of Gallia to the eastern side of the Hadriatic. These
+barbarians attempted to break into Italy, as the Germanic nations had
+attempted near three hundred years before; and the rest of the life of
+Antoninus, with some intervals, was employed in driving back the
+invaders. In A.D. 169 Verus suddenly died, and Antoninus administered the
+state alone.
+
+During the German wars Antoninus resided for three years on the Danube at
+Carnuntum. The Marcomanni were driven out of Pannonia and almost
+destroyed in their retreat across the Danube; and in A.D. 174 the emperor
+gained a great victory over the Quadi.
+
+In A.D. 175, Avidius Cassius, a brave and skilful Roman commander who was
+at the head of the troops in Asia, revolted and declared himself
+Augustus. But Cassius was assassinated by some of his officers, and so
+the rebellion came to an end. Antoninus showed his humanity by his
+treatment of the family and the partisans of Cassius; and his letter to
+the Senate, in which he recommends mercy, is extant.
+
+Antoninus set out for the East on hearing of Cassius' revolt. Though he
+appears to have returned to Rome in A.D. 174, he went back to prosecute
+the war against the Germans, and it is probable that he marched direct to
+the East from the German war. His wife Faustina, who accompanied him into
+Asia, died suddenly at the foot of the Taurus, to the great grief of her
+husband. Capitolinus, who has written the life of Antoninus, and also
+Dion Cassius accuse the empress of scandalous infidelity to her husband
+and of abominable lewdness. But Capitolinus says that Antoninus either
+knew it not or pretended not to know it. Nothing is so common as such
+malicious reports in all ages, and the history of imperial Rome is full
+of them. Antoninus loved his wife, and he says that she was "obedient,
+affectionate, and simple." The same scandal had been spread about
+Faustina's mother, the wife of Antoninus Pius, and yet he too was
+perfectly satisfied with his wife. Antoninus Pius says after her death in
+a letter to Fronto that he would rather have lived in exile with his wife
+than in his palace at Rome without her. There are not many men who would
+give their wives a better character than these two emperors. Capitolinus
+wrote in the time of Diocletian. He may have intended to tell the truth,
+but he is a poor, feeble biographer. Dion Cassius, the most malignant of
+historians, always reports and perhaps he believed any scandal against
+anybody.
+
+Antoninus continued his journey to Syria and Egypt, and on his return to
+Italy through Athens he was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. It
+was the practice of the emperor to conform to the established rites of
+the age, and to perform religious ceremonies with due solemnity. We
+cannot conclude from this that he was a superstitious man, though we
+might perhaps do so if his book did not show that he was not. But this is
+only one among many instances that a ruler's public acts do not always
+prove his real opinions. A prudent governor will not roughly oppose even
+the superstitions of his people; and though he may wish that they were
+wiser, he will know that he cannot make them so by offending their
+prejudices.
+
+Antoninus and his son Commodus entered Rome in triumph, perhaps for some
+German victories, A.D. 176. In the following year Commodus was associated
+with his father in the empire, and took the name of Augustus. This year
+A.D. 177 is memorable in ecclesiastical history. Attalus and others were
+put to death at Lyon for their adherence to the Christian religion. The
+evidence of this persecution is a letter preserved by Eusebius. It
+contains a very particular description of the tortures inflicted on the
+Christians in Gallia, and it states that while the persecution was going
+on, Attalus, a Christian and a Roman citizen, was loudly demanded by the
+populace and brought into the amphitheatre; but the governor ordered him
+to be reserved, with the rest who were in prison, until he had received
+instructions from the emperor. Many had been tortured before the governor
+thought of applying to Antoninus. The imperial rescript, says the letter,
+was that the Christians should be punished, but if they would deny their
+faith, they must be released. On this the work began again. The
+Christians who were Roman citizens were beheaded; the rest were exposed
+to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre.
+
+The war on the northern frontier appears to have been uninterrupted
+during the visit of Antoninus to the East, and on his return the emperor
+again left Rome to oppose the barbarians. The Germanic people were
+defeated in a great battle A.D. 179. During this campaign the emperor was
+seized with some contagious malady, of which he died in the camp, A.D.
+180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His son Commodus was with him.
+The body, or the ashes probably, of the emperor were carried to Rome, and
+he received the honor of deification. Those who could afford it had his
+statue or bust; and when Capitolinus wrote, many people still had statues
+of Antoninus among the Dei Penates or household deities. He was in a
+manner made a saint. Commodus erected to the memory of his father the
+Antonine column which is now in the Piazza Colonna at Rome. The bassi
+rilievi which are placed in a spiral line round the shaft commemorate the
+victories of Antoninus over the Marcomanni and the Quadi, and the
+miraculous shower of rain which refreshed the Roman soldiers and
+discomfited their enemies. The statue of Antoninus was placed on the
+capital of the column, but it was removed at some time unknown, and a
+bronze statue of St. Paul was put in the place by Pope Sixtus the fifth.
+
+In order to form a proper notion of the condition of the Christians under
+M. Antoninus we must go back to Trajan's time. When the younger Pliny was
+governor of Bithynia, the Christians were numerous in those parts, and
+the worshippers of the old religion were falling off. The temples were
+deserted, the festivals neglected, and there were no purchasers of
+victims for sacrifice. Those who were interested in the maintenance of
+the old religion thus found that their profits were in danger. Christians
+of both sexes and of all ages were brought before the governor, who did
+not know what to do with them. He could come to no other conclusion than
+this, that those who confessed to be Christians and persevered in their
+religion ought to be punished; if for nothing else, for their invincible
+obstinacy. He found no crimes proved against the Christians, and he could
+only characterize their religion as a depraved and extravagant
+superstition, which might be stopped if the people were allowed the
+opportunity of recanting. Pliny wrote this in a letter to Trajan. He
+asked for the emperor's directions, because he did not know what to do.
+He remarks that he had never been engaged in judicial inquiries about the
+Christians, and that accordingly he did not know what to inquire about or
+how far to inquire and punish. This proves that it was not a new thing to
+examine into a man's profession of Christianity and to punish him for it.
+Trajan's rescript is extant. He approved of the governor's judgment in
+the matter, but he said that no search must be made after the Christians;
+if a man was charged with the new religion and convicted, he must not be
+punished if he affirmed that he was not a Christian and confirmed his
+denial by showing his reverence to the heathen gods. He added that no
+notice must be taken of anonymous informations, for such things were of
+bad example. Trajan was a mild and sensible man; and both motives of
+mercy and policy probably also induced him to take as little notice of
+the Christians as he could, to let them live in quiet if it were
+possible. Trajan's rescript is the first legislative act of the head of
+the Roman state with reference to Christianity, which is known to us. It
+does not appear that the Christians were further disturbed under his
+reign.
+
+In the time of Hadrian it was no longer possible for the Roman government
+to overlook the great increase of the Christians and the hostility of the
+common sort to them. If the governors in the provinces were willing to
+let them alone, they could not resist the fanaticism of the heathen
+community, who looked on the Christians as atheists. The Jews too, who
+were settled all over the Roman Empire, were as hostile to the Christians
+as the Gentiles were. With the time of Hadrian begin the Christian
+Apologies, which show plainly what the popular feeling towards the
+Christians then was. A rescript of Hadrian to Minucius Fundanus, the
+Proconsul of Asia, which stands at the end of Justin's first Apology,
+instructs the governor that innocent people must not be troubled, and
+false accusers must not be allowed to extort money from them; the charges
+against the Christians must be made in due form, and no attention must be
+paid to popular clamors; when Christians were regularly prosecuted and
+convicted of illegal acts, they must be punished according to their
+deserts; and false accusers also must be punished. Antoninus Pius is said
+to have published rescripts to the same effect. The terms of Hadrian's
+rescript seem very favorable to the Christians; but if we understand it
+in this sense, that they were only to be punished like other people for
+illegal acts, it would have had no meaning, for that could have been done
+without asking the emperor's advice. The real purpose of the rescript is
+that Christians must be punished if they persisted in their belief, and
+would not prove their renunciation of it by acknowledging the heathen
+religion.
+
+In the time of M. Antoninus the opposition between the old and the new
+belief was still stronger, and the adherents of the heathen religion
+urged those in authority to a more regular resistance to the invasions of
+the Christian faith. Melito in his Apology to M. Antoninus represents the
+Christians of Asia as persecuted under new imperial orders. Shameless
+informers, he says, men who were greedy after the property of others,
+used these orders as a means of robbing those who were doing no harm. He
+doubts if a just emperor could have ordered anything so unjust; and if
+the last order was really not from the emperor, the Christians entreat
+him not to give them up to their enemies. We conclude from this that
+there were at least imperial rescripts or constitutions of M. Antoninus
+which were made the foundation of these persecutions. The fact of being a
+Christian was now a crime and punished, unless the accused denied their
+religion. Then come the persecutions at Smyrna, which some modern critics
+place in A.D. 167, ten years before the persecution of Lyon. The
+governors of the provinces under M. Antoninus might have found enough
+even in Trajan's rescript to warrant them in punishing Christians, and
+the fanaticism of the people would drive them to persecution, even if
+they were unwilling. But besides the fact of the Christians rejecting all
+the heathen ceremonies, we must not forget that they plainly maintained
+that all the heathen religions were false. The Christians thus declared
+war against the heathen rites, and it is hardly necessary to observe that
+this was a declaration of hostility against the Roman government, which
+tolerated all the various forms of superstition that existed in the
+empire, and could not consistently tolerate another religion, which
+declared that all the rest were false and all the splendid ceremonies of
+the empire only a worship of devils.
+
+If we had a true ecclesiastical history, we should know how the Roman
+emperors attempted to check the new religion; how they enforced their
+principle of finally punishing Christians, simply as Christians, which
+Justin in his Apology affirms that they did, and I have no doubt that he
+tells the truth; how far popular clamor and riots went in this matter,
+and how far many fanatical and ignorant Christians--for there were many
+such--contributed to excite the fanaticism on the other side and to
+imbitter the quarrel between the Roman government and the new religion.
+Our extant ecclesiastical histories are manifestly falsified, and what
+truth they contain is grossly exaggerated; but the fact is certain that
+in the time of M. Antoninus the heathen populations were in open
+hostility to the Christians, and that under Antoninus' rule men were put
+to death because they were Christians. Eusebius, in the preface to his
+fifth book, remarks that in the seventeenth year of Antoninus' reign, in
+some parts of the world, the persecution of the Christians became more
+violent, and that it proceeded from the populace in the cities; and he
+adds, in his usual style of exaggeration, that we may infer from what
+took place in a single nation that myriads of martyrs were made in the
+habitable earth. The nation which he alludes to is Gallia; and he then
+proceeds to give the letter of the churches of Vienna and Lugdunum. It is
+probable that he has assigned the true cause of the persecutions, the
+fanaticism of the populace, and that both governors and emperor had a
+great deal of trouble with these disturbances. How far Marcus was
+cognizant of these cruel proceedings we do not know, for the historical
+records of his reign are very defective. He did not make the rule against
+the Christians, for Trajan did that; and if we admit that he would have
+been willing to let the Christians alone, we cannot affirm that it was in
+his power, for it would be a great mistake to suppose that Antoninus had
+the unlimited authority which some modern sovereigns have had. His power
+was limited by certain constitutional forms, by the Senate, and by the
+precedents of his predecessors. We cannot admit that such a man was an
+active persecutor, for there is no evidence that he was, though it is
+certain that he had no good opinion of the Christians, as appears from
+his own words. But he knew nothing of them except their hostility to the
+Roman religion, and he probably thought that they were dangerous to the
+state, notwithstanding the professions false or true of some of the
+Apologists. So much I have said, because it would be unfair not to state
+all that can be urged against a man whom his contemporaries and
+subsequent ages venerated as a model of virtue and benevolence. If I
+admitted the genuineness of some documents, he would be altogether clear
+from the charge of even allowing any persecutions; but as I seek the
+truth and am sure that they are false, I leave him to bear whatever blame
+is his due. I add that it is quite certain that Antoninus did not derive
+any of his ethical principles from a religion of which he knew nothing.
+
+There is no doubt that the Emperor's Reflections--or his Meditations, as
+they are generally named--is a genuine work. In the first book he speaks
+of himself, his family, and his teachers; and in other books he mentions
+himself.
+
+It is plain that the emperor wrote down his thoughts or reflections as
+the occasions arose; and since they were intended for his own use, it is
+no improbable conjecture that he left a complete copy behind him written
+with his own hand; for it is not likely that so diligent a man would use
+the labor of a transcriber for such a purpose, and expose his most secret
+thoughts to any other eye. He may have also intended the book for his son
+Commodus, who however had no taste for his father's philosophy.
+
+The last reflection of the Stoic philosophy that I have observed is in
+Simplicius' Commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus. Simplicius was
+not a Christian, and such a man was not likely to be converted at a time
+when Christianity was grossly corrupted. But he was a really religious
+man, and he concludes his commentary with a prayer to the Deity which no
+Christian could improve. From the time of Zeno to Simplicius, a period of
+about nine hundred years, the Stoic philosophy formed the characters of
+some of the best and greatest men. A man's greatness lies not in wealth
+and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet in his intellectual capacity,
+which is often associated with the meanest moral character, the most
+abject servility to those in high places, and arrogance to the poor and
+lowly; but a man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest
+purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything
+else, on frequent self-examination, and a steady obedience to the rule
+which he knows to be right, without troubling himself, as the emperor
+says he should not, about what others may think or say, or whether they
+do or do not do that which he thinks and says and does.
+
+
+
+
+THE THOUGHTS OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+1. From my grandfather Verus [I learned] good morals and the government
+of my temper.
+
+2. From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly
+character.
+
+3. From my mother, piety and beneficence, and abstinence, not only from
+evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and further, simplicity in my
+way of living, far removed from the habits of the rich.
+
+4. From my great-grandfather, not to have frequented public schools, and
+to have had good teachers at home, and to know that on such things a man
+should spend liberally.
+
+5. From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of the blue party at
+the games in the Circus, nor a partisan either of the Parmularius or the
+Scutarius at the gladiators' fights; from him too I learned endurance of
+labor, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, and not to
+meddle with other people's affairs, and not to be ready to listen to
+slander.
+
+6. From Diognetus, not to busy myself about trifling things, and not to
+give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about
+incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things; and not to
+breed quails [for fighting], nor to give myself up passionately to such
+things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become intimate with
+philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, then of
+Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogues in my youth; and to
+have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever else of the kind belongs
+to the Grecian discipline.
+
+7. From Rusticus I received the impression that my character required
+improvement and discipline; and from him I learned not to be led astray
+to sophistic emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor to
+delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing myself off as a man
+who practices much discipline, or does benevolent acts in order to make a
+display; and to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing; and
+not to walk about in the house in my outdoor dress, nor to do other
+things of the kind; and to write my letters with simplicity, like the
+letter which Rusticus wrote from Sinuessa to my mother; and with respect
+to those who have offended me by words, or done me wrong, to be easily
+disposed to be pacified and reconciled, as soon as they have shown a
+readiness to be reconciled; and to read carefully, and not to be
+satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book; nor hastily to give
+my assent to those who talk overmuch; and I am indebted to him for being
+acquainted with the discourses of Epictetus, which he communicated to me
+out of his own collection.
+
+8. From Apollonius I learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness
+of purpose; and to look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to
+reason; and to be always the same, in sharp pains, on the occasion of the
+loss of a child, and in long illness; and to see clearly in a living
+example that the same man can be both most resolute and yielding, and not
+peevish in giving his instruction; and to have had before my eyes a man
+who clearly considered his experience and his skill in expounding
+philosophical principles as the smallest of his merits; and from him I
+learned how to receive from friends what are esteemed favors, without
+being either humbled by them or letting them pass unnoticed.
+
+9. From Sextus, a benevolent disposition, and the example of a family
+governed in a fatherly manner, and the idea of living conformably to
+nature; and gravity without affectation, and to look carefully after the
+interests of friends, and to tolerate ignorant persons, and those who
+form opinions without consideration: he had the power of readily
+accommodating himself to all, so that intercourse with him was more
+agreeable than any flattery; and at the same time he was most highly
+venerated by those who associated with him: and he had the faculty both
+of discovering and ordering, in an intelligent and methodical way, the
+principles necessary for life; and he never showed anger or any other
+passion, but was entirely free from passion, and also most affectionate;
+and he could express approbation without noisy display, and he possessed
+much knowledge without ostentation.
+
+10. From Alexander the grammarian, to refrain from fault-finding, and not
+in a reproachful way to chide those who uttered any barbarous or
+solecistic or strange-sounding expression; but dexterously to introduce
+the very expression which ought to have been used, and in the way of
+answer or giving confirmation, or joining in an inquiry about the thing
+itself, not about the word, or by some other fit suggestion.
+
+11. From Fronto I learned to observe what envy and duplicity and
+hypocrisy are in a tyrant, and that generally those among us who are
+called Patricians are rather deficient in paternal affection.
+
+12. From Alexander the Platonic, not frequently nor without necessity to
+say to any one, or to write in a letter, that I have no leisure; nor
+continually to excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation to
+those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occupations.
+
+13. From Catulus, not to be indifferent when a friend finds fault, even
+if he should find fault without reason, but to try to restore him to his
+usual disposition; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, as it is
+reported of Domitius and Athenodotus; and to love my children truly.
+
+14. From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to
+love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato,
+Dion, Brutus; and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there
+is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal
+rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government
+which respects most of all the freedom of the governed; I learned from
+him also consistency and undeviating steadiness in my regard for
+philosophy; and a disposition to do good, and to give to others readily,
+and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am loved by my friends;
+and in him I observed no concealment of his opinions with respect to
+those whom he condemned, and that his friends had no need to conjecture
+what he wished or did not wish, but it was quite plain.
+
+15. From Maximus I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by
+anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness;
+and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and dignity, and
+to do what was set before me without complaining. I observed that
+everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he
+did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed amazement and
+surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off doing a thing, nor
+was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his
+vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or suspicious.
+He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive,
+and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man
+who could not be diverted from right, rather than of a man who had been
+improved. I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was
+despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man. He
+had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way.
+
+16. In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable
+resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation;
+and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of
+labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to those who had
+anything to propose for the common weal; and undeviating firmness in
+giving to every man according to his deserts; and a knowledge derived
+from experience of the occasions for vigorous action and for remission.
+And I observed that he had overcome all passion for boys; and he
+considered himself no more than any other citizen; and he released his
+friends from all obligation to sup with him or to attend him of necessity
+when he went abroad, and those who had failed to accompany him, by reason
+of any urgent circumstances, always found him the same. I observed, too,
+his habit of careful inquiry in all matters of deliberation, and his
+persistency, and that he never stopped his investigation through being
+satisfied with appearances which first present themselves; and that his
+disposition was to keep his friends, and not to be soon tired of them,
+nor yet to be extravagant in his affection; and to be satisfied on all
+occasions, and cheerful; and to foresee things a long way off, and to
+provide for the smallest without display; and to check immediately
+popular applause and all flattery; and to be ever watchful over the
+things which were necessary for the administration of the empire, and to
+be a good manager of the expenditure, and patiently to endure the blame
+which he got for such conduct; and he was neither superstitious with
+respect to the gods, nor did he court men by gifts or by trying to please
+them, or by flattering the populace; but he showed sobriety in all things
+and firmness, and never any mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty.
+And the things which conduce in any way to the commodity of life, and of
+which fortune gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and
+without excusing himself; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them
+without affectation, and when he had them not, he did not want them. No
+one could ever say of him that he was either a sophist or a [home-bred]
+flippant slave or a pedant; but every one acknowledged him to be a man
+ripe, perfect, above flattery, able to manage his own and other men's
+affairs. Besides this, he honored those who were true philosophers, and
+he did not reproach those who pretended to be philosophers, nor yet was
+he easily led by them. He was also easy in conversation, and he made
+himself agreeable without any offensive affectation. He took a reasonable
+care of his body's health, not as one who was greatly attached to life,
+nor out of regard to personal appearance, nor yet in a careless way, but
+so that through his own attention he very seldom stood in need of the
+physician's art or of medicine or external applications. He was most
+ready to give without envy to those who possessed any particular faculty,
+such as that of eloquence or knowledge of the law or of morals, or of
+anything else; and he gave them his help, that each might enjoy
+reputation according to his deserts; and he always acted conformably to
+the institutions of his country, without showing any affectation of doing
+so. Further, he was not fond of change nor unsteady, but he loved to stay
+in the same places, and to employ himself about the same things; and
+after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately fresh and vigorous to
+his usual occupations. His secrets were not many, but very few and very
+rare, and these only about public matters; and he showed prudence and
+economy in the exhibition of the public spectacles and the construction
+of public buildings, his donations to the people, and in such things, for
+he was a man who looked to what ought to be done, not to the reputation
+which is got by a man's acts. He did not take the bath at unseasonable
+hours; he was not fond of building houses, nor curious about what he ate,
+nor about the texture and color of his clothes, nor about the beauty of
+his slaves. [Footnote: 1] His dress came from Lorium, his villa on the
+coast, and from Lanuvium generally. [Footnote: 2] We know how he behaved
+to the toll-collector at Tusculum who asked his pardon; and such was all
+his behavior. There was in him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor
+violent, nor, as one may say, anything carried to the sweating point; but
+he examined all things severally, as if he had abundance of time, and
+without confusion, in an orderly way, vigorously and consistently. And
+that might be applied to him which is recorded of Socrates, that he was
+able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too
+weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong
+enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a
+man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed in the
+illness of Maximus.
+
+17. To the gods I am indebted for having good grandfathers, good parents,
+a good sister, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends,
+nearly everything good. Further, I owe it to the gods that I was not
+hurried into any offence against any of them, though I had a disposition
+which, if opportunity had offered, might have led me to do something of
+this kind; but, through their favor, there never was such a concurrence
+of circumstances as put me to the trial. Further, I am thankful to the
+gods that I was not longer brought up with my grandfather's concubine,
+and that I preserved the flower of my youth, and that I did not make
+proof of my virility before the proper season, but even deferred the
+time; that I was subjected to a ruler and a father who was able to take
+away all pride from me, and to bring me to the knowledge that it is
+possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or
+embroidered dresses, or torches and statues, and such-like show; but that
+it is in such a man's power to bring himself very near to the fashion of
+a private person, without being for this reason either meaner in thought,
+or more remiss in action, with respect to the things which must be done
+for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler. I thank the gods
+for giving me such a brother, who was able by his moral character to
+rouse me to vigilance over myself, and who at the same time pleased me by
+his respect and affection; that my children have not been stupid nor
+deformed in body; that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric,
+poetry, and the other studies, in which I should perhaps have been
+completely engaged, if I had seen that I was making progress in them;
+that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the station of
+honor, which they seemed to desire, without putting them off with hope of
+my doing it some other time after, because they were then still young;
+that I knew Apollonius, Rusticus, Maximus; that I received clear and
+frequent impressions about living according to nature, and what kind of a
+life that is, so that, so far as depended on the gods, and their gifts,
+and help, and inspirations, nothing hindered me from forthwith living
+according to nature, though I still fall short of it through my own
+fault, and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and, I may
+almost say, their direct instructions; that my body has held out so long
+in such a kind of life; that I never touched either Benedicta or
+Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into amatory passions, I was
+cured, and though I was often out of humor with Rusticus, I never did
+anything of which I had occasion to repent; that, though it was my
+mother's fate to die young, she spent the last years of her life with me;
+that, whenever I wished to help any man in his need, or on any other
+occasion, I was never told that I had not the means of doing it; and that
+to myself the same necessity never happened, to receive anything from
+another; that I have such a wife, so obedient, and so affectionate, and
+so simple; that I had abundance of good masters for my children; and that
+remedies have been shown to me by dreams, both others, and against
+bloodspitting and giddiness ...; and that, when I had an inclination to
+philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and that I did
+not waste my time on writers [of histories], or in the resolution of
+syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances in
+the heavens; for all these things require the help of the gods and
+fortune.
+
+Among the Quadi at the Granua. [Footnote: 3]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody,
+the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things
+happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But
+I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the
+bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is
+akin to me, not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it
+participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the
+divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on
+me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we
+are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the
+rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another, then, is
+contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and
+to turn away.
+
+2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the
+ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not
+allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood
+and bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See
+the breath also, what kind of a thing it is; air, and not always the
+same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third, then, is
+the ruling part, consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let this
+be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial
+movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or
+shrink from the future.
+
+3. All that is from the gods is full of providence. That which is from
+fortune is not separated from nature or without an interweaving and
+involution with the things which are ordered by providence. From thence
+all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for
+the advantage of the whole universe, of which thou art a part. But that
+is good for every part of nature which the nature of the whole brings,
+and what serves to maintain this nature. Now the universe is preserved,
+as by the changes of the elements so by the changes of things compounded
+of the elements. Let these principles be enough for thee; let them always
+be fixed opinions. But cast away the thirst after books, that thou mayest
+not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to
+the gods.
+
+4. Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how
+often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not
+use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art now a
+part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an
+efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost
+not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou
+wilt go, and it will never return.
+
+5. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast
+in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and
+freedom, and justice, and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts.
+And thou wilt give thyself relief if thou dost every act of thy life as
+if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate
+aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love,
+and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee. Thou seest
+how few the things are, the which if a man lays hold of, he is able to
+live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods;
+for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who
+observes these things.
+
+6. Do wrong to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my soul; but thou wilt no
+longer have the opportunity of honoring thyself. Every man's life is
+sufficient. But thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences not
+itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of others.
+
+7. Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give
+thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled
+around. But then thou must also avoid being carried about the other way;
+for those too are triflers who have wearied themselves in life by their
+activity, and yet have no object to which to direct every movement, and,
+in a word, all their thoughts.
+
+8. Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom
+been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of
+their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.
+
+9. This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole,
+and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of
+a part it is of what kind of a whole, and that there is no one who
+hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are according
+to the nature of which thou art a part.
+
+10. Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts--such a comparison as one
+would make in accordance with the common notions of mankind--says, like a
+true philosopher, that the offences which are committed through desire
+are more blamable than those which are committed through anger. For he
+who is excited by anger seems to turn away from reason with a certain
+pain and unconscious contraction; but he who offends through desire,
+being overpowered by pleasure, seems to be in a manner more intemperate
+and more womanish in his offences. Rightly, then, and in a way worthy of
+philosophy, he said that the offence which is committed with pleasure is
+more blamable than that which is committed with pain; and on the whole
+the one is more like a person who has been first wronged and through pain
+is compelled to be angry; but the other is moved by his own impulse to do
+wrong, being carried towards doing something by desire.
+
+11. Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very
+moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from
+among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the
+gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or
+if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in
+a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do
+exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means
+in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. And as to the
+rest, if there was anything evil, they would have provided for this also,
+that it should be altogether in a man's power not to fall into it. Now
+that which does not make a man worse, how can it make a man's life worse?
+But neither through ignorance, nor having the knowledge but not the power
+to guard against or correct these things, is it possible that the nature
+of the universe has overlooked them; nor is it possible that it has made
+so great a mistake, either through want of power or want of skill, that
+good and evil should happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But
+death certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure,--all
+these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make
+us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil.
+
+12. How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies
+themselves, but in time the remembrance of them. What is the nature of
+all sensible things, and particularly those which attract with the bait
+of pleasure or terrify by pain, or are noised abroad by vapory fame; how
+worthless, and contemptible, and sordid, and perishable, and dead they
+are,--all this it is the part of the intellectual faculty to observe. To
+observe too who these are whose opinions and voices give reputation; what
+death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the
+abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things
+which present themselves to the imagination in it, he will then consider
+it to be nothing else than an operation of nature; and if any one is
+afraid of an operation of nature, he is a child. This, however, is not
+only an operation of nature, but it is also a thing which conduces to the
+purposes of nature. To observe too how man comes near to the Deity, and
+by what part of him, and when this part of man is so disposed (VI. 28).
+
+13. Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses everything in a
+round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the poet says, and
+seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbors, without
+perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon within him, and
+to reverence it sincerely. And reverence of the daemon consists in
+keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction
+with what comes from gods and men. For the things from the gods merit
+veneration for their excellence; and the things from men should be dear
+to us by reason of kinship; and sometimes even, in a manner, they move
+our pity by reason of men's ignorance of good and bad; this defect being
+not less than that which deprives us of the power of distinguishing
+things that are white and black.
+
+14. Though thou shouldest be going to live three thousand years, and as
+many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any other
+life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he
+now loses. The longest and shortest are thus brought to the same. For the
+present is the same to all, though that which perishes is not the same;
+and so that which is lost appears to be a mere moment. For a man cannot
+lose either the past or the future: for what a man has not, how can any
+one take this from him? These two things then thou must bear in mind; the
+one, that all things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a
+circle, and that it makes no difference whether a man shall see the same
+things during a hundred years, or two hundred, or an infinite time; and
+the second, that the longest liver and he who will die soonest lose just
+the same. For the present is the only thing of which a man can be
+deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which he has, and
+that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it not.
+
+15. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus
+is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man
+receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.
+
+16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it
+becomes an abscess, and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as
+it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of
+ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other
+things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself
+when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the
+intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In
+the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered
+by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says
+anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its
+own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything
+thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that
+even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of
+rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient
+city and polity.
+
+17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux,
+and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to
+putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame
+a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which
+belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream
+and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after--fame
+is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing,
+and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within
+a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures,
+doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not
+feeling the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and
+besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming
+from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally,
+waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a
+dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded.
+But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually
+changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the
+change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to
+nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.
+
+This in Carnuntum.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+1. We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and
+a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into
+the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain
+whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the
+comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which
+strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he
+shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and
+imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will
+not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the
+measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and
+considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else
+of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,--all this is
+already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are
+daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the
+understanding of them cease first.
+
+2. We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the
+things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing
+and attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split at
+the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion
+contrary to the purpose of the baker's art, are beautiful in a manner,
+and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And again, figs, when
+they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe olives the very
+circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to
+the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion's eyebrows,
+and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other
+things,--though they are far from being beautiful if a man should examine
+them severally,--still, because they are consequent upon the things which
+are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they please the mind; so
+that if a man should have a feeling and deeper insight with respect to
+the things which are produced in the universe, there is hardly one of
+those which follow by way of consequence which will not seem to him to be
+in a manner disposed so as to give pleasure. And so he will see even the
+real gaping jaws of wild beasts with no less pleasure than those which
+painters and sculptors show by imitation; and in an old woman and an old
+man he will be able to see a certain maturity and comeliness; and the
+attractive loveliness of young persons he will be able to look on with
+chaste eyes; and many such things will present themselves, not pleasing
+to every man, but to him only who has become truly familiar with Nature
+and her works.
+
+3. Hippocrates, after curing many diseases, himself fell sick and died.
+The Chaldaei foretold the deaths of many, and then fate caught them too.
+Alexander and Pompeius and Caius Caesar, after so often completely
+destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten
+thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from
+life. Heraclitus, after so many speculations on the conflagration of the
+universe, was filled with water internally and died smeared all over with
+mud. And lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates. What
+means all this? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou art
+come to shore; get out. If indeed to another life, there is no want of
+gods, not even there; but if to a state without sensation, thou wilt
+cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the vessel,
+which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior: for the
+one is intelligence and deity; the other is earth and corruption.
+
+4. Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when
+thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For
+thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such
+thoughts as these,--What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he
+saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and
+whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of
+our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our
+thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of
+all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use
+himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly
+ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? with perfect openness thou
+mightest immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it
+should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and
+such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about
+pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy and
+suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst
+say that thou hadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such, and no
+longer delays being among the number of the best, is like a priest and
+minister of the gods, using too the [deity] which is planted within him,
+which makes the man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by any pain,
+untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the noblest
+fight, one who cannot be overpowered by any passion, dyed deep with
+justice, accepting with all his soul everything which happens and is
+assigned to him as his portion; and not often, nor yet without great
+necessity and for the general interest, imagining what another says, or
+does, or thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that he makes the
+matter for his activity; and he constantly thinks of that which is
+allotted to himself out of the sum total of things, and he makes his own
+acts fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. For the lot
+which is assigned to each man is carried along with him and carries him
+along with it. And he remembers also that every rational animal is his
+kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man's nature; and a
+man should hold on to the opinion not of all, but of those only who
+confessedly live according to nature. But as to those who live not so, he
+always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from
+home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men they
+live an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all the praise
+which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with
+themselves.
+
+5. Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor
+without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament
+set off thy thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy
+about too many things. And further, let the deity which is in thee be the
+guardian of a living being, manly and of ripe age, and engaged in matter
+political, and a Roman, and a ruler, who has taken his post like a man
+waiting for the signal which summons him from life, and ready to go,
+having need neither of oath nor of any man's testimony. Be cheerful also,
+and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give. A man
+then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
+
+6. If thou findest in human life anything better than justice, truth,
+temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, anything better than thy own
+mind's self-satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do
+according to right reason, and in the condition that is assigned to thee
+without thy own choice; if, I say, thou seest anything better than is,
+turn to it with all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou hast found to be
+the best. But if nothing appears to be better than the Deity which is
+planted in thee, which has subjected to itself all thy appetites, and
+carefully examines all the impressions, and, as Socrates said, has
+detached itself from the persuasions of sense, and has submitted itself
+to the gods, and cares for mankind; if thou findest everything else
+smaller and of less value than this, give place to nothing else, for if
+thou dost once diverge and incline to it, thou wilt no longer without
+distraction be able to give the preference to that good thing which is
+thy proper possession and thy own; for it is not right that anything of
+any other kind, such as praise from the many, or power, or enjoyment of
+pleasure, should come into competition with that which is rationally and
+politically [or practically] good. All these things, even though they may
+seem to adapt themselves [to the better things] in a small degree, obtain
+the superiority all at once, and carry us away. But do thou, I say,
+simply and freely choose the better, and hold to it.--But that which is
+useful is the better.--Well, then, if it is useful to thee as a rational
+being, keep to it; but if it is only useful to thee as an animal, say so,
+and maintain thy judgment without arrogance: only take care that thou
+makest the inquiry by a sure method.
+
+7. Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee
+to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to
+suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs
+walls and curtains: for he who has preferred to everything else his own
+intelligence and daemon and the worship of its excellence, acts no tragic
+part, does not groan, will not need either solitude or much company; and,
+what is chief of all, he will live without either pursuing or flying from
+[death]; but whether for a longer or a shorter time he shall have the
+soul enclosed in the body, he cares not at all: for even if he must
+depart immediately, he will go as readily as if he were going to do
+anything else which can be done with decency and order; taking care of
+this only all through life, that his thoughts turn not away from anything
+which belongs to an intelligent animal and a member of a civil community.
+
+8. In the mind of one who is chastened and purified thou wilt find no
+corrupt matter, nor impurity, nor any sore skinned over. Nor is his life
+incomplete when fate overtakes him, as one may say of an actor who leaves
+the stage before ending and finishing the play. Besides, there is in him
+nothing servile, nor affected, nor too closely bound [to other things],
+nor yet detached [from other things], nothing worthy of blame, nothing
+which seeks a hiding-place.
+
+9. Reverence the faculty which produces opinion. On this faculty it
+entirely depends whether there shall exist in thy ruling part any opinion
+inconsistent with nature and the constitution of the rational animal. And
+this faculty promises freedom from hasty judgment, and friendship towards
+men, and obedience to the gods.
+
+10. Throwing away then all things, hold to these only which are few; and
+besides, bear in mind that every man lives only this present time, which
+is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past
+or it is uncertain. Short then is the time which every man lives, and
+small the nook of the earth where he lives; and short too the longest
+posthumous fame, and even this only continued by a succession of poor
+human beings, who will very soon die, and who know not even themselves,
+much less him who died long ago.
+
+11. To the aids which have been mentioned let this one still be added:
+Make for thyself a definition or description of the thing which is
+presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a thing it is in
+its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and tell thyself
+its proper name, and the names of the things of which it has been
+compounded, and into which it will be resolved. For nothing is so
+productive of elevation of mind as to be able to examine methodically and
+truly every object which is presented to thee in life, and always to look
+at things so as to see at the same time what kind of universe this is,
+and what kind of use everything performs in it, and what value everything
+has with reference to the whole, and what with reference to man, who is a
+citizen of the highest city, of which all other cities are like families;
+what each thing is, and of what it is composed, and how long it is the
+nature of this thing to endure which now makes an impression on me, and
+what virtue I have need of with respect to it, such as gentleness,
+manliness, truth, fidelity, simplicity, contentment, and the rest.
+Wherefore, on every occasion a man should say: This comes from god; and
+this is according to the apportionment and spinning of the thread of
+destiny, and such-like coincidence and chance; and this is from one of
+the same stock, and a kinsman and partner, one who knows not, however,
+what is according to his nature. But I know; for this reason I behave
+towards him according to the natural law of fellowship with benevolence
+and justice. At the same time, however, in things indifferent I attempt
+to ascertain the value of each.
+
+12. If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason
+seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract
+thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to
+give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing,
+fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to
+nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou
+utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to
+prevent this.
+
+13. As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for
+cases which suddenly require their skill, so do thou have principles
+ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing
+everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond which
+unites the divine and human to one another. For neither wilt thou do
+anything well which pertains to man without at the same time having a
+reference to things divine; nor the contrary.
+
+14. No longer wander at hazard; for neither wilt thou read thy own
+memoirs, nor the acts of the ancient Romans and Hellenes, and the
+selections from books which thou wast reserving for thy old age. Hasten
+then to the end which thou hast before thee, and, throwing away idle
+hopes, come to thy own aid, if thou carest at all for thyself, while it
+is in thy power.
+
+15. They know not how many things are signified by the words stealing,
+sowing, buying, keeping quiet, seeing what ought to be done; for this is
+not effected by the eyes, but by another kind of vision.
+
+16. Body, soul, intelligence: to the body belong sensations, to the soul
+appetites, to the intelligence principles. To receive the impressions of
+forms by means of appearances belongs even to animals; to be pulled by
+the strings of desire belongs both to wild beasts and to men who have
+made themselves into women, and to a Phalaris and a Nero: and to have the
+intelligence that guides to the things which appear suitable belongs also
+to those who do not believe in the gods, and who betray their country,
+and do their impure deeds when they have shut the doors. If then
+everything else is common to all that I have mentioned, there remains
+that which is peculiar to the good man, to be pleased and content with
+what happens, and with the thread which is spun for him; and not to
+defile the divinity which is planted in his breast, nor disturb it by a
+crowd of images, but to preserve it tranquil, following it obediently as
+a god, neither saying anything contrary to the truth, nor doing anything
+contrary to justice. And if all men refuse to believe that he lives a
+simple, modest, and contented life, he is neither angry with any of them,
+nor does he deviate from the way which leads to the end of life, to which
+a man ought to come pure, tranquil, ready to depart, and without any
+compulsion perfectly reconciled to his lot.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+1. That which rules within, when it is according to nature, is so
+affected with respect to the events which happen, that it always easily
+adapts itself to that which is possible and is presented to it. For it
+requires no definite material, but it moves towards its purpose, under
+certain conditions, however; and it makes a material for itself out of
+that which opposes it, as fire lays hold of what falls into it, by which
+a small light would have been extinguished: but when the fire is strong,
+it soon appropriates to itself the matter which is heaped on it, and
+consumes it, and rises higher by means of this very material.
+
+2. Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to
+the perfect principles of art.
+
+3. Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores,
+and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But
+this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in
+thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere
+either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire
+than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts
+that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquillity; and
+I affirm that tranquillity is nothing else than the good ordering of the
+mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself;
+and let thy principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou
+shalt recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely,
+and to send thee back free from all discontent with the things to which
+thou returnest. For with what art thou discontented? With the badness of
+men? Recall to thy mind this conclusion, that rational animals exist for
+one another, and that to endure is a part of justice, and that men do
+wrong involuntarily; and consider how many already, after mutual enmity,
+suspicion, hatred, and fighting, have been stretched dead, reduced to
+ashes; and be quiet at last.--But perhaps thou art dissatisfied with that
+which is assigned to thee out of the universe.--Recall to thy
+recollection this alternative; either there is providence or atoms
+[fortuitous concurrence of things]; or remember the arguments by which it
+has been proved that the world is a kind of political community [and be
+quiet at last].--But perhaps corporeal things will still fasten upon
+thee.--Consider then further that the mind mingles not with the breath,
+whether moving gently or violently, when it has once drawn itself apart
+and discovered its own power, and think also of all that thou hast heard
+and assented to about pain and pleasure [and be quiet at last].--But
+perhaps the desire of the thing called fame will torment thee.
+--See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos
+of infinite time on each side of [the present], and the emptiness of
+applause, and the changeableness and want of judgment in those who
+pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of the space within which it
+is circumscribed [and be quiet at last]. For the whole earth is a point,
+and how small a nook in it is this thy dwelling, and how few are there in
+it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee.
+
+This then remains: Remember to retire into this little territory of thy
+own, and above all do not distract or strain thyself, but be free, and
+look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal. But
+among the things readiest to thy hand to which thou shalt turn, let there
+be these, which are two. One is that things do not touch the soul, for
+they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only
+from the opinion which is within. The other is that all these things
+which thou seest, change immediately and will no longer be; and
+constantly bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast already
+witnessed. The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
+
+4. If our intellectual part is common, the reason also, in respect of
+which we are rational beings, is common: if this is so, common also is
+the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do; if this is
+so, there is a common law also; if this is so, we are fellow-citizens; if
+this is so, we are members of some political community; if this is so,
+the world is in a manner a state. For of what other common political
+community will any one say that the whole human race are members? And
+from thence, from this common political community comes also our very
+intellectual faculty and reasoning faculty and our capacity for law; or
+whence do they come? For as my earthly part is a portion given to me from
+certain earth, and that which is watery from another element, and that
+which is hot and fiery from some peculiar source (for nothing comes out
+of that which is nothing, as nothing also returns to non-existence), so
+also the intellectual part comes from some source.
+
+5. Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature; composition out
+of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same; and altogether
+not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to
+[the nature of] a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of
+our constitution.
+
+6. It is natural that these things should be done by such persons, it is
+a matter of necessity; and if a man will not have it so, he will not
+allow the fig-tree to have juice. But by all means bear this in mind,
+that within a very short time both thou and he will be dead; and soon not
+even your names will be left behind.
+
+7. Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, "I
+have been harmed." Take away the complaint, "I have been harmed," and the
+harm is taken away.
+
+8. That which does not make a man worse than he was, also does not make
+his life worse, nor does it harm him either from without or from within.
+
+9. The nature of that which is [universally] useful has been compelled to
+do this.
+
+10. Consider that everything which happens, happens justly, and if thou
+observest carefully, thou wilt find it to be so. I do not say only with
+respect to the continuity of the series of things, but with respect to
+what is just, and as if it were done by one who assigns to each thing its
+value. Observe then as thou hast begun; and whatever thou dost, do it in
+conjunction with this, the being good, and in the sense in which a man is
+properly understood to be good. Keep to this in every action.
+
+11. Do not have such an opinion of things as he has who does thee wrong,
+or such as he wishes thee to have, but look at them as they are in truth.
+
+12. A man should always have these two rules in readiness; the one to do
+only whatever the reason of the ruling and legislating faculty may
+suggest for the use of men; the other, to change thy opinion, if there is
+any one at hand who sets thee right and moves thee from any opinion. But
+this change of opinion must proceed only from a certain persuasion, as of
+what is just or of common advantage, and the like, not because it appears
+pleasant or brings reputation.
+
+13. Hast thou reason? I have.--Why then dost not thou use it? For if this
+does its own work, what else dost thou wish?
+
+14. Thou hast existed as a part. Thou shalt disappear in that which
+produced thee; but rather thou shalt be received back into its seminal
+principle by transmutation.
+
+15. Many grains of frankincense on the same altar: one falls before,
+another falls after; but it makes no difference.
+
+16. Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a
+beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship
+of reason.
+
+17. Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death
+hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
+
+18. How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor
+says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself, that it may be
+just and pure; or, as Agathon says, look not round at the depraved morals
+of others, but run straight along the line without deviating from it.
+
+19. He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider
+that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon;
+then again also they who have succeeded them, until the whole remembrance
+shall have been extinguished as it is transmitted through men who
+foolishly admire and perish. But suppose that those who will remember are
+even immortal, and that the remembrance will be immortal, what then is
+this to thee? And I say not what is it to the dead, but what is it to the
+living. What is praise, except indeed so far as it has a certain utility?
+For thou now rejectest unseasonably the gift of nature, clinging to
+something else....
+
+20. Everything which is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself, and
+terminates in itself, not having praise as part of itself. Neither worse
+then nor better is a thing made by being praised. I affirm this also of
+the things which are called beautiful by the vulgar, for example,
+material things and works of art. That which is really beautiful has no
+need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than
+benevolence or modesty. Which of these things is beautiful because it is
+praised, or spoiled by being blamed? Is such a thing as an emerald made
+worse than it was, if it is not praised? or gold, ivory, purple, a lyre,
+a little knife, a flower, a shrub?
+
+21. If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from
+eternity?--But how does the earth contain the bodies of those who have
+been buried from time so remote? For as here the mutation of these bodies
+after a certain continuance, whatever it may be, and their dissolution
+make room for other dead bodies, so the souls which are removed into the
+air after subsisting for some time are transmuted and diffused, and
+assume a fiery nature by being received into the seminal intelligence of
+the universe, and in this way make room for the fresh souls which come to
+dwell there. And this is the answer which a man might give on the
+hypothesis of souls continuing to exist. But we must not only think of
+the number of bodies which are thus buried, but also of the number of
+animals which are daily eaten by us and the other animals. For what a
+number is consumed, and thus in a manner buried in the bodies of those
+who feed on them! And nevertheless this earth receives them by reason of
+the changes [of these bodies] into blood, and the transformations into
+the aerial or the fiery element.
+
+What is the investigation into the truth in this matter? The division
+into that which is material and that which is the cause of form [the
+formal].
+
+22. Do not be whirled about, but in every movement have respect to
+justice, and on the occasion of every impression maintain the faculty of
+comprehension [or understanding].
+
+23. Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O
+Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time
+for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature:
+from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things
+return. The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; and wilt not thou say, Dear
+city of Zeus?
+
+24. Occupy thyself with few things, says the philosopher, if thou wouldst
+be tranquil.--But consider if it would not be better to say, Do what is
+necessary, and whatever the reason of the animal which is naturally
+social requires, and as it requires. For this brings not only the
+tranquillity which comes from doing well, but also that which comes from
+doing few things. For the greatest part of what we say and do being
+unnecessary, if a man takes this away, he will have more leisure and less
+uneasiness. Accordingly, on every occasion a man should ask himself, Is
+this one of the unnecessary things? Now a man should take away not only
+unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for thus superfluous
+acts will not follow after.
+
+25. Try how the life of the good man suits thee, the life of him who is
+satisfied with his portion out of the whole, and satisfied with his own
+just acts and benevolent disposition.
+
+26. Hast thou seen those things? Look also at these. Do not disturb
+thyself. Make thyself all simplicity. Does any one do wrong? It is to
+himself that he does the wrong. Has anything happened to thee? Well: out
+of the universe from the beginning everything which happens has been
+apportioned and spun out to thee. In a word, thy life is short. Thou must
+turn to profit the present by the aid of reason and justice. Be sober in
+thy relaxation.
+
+27. Either it is a well-arranged universe [Footnote: 4] or a chaos
+huddled together, but still a universe. But can a certain order subsist
+in thee, and disorder in the All? And this too when all things are so
+separated and diffused and sympathetic.
+
+28. A black character, a womanish character, a stubborn character,
+bestial, childish, animal, stupid, counterfeit, scurrilous, fraudulent,
+tyrannical.
+
+29. If he is a stranger to the universe who does not know what is in it,
+no less is he a stranger who does not know what is going on in it. He is
+a runaway, who flies from social reason; he is blind, who shuts the eyes
+of the understanding; he is poor, who has need of another, and has not
+from himself all things which are useful for life. He is an abscess on
+the universe who withdraws and separates himself from the reason of our
+common nature through being displeased with the things which happen, for
+the same nature produces this, and has produced thee too: he is a piece
+rent asunder from the state, who tears his own soul from that of
+reasonable animals, which is one.
+
+30. The one is a philosopher without a tunic, and the other without a
+book: here is another half naked: Bread I have not, he says, and I abide
+by reason--and I do not get the means of living out of my learning, and I
+abide [by my reason].
+
+31. Love the art, poor as it may be, which thou hast learned, and be
+content with it; and pass through the rest of life like one who has
+intrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making thyself
+neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man.
+
+32. Consider for example, the times of Vespasian. Thou wilt see all these
+things, people marrying, bringing up children, sick, dying, warring,
+feasting, trafficking, cultivating the ground, flattering, obstinately
+arrogant, suspecting, plotting, wishing for some to die, grumbling about
+the present, loving, heaping up treasure, desiring consulship, kingly
+power. Well, then, that life of these people no longer exists at all.
+Again, remove to the times of Trajan. Again, all is the same. Their life
+too is gone. In like manner view also the other epochs of time and of
+whole nations, and see how many after great efforts soon fell and were
+resolved into the elements. But chiefly thou shouldst think of those whom
+thou hast thyself known distracting themselves about idle things,
+neglecting to do what was in accordance with their proper constitution,
+and to hold firmly to this and to be content with it. And herein it is
+necessary to remember that the attention given to everything has its
+proper value and proportion. For thus thou wilt not be dissatisfied, if
+thou appliest thyself to smaller matters no further than is fit.
+
+33. The words which were formerly familiar are now antiquated: so also
+the names of those who were famed of old, are now in a manner antiquated,
+Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Leonnatus, and a little after also Scipio and
+Cato, then Augustus, then also Hadrianus and Antoninus. For all things
+soon pass away and become a mere tale, and complete oblivion soon buries
+them. And I say this of those who have shone in a wondrous way. For the
+rest, as soon as they have breathed out their breath, they are gone, and
+no man speaks of them. And, to conclude the matter, what is even an
+eternal remembrance? A mere nothing. What then is that about which we
+ought to employ our serious pains? This one thing, thoughts just, and
+acts social, and words which never lie, and a disposition which gladly
+accepts all that happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a
+principle and source of the same kind.
+
+34. Willingly give thyself up to Clotho [one of the fates], allowing her
+to spin thy thread into whatever thing she pleases.
+
+35. Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that
+which is remembered.
+
+36. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom
+thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much
+as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For
+everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But
+thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a
+womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.
+
+37. Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, nor free from
+perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things,
+nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in
+acting justly.
+
+38. Examine men's ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of
+things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.
+
+39. What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of
+another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering.
+Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power
+of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form [such]
+opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor
+body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let
+the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let
+it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to
+the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives
+contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither
+according to nature nor contrary to nature.
+
+40. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one
+substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one
+perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things
+act with one movement; and how all things are the co-operating causes of
+all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread
+and the contexture of the web.
+
+41. Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to
+say (I. C. 19).
+
+42. It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to
+subsist in consequence of change.
+
+43. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a
+violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away,
+and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.
+
+44. Everything which happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in
+spring and the fruit in summer; for such is disease, and death, and
+calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.
+
+45. In the series of things, those which follow are always aptly fitted
+to those which have gone before: for this series is not like a mere
+enumeration of disjointed things, which has only a necessary sequence,
+but it is a rational connection: and as all existing things are arranged
+together harmoniously, so the things which come into existence exhibit no
+mere succession, but a certain wonderful relationship (VI. 38; VII. 9;
+VII. 75, note).
+
+46. Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is
+to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death
+of air is to become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who forgets
+whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are
+most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and
+the things which they daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider
+that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in
+sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who
+learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.
+
+47. If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-morrow, or certainly on
+the day after to-morrow, thou wouldst not care much whether it was on the
+third day or on the morrow, unless thou wast in the highest degree mean-
+spirited; for how small is the difference. So think it no great thing to
+die after as many years as thou canst name rather than to-morrow.
+
+48. Think continually how many physicians are dead after often
+contracting their eyebrows over the sick; and how many astrologers after
+predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many
+philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many
+heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their
+power over men's lives with terrible insolence, as if they were immortal;
+and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii
+and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom
+thou hast known, one after another. One man after burying another has
+been laid out dead, and another buries him; and all this in a short time.
+To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are,
+and what was yesterday a little mucus, to-morrow will be a mummy or
+ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature,
+and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is
+ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it
+grew.
+
+49. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but
+it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
+
+Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I,
+though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain,
+neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing
+as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have
+continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a
+misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that
+a man's misfortune which is not a deviation from man's nature? And does a
+thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man's nature, when it is not
+contrary to the will of man's nature? Well, thou knowest the will of
+nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just,
+magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions
+and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and
+everything else, by the presence of which man's nature obtains all that
+is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation
+to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear
+it nobly is good fortune.
+
+50. It is a vulgar, but still a useful help towards contempt of death, to
+pass in review those who have tenaciously stuck to life. What more then
+have they gained than those who have died early? Certainly they lie in
+their tombs somewhere at last, Cadicianus, Fabius, Julianus, Lepidus, or
+any one else like them, who have carried out many to be buried, and then
+were carried out themselves. Altogether the interval is small [between
+birth and death]; and consider with how much trouble, and in company with
+what sort of people, and in what a feeble body this interval is
+laboriously passed. Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For
+look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is
+before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the
+difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three
+generations?
+
+51. Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural:
+accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason.
+For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all
+artifice and ostentatious display.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V.
+
+
+1. In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be
+present,--I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I
+dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for
+which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie
+in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?--But this is more pleasant.--
+Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or
+exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the
+ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their
+several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a
+human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according
+to thy nature?--But it is necessary to take rest also.--It is necessary.
+However, Nature has fixed bounds to this too: she has fixed bounds to
+eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what
+is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of
+what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou
+wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several
+arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but
+thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art,
+or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or
+the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a
+violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep rather
+than to perfect the things which they care for. But are the acts which
+concern society more vile in thy eyes and less worthy of thy labor?
+
+2. How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is
+troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity.
+
+3. Judge every word and deed which are according to nature to be fit for
+thee; and be not diverted by the blame which follows from any people nor
+by their words, but if a thing is good to be done or said, do not
+consider it unworthy of thee. For those persons have their peculiar
+leading principle and follow their peculiar movement; which things do not
+thou regard, but go straight on, following thy own nature and the common
+nature; and the way of both is one.
+
+4. I go through the things which happen according to nature until I shall
+fall and rest, breathing out my breath into that element out of which I
+daily draw it in, and falling upon that earth out of which my father
+collected the seed, and my mother the blood, and my nurse the milk; out
+of which during so many years I have been supplied with food and drink;
+which bears me when I tread on it and abuse it for so many purposes.
+
+5. Thou sayest, Men cannot admire the sharpness of thy wits.--Be it so:
+but there are many other things of which thou canst not say, I am not
+formed for them by nature. Show those qualities then which are altogether
+in thy power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, aversion to
+pleasure, contentment with thy portion and with few things, benevolence,
+frankness, no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, magnanimity.
+Dost thou not see how many qualities thou art immediately able to
+exhibit, in which there is no excuse of natural incapacity and unfitness,
+and yet thou still remainest voluntarily below the mark? or art thou
+compelled through being defectively furnished by nature to murmur, and to
+be stingy, and to flatter, and to find fault with thy poor body, and to
+try to please men, and to make great display, and to be so restless in
+thy mind? No, by the gods; but thou mightest have been delivered from
+these things long ago. Only if in truth thou canst be charged with being
+rather slow and dull of comprehension, thou must exert thyself about this
+also, not neglecting it nor yet taking pleasure in thy dulness.
+
+6. One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it
+down to his account as a favor conferred. Another is not ready to do
+this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and
+he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he
+has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for
+nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a horse when
+he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made
+the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for
+others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on
+to produce again the grapes in season.--Must a man then be one of these,
+who in a manner act thus without observing it?--Yes.--But this very thing
+is necessary, the observation of what a man is doing: for, it may be
+said, it is characteristic of the social animal to perceive that he is
+working in a social manner, and indeed to wish that his social partner
+also should perceive it.--It is true what thou sayest, but thou dost not
+rightly understand what is now said: and for this reason thou wilt become
+one of those of whom I spoke before, for even they are misled by a
+certain show of reason. But if thou wilt choose to understand the meaning
+of what is said, do not fear that for this reason thou wilt omit any
+social act.
+
+7. A prayer of the Athenians: Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, down on the
+ploughed fields of the Athenians and on the plains.--In truth we ought
+not to pray at all, or we ought to pray in this simple and noble fashion.
+
+8. Just as we must understand when it is said, That Aesculapius
+prescribed to this man horse-exercise, or bathing in cold water, or going
+without shoes, so we must understand it when it is said, That the nature
+of the universe prescribed to this man disease, or mutilation, or loss,
+or anything else of the kind. For in the first case Prescribed means
+something like this: he prescribed this for this man as a thing adapted
+to procure health; and in the second case it means, That which happens to
+[or suits] every man is fixed in a manner for him suitably to his
+destiny. For this is what we mean when we say that things are suitable to
+us, as the workmen say of squared stones in walls or the pyramids, that
+they are suitable, when they fit them to one another in some kind of
+connection. For there is altogether one fitness [harmony]. And as the
+universe is made up out of all bodies to be such a body as it is, so out
+of all existing causes necessity [destiny] is made up to be such a cause
+as it is. And even those who are completely ignorant understand what I
+mean; for they say, It [necessity, destiny] brought this to such a
+person.--This then was brought and this was prescribed to him. Let us
+then receive these things, as well as those which Aesculapius prescribes.
+Many as a matter of course even among his prescriptions are disagreeable,
+but we, accept them in the hope of health. Let the perfecting and
+accomplishment of the things which the common nature judges to be good,
+be judged by thee to be of the same kind as thy health. And so accept
+everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads
+to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity
+of Zeus [the universe]. For he would not have brought on any man what he
+has brought, if it were not useful for the whole. Neither does the nature
+of anything, whatever it may be, cause anything which is not suitable to
+that which is directed by it. For two reasons then it is right to be
+content with that which happens to thee, the one, because it was done for
+thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee,
+originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the
+other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the
+power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection,
+nay even of its very continuance. For the integrity of the whole is
+mutilated, if thou cuttest off anything whatever from the conjunction and
+the continuity either of the parts or of the causes. And thou dost cut
+off, as far as it is in thy power, when thou art dissatisfied, and in a
+manner triest to put anything out of the way.
+
+9. Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if thou dost not
+succeed in doing everything according to right principles, but when thou
+hast failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of
+what thou dost is consistent with man's nature, and love this to which
+thou returnest; and do not return to philosophy as if she were a master,
+but act like those who have sore eyes and apply a bit of sponge and egg,
+or as another applies a plaster, or drenching with water. For thus thou
+wilt not fail to obey reason, and thou wilt repose in it. And remember
+that philosophy requires only the things which thy nature requires; but
+thou wouldst have something else which is not according to nature.--It
+may be objected, Why, what is more agreeable than this [which I am
+doing]?--But is not this the very reason why pleasure deceives us? And
+consider if magnanimity, freedom, simplicity, equanimity, piety, are not
+more agreeable. For what is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when thou
+thinkest of the security and the happy course of all things which depend
+on the faculty of understanding and knowledge?
+
+10. Things are in such a kind of envelopment that they have seemed to
+philosophers, not a few nor those common philosophers, altogether
+unintelligible; nay even to the Stoics themselves they seem difficult to
+understand. And all our assent is changeable; for where is the man who
+never changes? Carry thy thoughts then to the objects themselves, and
+consider how short-lived they are and worthless, and that they may be in
+the possession of a filthy wretch or a robber. Then turn to the morals of
+those who live with thee, and it is hardly possible to endure even the
+most agreeable of them, to say nothing of a man being hardly able to
+endure himself. In such darkness then and dirt, and in so constant a flux
+both of substance and of time, and of motion and of things moved, what
+there is worth being highly prized, or even an object of serious pursuit,
+I cannot imagine. But on the contrary it is a man's duty to comfort
+himself, and to wait for the natural dissolution, and not to be vexed at
+the delay, but to rest in these principles only: the one, that nothing
+will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe;
+and the other, that it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and
+daemon: for there is no man who will compel me to this.
+
+11. About what am I now employing my own soul? On every occasion I must
+ask myself this question, and inquire, What have I now in this part of me
+which they call the ruling principle? and whose soul have I now,--that of
+a child, or of a young man, or of a feeble woman, or of a tyrant, or of a
+domestic animal, or of a wild beast?
+
+12. What kind of things those are which appear good to the many, we may
+learn even from this. For if any man should conceive certain things as
+being really good, such as prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, he
+would not after having first conceived these endure to listen to anything
+which should not be in harmony with what is really good. But if a man has
+first conceived as good the things which appear to the many to be good,
+he will listen and readily receive as very applicable that which was said
+by the comic writer. Thus even the many perceive the difference. For were
+it not so, this saying would not offend and would not be rejected [in the
+first case], while we receive it when it is said of wealth, and of the
+means which further luxury and fame, as said fitly and wittily. Go on
+then and ask if we should value and think those things to be good, to
+which after their first conception in the mind the words of the comic
+writer might be aptly applied,--that he who has them, through pure
+abundance has not a place to ease himself in.
+
+13. I am composed of the formal and the material; and neither of them
+will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence
+out of non-existence. Every part of me then will be reduced by change
+into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another
+part of the universe, and so on forever. And by consequence of such a
+change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever in the
+other direction. For nothing hinders us from saying so, even if the
+universe is administered according to definite periods [of revolution].
+
+14. Reason and the reasoning art [philosophy] are powers which are
+sufficient for themselves and for their own works. They move then from a
+first principle which is their own, and they make their way to the end
+which is proposed to them; and this is the reason why such acts are named
+Catorthoseis or right acts, which word signifies that they proceed by the
+right road.
+
+15. None of these things ought to be called a man's which do not belong
+to a man, as man. They are not required of a man, nor does man's nature
+promise them, nor are they the means of man's nature attaining its end.
+Neither then does the end of man lie in these things, nor yet that which
+aids to the accomplishment of this end, and that which aids towards this
+end is that which is good. Besides, if any of these things did belong to
+man, it would not be right for a man to despise them and to set himself
+against them; nor would a man be worthy of praise who showed that he did
+not want these things, nor would he who stinted himself in any of them be
+good, if indeed these things were good. But now the more of these things
+a man deprives himself of, or of other things like them, or even when he
+is deprived of any of them, the more patiently he endures the loss, just
+in the same degree he is a better man.
+
+16. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of
+thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a
+continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a
+man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace;
+well then, he can also live well in a palace. And again, consider that
+for whatever purpose each thing has been constituted, for this it has
+been constituted, and towards this it is carried; and its end is in that
+towards which it is carried; and where the end is, there also is the
+advantage and the good of each thing. Now the good for the reasonable
+animal is society; for that we are made for society has been shown above.
+Is it not plain that the inferior exists for the sake of the superior?
+But the things which have life are superior to those which have not life,
+and of those which have life the superior are those which have reason.
+
+17. To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the
+bad should not do something of this kind.
+
+18. Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
+The same things happen to another, and either because he does not see
+that they have happened, or because he would show a great spirit, he is
+firm and remains unharmed. It is a shame then that ignorance and conceit
+should be stronger than wisdom.
+
+19. Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor
+have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but
+the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgments it may
+think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present
+themselves to it.
+
+20. In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, so far as I must do
+good to men and endure them. But so far as some men make themselves
+obstacles to my proper acts, man becomes to me one of the things which
+are indifferent, no less than the sun or wind or a wild beast. Now it is
+true that these may impede my action, but they are no impediments to my
+effects and disposition, which have the power of acting conditionally and
+changing: for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its
+activity into an aid; and so that which is a hindrance is made a
+furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us
+on this road.
+
+21. Reverence that which is best in the universe; and this is that which
+makes use of all things and directs all things. And in like manner also
+reverence that which is best in thyself; and this is of the same kind as
+that. For in thyself also, that which makes use of everything else is
+this, and thy life is directed by this.
+
+22. That which does no harm to the state, does no harm to the citizen. In
+the case of every appearance of harm apply this rule: if the state is not
+harmed by this, neither am I harmed. But if the state is harmed, thou
+must not be angry with him who does harm to the state. Show him where his
+error is.
+
+23. Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear,
+both the things which are and the things which are produced. For
+substance is like a river in a continual flow, and the activities of
+things are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite varieties;
+and there is hardly anything which stands still. And consider this which
+is near to thee, this boundless abyss of the past and of the future in
+which all things disappear. How then is he not a fool who is puffed up
+with such things or plagued about them and makes himself miserable? for
+they vex him only for a time, and a short time.
+
+24. Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small
+portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval
+has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how
+small a part of it thou art.
+
+25. Does another do me wrong? Let him look to it. He has his own
+disposition, his own activity. I now have what the universal nature wills
+me to have; and I do what my nature now wills me to do.
+
+26. Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by
+the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it
+not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those
+affects to their parts. But when these affects rise up to the mind by
+virtue of that other sympathy that naturally exists in a body which is
+all one, then thou must not strive to resist the sensation, for it is
+natural: but let not the ruling part of itself add to the sensation the
+opinion that it is either good or bad.
+
+27. Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly
+shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned
+to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus hath
+given to every man for his guardian and guide, a portion of himself. And
+this is every man's understanding and reason.
+
+28. Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? art thou angry with him
+whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do thee? He has such a
+mouth, he has such armpits: it is necessary that such an emanation must
+come from such things; but the man has reason, it will be said, and he is
+able, if he takes pains, to discover wherein he offends; I wish thee well
+of thy discovery. Well then, and thou hast reason: by thy rational
+faculty stir up his rational faculty; show him his error, admonish him.
+For if he listens, thou wilt cure him, and there is no need of anger.
+
+29. As thou intendest to live when thou art gone out, ... so it is in thy
+power to live here. But if men do not permit thee, then get away out of
+life, yet so as if them wert suffering no harm. The house is smoky, and I
+quit it. Why dost thou think that this is any trouble? But so long as
+nothing of the kind drives me out, I remain, am free, and no man shall
+hinder me from doing what I choose; and I choose to do what is according
+to the nature of the rational and social animal.
+
+30. The intelligence of the universe is social. Accordingly it has made
+the inferior things for the sake of the superior, and it has fitted the
+superior to one another. Thou seest how it has subordinated, co-ordinated,
+and assigned to everything its proper portion, and has brought
+together into concord with one another the things which are the best.
+
+31. How hast thou behaved hitherto to the gods, thy parents, brethren,
+children, teachers, to those who looked after thy infancy, to thy
+friends, kinsfolk, to thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved
+to all in such a way that this may be said of thee,--
+
+  "Never has wronged a man in deed or word."
+
+And call to recollection both how many things thou hast passed through,
+and how many things thou hast been able to endure and that the history of
+thy life is now complete and thy service is ended; and how many beautiful
+things thou hast seen; and how many pleasures and pains thou hast
+despised; and how many things called honorable thou hast spurned; and to
+how many ill-minded folks thou hast shown a kind disposition.
+
+32. Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and
+knowledge? What soul then has skill and knowledge? That which knows
+beginning and end, and knows the reason which pervades all substance, and
+through all time by fixed periods [revolutions] administers the universe.
+
+33. Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name
+or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things which are
+much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and [like] little
+dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling, laughing, and
+then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth
+are fled
+
+  Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth.
+          HESIOD, _Works, etc_. V. 197.
+
+What then is there which still detains thee here, if the objects of sense
+are easily changed and never stand still, and the organs of perception
+are dull and easily receive false impressions, and the poor soul itself
+is an exhalation from blood? But to have good repute amid such a world as
+this is an empty thing. Why then dost thou not wait in tranquillity for
+thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another state? And until
+that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the
+gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to practice tolerance and
+self-restraint; but as to everything which is beyond the limits of the
+poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is neither thine nor in thy
+power.
+
+34. Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow of happiness, if thou
+canst go by the right way, and think and act in the right way. These two
+things are common both to the soul of God and to the soul of man, and to
+the soul of every rational being: not to be hindered by another; and to
+hold good to consist in the disposition to justice and the practice of
+it, and in this to let thy desire find its termination.
+
+35. If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness,
+and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it, and what
+is the harm to the common weal?
+
+36. Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of things,
+but give help [to all] according to thy ability and their fitness; and if
+they should have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent, do not
+imagine this to be a damage; for it is a bad habit. But as the old man,
+when he went away, asked back his foster-child's top, remembering that it
+was a top, so do thou in this case also.
+
+When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man, what
+these things are?--Yes; but they are objects of great concern to these
+people--wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things? I was once a
+fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.--But fortunate means that a
+man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good
+disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VI.
+
+
+1. The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the
+reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has
+no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it.
+But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.
+
+2. Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold or warm, if
+thou art doing thy duty; and whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with
+sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying or doing
+something else. For it is one of the acts of life, this act by which we
+die: it is sufficient then in this act also to do well what we have in
+hand (vi. 22, 28).
+
+3. Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its
+value escape thee.
+
+4. All existing things soon change, and they will either be reduced to
+vapor, if indeed all substance is one, or they will be dispersed.
+
+5. The reason which governs knows what its own disposition is, and what
+it does, and on what material it works.
+
+6. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-
+doer].
+
+7. Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social
+act to another social act, thinking of God.
+
+8. The ruling principle is that which rouses and turns itself, and while
+it makes itself such as it is and such as it wills to be, it also makes
+everything which happens appear to itself to be such as it wills.
+
+9. In conformity to the nature of the universe every single thing is
+accomplished; for certainly it is not in conformity to any other nature
+that each thing is accomplished, either a nature which externally
+comprehends this, or a nature which is comprehended within this nature,
+or a nature external and independent of this (XL 1; VI. 40; VIII. 50).
+
+10. The universe is either a confusion, and a mutual involution of
+things, and a dispersion, or it is unity and order and providence. If
+then it is the former, why do I desire to tarry in a fortuitous
+combination of things and such a disorder? and why do I care about
+anything else than how I shall at last become earth? and why am I
+disturbed, for the dispersion of my elements will happen whatever I do?
+But if the other supposition is true, I venerate, and I am firm, and I
+trust in him who governs (IV. 27).
+
+11. When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a
+manner, quickly return to thyself, and do not continue out of tune longer
+than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the
+harmony by continually recurring to it.
+
+12. If thou hadst a step-mother and a mother at the same time, thou
+wouldst be dutiful to thy step-mother, but still thou wouldst constantly
+return to thy mother. Let the court and philosophy now be to thee
+stepmother and mother: return to philosophy frequently and repose in
+her, through whom what thou meetest with in the court appears to thee
+tolerable, and thou appearest tolerable in the court.
+
+13. When we have meat before us and such eatables, we receive the
+impression that this is the dead body of a fish, and this is the dead
+body of a bird or of a pig; and again, that this Falernian is only a
+little grape-juice, and this purple robe some sheep's wool dyed with the
+blood of a shell-fish: such then are these impressions, and they reach
+the things themselves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind of
+things they are. Just in the same way ought we to act all through life,
+and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approbation,
+we ought to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them
+of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show is a
+wonderful perverter of the reason, and when thou art most sure that thou
+art employed about things worth thy pains, it is then that it cheats thee
+most. Consider then what Crates says of Xenocrates himself.
+
+14. Most of the things which the multitude admire are referred to objects
+of the most general kind, those which are held together by cohesion or
+natural organization, such as stones, wood, fig-trees, vines, olives. But
+those which are admired by men, who are a little more reasonable, are
+referred to the things which are held together by a living principle, as
+flocks, herds. Those which are admired by men who are still more
+instructed are the things which are held together by a rational soul, not
+however a universal soul, but rational so far as it is a soul skilled in
+some art, or expert in some other way, or simply rational so far as it
+possesses a number of slaves. But he who values a rational soul, a soul
+universal and fitted for political life, regards nothing else except
+this; and above all things he keeps his soul in a condition and in an
+activity comformable to reason and social life, and he co-operates to
+this end with those who are of the same kind as himself.
+
+15. Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out
+of it; and of that which is coming into existence part is already
+extinguished. Motions and changes are continually renewing the world,
+just as the uninterrupted course of time is always renewing the infinite
+duration of ages. In this flowing stream then, on which there is no
+abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would
+set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with
+one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight.
+Something of this kind is the very life of every man, like the exhalation
+of the blood and the respiration of the air. For such as it is to have
+once drawn in the air and to have given it back, which we do every
+moment, just the same is it with the whole respiratory power, which thou
+didst receive at thy birth yesterday and the day before, to give it back
+to the element from which thou didst first draw it.
+
+16. Neither is transpiration, as in plants, a thing to be valued, nor
+respiration, as in domesticated animals and wild beasts, nor the
+receiving of impressions by the appearances of things, nor being moved by
+desires as puppets by strings, nor assembling in herds, nor being
+nourished by food; for this is just like the act of separating and
+parting with the useless part of our food. What then is worth being
+valued? To be received with clapping of hands? No. Neither must we value
+the clapping of tongues; for the praise which comes from the many is a
+clapping of tongues. Suppose then that thou hast given up this worthless
+thing called fame, what remains that is worth valuing? This, in my
+opinion: to move thyself and to restrain thyself in conformity to thy
+proper constitution, to which end both all employments and arts lead. For
+every art aims at this, that the thing which has been made should be
+adapted to the work for which it has been made; and both the vine planter
+who looks after the vine, and the horsebreaker, and he who trains the
+dog, seek this end. But the education and the teaching of youth aim at
+something. In this then is the value of the education and the teaching.
+And if this is well, thou wilt not seek anything else. Wilt thou not
+cease to value many other things too? Then thou wilt be neither free, nor
+sufficient for thy own happiness, nor without passion. For of necessity
+thou must be envious, jealous, and suspicious of those who can take away
+those things, and plot against those who have that which is valued by
+thee. Of necessity a man must be altogether in a state of perturbation
+who wants any of these things; and besides, he must often find fault with
+the gods. But to reverence and honor thy own mind will make thee content
+with thyself, and in harmony with society, and in agreement with the
+gods, that is, praising all that they give and have ordered.
+
+17. Above, below, all around are the movements of the elements. But the
+motion of virtue is in none of these: it is something more divine, and
+advancing by a way hardly observed, it goes happily on its road.
+
+18. How strangely men act! They will not praise those who are living at
+the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by
+posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they
+set much value on. But this is very much the same as if thou shouldst be
+grieved because those who have lived before thee did not praise thee.
+
+19. If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think
+that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and
+conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by thyself
+too.
+
+20. In the gymnastic exercises suppose that a man has torn thee with his
+nails, and by dashing against thy head has inflicted a wound. Well, we
+neither show any signs of vexation, nor are we offended, nor do we
+suspect him afterwards as a treacherous fellow; and yet we are on our
+guard against him, not however as an enemy, nor yet with suspicion, but
+we quietly get out of his way. Something like this let thy behavior be in
+all the other parts of life; let us overlook many things in those who are
+like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to
+get out of the way, and to have no suspicion nor hatred.
+
+21. If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or
+act rightly, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no man
+was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and
+ignorance.
+
+22. I do my duty: other things trouble me not; for they are either things
+without life, or things without reason, or things that have rambled and
+know not the way.
+
+23. As to the animals which have no reason, and generally all things and
+objects, do thou, since thou hast reason and they have none, make use of
+them with a generous and liberal spirit. But towards human beings, as
+they have reason, behave in a social spirit. And on all occasions call on
+the gods, and do not perplex thyself about the length of time in which
+thou shalt do this; for even three hours so spent are sufficient.
+
+24. Alexander the Macedonian and his groom by death were brought to the
+same state; for either they were received among the same seminal
+principles of the universe, or they were alike dispersed among the atoms.
+
+25. Consider how many things in the same indivisible time take place in
+each of us,--things which concern the body and things which concern the
+soul: and so thou wilt not wonder if many more things, or rather all
+things which come into existence in that which is the one and all, which
+we call Cosmos, exist in it at the same time.
+
+26. If any man should propose to thee the question, how the name
+Antoninus is written, wouldst thou with a straining of the voice utter
+each letter? What then if they grow angry, wilt thou be angry too? Wilt
+thou not go on with composure and number every letter? Just so then in
+this life also remember that every duty is made up of certain parts.
+These it is thy duty to observe, and without being disturbed or showing
+anger towards those who are angry with thee to go on thy way and finish
+that which is set before thee.
+
+27. How cruel it is not to allow men to strive after the things which
+appear to them to be suitable to their nature and profitable! And yet in
+a manner thou dost not allow them to do this, when thou art vexed because
+they do wrong. For they are certainly moved towards things because they
+suppose them to be suitable to their nature and profitable to them.--But
+it is not so.--Teach them then, and show them without being angry.
+
+28. Death is a cessation of the impressions through the senses, and of
+the pulling of the strings which move the appetites, and of the
+discursive movements of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh
+(II. 12).
+
+29. It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way in this life, when
+thy body does not give way.
+
+30. Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that thou art not
+dyed with this dye; for such things happen. Keep thyself then simple,
+good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, a
+worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts.
+Strive to continue to be such as philosophy wished to make thee.
+Reverence the gods, and help men. Short is life. There is only one fruit
+of this terrene life,--a pious disposition and social acts. Do everything
+as a disciple of Antoninus. Remember his constancy in every act which was
+conformable to reason, and his evenness in all things, and his piety, and
+the serenity of his countenance, and his sweetness, and his disregard of
+empty fame, and his efforts to understand things; and how he would never
+let anything pass without having first most carefully examined it and
+clearly understood it; and how he bore with those who blamed him unjustly
+without blaming them in return; how he did nothing in a hurry; and how he
+listened not to calumnies, and how exact an examiner of manners and
+actions he was; and not given to reproach people, nor timid, nor
+suspicious, nor a sophist; and with how little he was satisfied, such as
+lodging, bed, dress, food, servants; and how laborious and patient; and
+how he was able on account of his sparing diet to hold out to the
+evening; and his firmness and uniformity in his friendships; and how he
+tolerated freedom of speech in those who opposed his opinions; and the
+pleasure that he had when any man showed him anything better; and how
+religious he was without superstition. Imitate all this, that thou mayest
+have as good a conscience, when thy last hour comes, as he had.
+
+31. Return to thy sober senses and call thyself back; and when thou hast
+roused thyself from sleep and hast perceived that they were only dreams
+which troubled thee, now in thy waking hours look at these [the things
+about thee] as thou didst look at those [the dreams].
+
+32. I consist of a little body and a soul. Now to this little body all
+things are indifferent, for it is not able to perceive differences. But
+to the understanding those things only are indifferent which are not the
+works of its own activity. But whatever things are the works of its own
+activity, all these are in its power. And of these however only those
+which are done with reference to the present; for as to the future and
+the past activities of the mind, even these are for the present
+indifferent.
+
+33. Neither the labor which the hand does nor that of the foot is
+contrary to nature, so long as the foot does the foot's work and the hand
+the hand's. So then neither to a man as a man is his labor contrary to
+nature, so long as it does the things of a man. But if the labor is not
+contrary to his nature, neither is it an evil to him.
+
+34. How many pleasures have been enjoyed by robbers, patricides, tyrants.
+
+35. Dost thou not see how the handicraftsmen accommodate themselves up to
+a certain point to those who are not skilled in their craft,--
+nevertheless they cling to the reason [the principles] of their art, and
+do not endure to depart from it? Is it not strange if the architect and
+the physician shall have more respect to the reason [the principles] of
+their own arts than man to his own reason, which is common to him and the
+gods?
+
+36. Asia, Europe, are corners of the universe; all the sea a drop in the
+universe; Athos a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a
+point in eternity. All things are little, changeable, perishable. All
+things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either directly
+preceding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws,
+and that which is poisonous, and every harmful thing, as a thorn, as mud,
+are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that
+they are of another kind from that which thou dost venerate, but form a
+just opinion of the source of all (VII. 75).
+
+37. He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which
+has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time
+without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.
+
+38. Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe and
+their relation to one another. For in a manner all things are implicated
+with one another, and all in this way are friendly to one another; for
+one thing comes in order after another, and this is by virtue of the
+active movement and mutual conspiration and the unity of the substance
+(ix. 1).
+
+39. Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot has been cast: and the
+men among whom thou hast received thy portion, love them, but do it truly
+[sincerely].
+
+40. Every instrument, tool, vessel, if it does that for which it has been
+made, is well, and yet he who made it is not there. But in the things
+which are held together by nature there is within, and there abides in,
+them the power which made them; wherefore the more is it fit to reverence
+this power, and to think, that, if thou dost live and act according to
+its will, everything in thee is in conformity to intelligence. And thus
+also in the universe the things which belong to it are in conformity to
+intelligence.
+
+41. Whatever of the things which are not within thy power thou shalt
+suppose to be good for thee or evil, it must of necessity be that, if
+such a bad thing befall thee, or the loss of such a good thing, thou wilt
+not blame the gods, and hate men too, those who are the cause of the
+misfortune or the loss, or those who are suspected of being likely to be
+the cause; and indeed we do much injustice because we make a difference
+between these things [because we do not regard these things as
+indifferent]. But if we judge only those things which are in our power to
+be good or bad, there remains no reason either for finding fault with God
+or standing in a hostile attitude to man.
+
+42. We are all working together to one end, some with knowledge and
+design, and others without knowing what they do; as men also when they
+are asleep, of whom it is Heraclitus, I think, who says that they are
+laborers and co-operators in the things which take place in the universe.
+But men co-operate after different fashions: and even those co-operate
+abundantly, who find fault with what happens and those who try to oppose
+it and to hinder it; for the universe had need even of such men as these.
+It remains then for thee to understand among what kind of workmen thou
+placest thyself; for he who rules all things will certainly make a right
+use of thee, and he will receive thee among some part of the co-operators
+and of those whose labors conduce to one end. But be not thou such a part
+as the mean and ridiculous verse in the play, which Chrysippus speaks of.
+
+43. Does the sun undertake to do the work of the rain, or Aesculapius the
+work of the Fruit-bearer [the earth]? And how is it with respect to each
+of the stars, are they not different and yet they work together to the
+same end?
+
+44. If the gods have determined about me and about the things which must
+happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to
+imagine a deity without forethought; and as to doing me harm, why should
+they have any desire towards that? for what advantage would result to
+them from this or to the whole, which is the special object of their
+providence? But if they have not determined about me individually, they
+have certainly determined about the whole at least, and the things which
+happen by way of sequence in this general arrangement I ought to accept
+with pleasure and to be content with them. But if they determine about
+nothing,--which it is wicked to believe, or if we do believe it, let us
+neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear by them, nor do anything else which
+we do as if the gods were present and lived with us,--but if however the
+gods determine about none of the things which concern us, I am able to
+determine about myself, and I can inquire about that which is useful; and
+that is useful to every man which is conformable to his own constitution
+and nature. But my nature is rational and social; and my city and
+country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome, but so far as I am a man, it
+is the world. The things then which are useful to these cities are alone
+useful to me.
+
+45. Whatever happens to every man, this is for the interest of the
+universal: this might be sufficient. But further thou wilt observe this
+also as a general truth, if thou dost observe, that whatever is
+profitable to any man is profitable also to other men. But let the word
+profitable be taken here in the common sense as said of things of the
+middle kind [neither good nor bad].
+
+46. As it happens to thee in the amphitheatre and such places, that the
+continual sight of the same things, and the uniformity make the spectacle
+wearisome, so it is in the whole of life; for all things above, below,
+are the same and from the same. How long then?
+
+47. Think continually that all kinds of men and men of all kinds of
+pursuits and of all nations are dead, so that thy thoughts come down even
+to Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn thy thoughts to the
+other kinds [of men]. To that place then we must remove, where there are
+so many great orators, and so many noble philosophers, Heraclitus,
+Pythagoras, Socrates; so many heroes of former days, and so many generals
+after them, and tyrants; besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes,
+and other men of acute natural talents, great minds, lovers of labor,
+versatile, confident, mockers even of the perishable and ephemeral life
+of man, as Menippus and such as are like him. As to all these consider
+that they have long been in the dust. What harm then is this to them; and
+what to those whose names are altogether unknown? One thing here is worth
+a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent
+disposition even to liars and unjust men.
+
+48. When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those
+who live with thee; for instance, the activity of one, and the modesty of
+another, and the liberality of a third, and some other good quality of a
+fourth. For nothing delights so much as the examples of the virtues, when
+they are exhibited in the morals of those who live with us and present
+themselves in abundance, as far as is possible. Wherefore we must keep
+them before us.
+
+49. Thou art not dissatisfied, I suppose, because thou weighest only so
+many litrae and not three hundred. Be not dissatisfied then that thou
+must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied with
+the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be content
+with the time.
+
+50. Let us try to persuade them [men]. But act even against their will,
+when the principles of justice lead that way. If however any man by using
+force stands in thy way, betake thyself to contentment and tranquillity,
+and at the same time employ the hindrance towards the exercise of some
+other virtue; and remember that thy attempt was with a reservation
+[conditionally], that thou didst not desire to do impossibilities. What
+then didst thou desire?--Some such effort as this.--But thou attainest
+thy object, if the things to which thou wast moved are [not]
+accomplished.
+
+51. He who loves fame considers another man's activity to be his own
+good; and he who loves pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has
+understanding considers his own acts to be his own good.
+
+52. It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be
+disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to
+form our judgments.
+
+53. Accustom thyself to attend carefully to what is said by another, and
+as much as it is possible, be in the speaker's mind.
+
+54. That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.
+
+55. If sailors abused the helmsman, or the sick the doctor, would they
+listen to anybody else; or how could the helmsman secure the safety of
+those in the ship, or the doctor the health of those whom he attends?
+
+56. How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone
+out of it.
+
+57. To the jaundiced honey tastes bitter, and to those bitten by mad dogs
+water causes fear; and to little children the ball is a fine thing. Why
+then am I angry? Dost thou think that a false opinion has less power than
+the bile in the jaundiced or the poison in him who is bitten by a mad
+dog?
+
+58. No man will hinder thee from living according to the reason of thy
+own nature: nothing will happen to thee contrary to the reason of the
+universal nature.
+
+59. What kind of people are those whom men wish to please, and for what
+objects, and by what kind of acts? How soon will time cover all things,
+and how many it has covered already.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VII.
+
+
+1. What is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen. And on the
+occasion of everything which happens keep this in mind, that it is that
+which thou hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find the
+same things, with which the old histories are filled, those of the middle
+ages and those of our own day; with which cities and houses are filled
+now. There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.
+
+2. How can our principles become dead, unless the impression [thoughts]
+which correspond to them are extinguished? But it is in thy power
+continuously to fan these thoughts into a flame. I can have that opinion
+about anything which I ought to have. If I can, why am I disturbed? The
+things which are external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind.
+--Let this be the state of thy affects, and thou standest erect. To
+recover thy life is in thy power. Look at things again as thou didst use
+to look at them; for in this consists the recovery of thy life.
+
+3. The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks of sheep, herds,
+exercises with spears, a bone cast to little dogs, a bit of bread into
+fishponds, laborings of ants and burden-carrying, runnings about of
+frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings--[all alike]. It is thy
+duty then in the midst of such things to show good humor and not a proud
+air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the
+things are worth about which he busies himself.
+
+4. In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and in every movement
+thou must observe what is doing. And in the one thou shouldst see
+immediately to what end it refers, but in the other watch carefully what
+is the thing signified.
+
+5. Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? If it is sufficient, I
+use it for the work as an instrument given by the universal nature. But
+if it is not sufficient, then either I retire from the work and give way
+to him who is able to do it better, unless there be some reason why I
+ought not to do so; or I do it as well as I can, taking to help me the
+man who with the aid of my ruling principle can do what is now fit and
+useful for the general good. For whatsoever either by myself or with
+another I can do, ought to be directed to this only, to that which is
+useful and well suited to society.
+
+6. How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to
+oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long
+been dead.
+
+7. Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty
+like a soldier in the assault on a town. How then, if being lame thou
+canst not mount up on the battlements alone, but with the help of another
+it is possible?
+
+8. Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it
+shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest
+for present things.
+
+9. All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and
+there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing. For things
+have been co-ordinated, and they combine to form the same universe
+[order]. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who
+pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, [one] common reason
+in all intelligent animals, and one truth; if indeed there is also one
+perfection for all animals which are of the same stock and participate in
+the same reason.
+
+10. Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole;
+and everything formal [causal] is very soon taken back into the universal
+reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
+
+11. To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and
+according to reason.
+
+12. Be thou erect, or be made erect (III. 5).
+
+13. Just as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in
+one, so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have
+been constituted for one co-operation. And the perception of this will be
+more apparent to thee if thou often sayest to thyself that I am a member
+of the system of rational beings. But if thou sayest that thou art a
+part, thou dost not yet love men from thy heart; beneficence does not yet
+delight thee for its own sake; thou still dost it barely as a thing of
+propriety, and not yet as doing good to thyself.
+
+14. Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel the
+effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will complain, if
+they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am
+not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.
+
+15. Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the gold,
+or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this, Whatever any one
+does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.
+
+16. The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I mean, does not frighten
+itself or cause itself pain. But if any one else can frighten or pain it,
+let him do so. For the faculty itself will not by its own opinion turn
+itself into such ways. Let the body itself take care, if it can, that it
+suffer nothing, and let it speak, if it suffers. But the soul itself,
+that which is subject to fear, to pain, which has completely the power of
+forming an opinion about these things, will suffer nothing, for it will
+never deviate into such a judgment. The leading principle in itself wants
+nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both free
+from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede
+itself.
+
+17. Eudaemonia [happiness] is a good daemon, or a good thing. What then
+art thou doing here, O imagination? Go away, I entreat thee by the gods,
+as thou didst come, for I want thee not. But thou art come according to
+thy old fashion. I am not angry with thee: only go away.
+
+18. Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change?
+What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And
+canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? and canst thou
+be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else
+that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou not see then
+that for thyself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary
+for the universal nature?
+
+19. Through the universal substance as through a furious torrent all
+bodies are carried, being by their nature united with and co-operating
+with the whole, as the parts of our body with one another. How many a
+Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how many an Epictetus has time already
+swallowed up! And let the same thought occur to thee with reference to
+every man and thing (V. 23; VI. 15).
+
+20. One thing only troubles me, lest I should do something which the
+constitution of man does not allow, or in the way which it does not
+allow, or what it does not allow now.
+
+21. Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the forgetfulness
+of thee by all.
+
+22. It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong. And this
+happens, if when they do wrong it occurs to thee that they are kinsmen,
+and that they do wrong through ignorance and unintentionally, and that
+soon both of you will die; and above all, that the wrong-doer has done
+thee no harm, for he has not made thy ruling faculty worse than it was
+before.
+
+23. The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were
+wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the
+material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each of
+these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no hardship for
+the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its being fastened
+together (VIII. 50).
+
+24. A scowling look is altogether unnatural; when it is often assumed,
+[Footnote: 5] the result is that all comeliness dies away, and at last is
+so completely extinguished that it cannot be again lighted up at all. Try
+to conclude from this very fact that it is contrary to reason. For if
+even the perception of doing wrong shall depart, what reason is there for
+living any longer?
+
+25. Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things which thou
+seest, and out of their substance will make other things, and again other
+things from the substance of them, in order that the world may be ever
+new (XII. 23).
+
+26. When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what
+opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen
+this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry. For
+either thou thyself thinkest the same thing to be good that he does or
+another thing of the same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But if
+thou dost not think such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more
+readily be well disposed to him who is in error.
+
+27. Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of
+the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how eagerly
+they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time,
+however, take care that thou dost not through being so pleased with them
+accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou
+shouldst not have them.
+
+28. Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this
+nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so
+secures tranquillity.
+
+29. Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine
+thyself to the present. Understand well what happens either to thee or to
+another. Divide and distribute every object into the causal [formal] and
+the material. Think of thy last hour. Let the wrong which is done by a
+man stay there where the wrong was done (VIII. 29).
+
+30. Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter
+into the things that are doing and the things which do them (VII. 4).
+
+31. Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, and with indifference
+towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind.
+Follow God. The poet says that law rules all--And it is enough to
+remember that law rules all.
+
+32. About death: whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms,
+or annihilation, it is either extinction or change.
+
+33. About pain: the pain which is intolerable carries us off; but that
+which lasts a long time is tolerable; and the mind maintains its own
+tranquillity by retiring into itself, and the ruling faculty is not made
+worse. But the parts which are harmed by pain, let them, if they can,
+give their opinion about it.
+
+34. About fame: look at the minds [of those who seek fame], observe what
+they are, and what kind of things they avoid, and what kind of things
+they pursue. And consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another
+hide the former sands, so in life the events which go before are soon
+covered by those which come after.
+
+35. From Plato: The man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all
+time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to think
+that human life is anything great? It is not possible, he said.--Such a
+man then will think that death also is no evil.--Certainly not.
+
+36. From Antisthenes: It is royal to do good and to be abused.
+
+37. It is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate
+and compose itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be
+regulated and composed by itself.
+
+38. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, For they care nought
+about it.
+
+39. To the immortal gods and us give joy.
+
+40. Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn. One man is born;
+another dies.
+
+41. If gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for
+it.
+
+42. For the good is with me, and the just.
+
+43. No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion.
+
+44. From Plato: But I would make this man a sufficient answer, which is
+this: Thou sayest not well, if thou thinkest that a man who is good for
+anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death, and should
+not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether he is doing
+what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or bad man.
+
+45. For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed
+himself thinking it the best place for him, or has been placed by a
+commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the hazard,
+taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything else, before
+the baseness [of deserting his post].
+
+46. But, my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good is
+not something different from saving and being saved; for as to a man
+living such or such a time, at least one who is really a man, consider if
+this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts: and there must be
+no love of life: but as to these matters a man must intrust them to the
+Deity and believe what the women say, that no man can escape his destiny,
+the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.
+
+47. Look around at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along
+with them; and constantly consider the changes of the elements into one
+another, for such thoughts purge away the filth of the terrene life.
+
+48. This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men
+should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some higher
+place; should look at them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural
+labors, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts of
+justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts,
+lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things and an orderly combination
+of contraries.
+
+49. Consider the past,--such great changes of political supremacies; thou
+mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will certainly be
+of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the
+order of the things which take place now; accordingly to have
+contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have
+contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?
+
+50.
+
+  That which has grown from the earth to the earth,
+  But that which has sprung from heavenly seed,
+  Back to the heavenly realms returns.
+
+This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a
+similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.
+
+51.
+
+  With food and drinks and cunning magic arts
+  Turning the channel's course to 'scape from death.
+  The breeze which heaven has sent
+  We must endure, and toil without complaining.
+
+52. Another may be more expert in casting his opponent; but he is not
+more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all that
+happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his
+neighbors.
+
+53. Where any work can be clone conformably to the reason which is common
+to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear; for where we are able to
+get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds
+according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.
+
+54. Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce
+in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about
+thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing
+shall steal into them without being well examined.
+
+55. Do not look around thee to discover other men's ruling principles,
+but look straight to this, to what nature leads thee, both the universal
+nature through the things which happen to thee, and thy own nature
+through the acts which must be done by thee. But every being ought to do
+that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have
+been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among
+irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the
+rational for the sake of one another.
+
+The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social. And the
+second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body,--for it is the
+peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe
+itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or
+of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims
+superiority, and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others.
+And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them. The
+third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from
+deception. Let then the ruling principle holding fast to these things go
+straight on, and it has what is its own.
+
+56. Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the
+present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed
+thee.
+
+57. Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of
+thy destiny. For what is more suitable?
+
+58. In everything which happens keep before thy eyes those to whom the
+same things happened, and how they were vexed, and treated them as
+strange things, and found fault with them: and now where are they?
+Nowhere. Why then dost thou too choose to act in the same way; and why
+dost thou not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature to those
+who cause them and those who are moved by them; and why art thou not
+altogether intent upon the right way of making use of the things which
+happen to thee? For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a
+material for thee [to work on]. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be
+a good man in every act which thou dost: and remember....
+
+59. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble
+up, if thou wilt ever dig.
+
+60. The body ought to be compact, and to show no irregularity either in
+motion or attitude. For what the mind shows in the face by maintaining in
+it the expression of intelligence and propriety, that ought to be
+required also in the whole body. But all these things should be observed
+without affectation.
+
+61. The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in
+respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which
+are sudden and unexpected.
+
+62. Constantly observe who those are whose approbation thou wishest to
+have, and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt neither
+blame those who offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their
+approbation, if thou lookest to the sources of their opinions and
+appetites.
+
+63. Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily deprived of truth;
+consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and temperance and
+benevolence and everything of the kind. It is most necessary to bear this
+constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all.
+
+64. In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor
+in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse, for it does not
+damage the intelligence either so far as the intelligence is rational or
+so far as it is social. Indeed in the case of most pains let this remark
+of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting,
+if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest
+nothing to it in imagination: and remember this too, that we do not
+perceive that many things which are disagreeable to us are the same as
+pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched by heat, and
+the having no appetite. When then thou art discontented about any of
+these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to pain.
+
+65. Take care not to feel towards the inhuman as they feel towards men.
+
+66. How do we know if Telauges was not superior in character to Socrates?
+For it is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed
+more skilfully with the Sophists, and passed the night in the cold with
+more endurance, and that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamis, he
+considered it more noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering
+way in the streets--though as to this fact one may have great doubts if
+it was true. But we ought to inquire what kind of a soul it was that
+Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just
+towards men and pious towards the gods, neither idly vexed on account of
+men's villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to any man's ignorance,
+nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share out of the
+universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding
+to sympathize with the affects of the miserable flesh.
+
+67. Nature has not so mingled [the intelligence] with the composition of
+the body, as not to have allowed thee the power of circumscribing thyself
+and of bringing under subjection to thyself all that is thy own; for it
+is very possible to be a divine man and to be recognized as such by no
+one. Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little
+indeed is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast
+despaired of becoming a dialectician and skilled in the knowledge of
+nature, do not for this reason renounce the hope of being both free and
+modest, and social and obedient to God.
+
+68. It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion in the greatest
+tranquillity of mind, even if all the world cry out against thee as much
+as they choose, and even if wild beasts tear in pieces the members of
+this kneaded matter which has grown around thee. For what hinders the
+mind in the midst of all this from maintaining itself in tranquillity and
+in a just judgment of all surrounding things and in a ready use of the
+objects which are presented to it, so that the judgment may say to the
+thing which falls under its observation: This thou art in substance
+[reality], though in men's opinion thou mayest appear to be of a
+different kind; and the use shall say to that which falls under the hand:
+Thou art the thing that I was seeking; for to me that which presents
+itself is always a material for virtue both rational and political, and
+in a word, for the exercise of art, which belongs to man or God. For
+everything which happens has a relationship either to God or man, and is
+neither new nor difficult to handle, but usual and apt matter to work on.
+
+69. The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every
+day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor
+playing the hypocrite.
+
+70. The gods who are immortal are not vexed because during so long a time
+they must tolerate continually men such as they are and so many of them
+bad; and besides this, they also take care of them in all ways. But thou,
+who art destined to end so soon, art thou wearied of enduring the bad,
+and this too when thou art one of them?
+
+71. It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness,
+which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is
+impossible.
+
+72. Whatever the rational and political [social] faculty finds to be
+neither intelligent nor social, it properly judges to be inferior to
+itself.
+
+73. When thou hast done a good act and another has received it, why dost
+thou still look for a third thing besides these, as fools do, either to
+have the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return?
+
+74. No man is tired of receiving what is useful. But it is useful to act
+according to nature. Do not then be tired of receiving what is useful by
+doing it to others.
+
+75. The nature of the All moved to make the universe. But now either
+everything that takes place comes by way of consequence or [continuity];
+or even the chief things towards which the ruling power of the universe
+directs its own movement are governed by no rational principle. If this
+is remembered, it will make thee more tranquil in many things (vi. 44;
+ix. 28).
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VIII.
+
+
+1. This reflection also tends to the removal of the desire of empty fame,
+that it is no longer in thy power to have lived the whole of thy life, or
+at least thy life from thy youth upwards, like a philosopher; but both to
+many others and to thyself it is plain that thou art far from philosophy.
+Thou hast fallen into disorder then, so that it is no longer easy for
+thee to get the reputation of a philosopher; and thy plan of life also
+opposes it. If then thou hast truly seen where the matter lies, throw
+away the thought, How thou shalt seem [to others], and be content if thou
+shalt live the rest of thy life in such wise as thy nature wills. Observe
+then what it wills, and let nothing else distract thee; for thou hast had
+experience of many wanderings without having found happiness anywhere,--
+not in syllogisms, nor in wealth, nor in reputation, nor in enjoyment,
+nor anywhere. Where is it then? In doing what man's nature requires. How
+then shall a man do this? If he has principles from which come his
+affects and his acts. What principles? Those which relate to good and
+bad: the belief that there is nothing good for man which does not make
+him just, temperate, manly, free; and that there is nothing bad which
+does not do the contrary to what has been mentioned.
+
+2. On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to
+me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
+What more do I seek, if what I am now doing is the work of an intelligent
+living being, and a social being, and one who is under the same law with
+God?
+
+3. Alexander and Caius and Pompeius, what are they in comparison with
+Diogenes and Heraclitus and Socrates? For they were acquainted with
+things, and their causes [forms], and their matter, and the ruling
+principles of these men were the same [or conformable to their pursuits].
+But as to the others, how many things had they to care for, and to how
+many things were they slaves!
+
+4. [Consider] that men will do the same things nevertheless, even though
+thou shouldst burst.
+
+5. This is the chief thing: Be not perturbed, for all things are
+according to the nature of the universal; and in a little time thou wilt
+be nobody and nowhere, like Hadrianus and Augustus. In the next place,
+having fixed thy eyes steadily on thy business look at it, and at the
+same time remembering that it is thy duty to be a good man, and what
+man's nature demands, do that without turning aside; and speak as it
+seems to thee most just, only let it be with a good disposition and with
+modesty and without hypocrisy.
+
+6. The nature of the universal has this work to do,--to remove to that
+place the things which are in this, to change them, to take them away
+hence, and to carry them there. All things are change, yet we need not
+fear anything new. All things are familiar [to us]; but the distribution
+of them still remains the same.
+
+7. Every nature is contented with itself when it goes on its way well;
+and a rational nature goes on its way well when in its thoughts it
+assents to nothing false or uncertain, and when it directs its movements
+to social acts only, and when it confines its desires and aversions to
+the things which are in its power, and when it is satisfied with
+everything that is assigned to it by the common nature. For of this
+common nature every particular nature is a part, as the nature of the
+leaf is a part of the nature of the plant; except that in the plant the
+nature of the leaf is part of a nature which has not perception or
+reason, and is subject to be impeded; but the nature of man is part of a
+nature which is not subject to impediments, and is intelligent and just,
+since it gives to everything in equal portions and according to its
+worth, times, substance, cause [form], activity and incident. But
+examine, not to discover that any one thing compared with any other
+single thing is equal in all respects, but by taking all the parts
+together of one thing and comparing them with all the parts together of
+another.
+
+8. Thou hast not leisure [or ability] to read. But thou hast leisure [or
+ability] to check arrogance: thou hast leisure to be superior to pleasure
+and pain: thou hast leisure to be superior to love of fame, and not to be
+vexed at stupid and ungrateful people, nay even to care for them.
+
+9. Let no man any longer hear thee finding fault with the court life or
+with thy own (V. 16).
+
+10. Repentance is a kind of self-reproof for having neglected something
+useful; but that which is good must be something useful, and the perfect
+good man should look after it. But no such man would ever repent of
+having refused any sensual pleasure. Pleasure then is neither good nor
+useful.
+
+11. This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution! What is
+its substance and material? And what its causal nature [or form]? And
+what is it doing in the world? And how long does it subsist?
+
+12. When thou risest from sleep with reluctance, remember that it is
+according to thy constitution and according to human nature to perform
+social acts, but sleeping is common also to irrational animals. But that
+which is according to each individual's nature is also more peculiarly
+its own, and more suitable to its nature, and indeed also more agreeable
+(V. 1).
+
+13. Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion of every
+impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of Physic, of Ethic,
+and of Dialectic.
+
+14. Whatever man thou meetest with, immediately say to thyself: What
+opinions has this man about good and bad? For if with respect to pleasure
+and pain and the causes of each, and with respect to fame and ignominy,
+death and life, he has such and such opinions, it will seem nothing
+wonderful or strange to me if he does such and such things; and I shall
+bear in mind that he is compelled to do so.
+
+15. Remember that as it is a shame to be surprised if the fig-tree
+produces figs, so it is to be surprised if the world produces such and
+such things of which it is productive; and for the physician and the
+helmsman it is a shame to be surprised if a man has a fever, or if the
+wind is unfavorable.
+
+16. Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects
+thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.
+For it is thy own, the activity which is exerted according to thy own
+movement and judgment, and indeed according to thy own understanding too.
+
+17. If a thing is in thy own power, why dost thou do it? but if it is in
+the power of another, whom dost thou blame,--the atoms [chance] or the
+gods? Both are foolish. Thou must blame nobody. For if thou canst,
+correct [that which is the cause]; but if thou canst not do this, correct
+at least the thing itself; but if thou canst not do even this, of what
+use is it to thee to find fault? for nothing should be done without a
+purpose.
+
+18. That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here,
+it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are
+elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they
+murmur not.
+
+19. Everything exists for some end,--a horse, a vine. Why dost thou
+wonder? Even the sun will say, I am for some purpose, and the rest of the
+gods will say the same. For what purpose then art thou,--to enjoy
+pleasure? See if common sense allows this.
+
+20. Nature has had regard in everything no less to the end than to the
+beginning and the continuance, just like the man who throws up a ball.
+What good is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it to come
+down, or even to have fallen? and what good is it to the bubble while it
+holds together, or what harm when it is burst? The same may be said of a
+light also.
+
+21. Turn it [the body] inside out, and see what kind of thing it is; and
+when it has grown old, what kind of thing it becomes, and when it is
+diseased.
+
+Short lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and
+the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not
+even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth
+too is a point.
+
+22. Attend to the matter which is before thee, whether it is an opinion
+or an act or a word. Thou sufferest this justly: for thou choosest rather
+to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.
+
+23. Am I doing anything? I do it with reference to the good of mankind.
+Does anything happen to me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and
+the source of all things, from which all that happens is derived.
+
+24. Such as bathing appears to thee,--oil, sweat, dirt, filthy water, all
+things disgusting,--so is every part of life and everything.
+
+25. Lucilla saw Verus die, and then Lucilla died. Secunda saw Maximus
+die, and then Secunda died. Epitynchanus saw Diotimus die, and then
+Epitynchanus died. Antoninus saw Faustina die, and then Antoninus died.
+Such is everything. Celer saw Hadrianus die, and then Celer died. And
+those sharp-witted men, either seers or men inflated with pride, where
+are they,--for instance the sharp-witted men, Charax and Demetrius the
+Platonist and Eudaemon, and any one else like them? All ephemeral, dead
+long ago. Some indeed have not been remembered even for a short time, and
+others have become the heroes of fables, and again others have
+disappeared even from fables. Remember this then, that this little
+compound, thyself, must either be dissolved, or thy poor breath must be
+extinguished, or be removed and placed elsewhere.
+
+26. It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works of a man. Now it
+is a proper work of a man to be benevolent to his own kind, to despise
+the movements of the senses, to form a just judgment of plausible
+appearances, and to take a survey of the nature of the universe and of
+the things which happen in it.
+
+27. There are three relations [between thee and other things]: the one to
+the body which surrounds thee; the second to the divine cause from which
+all things come to all; and the third to those who live with thee.
+
+28. Pain is either an evil to the body--then let the body say what it
+thinks of it--or to the soul; but it is in the power of the soul to
+maintain its own serenity and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is
+an evil. For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is
+within, and no evil ascends so high.
+
+29. Wipe out thy imaginations by often saying to thyself: Now it is in my
+power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire, nor any perturbation
+at all; but looking at all things I see what is their nature, and I use
+each according to its value.--Remember this power which thou hast from
+nature.
+
+30. Speak both in the senate and to every man, whoever he may be,
+appropriately, not with any affectation: use plain discourse.
+
+31. Augustus' court, wife, daughter, descendants, ancestors, sister,
+Agrippa, kinsmen, intimates, friends, Areius, Maecenas, physicians, and
+sacrificing priests,--the whole court is dead. Then turn to the rest, not
+considering the death of a single man [but of a whole race], as of the
+Pompeii; and that which is inscribed on the tombs,--The last of his race.
+Then consider what trouble those before them have had that they might
+leave a successor; and then, that of necessity some one must be the last.
+Again, here consider the death of a whole race.
+
+32. It is thy duty to order thy life well in every single act; and if
+every act does its duty as far as is possible, be content; and no one is
+able to hinder thee so that each act shall not do its duty.--But
+something external will stand in the way.--Nothing will stand in the way
+of thy acting justly and soberly and considerately.--But perhaps some
+other active power will be hindered.--Well, but by acquiescing in the
+hindrance and by being content to transfer thy efforts to that which is
+allowed, another opportunity of action is immediately put before thee in
+place of that which was hindered, and one which will adapt itself to this
+ordering of which we are speaking.
+
+33. Receive [wealth or prosperity] without arrogance; and be ready to let
+it go.
+
+34. If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, or a head, lying
+anywhere apart from the rest of the body, such does a man make himself,
+as far as he can, who is not content with what happens, and separates
+himself from others, or does anything unsocial. Suppose that thou hast
+detached thyself from the natural unity,--for thou wast made by nature a
+part, but now thou hast cut thyself off,--yet here there is this
+beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God
+has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut
+asunder, to come together again. But consider the kindness by which he
+has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated
+at all from the universal; and when he has been separated, he has allowed
+him to return and to be united and to resume his place as a part.
+
+35. As the nature of the universal has given to every rational being all
+the other powers that it has, so we have received from it this power
+also. For as the universal nature converts and fixes in its predestined
+place everything which stands in the way and opposes it, and makes such
+things a part of itself, so also the rational animal is able to make
+every hindrance its own material, and to use it for such purposes as it
+may have designed.
+
+36. Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not
+thy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest
+expect to befall thee: but on every occasion ask thyself, What is there
+in this which is intolerable and past bearing? for thou wilt be ashamed
+to confess. In the next place remember that neither the future nor the
+past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very
+little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind if it is
+unable to hold out against even this.
+
+37. Does Panthea or Pergamus now sit by the tomb of Verus? Does Chaurias
+or Diotimus sit by the tomb of Hadrianus? That would be ridiculous. Well,
+suppose they did sit there, would the dead be conscious of it? and if the
+dead were conscious would they be pleased? and if they were pleased,
+would that make them immortal? Was it not in the order of destiny that
+these persons too should first become old women and old men and then die?
+What then would those do after these were dead? All this is foul smell
+and blood in a bag.
+
+38. If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
+
+39. In the constitution of the rational animal I see no virtue which is
+opposed to justice; but I see a virtue which is opposed to love of
+pleasure, and that is temperance.
+
+40. If thou takest away thy opinion about that which appears to give thee
+pain, thou thyself standest in perfect security.--Who is this self?--The
+reason.--But I am not reason.--Be it so. Let then the reason itself not
+trouble itself. But if any other part of thee suffers, let it have its
+own opinion about itself (VII. 16).
+
+41. Hindrance to the perceptions of sense is an evil to the animal
+nature. Hindrance to the movements [desires] is equally an evil to the
+animal nature. And something else also is equally an impediment and an
+evil to the constitution of plants. So then that which is a hindrance to
+the intelligence is an evil to the intelligent nature. Apply all these
+things then to thyself. Does pain or sensuous pleasure effect thee? The
+senses will look to that. Has any obstacle opposed thee in thy efforts
+towards an object? If indeed thou wast making this effort absolutely
+[unconditionally, or without any reservation], certainly this obstacle is
+an evil to thee considered as a rational animal. But if thou takest [into
+consideration] the usual course of things, thou hast not yet been injured
+nor even impeded. The things however which are proper to the
+understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron,
+nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a
+sphere, it continues a sphere (XI, 12).
+
+42. It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never
+intentionally given pain even to another.
+
+43. Different things delight different people; but it is my delight to
+keep the ruling faculty sound without turning away either from any man or
+from any of the things which happen to men, but looking at and receiving
+all with welcome eyes and using everything according to its value.
+
+44. See that thou secure this present time to thyself: for those who
+rather pursue posthumous fame do not consider that the men of after time
+will be exactly such as these whom they cannot bear now; and both are
+mortal. And what is it in any way to thee if these men of after time
+utter this or that sound, or have this or that opinion about thee?
+
+45. Take me and cast me where thou wilt; for there I shall keep my divine
+part tranquil, that is, content, if it can feel and act conformably to
+its proper constitution. Is this [change of place] sufficient reason why
+my soul should be unhappy and worse then it was, depressed, expanded,
+shrinking, affrighted? and what wilt thou find which is sufficient reason
+for this?
+
+46. Nothing can happen to any man which is not a human accident, nor to
+an ox which is not according to the nature of an ox, nor to a vine which
+is not according to the nature of a vine, nor to a stone which is not
+proper to a stone. If then there happens to each thing both what is usual
+and natural, why shouldst thou complain? For the common nature brings
+nothing which may not be borne by thee.
+
+47. If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that
+disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to
+wipe out this judgment now. But if anything in thy own disposition gives
+thee pain, who hinders thee from correcting thy opinion? And even if thou
+art pained because thou art not doing some particular thing which seems
+to thee to be right, why dost thou not rather act than complain?--But
+some insuperable obstacle is in the way?--Do not be grieved then, for the
+cause of its not being done depends not on thee.--But it is not worth
+while to live, if this cannot be done.--Take thy departure then from
+life contentedly, just as he dies who is in full activity, and well
+pleased too with the things which are obstacles.
+
+48. Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected
+it is satisfied with itself, if it does nothing which it does not choose
+to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy. What then will it be when
+it forms a judgment about anything aided by reason and deliberately?
+Therefore the mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has
+nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be
+inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man; but he
+who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.
+
+49. Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report.
+Suppose that it has been reported to thee that a certain person speaks
+ill of thee. This has been reported; but that thou hast been injured,
+that has not been reported. I see that my child is sick. I do see; but
+that he is in danger, I do not see. Thus then always abide by the first
+appearances, and add nothing thyself from within, and then nothing
+happens to thee. Or rather add something like a man who knows everything
+that happens in the world.
+
+50. A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briers in the road--
+Turn aside from them.--This is enough. Do not add, And why were such
+things made in the world? For thou wilt be ridiculed by a man who is
+acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst be ridiculed by a carpenter and
+shoemaker if thou didst find fault because thou seest in their workshop
+shavings and cuttings from the things which they make. And yet they have
+places into which they can throw these shavings and cuttings, and the
+universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art
+is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything within her which
+appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into
+herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that
+she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which
+she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space,
+and her own matter, and her own art.
+
+51. Neither in thy actions be sluggish nor in thy conversation without
+method, nor wandering in thy thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul
+inward contention nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to
+have no leisure.
+
+Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee. What then can
+these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober,
+just? For instance, if a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, and
+curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable water; and if he
+should cast clay into it or filth, it will speedily disperse them and
+wash them out, and will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou
+possess a perpetual fountain [and not a mere well]? By forming thyself
+hourly to freedom conjoined with contentment, simplicity, and modesty.
+
+52. He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is.
+And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know
+who he is, nor what the world is. But he who has failed in any one of
+these things could not even say for what purpose he exists himself. What
+then dost thou think of him who [avoids or] seeks the praise of those who
+applaud, of men who know not either where they are or who they are?
+
+53. Dost thou wish to be praised by a man who curses himself thrice every
+hour? Wouldst thou wish to please a man who does not please himself? Does
+a man please himself who repents of nearly everything that he does?
+
+54. No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which
+surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the
+intelligence which embraces all things. For the intelligent power is no
+less diffused in all parts and pervades all things for him who is willing
+to draw it to him than the aerial power for him who is able to respire
+it.
+
+55. Generally, wickedness does no harm at all to the universe; and
+particularly the wickedness [of one man] does no harm to another. It is
+only harmful to him who has it in his power to be released from it as
+soon as he shall choose.
+
+56. To my own free will the free will of my neighbor is just as
+indifferent as his poor breath and flesh. For though we are made
+especially for the sake of one another, still the ruling power of each of
+us has its own office, for otherwise my neighbor's wickedness would be my
+harm, which God has not willed in order that my unhappiness may not
+depend on another.
+
+57. The sun appears to be poured down, and in all directions indeed it is
+diffused, yet it is not effused. For this diffusion is extension:
+Accordingly its rays are called Extensions because they are extended. But
+one may judge what kind of a thing a ray is, if he looks at the sun's
+light passing through a narrow opening into a darkened room, for it is
+extended in a right line, and as it were is divided when it meets with
+any solid body which stands in the way and intercepts the air beyond; but
+there the light remains fixed and does not glide or fall off. Such then
+ought to be the outpouring and diffusion of the understanding, and it
+should in no way be an effusion, but an extension, and it should make no
+violent or impetuous collision with the obstacles which are in its way;
+nor yet fall down, but be fixed, and enlighten that which receives it.
+For a body will deprive itself of the illumination, if it does not admit
+it.
+
+58. He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different
+kind of sensation. But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou
+feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou
+wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.
+
+59. Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with
+them.
+
+60. In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed,
+both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry,
+moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.
+
+61. Enter into every man's ruling faculty; and also let every other man
+enter into thine.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IX.
+
+
+1. He who acts unjustly acts impiously. For since the universal nature
+has made rational animals for the sake of one another to help one another
+according to their deserts, but in no way to injure one another, he who
+transgresses her will is clearly guilty of impiety towards the highest
+divinity. And he too who lies is guilty of impiety to the same divinity;
+for the universal nature is the nature of things that are; and things
+that are have a relation to all things that come into existence. And
+further, this universal nature is named truth, and is the prime cause of
+all things that are true. He then who lies intentionally is guilty of
+impiety inasmuch as he acts unjustly by deceiving; and he also who lies
+unintentionally, inasmuch as he is at variance with the universal nature,
+and inasmuch as he disturbs the order by fighting against the nature of
+the world; for he fights against it, who is moved of himself to that
+which is contrary to truth, for he had received powers from nature
+through the neglect of which he is not able now to distinguish falsehood
+from truth. And indeed he who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain
+as evil, is guilty of impiety. For of necessity such a man must often
+find fault with the universal nature, alleging that it assigns things to
+the bad and the good contrary to their deserts, because frequently the
+bad are in the enjoyment of pleasure and possess the things which procure
+pleasure, but the good have pain for their share and the things which
+cause pain. And further, he who is afraid of pain will sometimes also be
+afraid of some of the things which will happen in the world, and even
+this is impiety. And he who pursues pleasure will not abstain from
+injustice, and this is plainly impiety. Now with respect to the things
+towards which the universal nature is equally affected,--for it would not
+have made both, unless it was equally affected towards both,--towards
+these they who wish to follow nature should be of the same mind with it,
+and equally affected. With respect to pain, then, and pleasure, or death
+and life, or honor and dishonor, which the universal nature employs
+equally, whoever is not equally affected is manifestly acting impiously.
+And I say that the universal nature employs them equally, instead of
+saying that they happen alike to those who are produced in continuous
+series and to those who come after them by virtue of a certain original
+movement of Providence, according to which it moved from a certain
+beginning to this ordering of things, having conceived certain principles
+of the things which were to be, and having determined powers productive
+of beings and of changes and of such like successions (VII. 75).
+
+2. It would be a man's happiest lot to depart from mankind without having
+had any taste of lying and hypocrisy and luxury and pride. However, to
+breathe out one's life when a man has had enough of these things is the
+next best voyage, as the saying is. Hast thou determined to abide with
+vice, and has not experience yet induced thee to fly from this
+pestilence? For the destruction of the understanding is a pestilence,
+much more indeed than any such corruption and change of this atmosphere
+which surrounds us. For this corruption is a pestilence of animals so far
+as they are animals; but the other is a pestilence of men so far as they
+are men.
+
+3. Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is
+one of those things which nature wills. For such as it is to be young and
+to grow old, and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have teeth and
+beard and gray hairs, and to beget and to be pregnant and to bring forth,
+and all the other natural operations which the seasons of thy life bring,
+such also is dissolution. This, then, is consistent with the character of
+a reflecting man,--to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous
+with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of
+nature. As thou now waitest for the time when the child shall come out of
+thy wife's womb, so be ready for the time when thy soul shall fall out of
+this envelope. But if thou requirest also a vulgar kind of comfort which
+shall reach thy heart, thou wilt be made best reconciled to death by
+observing the objects from which thou art going to be removed, and the
+morals of those with whom thy soul will no longer be mingled. For it is
+no way right to be offended with men, but it is thy duty to care for them
+and to bear with them gently; and yet to remember that thy departure will
+not be from men who have the same principles as thyself. For this is the
+only thing, if there be any, which could draw us the contrary way and
+attach us to life,--to be permitted to live with those who have the same
+principles as ourselves. But now thou seest how great is the trouble
+arising from the discordance of those who live together, so that thou
+mayest say, Come quick, O death, lest perchance I, too, should forget
+myself.
+
+4. He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly
+acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.
+
+5. He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he
+who does a certain thing.
+
+6. Thy present opinion founded on understanding, and thy present conduct
+directed to social good, and thy present disposition of contentment with
+everything which happens--that is enough.
+
+7. Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the
+ruling faculty in its own power.
+
+8. Among the animals which have not reason one life is distributed; but
+among reasonable animals one intelligent soul is distributed: just as
+there is one earth of all things which are of an earthy nature, and we
+see by one light, and breathe one air, all of us that have the faculty of
+vision and all that have life.
+
+9. All things which participate in anything which is common to them all
+move towards that which is of the same kind with themselves. Everything
+which is earthy turns towards the earth, everything which is liquid flows
+together, and everything which is of an aerial kind does the same, so
+that they require something to keep them asunder, and the application of
+force. Fire indeed moves upwards on account of the elemental fire, but it
+is so ready to be kindled together with all the fire which is here, that
+even every substance which is somewhat dry is easily ignited, because
+there is less mingled with it of that which is a hindrance to ignition.
+Accordingly, then, everything also which participates in the common
+intelligent nature moves in like manner towards that which is of the same
+kind with itself, or moves even more. For so much as it is superior in
+comparison with all other things, in the same degree also is it more
+ready to mingle with and to be fused with that which is akin to it.
+Accordingly among animals devoid of reason we find swarms of bees, and
+herds of cattle, and the nurture of young birds, and in a manner, loves;
+for even in animals there are souls, and that power which brings them
+together is seen to exert itself in the superior degree, and in such a
+way as never has been observed in plants nor in stones nor in trees. But
+in rational animals there are political communities and friendships, and
+families and meetings of people; and in wars, treaties, and armistices.
+But in the things which are still superior, even though they are
+separated from one another, unity in a manner exists, as in the stars.
+Thus the ascent to the higher degree is able to produce a sympathy even
+in things which are separated. See, then, what now takes place; for only
+intelligent animals have now forgotten this mutual desire and
+inclination, and in them alone the property of flowing together is not
+seen. But still, though men strive to avoid [this union], they are caught
+and held by it, for their nature is too strong for them; and thou wilt
+see what I say, if thou only observest. Sooner, then, will one find
+anything earthy which comes in contact with no earthy thing, than a man
+altogether separated from other men.
+
+10. Both man and God and the universe produce fruit; at the proper
+seasons each produces it. But and if usage has especially fixed these
+terms to the vine and like things, this is nothing. Reason produces fruit
+both for all and for itself, and there are produced from it other things
+of the same kind as reason itself.
+
+11. If thou art able, correct by teaching those who do wrong; but if thou
+canst not, remember that indulgence is given to thee for this purpose.
+And the gods, too, are indulgent to such persons; and for some purposes
+they even help them to get health, wealth, reputation; so kind they are.
+And it is in thy power also; or say, who hinders thee?
+
+12. Labor not as one who is wretched, nor yet as one who would be pitied
+or admired: but direct thy will to one thing only,--to put thyself in
+motion and to check thyself, as the social reason requires.
+
+13. To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all
+trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.
+
+14. All things are the same, familiar in experience, and ephemeral in
+time, and worthless in the matter. Everything now is just as it was in
+the time of those whom we have buried.
+
+15. Things stand outside of us, themselves by themselves, neither knowing
+aught of themselves, nor expressing any judgment. What is it, then, which
+does judge about them? The ruling faculty.
+
+16. Not in passivity but in activity lie the evil and the good of the
+rational social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie not in
+passivity but in activity.
+
+17. For the stone which has been thrown up it is no evil to come down,
+nor indeed any good to have been carried up (VIII. 20).
+
+18. Penetrate inwards into men's leading principles, and thou wilt see
+what judges thou art afraid of, and what kind of judges they are of
+themselves.
+
+19. All things are changing: and thou thyself art in continuous mutation
+and in a manner in continuous destruction, and the whole universe too.
+
+20. It is thy duty to leave another man's wrongful act there where it is
+(VII. 29; IX. 38).
+
+21. Termination of activity, cessation from movement and opinion, and in
+a sense their death, is no evil. Turn thy thoughts now to the
+consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood,
+thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything
+to fear? Turn thy thoughts now to thy life under thy grandfather, then to
+thy life under thy mother, then to thy life under thy father; and as thou
+findest many other differences and changes and terminations, ask thyself,
+Is this anything to fear? In like manner, then, neither are the
+termination and cessation and change of thy whole life a thing to be
+afraid of.
+
+22. Hasten [to examine] thy own ruling faculty and that of the universe
+and that of thy neighbor: thy own that thou mayst make it just; and that
+of the universe, that thou mayst remember of what thou art a part; and
+that of thy neighbor, that thou mayst know whether he has acted
+ignorantly or with knowledge, and that thou mayst also consider that his
+ruling faculty is akin to thine.
+
+23. As thou thyself art a component part of a social system, so let every
+act of thine be a component part of social life. Whatever act of thine
+then has no reference either immediately or remotely to a social end,
+this tears asunder thy life, and does not allow it to be one, and it is
+of the nature of a mutiny, just as when in a popular assembly a man
+acting by himself stands apart from the general agreement.
+
+24. Quarrels of little children and their sports, and poor spirits
+carrying about dead bodies [such is everything]; and so what is exhibited
+in the representation of the mansions of the dead strikes our eyes more
+clearly.
+
+25. Examine into the quality of the form of an object, and detach it
+altogether from its material part, and then contemplate it; then
+determine the time, the longest which a thing of this peculiar form is
+naturally made to endure.
+
+26. Thou hast endured infinite troubles through not being contented with
+thy ruling faculty when it does the things which it is constituted by
+nature to do. But enough [of this].
+
+27. When another blames thee or hates thee, or when men say about thee
+anything injurious, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see
+what kind of men they are. Thou wilt discover that there is no reason to
+take any trouble that these men may have this or that opinion about thee.
+However, thou must be well disposed towards them, for by nature they are
+friends. And the gods too aid them in all ways, by dreams, by signs,
+towards the attainment of those things on which they set a value.
+
+28. The periodic movements of the universe are the same, up and down from
+age to age. And either the universal intelligence puts itself in motion
+for every separate effect, and if this is so, be thou content with that
+which is the result of its activity: or it puts itself in motion once,
+and everything else comes by way of sequence in a manner; or indivisible
+elements are the origin of all things.--In a word, if there is a god, all
+is well; and if chance rules, do not thou also be governed by it (VI. 44;
+VII. 75).
+
+Soon will the earth cover us all: then the earth, too, will change, and
+the things also which result from change will continue to change forever,
+and these again forever. For if a man reflects on the changes and
+transformations which follow one another like wave after wave and their
+rapidity, he will despise everything which is perishable (XII. 21).
+
+29. The universal cause is like a winter torrent: it carries everything
+along with it. But how worthless are all these poor people who are
+engaged in matters political, and, as they suppose, are playing the
+philosopher! All drivellers. Well then, man: do what nature now requires.
+Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee
+to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato's Republic: but
+be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event
+to be no small matter. For who can change men's opinions? and without a
+change of opinions what else is there than the slavery of men who groan
+while they pretend to obey? Come now and tell me of Alexander and
+Philippus and Demetrius of Phalerum. They themselves shall judge whether
+they discovered what the common nature required, and trained themselves
+accordingly. But if they acted like tragedy heroes, no one has condemned
+me to imitate them. Simple and modest is the work of philosophy. Draw me
+not aside to insolence and pride.
+
+30. Look down from above on the countless herds of men and their
+countless solemnities, and the infinitely varied voyagings in storms and
+calms, and the differences among those who are born, who live together,
+and die. And consider, too, the life lived by others in olden time, and
+the life of those who will live after thee, and the life now lived among
+barbarous nations, and how many know not even thy name, and how many will
+soon forget it, and how they who perhaps now are praising thee will very
+soon blame thee, and that neither a posthumous name is of any value, nor
+reputation, nor anything else.
+
+31. Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things
+which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the
+things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be
+movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is
+according to thy nature.
+
+32. Thou canst remove out of the way many useless things among those
+which disturb thee, for they lie entirely in thy opinion; and thou wilt
+then gain for thyself ample space by comprehending the whole universe in
+thy mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the
+rapid change of every several thing, how short is the time from birth to
+dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth as well as the equally
+boundless time after dissolution!
+
+33. All that thou seest will quickly perish, and those who have been
+spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too. And he who dies
+at the extremest old age will be brought into the same condition with him
+who died prematurely.
+
+34. What are these men's leading principles, and about what kind of
+things are they busy, and for what kind of reasons do they love and
+honor? Imagine that thou seest their poor souls laid bare. When they
+think that they do harm by their blame or good by their praise, what an
+idea!
+
+35. Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights
+in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from
+eternity have been done in like form, and will be such to time without
+end. What, then, dost thou say,--that all things have been and all things
+always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found in so many gods
+to rectify these things, but the world has been condemned to be bound in
+never ceasing evil (IV. 45; VII. 88)?
+
+36. The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything:
+water, dust, bones, filth: or again, marble rocks, the callosities of the
+earth; and gold and silver, the sediments; and garments, only bits of
+hair; and purple dye, blood; and everything else is of the same kind. And
+that which is of the nature of breath is also another thing of the same
+kind, changing from this to that.
+
+37. Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art
+thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the
+form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. But
+besides these there is nothing. Towards the gods then, now become at last
+more simple and better. It is the same whether we examine these things
+for a hundred years or three.
+
+38. If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has
+not done wrong.
+
+39. Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come
+together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what
+is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing
+else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to
+the ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing
+the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with
+the rest?
+
+40. Either the gods have no power or they have power. If, then, they have
+no power, why dost thou pray to them? But if they have power, why dost
+thou not pray for them to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the
+things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which
+thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any
+of these things should not happen or happen? for certainly if they can
+co-operate with men, they can co-operate for these purposes. But perhaps
+thou wilt say the gods have placed them in thy power. Well, then, is it
+not better to use what is in thy power like a free man than to desire in
+a slavish and abject way what is not in thy power? And who has told thee
+that the gods do not aid us even in the things which are in our power?
+Begin, then, to pray for such things, and thou wilt see. One man prays
+thus: How shall I be able to lie with that woman? Do thou pray thus: How
+shall I not desire to lie with her? Another prays thus: How shall I be
+released from this? Another prays: How shall I not desire to be released?
+Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? Thou thus: How shall I
+not be afraid to lose him? In fine, turn thy prayers this way, and see
+what comes.
+
+41. Epicurus says, In my sickness my conversation was not about my bodily
+sufferings, nor, says he, did I talk on such subjects to those who
+visited me; but I continued to discourse on the nature of things as
+before, keeping to this main point, how the mind, while participating in
+such movements as go on in the poor flesh, shall be free from
+perturbations and maintain its proper good. Nor did I, he says, give the
+physicians an opportunity of putting on solemn looks, as if they were
+doing something great, but my life went on well and happily. Do, then,
+the same that he did both in sickness, if thou art sick, and in any other
+circumstances; for never to desert philosophy in any events that may
+befall us, nor to hold trifling talk either with an ignorant man or with
+one unacquainted with nature, is a principle of all schools of
+philosophy; but to be intent only on that which thou art now doing and on
+the instrument by which thou dost it.
+
+42. When thou art offended with any man's shameless conduct, immediately
+ask thyself, Is it possible, then, that shameless men should not be in
+the world? It is not possible. Do not, then, require what is impossible.
+For this man also is one of those shameless men who must of necessity be
+in the world. Let the same considerations be present to thy mind in the
+case of the knave, and the faithless man, and of every man who does wrong
+in any way. For at the same time that thou dost remind thyself that it is
+impossible that such kind of men should not exist, thou wilt become more
+kindly disposed towards every one individually. It is useful to perceive
+this, too, immediately when the occasion arises, what virtue nature has
+given to man to oppose to every wrongful act. For she has given to man,
+as an antidote against the stupid man, mildness, and against another kind
+of man some other power. And in all cases it is possible for thee to
+correct by teaching the man who is gone astray; for every man who errs
+misses his object and is gone astray. Besides, wherein hast thou been
+injured? For thou wilt find that no one among those against whom thou art
+irritated has done anything by which thy mind could be made worse; but
+that which is evil to thee and harmful has its foundation only in the
+mind. And what harm is done or what is there strange, if the man who has
+not been instructed does the acts of an uninstructed man? Consider
+whether thou shouldst not rather blame thyself, because thou didst not
+expect such a man to err in such a way. For thou hadst means given thee
+by thy reason to suppose that it was likely that he would commit this
+error, and yet thou hast forgotten and art amazed that he has erred. But
+most of all when thou blamest a man as faithless or ungrateful, turn to
+thyself. For the fault is manifestly thy own, whether thou didst trust
+that a man who had such a disposition would keep his promise, or when
+conferring thy kindness thou didst not confer it absolutely, nor yet in
+such way as to have received from thy very act all the profit. For what
+more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? art thou not
+content that thou hast done something comformable to thy nature, and dost
+thou seek to be paid for it? just as if the eye demanded a recompense for
+seeing, or the feet for walking. For as these members are formed for a
+particular purpose, and by working according to their several
+constitutions obtain what is their own; so also as man is formed by
+nature to acts of benevolence, when he has done anything benevolent or in
+any other way conducive to the common interest, he has acted conformably
+to his constitution, and he gets what is his own.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK X.
+
+
+1. Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked,
+more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy
+an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and
+without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring
+anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures?
+nor yet desiring time wherein thou shalt have longer enjoyment, or place,
+or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom thou mayest live in
+harmony? but wilt thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and
+pleased with all that is about thee, and wilt thou convince thyself that
+thou hast everything, and that it comes from the gods, that everything is
+well for thee, and will be well whatever shall please them, and whatever
+they shall give for the conservation of the perfect living being, the
+good and just and beautiful, which generates and holds together all
+things, and contains and embraces all things which are dissolved for the
+production of other like things? Wilt thou never be such that thou shalt
+so dwell in community with gods and men as neither to find fault with
+them at all, nor to be condemned by them?
+
+2. Observe what thy nature requires, so far as thou art governed by
+nature only: then do it and accept it, if thy nature, so far as thou art
+a living being, shall not be made worse by it. And next thou must observe
+what thy nature requires so far as thou art a living being. And all this
+thou mayest allow thyself, if thy nature, so far as thou art a rational
+animal, shall not be made worse by it. But the rational animal is
+consequently also a political [social] animal. Use these rules, then, and
+trouble thyself about nothing else.
+
+3. Everything which happens either happens in such wise as thou art
+formed by nature to bear it, or as thou art not formed by nature to bear
+it. If, then, it happens to thee in such way as thou art formed by nature
+to bear it, do not complain, but bear it as thou art formed by nature to
+bear it. But if it happens in such wise as thou art not formed by nature
+to bear it, do not complain, for it will perish after it has consumed
+thee. Remember, however, that thou art formed by nature to bear
+everything, with respect to which it depends on thy own opinion to make
+it endurable and tolerable, by thinking that it is either thy interest or
+thy duty to do this.
+
+4. If a man is mistaken, instruct him kindly and show him his error. But
+if thou art not able, blame thyself, or blame not even thyself.
+
+5. Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all
+eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the
+thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it (III. II; IV.
+26).
+
+6. Whether the universe is [a concourse of] atoms, or nature [is a
+system], let this first be established, that I am a part of the whole
+which is governed by nature; next, I am in a manner intimately related to
+the parts which are of the same kind with myself. For remembering this,
+inasmuch as I am a part, I shall be discontented with none of the things
+which are assigned to me out of the whole; for nothing is injurious to
+the part if it is for the advantage of the whole. For the whole contains
+nothing which is not for its advantage; and all natures indeed have this
+common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle
+besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to
+generate anything harmful to itself. By remembering, then, that I am a
+part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens.
+And inasmuch as I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which
+are of the same kind with myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I
+shall rather direct myself to the things which are of the same kind with
+myself, and I shall turn all my efforts to the common interest, and
+divert them from the contrary. Now, if these things are done so, life
+must flow on happily, just as thou mayest observe that the life of a
+citizen is happy, who continues a course of action which is advantageous
+to his fellow citizens, and is content with whatever the state may assign
+to him.
+
+7. The parts of the whole, everything, I mean, which is naturally
+comprehended in the universe, must of necessity perish; but let this be
+understood in this sense, that they must undergo change. But if this is
+naturally both an evil and a necessity for the parts, the whole would not
+continue to exist in a good condition, the parts being subject to change
+and constituted so as to perish in various ways, For whether did Nature
+herself design to do evil to the things which are parts of herself, and
+to make them subject to evil and of necessity fall into evil, or have
+such results happened without her knowing it? Both these suppositions,
+indeed, are incredible. But if a man should even drop the term Nature [as
+an efficient power], and should speak of these things as natural, even
+then it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time that the parts of
+the whole are in their nature subject to change, and at the same time to
+be surprised or vexed as if something were happening contrary to nature,
+particularly as the dissolution of things is into those things of which
+each thing is composed. For there is either a dispersion of the elements
+out of which everything has been compounded, or a change from the solid
+to the earthy and from the airy to the aerial, so that these parts are
+taken back into the universal reason, whether this at certain periods is
+consumed by fire or renewed by eternal changes. And do not imagine that
+the solid and the airy part belongs to thee from the time of generation.
+For all this received its accretion only yesterday and the day before, as
+one may say, from the food and the air which is inspired. This, then,
+which has received [the accretion], changes, not that which thy mother
+brought forth. Hut suppose that this [which thy mother brought forth]
+implicates thee very much with that other part, which has the peculiar
+quality [of change], this is nothing in fact in the way of objection to
+what is said.
+
+8. When thou hast assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a
+man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that thou dost not change
+these names; and if thou shouldst lose them, quickly return to them. And
+remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating
+attention to every several thing, and freedom from negligence; and that
+Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned
+to thee by the common nature; and that Magnanimity is the elevation of
+the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the
+flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, and death, and all such
+things. If, then, thou maintainest thyself in the possession of these
+names, without desiring to be called by these names by others, thou wilt
+be another person and wilt enter on another life. For to continue to be
+such as thou hast hitherto been, and to be torn in pieces and defiled in
+such a life, is the character of a very stupid man and one over-fond of
+his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with wild beasts who,
+though covered with wounds and gore, still entreat to be kept to the
+following day, though they will be exposed in the same state to the same
+claws and bites. Therefore fix thyself in the possession of these few
+names: and if thou art able to abide in them, abide as if thou wast
+removed to certain islands of the Happy. But if thou shalt perceive that
+thou fallest out of them and dost not maintain thy hold, go courageously
+into some nook where thou shalt maintain them, or even depart at once
+from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and freedom and modesty,
+after doing this one [laudable] thing at least in thy life, to have gone
+out of it thus. In order, however, to the remembrance of these names, it
+will greatly help thee if thou rememberest the gods, and that they wish
+not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like
+themselves; and if thou rememberest that what does the work of a fig-tree
+is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of a dog is a dog, and that
+what does the work of a bee is a bee, and that what does the work of a
+man is a man.
+
+9. Mimi, war, astonishment, torpor, slavery, will daily wipe out those
+holy principles of thine. How many things without studying nature dost
+thou imagine, and how many dost thou neglect? But it is thy duty so to
+look on and so to do everything, that at the same time the power of
+dealing with circumstances is perfected, and the contemplative faculty is
+exercised, and the confidence which comes from the knowledge of each
+several thing is maintained without showing it, but yet not concealed.
+For when wilt thou enjoy simplicity, when gravity, and when the knowledge
+of every several thing, both what it is in substance, and what place it
+has in the universe, and how long it is formed to exist, and of what
+things it is compounded, and to whom it can belong, and who are able both
+to give it and take it away?
+
+10. A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has
+caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net,
+and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken
+bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these robbers,
+if thou examinest their opinions?
+
+11. Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into
+one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise thyself about this
+part [of philosophy]. For nothing is so much adapted to produce
+magnanimity. Such a man has put off the body, and as he sees that he
+must, no one knows how soon, go away from among men and leave everything
+here, he gives himself up entirely to just doing in all his actions, and
+in everything else that happens he resigns himself to the universal
+nature. But as to what any man shall say or think about him or do against
+him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with these two
+things,--with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with
+what is now assigned to him; and he lays aside all distracting and busy
+pursuits, and desires nothing else than to accomplish the straight course
+through the law, and by accomplishing the straight course to follow God.
+
+12. What need is there of suspicious fear, since it is in thy power to
+inquire what ought to be done? And if thou seest clear, go by this way
+content, without turning back: but if thou dost not see clear, stop and
+take the best advisers. But if any other things oppose thee, go on
+according to thy powers with due consideration, keeping to that which
+appears to be just. For it is best to reach this object, and if thou dost
+fail, let thy failure be in attempting this. He who follows reason in all
+things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful
+and collected.
+
+13. Inquire of thyself as soon as thou wakest from sleep whether it will
+make any difference to thee if another does what is just and right. It
+will make no difference (VI. 32; VIII. 55).
+
+Thou hast not forgotten, I suppose, that those who assume arrogant airs
+in bestowing their praise or blame on others are such as they are at bed
+and at board, and thou hast not forgotten what they do, and what they
+avoid, and what they pursue, and how they steal and how they rob, not
+with hands and feet, but with their most valuable part, by means of which
+there is produced, when a man chooses, fidelity, modesty, truth, law, a
+good daemon [happiness] (VII. 17)?
+
+14. To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, the man who is
+instructed and modest says, Give what thou wilt; take back what thou
+wilt. And he says this not proudly, but obediently, and well pleased with
+her.
+
+15. Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a
+mountain. For it makes no difference whether a man lives there or here,
+if he lives everywhere in the world as in a state [political community].
+Let men see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature. If
+they cannot endure him, let them kill him. For that is better than to
+live thus [as men do].
+
+16. No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to
+be, but be such.
+
+17. Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance,
+and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a
+fig, and as to time the turning of a gimlet.
+
+18. Look at everything that exists, and observe that it is already in
+dissolution and in change, and as it were putrefaction or dispersion, or
+that everything is so constituted by nature as to die.
+
+19. Consider what men are when they are eating, sleeping, generating,
+easing themselves, and so forth. Then what kind of men they are when they
+are imperious and arrogant, or angry and scolding from their elevated
+place. But a short time ago to how many they were slaves and for what
+things; and after a little time consider in what a condition they will
+be.
+
+20. That is for the good of each thing, which the universal nature brings
+to each. And it is for its good at the time when nature brings it.
+
+21. "The earth loves the shower"; and "the solemn ether loves"; and the
+universe loves to make whatever is about to be. I say then to the
+universe, that I love as thou lovest. And is not this too said, that
+"this or that loves [is wont] to be produced"?
+
+22. Either thou livest here and hast already accustomed thyself to it, or
+thou art going away, and this was thy own will; or thou art dying and
+hast discharged thy duty. But besides these things there is nothing. Be
+of good cheer, then.
+
+23. Let this always be plain to thee, that this piece of land is like any
+other; and that all things here are the same with things on the top of a
+mountain, or on the sea-shore, or wherever thou choosest to be. For thou
+wilt find just what Plato says, Dwelling within the walls of a city as in
+a shepherd's fold on a mountain. [The three last words are omitted in the
+translation.]
+
+24. What is my ruling faculty now to me? and of what nature am I now
+making it? and for what purpose am I now using it? is it void of
+understanding? is it loosed and rent asunder from social life? is it
+melted into and mixed with the poor flesh so as to move together with it?
+
+25. He who flies from his master is a runaway; but the law is master, and
+he who breaks the law is a runaway. And he also who is grieved or angry
+or afraid, is dissatisfied because something has been or is or shall be
+of the things which are appointed by him who rules all things, and he is
+Law and assigns to every man what is fit. He then who fears or is grieved
+or is angry is a runaway.
+
+26. A man deposits seed in a womb and goes away, and then another cause
+takes it, and labors on it and makes a child. What a thing from such a
+material! Again, the child passes food down through the throat, and then
+another cause takes it and makes perception and motion, and in fine, life
+and strength and other things; how many and how strange! Observe then the
+things which are produced in such a hidden way, and see the power just as
+we see the power which carries things downwards and upwards, not with the
+eyes, but still no less plainly (VII. 75).
+
+27. Constantly consider how all things such as they now are, in time past
+also were; and consider that they will be the same again. And place
+before thy eyes entire dramas and stages of the same form, whatever thou
+hast learned from thy experience or from older history; for example, the
+whole court of Hadrianus, and the whole court of Antoninus, and the whole
+court of Philippus, Alexander, Croesus; for all those were such dramas as
+we see now, only with different actors.
+
+28. Imagine every man who is grieved at anything or discontented to be
+like a pig which is sacrificed and kicks and screams.
+
+Like this pig also is he who on his bed in silence laments the bonds in
+which we are held. And consider that only to the rational animal is it
+given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a
+necessity imposed on all.
+
+29. Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and
+ask thyself if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of
+this.
+
+30. When thou art offended at any man's fault, forthwith turn to thyself
+and reflect in what like manner thou dost err thyself; for example, in
+thinking that money is a good thing, or pleasure, or a bit of reputation,
+and the like. For by attending to this thou wilt quickly forget thy
+anger, if this consideration also is added, that the man is compelled:
+for what else could he do? or, if thou art able, take away from him the
+compulsion.
+
+31. When thou hast seen Satyron the Socratic, think of either Eutyches or
+Hymen, and when thou hast seen Euphrates, think of Eutychion or Silvanus,
+and when thou hast seen Alciphron think of Tropaeophorus, and when thou
+hast seen Xenophon, think of Crito or Severus, and when thou hast looked
+on thyself, think of any other Caesar, and in the case of every one do in
+like manner. Then let this thought be in thy mind, Where then are those
+men? Nowhere, or nobody knows where. For thus continuously thou wilt look
+at human things as smoke and nothing at all; especially if thou
+reflectest at the same time that what has once changed will never exist
+again in the infinite duration of time. But thou, in what a brief space
+of time is thy existence? And why art thou not content to pass through
+this short time in an orderly way? What matter and opportunity [for thy
+activity] art thou avoiding? For what else are all these things, except
+exercises for the reason, when it has viewed carefully and by examination
+into their nature the things which happen in life? Persevere then until
+thou shalt have made these things thy own, as the stomach which is
+strengthened makes all things its own, as the blazing fire makes flame
+and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.
+
+32. Let it not be in any man's power to say truly of thee that thou art
+not simple or that thou art not good; but let him be a liar whoever shall
+think anything of this kind about thee; and this is altogether in thy
+power. For who is he that shall hinder thee from being good and simple?
+Do thou only determine to live no longer unless thou shalt be such. For
+neither does reason allow [thee to live], if thou art not such.
+
+33. What is that which as to this material [our life] can be done or said
+in the way most conformable to reason? For whatever this may be, it is in
+thy power to do it or to say it, and do not make excuses that thou art
+hindered. Thou wilt not cease to lament till thy mind is in such a
+condition that, what luxury is to those who enjoy pleasure, such shall be
+to thee, in the matter which is subjected and presented to thee, the
+doing of the things which are conformable to man's constitution; for a
+man ought to consider as an enjoyment everything which it is in his power
+to do according to his own nature. And it is in his power everywhere.
+Now, it is not given to a cylinder to move everywhere by its own motion,
+nor yet to water nor to fire, nor to anything else which is governed by
+nature or an irrational soul, for the things which check them and stand
+in the way are many. But intelligence and reason are able to go through
+everything that opposes them, and in such manner as they are formed by
+nature and as they choose. Place before thy eyes this facility with which
+the reason will be carried through all things, as fire upwards, as a
+stone downwards, as a cylinder down an inclined surface, and seek for
+nothing further. For all other obstacles either affect the body only,
+which is a dead thing; or, except through opinion and the yielding of the
+reason itself, they do not crush nor do any harm of any kind; for if they
+did, he who felt it would immediately become bad. Now, in the case of all
+things which have a certain constitution, whatever harm may happen to any
+of them, that which is so affected becomes consequently worse; but in the
+like case, a man becomes both better, if one may say so, and more worthy
+of praise by making a right use of these accidents. And finally remember
+that nothing harms him who is really a citizen, which does not harm the
+state; nor yet does anything harm the state, which does not harm law
+[order]; and of these things which are called misfortunes not one harms
+law. What then does not harm law does not harm either state or citizen.
+
+34. To him who is penetrated by true principles even the briefest precept
+is sufficient, and any common precept, to remind him that he should be
+free from grief and fear. For example,--
+
+  "Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground--
+  So is the race of men."
+
+Leaves, also, are thy children; and leaves, too, are they who cry out as
+if they were worthy of credit and bestow their praise, or on the contrary
+curse, or secretly blame and sneer; and leaves, in like manner, are those
+who shall receive and transmit a man's fame to after-times. For all such
+things as these "are produced in the season of spring," as the poet says;
+then the wind casts them down; then the forest produces other leaves in
+their places. But a brief existence is common to all things, and yet thou
+avoidest and pursuest all things as if they would be eternal. A little
+time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy
+grave another will soon lament.
+
+35. The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I
+wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye. And
+the healthy hearing and smelling ought to be ready to perceive all that
+can be heard and smelled. And the healthy stomach ought to be with
+respect to all food just as the mill with respect to all things which it
+is formed to grind. And accordingly the healthy understanding ought to be
+prepared for everything which happens; but that which says, Let my dear
+children live, and let all men praise whatever I may do, is an eye which
+seeks for green things, or teeth which seek for soft things.
+
+36. There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he
+is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen. Suppose that
+he was a good and wise man, will there not be at last some one to say to
+himself, Let us at last breathe freely, being relieved from this
+schoolmaster? It is true that he was harsh to none of us, but I perceived
+that he tacitly condemns us.--This is what is said of a good man. But in
+our own case how many other things are there for which there are many who
+wish to get rid of us. Thou wilt consider this, then, when thou art
+dying, and thou wilt depart more contentedly by reflecting thus: I am
+going away from such a life, in which even my associates in behalf of
+whom I have striven so much, prayed, and cared, themselves wish me to
+depart, hoping perchance to get some little advantage by it. Why then
+should a man cling to a longer stay here? Do not however for this reason
+go away less kindly disposed to them, but preserving thy own character,
+and friendly and benevolent and mild, and on the other hand not as if
+thou wast torn away; but as when a man dies a quiet death, the poor soul
+is easily separated from the body, such also ought thy departure from men
+to be, for nature united thee to them and associated thee. But does she
+now dissolve the union? Well, I am separated as from kinsmen, not however
+dragged resisting, but without compulsion; for this, too, is one of the
+things according to nature.
+
+37. Accustom thyself as much as possible on the occasion of anything
+being done by any person to inquire with thyself, For what object is this
+man doing this? But begin with thyself, and examine thyself first.
+
+38. Remember that this which pulls the strings is the thing which is
+hidden within: this is the power of persuasion, this is life, this, if
+one may so say, is man. In contemplating thyself never include the vessel
+which surrounds thee and these instruments which are attached about it.
+For they are like to an axe, differing only in this, that they grow to
+the body. For indeed there is no more use in these parts without the
+cause which moves and checks them than in the weaver's shuttle, and the
+writer's pen, and the driver's whip.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XI.
+
+
+1. These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself,
+analyses itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it
+bears itself enjoys,--for the fruits of plants and that in animals which
+corresponds to fruits others enjoy,--it obtains its own end, wherever the
+limit of life may be fixed. Not as in a dance and in a play and in such
+like things, where the whole action is incomplete if anything cuts it
+short; but in every part, and where-ever it may be stopped, it makes what
+has been set before it full and complete, so that it can say, I have what
+is my own. And further it traverses the whole universe, and the
+surrounding vacuum, and surveys its form, and it extends itself into the
+infinity of time, and embraces and comprehends the periodical renovation
+of all things, and it comprehends that those who come after us will see
+nothing new, nor have those before us seen anything more, but in a manner
+he who is forty years old, if he has any understanding at all, has seen
+by virtue of the uniformity that prevails all things which have been and
+all that will be. This too is a property of the rational soul, love of
+one's neighbor, and truth and modesty, and to value nothing more than
+itself, which is also the property of Law. Thus then right reason differs
+not at all from the reason of justice.
+
+2. Thou wilt set little value on pleasing song and dancing and the
+pancratium, if thou wilt distribute the melody of the voice into its
+several sounds, and ask thyself as to each, if thou art mastered by this;
+for thou wilt be prevented by shame from confessing it: and in the matter
+of dancing, if at each movement and attitude thou wilt do the same; and
+the like also in the matter of the pancratium. In all things, then,
+except virtue and the acts of virtue, remember to apply thyself to their
+several parts, and by this division to come to value them little: and
+apply this rule also to thy whole life.
+
+3. What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be
+separated from the body, and ready either to be extinguished or dispersed
+or continue to exist; but so that this readiness comes from a man's own
+judgment, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but
+considerately and with dignity and in a way to persuade another, without
+tragic show.
+
+4. Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had
+my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop [doing
+such good].
+
+5. What is thy art? To be good. And how is this accomplished well except
+by general principles, some about the nature of the universe, and others
+about the proper constitution of man?
+
+6. At first tragedies were brought on the stage as means of reminding men
+of the things which happen to them, and that it is according to nature
+for things to happen so, and that, if you are delighted with what is
+shown on the stage, you should not be troubled with that which takes
+place on the larger stage. For you see that these things must be
+accomplished thus, and that even they bear them who cry out, "O
+Cithaeron." And, indeed, some things are said well by the dramatic
+writers, of which kind is the following especially:--
+
+  "Me and my children if the gods neglect,
+  This has its reason too."
+
+And again,--
+
+  "We must not chafe and fret at that which happens."
+
+And,--
+
+  "Life's harvest reap like the wheat's fruitful ear."
+
+And other things of the same kind.
+
+After tragedy the old comedy was introduced, which had a magisterial
+freedom of speech, and by its very plainness of speaking was useful in
+reminding men to beware of insolence; and for this purpose too Diogenes
+used to take from these writers.
+
+But as to the middle comedy, which came next, observe what it was, and
+again, for what object the new comedy was introduced, which gradually
+sank down into a mere mimic artifice. That some good things are said even
+by these writers, everybody knows: but the whole plan of such poetry and
+dramaturgy, to what end does it look?
+
+7. How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life
+so well suited for philosophizing as this in which thou now happenest to
+be.
+
+8. A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off
+from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from another
+man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a branch,
+another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself from his
+neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know
+that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social
+system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed
+society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to
+us, and again to become a part which helps to make up the whole. However,
+if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it difficult for
+that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be restored to
+its former condition. Finally, the branch, which from the first grew
+together with the tree, and has continued to have one life with it, is
+not like that which after being cut off is then ingrafted, for this is
+something like what the gardeners mean when they say that it grows with
+the rest of the tree, but that it has not the same mind with it.
+
+9. As those who try to stand in thy way when thou art proceeding
+according to right reason will not be able to turn thee aside from thy
+proper action, so neither let them drive thee from thy benevolent
+feelings towards them, but be on thy guard equally in both matters, not
+only in the matter of steady judgment and action, but also in the matter
+of gentleness to those who try to hinder or otherwise trouble thee. For
+this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted
+from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are
+equally deserters from their post,--the man who does it through fear, and
+the man who is alienated from him who is by nature a kinsman and a
+friend.
+
+10. There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the
+natures of things. But if this is so, that nature which is the most
+perfect and the most comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of
+the skill of art. Now all arts do the inferior things for the sake of the
+superior; therefore the universal nature does so too. And, indeed, hence
+is the origin of justice, and in justice the other virtues have their
+foundation: for justice will not be observed, if we either care for
+middle things [things indifferent], or are easily deceived and careless
+and changeable (V. 16, 30; VII. 55).
+
+11. If the things do not come to thee, the pursuits and avoidances of
+which disturb thee, still in a manner thou goest to them. Let then thy
+judgment about them be at rest, and they will remain quiet, and thou wilt
+not be seen either pursuing or avoiding.
+
+12. The spherical form of the soul maintains its figure when it is
+neither extended towards any object, nor contracted inwards, nor
+dispersed nor sinks down, but is illuminated by light, by which it sees
+the truth,--the truth of all things and the truth that is in itself
+(VIII. 41, 45; XII. 3).
+
+13. Suppose any man shall despise me. Let him look to that himself. But I
+will look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything
+deserving of contempt. Shall any man hate me? Let him look to it. But I
+will be mild and benevolent towards every man, and ready to show even him
+his mistake, not reproachfully, nor yet as making a display of my
+endurance, but nobly and honestly, like the great Phocion, unless indeed
+he only assumed it. For the interior [parts] ought to be such, and a man
+ought to be seen by the gods neither dissatisfied with anything nor
+complaining. For what evil is it to thee, if thou art now doing what is
+agreeable to thy own nature, and art satisfied with that which at this
+moment is suitable to the nature of the universe, since thou art a human
+being placed at thy post in order that what is for the common advantage
+may be done in some way?
+
+14. Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to
+raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
+
+15. How unsound and insincere is he who says, I have determined to deal
+with thee in a fair way!--What art thou doing, man? There is no occasion
+to give this notice. It will soon show itself by acts. The voice ought to
+be plainly written on the forehead. Such as a man's character is, he
+immediately shows it in his eyes, just as he who is beloved forthwith
+reads everything in the eyes of lovers. The man who is honest and good
+ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander
+as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not. But the
+affectation of simplicity is like a crooked stick. Nothing is more
+disgraceful than a wolfish friendship [false friendship]. Avoid this most
+of all. The good and simple and benevolent show all these things in the
+eyes, and there is no mistaking.
+
+16. As to living in the best way, this power is in the soul, if it be
+indifferent to things which are indifferent. And it will be indifferent,
+if it looks on each of these things separately and all together, and if
+it remembers that not one of them produces in us an opinion about itself,
+nor comes to us; but these things remain immovable, and it is we
+ourselves who produce the judgments about them, and, as we may say, write
+them in ourselves, it being in our power not to write them, and it being
+in our power, if perchance these judgments have imperceptibly got
+admission to our minds, to wipe them out; and if we remember also that
+such attention will only be for a short time, and then life will be at an
+end. Besides, what trouble is there at all in doing this? For if these
+things are according to nature, rejoice in them and they will be easy to
+thee: but if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to thy own
+nature, and strive towards this, even if it bring no reputation; for
+every man is allowed to seek his own good.
+
+17. Consider whence each thing is come, and of what it consists, and into
+what it changes, and what kind of a thing it will be when it has changed,
+and that it will sustain no harm.
+
+18. [If any have offended against thee, consider first]: What is my
+relation to men, and that we are made for one another; and in another
+respect I was made to be set over them, as a ram over the flock or a bull
+over the herd. But examine the matter from first principles, from this:
+If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all things:
+if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the superior,
+and these for the sake of one another (II. 1; IX. 39; V. 16; III. 4).
+
+Second, consider what kind of men they are at table, in bed, and so
+forth: and particularly, under what compulsions in respect of opinions
+they are; and as to their acts, consider with what pride they do what
+they do (VIII. 14; IX. 34).
+
+Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be
+displeased: but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so
+involuntarily and in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly deprived
+of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power of behaving
+to each man according to his deserts. Accordingly men are pained when
+they are called unjust, ungrateful, and greedy, and in a word wrong-doers
+to their neighbors (VII. 62, 63; II. 1; VII. 26; VIII. 29).
+
+Fourth, consider that thou also dost many things wrong, and that thou art
+a man like others; and even if thou dost abstain from certain faults,
+still thou hast the disposition to commit them, though either through
+cowardice, or concern about reputation, or some such mean motive, thou
+dost abstain from such faults (I. 17).
+
+Fifth, consider that thou dost not even understand whether men are doing
+wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to
+circumstances. And in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him
+to pass a correct judgment on another man's acts (IX. 38; IV. 51).
+
+Sixth, consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is
+only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead (VII. 58;
+IV. 48).
+
+Seventh, that it is not men's acts which disturb us, for those acts have
+their foundation in men's ruling principles, but it is our own opinions
+which disturb us. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss
+thy judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and thy anger
+is gone. How then shall I take away these opinions? By reflecting that no
+wrongful act of another brings shame on thee: for unless that which is
+shameful is alone bad, thou also must of necessity do many things wrong,
+and become a robber and everything else (V. 25; VII. 16).
+
+Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and
+vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we are
+angry and vexed (IV. 39, 49; VII. 24).
+
+Ninth, consider that a good disposition is invincible if it be genuine,
+and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most
+violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition
+towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him
+and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to do
+thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for
+something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring
+thyself, my child.--And show him with gentle tact and by general
+principles that this is so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor
+any animals which are formed by nature to be gregarious. And thou must do
+this neither with any double meaning nor in the way of reproach, but
+affectionately and without any rancor in thy soul; and not as if thou
+wert lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander may admire, but either
+when he is alone, and if others are present.... [Footnote: 6]
+
+Remember these nine rules, as if thou hadst received them as a gift from
+the Muses, and begin at last to be a man while thou livest. But thou must
+equally avoid flattering men and being vexed at them, for both are
+unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be present to thee in the
+excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that
+mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so
+also are they more manly; and he who possesses these qualities
+possesses strength, nerves, and courage, and not the man who is subject
+to fits of passion and discontent. For in the same degree in which a
+man's mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also
+is it nearer to strength: and as the sense of pain is a characteristic of
+weakness, so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and he who yields
+to anger, both are wounded and both submit.
+
+But if thou wilt, receive also a tenth present from the leader of the
+[Muses, Apollo], and it is this,--that to expect bad men not to do wrong
+is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to
+allow men to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do thee any
+wrong, is irrational and tyrannical.
+
+19. There are four principal aberrations of the superior faculty against
+which thou shouldst be constantly on thy guard, and when thou hast
+detected them, thou shouldst wipe them out and say on each occasion thus:
+This thought is not necessary: this tends to destroy social union: this
+which thou art going to say comes not from the real thoughts; for thou
+shouldst consider it among the most absurd of things for a man not to
+speak from his real thoughts. But the fourth is when thou shalt reproach
+thyself for anything, for this is an evidence of the diviner part within
+thee being overpowered and yielding to the less honorable and to the
+perishable part, the body, and to its gross pleasures (IV. 24; II. 16).
+
+20. Thy aerial part and all the fiery parts which are mingled in thee,
+though by nature they have an upward tendency, still in obedience to the
+disposition of the universe they are overpowered here in the compound
+mass [the body]. And also the whole of the earthy part in thee and the
+watery, though their tendency is downward, still are raised up and occupy
+a position which is not their natural one. In this manner then the
+elemental parts obey the universal; for when they have been fixed in any
+place, perforce they remain there until again the universal shall sound
+the signal for dissolution. Is it not then strange that thy intelligent
+part only should be disobedient and discontented with its own place? And
+yet no force is imposed on it, but only those things which are
+comformable to its nature: still it does not submit, but is carried in
+the opposite direction. For the movement towards injustice and
+intemperance and to anger and grief and fear is nothing else than the act
+of one who deviates from nature. And also when the ruling faculty is
+discontented with anything that happens, then too it deserts its post:
+for it is constituted for piety and reverence towards the gods no less
+than for justice. For these qualities also are comprehended under the
+generic term of contentment with the constitution of things, and indeed
+they are prior to acts of justice.
+
+21. He who has not one and always the same object in life, cannot be one
+and the same all through his life. But what I have said is not enough,
+unless this also is added, what this object ought to be. For as there is
+not the same opinion about all the things which in some way or other are
+considered by the majority to be good, but only about some certain
+things, that is, things which concern the common interest, so also ought
+we to propose to ourselves an object which shall be of a common kind
+[social] and political. For he who directs all his own efforts to this
+object, will make all his acts alike, and thus will always be the same.
+
+22. Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm
+and trepidation of the town mouse. [Footnote: 7]
+
+23. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of
+Lamiae,--bugbears to frighten children.
+
+24. The Lacedaemonians at their public spectacles used to set seats in
+the shade for strangers, but themselves sat down anywhere.
+
+25. Socrates excused himself to Perdiccas for not going to him, saying,
+It is because I would not perish by the worst of all ends; that is, I
+would not receive a favor and then be unable to return it.
+
+26. In the writings of the [Ephesians] there was this precept, constantly
+to think of some one of the men of former times who practised virtue.
+
+27. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens that we
+may be reminded of those bodies which continually do the same things and
+in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their
+purity and nudity. For there is no veil over a star.
+
+28. Consider what a man Socrates was when he dressed himself in a skin,
+after Xanthippe had taken his cloak and gone out, and what Socrates said
+to his friends who were ashamed of him and drew back from him when they
+saw him dressed thus.
+
+29. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules
+for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.
+Much more is this so in life.
+
+  30. A slave thou art: free speech is not for thee.
+
+  31. And my heart laughed within.
+     _Odyssey_, IX. 413.
+
+  32. And virtue they will curse, speaking harsh words.
+     HESIOD, _Works and Days_, 184.
+
+33. To look for the fig in winter is a madman's act: such is he who looks
+for his child when it is no longer allowed (Epictetus, III. 24, 87).
+
+34. When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he should whisper to
+himself, "To-morrow perchance thou wilt die."--But those are words of bad
+omen.--"No word is a word of bad omen," said Epictetus, "which expresses
+any work of nature; or if it is so, it is also a word of bad omen to
+speak of the ears of corn being reaped" (Epictetus, III. 24, 88).
+
+35. The unripe grape, the ripe bunch, the dried grape all are changes,
+not into nothing, but into something which exists not yet (Epictetus,
+III. 24).
+
+36. No man can rob us of our free will (Epictetus III. 22, 105).
+
+37. Epictetus also said, a man must discover an art [or rules] with
+respect to giving his assent; and in respect to his movements he must be
+careful that they be made with regard to circumstances, that they be
+consistent with social interests, that they have regard to the value of
+the object; and as to sensual desire, he should altogether keep away from
+it; and as to avoidance [aversion], he should not show it with respect to
+any of the things which are not in our power.
+
+38. The dispute then, he said, is not about any common matter, but about
+being mad or not.
+
+39. Socrates used to say, What do you want, souls of rational men or
+irrational?--souls of rational men.--Of what rational men, sound or
+unsound?--Sound.--Why then do you not seek for them?--Because we have
+them.--Why then do you fight and quarrel?
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XII.
+
+
+1. All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road
+thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself. And this
+means, if thou wilt take no notice of all the past, and trust the future
+to providence, and direct the present only conformably to piety and
+justice. Conformably to piety, that thou mayest be content with the lot
+which is assigned to thee, for nature designed it for thee and thee for
+it. Conformably to justice, that thou mayest always speak the truth
+freely and without disguise, and do the things which are agreeable to law
+and according to the worth of each. And let neither another man's
+wickedness hinder thee, nor opinion nor voice, nor yet the sensations of
+the poor flesh which has grown about thee; for the passive part will look
+to this. If, then, whatever the time may be when thou shalt be near to
+thy departure, neglecting everything else thou shalt respect only thy
+ruling faculty and the divinity within thee, and if thou shalt be afraid
+not because thou must some time cease to live, but if thou shalt fear
+never to have begun to live according to nature,--then thou wilt be a man
+worthy of the universe which hast produced thee, and thou wilt cease to
+be a stranger in thy native land, and to wonder at things which happen
+daily as if they were something unexpected, and not to be dependent on
+this or that.
+
+2. God sees the minds [ruling principles] of all men bared of the
+material vesture and rind and impurities. For with his intellectual part
+alone he touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived
+from himself into these bodies. And if thou also usest thyself to do
+this, thou wilt rid thyself of thy much trouble. For he who regards not
+the poor flesh which envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by
+looking after raiment and dwelling and fame and such like externals and
+show.
+
+3. The things are three of which thou art composed: a little body, a
+little breath [life], intelligence. Of these the first two are thine, so
+far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but the third alone is
+properly thine. Therefore if thou shalt separate from thyself, that is,
+from thy understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever thou hast
+done or said thyself, and whatever future things trouble thee because
+they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops thee or in the
+breath [life], which is by nature associated with the body, is attached
+to thee independent of thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent
+vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the
+things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and
+accepting what happens and saying the truth: if thou wilt separate, I
+say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the
+impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is
+past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles' sphere,
+
+  "All round and in its joyous rest reposing";
+
+and if thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy life, that is,
+the present,--then thou wilt be able to pass that portion of life which
+remains for thee up to the time of thy death free from perturbations,
+nobly, and obedient to thy own daemon [to the god that is within thee]
+(II. 13, 17; III. 5, 6; XI. 12).
+
+4. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than
+all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of
+himself than on the opinion of others. If then a god or a wise teacher
+should present himself to a man and bid him to think of nothing and to
+design nothing which he would not express as soon as he conceived it, he
+could not endure it even for a single day. So much more respect have we
+to what our neighbors shall think of us than to what we shall think of
+ourselves.
+
+5. How can it be that the gods, after having arranged all things well and
+benevolently for mankind, have overlooked this alone, that some men, and
+very good men, and men who, as we may say, have had most communion with
+the divinity, and through pious acts and religious observances have been
+most intimate with the divinity, when they have once died should never
+exist again, but should be completely extinguished?
+
+But if this is so, be assured that if it ought to have been otherwise,
+the gods would have done it. For if it were just, it would also be
+possible; and if it were according to nature, nature would have had it
+so. But because it is not so, if in fact it is not so, be thou convinced
+that it ought not to have been so: for thou seest even of thyself that in
+this inquiry thou art disputing with the Deity; and we should not thus
+dispute with the gods, unless they were most excellent and most just; but
+if this is so, they would not have allowed anything in the ordering of
+the universe to be neglected unjustly and irrationally.
+
+6. Practise thyself even in the things which thou despairest of
+accomplishing. For even the left hand, which is ineffectual for all other
+things for want of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than the
+right hand; for it has been practised in this.
+
+7. Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when
+he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the
+boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.
+
+8. Contemplate the formative principles [forms] of things bare of their
+coverings; the purposes of actions; consider what pain is, what pleasure
+is, and death, and fame; who is to himself the cause of his uneasiness;
+how no man is hindered by another; that everything is opinion.
+
+9. In the application of thy principles thou must be like the
+pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the
+sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and
+needs to do nothing else than use it.
+
+10. See what things are in themselves, dividing them into matter, form,
+and purpose.
+
+11. What a power man has to do nothing except what God will approve, and
+to accept all that God may give him.
+
+12. With respect to that which happens conformably to nature, we ought to
+blame neither gods, for they do nothing wrong either voluntarily or
+involuntarily, nor men, for they do nothing wrong except involuntarily.
+Consequently we should blame nobody (II. 11, 12, 13; VII. 62; VIII. 17,
+18).
+
+13. How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything
+which happens in life.
+
+14. Either there is a fatal necessity and invincible order, or a kind
+providence, or a confusion without a purpose and without a director (IV.
+27). If then there is an invincible necessity, why dost thou resist? But
+if there is a providence which allows itself to be propitiated, make
+thyself worthy of the help of the divinity. But if there is a confusion
+without a governor, be content that in such a tempest thou hast in
+thyself a certain ruling intelligence. And even if the tempest carry thee
+away, let it carry away the poor flesh, the poor breath, everything else;
+for the intelligence at least it will not carry away.
+
+15. Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendor until it
+is extinguished; and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and
+temperance be extinguished [before thy death]?
+
+16. When a man has presented the appearance of having done wrong [say],
+How then do I know if this is a wrongful act? And even if he has done
+wrong, how do I know that he has not condemned himself? And so this is
+like tearing his own face. Consider that he who would not have the bad
+man do wrong, is like the man who would not have the fig-tree bear juice
+in the figs, and infants cry, and the horse neigh, and whatever else must
+of necessity be. For what must a man do who has such a character? If then
+thou art irritable, cure this man's disposition.
+
+17. If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.
+[For let thy efforts be--]
+
+18. In everything always observe what the thing is which produces for
+thee an appearance, and resolve it by dividing it into the formal, the
+material, the purpose, and the time within which it must end.
+
+19. Perceive at last that thou hast in thee something better and more
+divine than the things which cause the various effects, and as it were
+pull thee by the strings. What is there now in my mind,--is it fear, or
+suspicion, or desire, or anything of the kind (V. 11)?
+
+20. First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose. Second,
+make thy acts refer to nothing else than to a social end.
+
+21. Consider that before long thou wilt be nobody and nowhere, nor will
+any of the things exist which thou now seest, nor any of those who are
+now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned
+and to perish, in order that other things in continuous succession may
+exist (IX. 28).
+
+22. Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
+Take away then, when thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner who
+has doubled the promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and a
+waveless bay.
+
+23. Any one activity, whatever it may be, when it has ceased at its
+proper time, suffers no evil because it has ceased; nor he who has done
+this act, does he suffer any evil for this reason, that the act has
+ceased. In like manner then the whole which consists of all the acts,
+which is our life, if it cease at its proper time, suffers no evil for
+this reason, that it has ceased; nor he who has terminated this series at
+the proper time, has he been ill dealt with. But the proper time and the
+limit nature fixes, sometimes as in old age the peculiar nature of man,
+but always the universal nature, by the change of whose parts the whole
+universe continues ever young and perfect. And everything which is useful
+to the universal is always good and in season. Therefore the termination
+of life for every man is no evil, because neither is it shameful, since
+it is both independent of the will and not opposed to the general
+interest, but it is good, since it is seasonable, and profitable to and
+congruent with the universal. For thus too he is moved by the Deity who
+is moved in the same manner with the Deity, and moved towards the same
+things in his mind.
+
+24. These three principles thou must have in readiness: In the things
+which thou dost do nothing either inconsiderately or otherwise than as
+Justice herself would act; but with respect to what may happen to thee
+from without, consider that it happens either by chance or according to
+providence, and thou must neither blame chance nor accuse providence.
+Second, consider what every being is from the seed to the time of its
+receiving a soul, and from the reception of a soul to the giving back of
+the same, and of what things every being is compounded, and into what
+things it is resolved. Third, if thou shouldst suddenly be raised up
+above the earth, and shouldst look down on human things, and observe the
+variety of them how great it is, and at the same time also shouldst see
+at a glance how great is the number of beings who dwell all around in the
+air and the ether, consider that as often as thou shouldst be raised up,
+thou wouldst see the same things, sameness of form and shortness of
+duration. Are these things to be proud of?
+
+25. Cast away opinion: thou art saved. Who then hinders thee from casting
+it away?
+
+26. When thou art troubled about anything, thou hast forgotten this, that
+all things happen according to the universal nature; and forgotten this,
+that a man's wrongful act is nothing to thee; and further thou hast
+forgotten this, that everything which happens, always happened so and
+will happen so, and now happens so everywhere; forgotten this too, how
+close is the kinship between a man and the whole human race, for it is a
+community, not of a little blood or seed, but of intelligence. And thou
+hast forgotten this too, that every man's intelligence is a god and is an
+efflux of the Deity; and forgotten this, that nothing is a man's own, but
+that his child and his body and his very soul came from the Deity;
+forgotten this, that everything is opinion; and lastly thou hast
+forgotten that every man lives the present time only, and loses only
+this.
+
+27. Constantly bring to thy recollection those who have complained
+greatly about anything, those who have been most conspicuous by the
+greatest fame or misfortunes or enmities or fortunes of any kind: then
+think where are they all now? Smoke and ash and a tale, or not even a
+tale. And let there be present to thy mind also everything of this sort,
+how Fabius Catullinus lived in the country, and Lucius Lupus in his
+gardens, and Stertinius at Baiae, and Tiberius at Capreae, and Velius
+Rufus [or Rufus at Velia]; and in fine think of the eager pursuit of
+anything conjoined with pride; and how worthless everything is after
+which men violently strain; and how much more philosophical it is for a
+man in the opportunities presented to him to show himself just,
+temperate, obedient to the gods, and to do this with all simplicity: for
+the pride which is proud of its want of pride is the most intolerable of
+all.
+
+28. To those who ask, Where hast thou seen the gods, or how dost thou
+comprehend that they exist and so worshippest them, I answer, in the
+first place, they may be seen even with the eyes; [Footnote: 8] in the
+second place, neither have I seen even my own soul, and yet I honor it.
+Thus then with respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of
+their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them.
+
+29. The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what
+it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy
+soul to do justice and to say the truth. What remains, except to enjoy
+life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the
+smallest intervals between?
+
+30. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls,
+mountains, and other things infinite. There is one common substance,
+though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several
+qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among infinite
+natures and individual circumscriptions [or individuals]. There is one
+intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided. Now in the things which
+have been mentioned, all the other parts, such as those which are air and
+matter, are without sensation and have no fellowship: and yet even these
+parts the intelligent principle holds together and the gravitation
+towards the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which
+is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion
+is not interrupted.
+
+31. What dost thou wish,--to continue to exist? Well, dost thou wish to
+have sensation, movement, growth, and then again to cease to grow, to use
+thy speech, to think? What is there of all these things which seems to
+thee worth desiring? But if it is easy to set little value on all these
+things, turn to that which remains, which is to follow reason and God.
+But it is inconsistent with honoring reason and God to be troubled
+because by death a man will be deprived of the other things.
+
+32. How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned
+to every man, for it is very soon swallowed up in the eternal! And how
+small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the
+universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou
+creepest! Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to
+act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature
+brings.
+
+33. How does the ruling faculty make use of itself? for all lies in this.
+But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is
+only lifeless ashes and smoke.
+
+34. This reflection is most adapted to move us to contempt of death, that
+even those who think pleasure to be a good and pain an evil still have
+despised it.
+
+35. The man to whom that only is good which comes in due season, and to
+whom it is the same thing whether he has done more or fewer acts
+conformable to right reason, and to whom it makes no difference whether
+he contemplates the world for a longer or a shorter time,--for this man
+neither is death a terrible thing (II. 7; VI. 23; X. 20; XII. 23).
+
+36. Man, thou hast been a citizen in this great state [the world]; what
+difference does it make to thee whether for five years [or three]? for
+that which is conformable to the laws is just for all. Where is the
+hardship then, if no tyrant nor yet an unjust judge sends thee away from
+the state, but nature, who brought thee into it? the same as if a praetor
+who has employed an actor dismisses him from the stage.--"But I have not
+finished the five acts, but only three of them."--Thou sayest well, but
+in life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete
+drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and
+now of its dissolution: but thou art the cause of neither. Depart then
+satisfied, for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
+
+
+It has been said that the Stoic philosophy first showed its real value
+when it passed from Greece to Rome. The doctrines of Zeno and his
+successors were well suited to the gravity and practical good sense of
+the Romans; and even in the Republican period we have an example of a
+man, M. Cato Uticensis, who lived the life of a Stoic and died
+consistently with the opinions which he professed. He was a man, says
+Cicero, who embraced the Stoic philosophy from conviction; not for the
+purpose of vain discussion, as most did, but in order to make his life
+conformable to the Stoic precepts. In the wretched times from the death
+of Augustus to the murder of Domitian, there was nothing but the Stoic
+philosophy which could console and support the followers of the old
+religion under imperial tyranny and amidst universal corruption. There
+were even then noble minds that could dare and endure, sustained by a
+good conscience and an elevated idea of the purposes of man's existence.
+Such were Paetus Thrasca, Helvidius Priscus, Cornutus, C. Musonius Rufus,
+and the poets Persius and Juvenal, whose energetic language and manly
+thoughts may be as instructive to us now as they might have been to their
+contemporaries. Persius died under Nero's bloody reign; but Juvenal had
+the good fortune to survive the tyrant Domitian and to see the better
+times of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. His best precepts are derived from
+the Stoic school, and they are enforced in his finest verses by the
+unrivalled vigor of the Latin language.
+
+The best two expounders of the later Stoical philosophy were a Greek
+slave and a Roman emperor. Epictetus, a Phrygian Greek, was brought to
+Rome, we know not how, but he was there the slave and afterwards the
+freedman of his unworthy master, Epaphroditus. Like other great teachers
+he wrote nothing, and we are indebted to his grateful pupil Arrian for
+what we have of Epictetus' discourses. Arrian wrote eight books of the
+discourses of Epictetus, of which only four remain and some fragments. We
+have also from Arrian's hand the small Enchiridion or Manual of the chief
+precepts of Epictetus. There is a valuable commentary on the Enchiridion
+by Simplicius, who lived in the time of the emperor Justinian.
+
+Antoninus in his first book (I. 7), in which he gratefully commemorates
+his obligations to his teachers, says that he was made acquainted by
+Junius Rusticus with the discourses of Epictetus, whom he mentions also
+in other passages (IV. 41; XI 34, 36). Indeed, the doctrines of Epictetus
+and Antoninus are the same, and Epictetus is the best authority for the
+explanation of the philosophical language of Antoninus and the exposition
+of his opinions. But the method of the two philosophers is entirely
+different. Epictetus addressed himself to his hearers in a continuous
+discourse and in a familiar and simple manner. Antoninus wrote down his
+reflections for his own use only, in short, unconnected paragraphs, which
+are often obscure. [Footnote: 9]
+
+The want of arrangement in the original and of connection among the
+numerous paragraphs, the corruption of the text, the obscurity of the
+language and the style, and sometimes perhaps the confusion in the
+writer's own ideas,--besides all this, there is occasionally an apparent
+contradiction in the emperor's thoughts, as if his principles were
+sometimes unsettled, as if doubt sometimes clouded his mind. A man who
+leads a life of tranquillity and reflection, who is not disturbed at home
+and meddles not with the affairs of the world, may keep his mind at ease
+and his thoughts in one even course. But such a man has not been tried.
+All his Ethical philosophy and his passive virtue might turn out to be
+idle words, if he were once exposed to the rude realities of human
+existence. Fine thoughts and moral dissertations from men who have not
+worked and suffered may be read, but they will be forgotten. No religion,
+no Ethical philosophy is worth anything, if the teacher has not lived the
+"life of an apostle," and been ready to die "the death of a martyr." "Not
+in passivity (the passive affects) but in activity lie the evil and the
+good of the rational social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie
+not in passivity, but in activity" (IX. 16). The emperor Antoninus was a
+practical moralist. From his youth he followed a laborious discipline,
+and though his high station placed him above all want or the fear of it,
+he lived as frugally and temperately as the poorest philosopher.
+Epictetus wanted little, and it seems that he always had the little that
+he wanted and he was content with it, as he had been with his servile
+station. But Antoninus after his accession to the empire sat on an uneasy
+seat. He had the administration of an empire which extended from the
+Euphrates to the Atlantic, from the cold mountains of Scotland to the hot
+sands of Africa; and we may imagine, though we cannot know it by
+experience, what must be the trials, the troubles, the anxiety, and the
+sorrows of him who has the world's business on his hands, with the wish
+to do the best that he can, and the certain knowledge that he can do very
+little of the good which he wishes.
+
+In the midst of war, pestilence, conspiracy, general corruption, and with
+the weight of so unwieldy an empire upon him, we may easily comprehend
+that Antoninus often had need of all his fortitude to support him. The
+best and the bravest men have moments of doubt and of weakness; but if
+they are the best and the bravest, they rise again from their depression
+by recurring to first principles, as Antoninus does. The emperor says
+that life is smoke, a vapor, and St. James in his Epistle is of the same
+mind; that the world is full of envious, jealous, malignant people, and a
+man might be well content to get out of it. He has doubts perhaps
+sometimes even about that to which he holds most firmly. There are only a
+few passages of this kind, but they are evidence of the struggles which
+even the noblest of the sons of men had to maintain against the hard
+realities of his daily life. A poor remark it is which I have seen
+somewhere, and made in a disparaging way, that the emperor's reflections
+show that he had need of consolation and comfort in life, and even to
+prepare him to meet his death. True that he did need comfort and support,
+and we see how he found it. He constantly recurs to his fundamental
+principle that the universe is wisely ordered, that every man is a part
+of it and must conform to that order which he cannot change, that
+whatever the Deity has done is good, that all mankind are a man's
+brethren, that he must love and cherish them and try to make them better,
+even those who would do him harm. This is his conclusion (II. 17): "What
+then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one,
+Philosophy. But this consists in keeping the divinity within a man free
+from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing
+nothing without a purpose nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling
+the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and besides,
+accepting all that happens and all that is allotted, as coming from
+thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and finally waiting
+for death with a cheerful mind as being nothing else than a dissolution
+of the elements of which every living being is compounded. But if there
+is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into
+another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and
+dissolution of all the elements [himself]? for it is according to nature;
+and nothing is evil that is according to nature."
+
+The Physic of Antoninus is the knowledge of the Nature of the Universe,
+of its government, and of the relation of man's nature to both. He names
+the universe (VI. 1), "the universal substance," and he adds that
+"reason" governs the universe. He also (VI. 9) uses the terms "universal
+nature" or "nature of the universe." He (VI. 25) calls the universe "the
+one and all, which we name Cosmos or Order." If he ever seems to use
+these general terms as significant of the All, of all that man can in any
+way conceive to exist, he still on other occasions plainly distinguishes
+between Matter, Material things, and Cause, Origin, Reason. This is
+conformable to Zeno's doctrine that there are two original principles of
+all things, that which acts and that which is acted upon. That which is
+acted on is the formless matter: that which acts is the reason, God, who
+is eternal and operates through all matter, and produces all things. So
+Antoninus (V. 32) speaks of the reason which pervades all substance, and
+through all time by fixed periods (revolutions) administers the universe.
+God is eternal, and Matter is eternal. It is God who gives form to
+matter, but he is not said to have created matter. According to this
+view, which is as old as Anaxagoras, God and matter exist independently,
+but God governs matter. This doctrine is simply the expression of the
+fact of the existence both of matter and of God. The Stoics did not
+perplex themselves with the insoluble question of the origin and nature
+of matter. Antoninus also assumes a beginning of things, as we now know
+them; but his language is sometimes very obscure.
+
+Matter consists of elemental parts of which all material objects are
+made. But nothing is permanent in form. The nature of the universe,
+according to Antoninus' expression (IV. 36), "loves nothing so much as to
+change the things which are, and to make new things like them. For
+everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But
+thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a
+womb: but this is a very vulgar notion." All things then are in a
+constant flux and change: some things are dissolved into the elements,
+others come in their places; and so the "whole universe continues ever
+young and perfect."
+
+When we look at the motions of the planets, the action of what we call
+gravitation, the elemental combination of unorganized bodies and their
+resolution, the production of plants and of living bodies, their
+generation, growth, and their dissolution, which we call their death, we
+observe a regular sequence of phenomena, which within the limits of
+experience present and past, so far as we know the past, is fixed and
+invariable. But if this is not so, if the order and sequence of
+phenomena, as known to us, are subject to change in the course of an
+infinite progression,--and such change is conceivable,--we have not
+discovered, nor shall we ever discover, the whole of the order and
+sequence of phenomena, in which sequence there may be involved according
+to its very nature, that is, according to its fixed order, some variation
+of what we now call the Order or Nature of Things. It is also conceivable
+that such changes have taken place,--changes in the order of things, as
+we are compelled by the imperfection of language to call them, but which
+are no changes; and further it is certain that our knowledge of the true
+sequence of all actual phenomena, as for instance the phenomena of
+generation, growth, and dissolution, is and ever must be imperfect.
+
+We do not fare much better when we speak of Causes and Effects than when
+we speak of Nature. For the practical purposes of life we may use the
+terms cause and effect conveniently, and we may fix a distinct meaning to
+them, distinct enough at least to prevent all misunderstanding. But the
+case is different when we speak of causes and effects as of Things. All
+that we know is phenomena, as the Greeks called them, or appearances
+which follow one another in a regular order, as we conceive it, so that
+if some one phenomenon should fail in the series, we conceive that there
+must either be an interruption of the series, or that something else will
+appear after the phenomenon which has failed to appear, and will occupy
+the vacant place; and so the series in its progression may be modified or
+totally changed. Cause and effect then mean nothing in the sequence of
+natural phenomena beyond what I have said; and the real cause, or the
+transcendent cause, as some would call it, of each successive phenomenon
+is in that which is the cause of all things which are, which have been,
+and which will be forever. Thus the word Creation may have a real sense
+if we consider it as the first, if we can conceive a first, in the
+present order of natural phenomena; but in the vulgar sense a creation of
+all things at a certain time, followed by a quiescence of the first
+cause, and an abandonment of all sequences of Phenomena to the laws of
+Nature, or to the other words that people may use, is absolutely absurd.
+
+Man being conscious that he is a spiritual power or an intellectual
+power, or that he has such a power, in whatever way he conceives that he
+has it,--for I wish simply to state a fact,--from this power which he has
+in himself, he is led, as Antoninus says, to believe that there is a
+greater power, which, as the old Stoics tell us, pervades the whole
+universe as the intellect pervades man.
+
+God exists then, but what do we know of his nature? Antoninus says that
+the soul of man is an efflux from the divinity. We have bodies like
+animals, but we have reason, intelligence, as the gods. Animals have life
+and what we call instincts or natural principles of action: but the
+rational animal man alone has a rational, intelligent soul. Antoninus
+insists on this continually: God is in man, and so we must constantly
+attend to the divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can
+have any knowledge of the nature of God. The human soul is in a sense a
+portion of the divinity, and the soul alone has any communication with
+the Deity; for as he says (XII. 2): "With his intellectual part alone God
+touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from
+himself into these bodies." In fact he says that which is hidden within a
+man is life, that is the man himself. All the rest is vesture, covering,
+organs, instrument, which the living man, the real man, uses for the
+purpose of his present existence. The air is universally diffused for him
+who is able to respire; and so for him who is willing to partake of it
+the intelligent power, which holds within it all things, is diffused as
+wide and free as the air (VIII. 54). It is by living a divine life that
+man approaches to a knowledge of the divinity. It is by following the
+divinity within, as Antoninus calls it, that man comes nearest to the
+Deity, the supreme good; for man can never attain to perfect agreement
+with his internal guide. "Live with the gods. And he does live with the
+gods who constantly shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with
+that which is assigned to him, and that it does all the daemon wishes,
+which Zeus hath given to every man for his guardian and guide, and a
+portion of himself. And this daemon is every man's understanding and
+reason" (V. 27).
+
+There is in man, that is in the reason, the intelligence, a superior
+faculty which if it is exercised rules all the rest. A man must reverence
+only his ruling faculty and the divinity within him. As we must reverence
+that which is supreme in the universe, so we must reverence that which is
+supreme in ourselves; and this is that which is of like kind with that
+which is supreme in the universe (V. 21).
+
+Antoninus speaks of a man's condemnation of himself when the diviner part
+within him has been overpowered and yields to the less honorable and to
+the perishable part, the body, and its gross pleasures.
+
+Antoninus did not view God and the material universe as the same, any
+more than he viewed the body and soul of man as one. Antoninus has no
+speculations on the absolute nature of the Deity. It was not his fashion
+to waste his time on what man cannot understand. He was satisfied that
+God exists, that he governs all things, that man can only have an
+imperfect knowledge of his nature, and he must attain this imperfect
+knowledge by reverencing the divinity which is within him, and keeping it
+pure.
+
+From all that has been said, it follows that the universe is administered
+by the Providence of God and that all things are wisely ordered. There
+are passages in which Antoninus expresses doubts, or states different
+possible theories of the constitution and government of the universe; but
+he always recurs to his fundamental principle; that if we admit the
+existence of a deity, we must also admit that he orders all things wisely
+and well (IV. 27; VI. 1; IX. 28; XII. 5).
+
+But if all things are wisely ordered, how is the world so full of what we
+call evil, physical and moral? If instead of saying that there is evil in
+the world, we use the expression which I have used, "what we call evil,"
+we have partly anticipated the emperor's answer. We see and feel and know
+imperfectly very few things in the few years that we live, and all the
+knowledge and all the experience of all the human race is positive
+ignorance of the whole, which is infinite. Now, as our reason teaches us
+that everything is in some way related to and connected with every other
+thing, all notion of evil as being in the universe of things is a
+contradiction; for if the whole comes from and is governed by an
+intelligent being, it is impossible to conceive anything in it which
+tends to the evil or destruction of the whole (VII. 55; X. 6).
+
+Everything is in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists. We might
+imagine the solar system resolved into its elemental parts, and yet the
+whole would still subsist "ever young and perfect."
+
+All things, all forms, are dissolved and new forms appear. All living
+things undergo the change which we call death. If we call death an evil,
+then all change is an evil. Living beings also suffer pain, and man
+suffers most of all, for he suffers both in and by his body and by his
+intelligent part. Men suffer also from one another, and perhaps the
+largest part of human suffering comes to man from those whom he calls his
+brothers. Antoninus says, (VIII. 55) "Generally, wickedness does no harm
+at all to the universe; and particularly, the wickedness [of one man]
+does no harm to another. It is only harmful to him who has it in his
+power to be released from it as soon as he shall choose." The first part
+of this is perfectly consistent with the doctrine that the whole can
+sustain no evil or harm. The second part must be explained by the Stoic
+principle that there is no evil in anything which is not in our power.
+What wrong we suffer from another is his evil, not ours. But this is an
+admission that there is evil in a sort, for he who does wrong does evil,
+and if others can endure the wrong, still there is evil in the wrong-
+doer. Antoninus (XI. 18) gives many excellent precepts with respect to
+wrongs and injuries, and his precepts are practical. He teaches us to
+bear what we cannot avoid, and his lessons may be just as useful to him
+who denies the being and the government of God as to him who believes in
+both. There is no direct answer in Antoninus to the objections which may
+be made to the existence and providence of God because of the moral
+disorder and suffering which are in the world, except this answer which
+he makes in reply to the supposition that even the best men may be
+extinguished by death. He says if it is so, we may be sure that if it
+ought to have been otherwise, the gods would have ordered it otherwise
+(XII. 5). His conviction of the wisdom which we may observe in the
+government of the world is too strong to be disturbed by any apparent
+irregularities in the order of things. That these disorders exist is a
+fact, and those who would conclude from them against the being and
+government of God conclude too hastily. We all admit that there is an
+order in the material world, a constitution, a system, a relation of
+parts to one another and a fitness of the whole for something. So in the
+constitution of plants and of animals there is an order, a fitness for
+some end. Sometimes the order, as we conceive it, is interrupted and the
+end, as we conceive it, is not attained. The seed, the plant, or the
+animal sometimes perishes before it has passed through all its changes
+and done all its uses. It is according to Nature, that is a fixed order,
+for some to perish early and for others to do all their uses and leave
+successors to take their place. So man has a corporeal and intellectual
+and moral constitution fit for certain uses, and on the whole man
+performs these uses, dies, and leaves other men in his place. So society
+exists, and a social state is manifestly the natural state of man,--the
+state for which his nature fits him, and society amidst innumerable
+irregularities and disorders still subsists; and perhaps we may say that
+the history of the past and our present knowledge give us a reasonable
+hope that its disorders will diminish, and that order, its governing
+principle may be more firmly established. As order then, a fixed order,
+we may say, subject to deviations real or apparent, must be admitted to
+exist in the whole nature of things, that which we call disorder or evil,
+as it seems to us, does not in any way alter the fact of the general
+constitution of things having a nature or fixed order. Nobody will
+conclude from the existence of disorder that order is not the rule, for
+the existence of order both physical and moral is proved by daily
+experience and all past experience. We cannot conceive how the order of
+the universe is maintained: we cannot even conceive how our own life from
+day to day is continued, nor how we perform the simplest movements of the
+body, nor how we grow and think and act, though we know many of the
+conditions which are necessary for all these functions. Knowing nothing
+then of the unseen power which acts in ourselves except by what is done,
+we know nothing of the power which acts through what we call all time and
+all space; but seeing that there is a nature or fixed order in all things
+known to us, it is conformable to the nature of our minds to believe that
+this universal Nature has a cause which operates continually, and that we
+are totally unable to speculate on the reason of any of those disorders
+or evils which we perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be
+collected from all that Antoninus has said.
+
+The origin of evil is an old question. Achilles tells Priam that Zeus has
+two casks, one filled with good things, and the other with bad, and that
+he gives to men out of each according to his pleasure; and so we must be
+content, for we cannot alter the will of Zeus. One of the Greek
+commentators asks how must we reconcile this doctrine with what we find
+in the first book of the Odyssey, where the king of the gods says, "Men
+say that evil comes to them from us, but they bring it on themselves
+through their own folly." The answer is plain enough even to the Greek
+commentator. The poets make both Achilles and Zeus speak appropriately to
+their several characters. Indeed, Zeus says plainly that men do attribute
+their sufferings to the gods, but they do it falsely, for they are the
+cause of their own sorrows.
+
+Epictetus in his Enchiridion makes short work of the question of evil. He
+says, "As a mark is not set up for the purpose of missing it, so neither
+does the nature of evil exist in the universe." This will appear obscure
+enough to those who are not acquainted with Epictetus, but he always
+knows what he is talking about. We do not set up a mark in order to miss
+it, though we may miss it. God, whose existence Epictetus assumes, has
+not ordered all things so that his purpose shall fail. Whatever there may
+be of what we call evil, the nature of evil, as he expresses it, does not
+exist; that is, evil is not a part of the constitution or nature of
+things. If there were a principle of evil in the constitution of things,
+evil would no longer be evil, as Simplicius argues, but evil would be
+good.
+
+One passage more will conclude this matter. It contains all that the
+emperor could say: "To go from among men, if there are gods, is not a
+thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if
+indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs,
+what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of
+providence? But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human
+things, and they have put all the means in man's power to enable him not
+to fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was anything evil,
+they would have provided for this also, that it should be altogether in a
+man's power not to fall into it. But that which does not make a man
+worse, how can it make a man's life worse? But neither through ignorance,
+nor having the knowledge but not the power to guard against or correct
+these things, is it possible that the nature of the universe has
+overlooked them; nor is it possible that it has made so great a mistake,
+either through want of power or want of skill, that good and evil should
+happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But death certainly and
+life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these things equally
+happen to good and bad men, being things which make us neither better nor
+worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil."
+
+The Ethical part of Antoninus' Philosophy follows from his general
+principles. The end of all his philosophy is to live conformably to
+Nature, both a man's own nature and the nature of the universe. Bishop
+Butler has explained what the Greek philosophers meant when they spoke of
+living according to Nature, and he says that when it is explained, as he
+has explained it and as they understood it, it is, "a manner of speaking
+not loose and undeterminate, but clear and distinct, strictly just and
+true." To live according to Nature is to live according to a man's whole
+nature, not according to a part of it, and to reverence the divinity
+within him as the governor of all his actions. "To the rational animal
+the same act is according to nature and according to reason." That which
+is done contrary to reason is also an act contrary to nature, to the
+whole nature, though it is certainly conformable to some part of man's
+nature, or it could not be done. Man is made for action, not for idleness
+or pleasure. As plants and animals do the uses of their nature, so man
+must do his (V. 1).
+
+Man must also live conformably to the universal nature, conformably to
+the nature of all things of which he is one; and as a citizen of a
+political community he must direct his life and actions with reference to
+those among whom, and for whom, among other purposes, he lives. A man
+must not retire into solitude and cut himself off from his fellow-men. He
+must be ever active to do his part in the great whole. All men are his
+kin, not only in blood, but still more by participating in the same
+intelligence and by being a portion of the same divinity. A man cannot
+really be injured by his brethren, for no act of theirs can make him bad,
+and he must not be angry with them nor hate them: "For we are made for
+co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the
+upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to
+nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn
+away" (II. 1).
+
+Further he says: "Take pleasure in one thing, and rest in it in passing
+from one social act to another social act, thinking of God" (VI. 7).
+Again: "Love mankind. Follow God" (VI. 31). It is the characteristic of
+the rational soul for a man to love his neighbor (XI. 1). Antoninus
+teaches in various passages the forgiveness of injuries, and we know that
+he also practiced what he taught. Bishop Butler remarks that "this divine
+precept to forgive injuries and to love our enemies, though to be met
+with in Gentile moralists, yet is in a peculiar sense a precept of
+Christianity, as our Saviour has insisted more upon it than on any other
+single virtue." The practise of this precept is the most difficult of all
+virtues. Antoninus often enforces it and gives us aid towards following
+it. When we are injured, we feel anger and resentment, and the feeling is
+natural, just, and useful for the conservation of society. It is useful
+that wrong-doers should feel the natural consequences of their actions,
+among which is the disapprobation of society and the resentment of him
+who is wronged. But revenge, in the proper sense of that word, must not
+be practiced. "The best way of avenging thyself," says the emperor, "is
+not to become like, the wrongdoer." It is plain by this that he does not
+mean that we should in any case practise revenge; but he says to those
+who talk of revenging wrongs, "Be not like him who has done the wrong.
+When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what
+opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen
+this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry" (VII.
+26). Antoninus would not deny that wrong naturally produces the feeling
+of anger and resentment, for this is implied in the recommendation to
+reflect on the nature of the man's mind who has done the wrong, and then
+you will have pity instead of resentment; and so it comes to the same as
+St. Paul's advice to be angry and sin not; which, as Butler well explains
+it, is not a recommendation to be angry, which nobody needs, for anger is
+a natural passion, but it is a warning against allowing anger to lead us
+into sin. In short the emperor's doctrine about wrongful acts is this:
+wrong-doers do not know what good and bad are: they offend out of
+ignorance, and in the sense of the Stoics this is true. Though this kind
+of ignorance will never be admitted as a legal excuse, and ought not to
+be admitted as a full excuse in any way by society, there may be grievous
+injuries, such as it is in a man's power to forgive without harm to
+society; and if he forgives because he sees that his enemies know not
+what they do, he is acting in the spirit of the sublime prayer, "Father,
+forgive them, for they know not what they do."
+
+The emperor's moral philosophy was not a feeble, narrow system, which
+teaches a man to look directly to his own happiness, though a man's
+happiness or tranquillity is indirectly promoted by living as he ought to
+do. A man must live conformably to the universal nature, which means, as
+the emperor explains it in many passages, that a man's actions must be
+conformable to his true relations to all other human beings, both as a
+citizen of a political community and as a member of the whole human
+family. This implies, and he often expresses it in the most forcible
+language, that a man's words and action, so far as they affect others,
+must be measured by a fixed rule, which is their consistency with the
+conservation and the interests of the particular society of which he is a
+member, and of the whole human race. To live conformably to such a rule,
+a man must use his rational faculties in order to discern clearly the
+consequences and full effect of all his actions and of the actions of
+others: he must not live a life of contemplation and reflection only,
+though he must often retire within himself to calm and purify his soul by
+thought, but he must mingle in the work of man and be a fellow-laborer
+for the general good.
+
+A man should have an object or purpose in life, that he may direct all
+his energies to it; of course a good object (II. 7). He who has not one
+object or purpose of life, cannot be one and the same all through his
+life (XI. 21). Bacon has a remark to the same effect, on the best means
+of "reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate; which is, the
+electing and propounding unto a man's self good and virtuous ends of his
+life, such as may be in a reasonable sort within his compass to attain."
+He is a happy man who has been wise enough to do this when he was young
+and has had the opportunities; but the emperor seeing well that a man
+cannot always be so wise in his youth, encourages himself to do it when
+he can, and not to let life slip away before he has begun. He who can
+propose to himself good and virtuous ends of life, and be true to them,
+cannot fail to live conformably to his own interest and the universal
+interest, for in the nature of things they are one. If a thing is not
+good for the hive, it is not good for the bee (VI. 54).
+
+One passage may end this matter. "If the gods have determined about me
+and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well,
+for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and as to
+doing me harm, why should they have any desire towards that? For what
+advantage would result to them from this or to the whole, which is the
+special object of their providence? But if they have not determined about
+me individually, they have certainly determined about the whole at least;
+and the things which happen by way of sequence in this general
+arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and to be content with them.
+But if they determine about nothing--which it is wicked to believe, or if
+we do believe it, let us neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear by them,
+nor do anything else which we do as if the gods were present and lived
+with us; but if however the gods determine about none of the things which
+concern us, I am able to determine about myself, and I can inquire about
+that which is useful; and that is useful to every man which is
+conformable to his own constitution and nature. But my nature is rational
+and social; and my city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome;
+but so far as I am a man, it is the world."
+
+It would be tedious, and it is not necessary to state the emperor's
+opinions on all the ways in which a man may profitably use his
+understanding towards perfecting himself in practical virtue. The
+passages to this purpose are in all parts of his book, but as they are in
+no order or connection, a man must use the book a long time before he
+will find out all that is in it. A few words may be added here. If we
+analyze all other things, we find how insufficient they are for human
+life, and how truly worthless many of them are. Virtue alone is
+indivisible, one, and perfectly satisfying. The notion of Virtue cannot
+be considered vague or unsettled, because a man may find it difficult to
+explain the notion fully to himself, or to expound it to others in such a
+way as to prevent cavilling. Virtue is a whole, and no more consists of
+parts than man's intelligence does; and yet we speak of various
+intellectual faculties as a convenient way of expressing the various
+powers which man's intellect shows by his works. In the same way we may
+speak of various virtues or parts of virtue, in a practical sense, for
+the purpose of showing what particular virtues we ought to practise in
+order to the exercise of the whole of virtue, that is, as much as man's
+nature is capable of.
+
+The prime principle in man's constitution is social. The next in order is
+not to yield to the persuasions of the body, when they are not
+conformable to the rational principle, which must govern. The third is
+freedom from error and from deception. "Let then the ruling principle
+holding fast to these things go straight on and it has what is its own"
+(VII. 53). The emperor selects justice as the virtue which is the basis
+of all the rest (X. 11), and this had been said long before his time.
+
+It is true that all people have some notion of what is meant by justice
+as a disposition of the mind, and some notion about acting in conformity
+to this disposition; but experience shows that men's notions about
+justice are as confused as their actions are inconsistent with the true
+notion of justice. The emperor's notion of justice is clear enough, but
+not practical enough for all mankind. "Let there be freedom from
+perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external
+cause; and let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the
+internal cause, that is, let there be movement and action terminating in
+this, in social acts, for this is according to thy nature" (IX. 31). In
+another place (IX. 1) he says that "he who acts unjustly acts impiously,"
+which follows of course from all that he says in various places. He
+insists on the practice of truth as a virtue and as a means to virtue,
+which no doubt it is: for lying even in indifferent things weakens the
+understanding; and lying maliciously is as great a moral offence as a man
+can be guilty of, viewed both as showing an habitual disposition, and
+viewed with respect to consequences. He couples the notion of justice
+with action. A man must not pride himself on having some fine notion of
+justice in his head, but he must exhibit his justice in act.
+
+The Stoics, and Antoninus among them, call some things beautiful and some
+ugly, and as they are beautiful so they are good, and as they are ugly so
+they are evil, or bad (II. 1). All these things, good and evil, are in
+our power, absolutely some of the stricter Stoics would say; in a manner
+only, as those who would not depart altogether from common sense would
+say; practically they are to a great degree in the power of some persons
+and in some circumstances, but in a small degree only in other persons
+and in other circumstances. The Stoics maintain man's free will as to the
+things which are in his power; for as to the things which are out of his
+power, free will terminating in action is of course excluded by the very
+terms of the expression. I hardly know if we can discover exactly
+Antoninus' notion of the free will of man, nor is the question worth the
+inquiry. What he does mean and does say is intelligible. All the things
+which are not in our power are indifferent: they are neither good nor
+bad, morally. Such are life, health, wealth, power, disease, poverty, and
+death. Life and death are all men's portion. Health, wealth, power,
+disease, and poverty happen to men, indifferently to the good and to the
+bad; to those who live according to nature and to those who do not.
+"Life," says the emperor, "is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and
+after fame is oblivion" (II. 17). After speaking of those men who have
+disturbed the world and then died, and of the death of philosophers such
+as Heraclitus, and Democritus, who was destroyed by lice, and of Socrates
+whom other lice (his enemies) destroyed, he says: "What means all this?
+Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou art come to shore;
+get out. If indeed to another life, there is no want of gods, not even
+there. But if to a state without sensation, thou wilt cease to be held by
+pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the vessel which is as much
+inferior as that which serves it is superior: for the one is intelligence
+and Deity; the other is earth and corruption" (III. 3). It is not death
+that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live
+according to nature (XII. 1). Every man should live in such a way as to
+discharge his duty, and to trouble himself about nothing else. He should
+live such a life that he shall always be ready for death, and shall
+depart content when the summons comes. For what is death? "A cessation of
+the impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the strings
+which move the appetites, and of the discursive movements of the
+thoughts, and of the service to the flesh" (VI. 28). Death is such as
+generation is, a mystery of nature (IV. 5). In another passage (IX. 3),
+the exact meaning of which is perhaps doubtful, he speaks of the child
+which leaves the womb, and so he says the soul at death leaves its
+envelope.
+
+Antoninus' opinion of a future life is nowhere clearly expressed. His
+doctrine of the nature of the soul of necessity implies that it does not
+perish absolutely, for a portion of the divinity cannot perish. The
+opinion is at least as old as the time of Epicharmus and Euripides; what
+comes from earth goes back to earth, and what comes from heaven, the
+divinity, returns to him who gave it. But I find nothing clear in
+Antoninus as to the notion of the man existing after death so as to be
+conscious of his sameness with that soul which occupied his vessel of
+clay. He seems to be perplexed on this matter, and finally to have rested
+in this, that God or the gods will do whatever is best, and consistent
+with the university of things.
+
+Nor, I think, does he speak conclusively on another Stoic doctrine, which
+some Stoics practiced,--the anticipating the regular course of nature by
+a man's own act. The reader will find some passages in which this is
+touched on, and he may make of them what he can. But there are passages
+in which the emperor encourages himself to wait for the end patiently and
+with tranquillity; and certainly it is consistent with all his best
+teaching that a man should bear all that falls to his lot and do useful
+acts as long as he lives. He should not therefore abridge the time of his
+usefulness by his own act.
+
+Happiness was not the direct object of a Stoic's life. There is no rule
+of life contained in the precept that a man should pursue his own
+happiness. Many men think that they are seeking happiness when they are
+only seeking the gratification of some particular passion, the strongest
+that they have. The end of a man is, as already explained, to live
+conformably to nature, and he will thus obtain happiness, tranquillity of
+mind, and contentment (III. 12; VIII 2). As a means of living conformably
+to nature he must study the four chief virtues, each of which has its
+proper sphere: wisdom, or the knowledge of good and evil; justice, or the
+giving to every man his due; fortitude, or the enduring of labor and
+pain; and temperance, which is moderation in all things. By thus living
+conformably to nature the Stoic obtained all that he wished or expected.
+His reward was in his virtuous life, and he was satisfied with that.
+
+Epictetus and Antoninus both by precept and example labored to improve
+themselves and others; and if we discover imperfections in their
+teaching, we must still honor these great men who attempted to show that
+there is in man's nature and in the constitution of things sufficient
+reason for living a virtuous life. It is difficult enough to live as we
+ought to live, difficult even for any man to live in such a way as to
+satisfy himself, if he exercises only in a moderate degree the power of
+reflecting upon and reviewing his own conduct; and if all men cannot be
+brought to the same opinions in morals and religion, it is at least worth
+while to give them good reasons for as much as they can be persuaded to
+accept.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+1: This passage is corrupt, and the exact meaning is uncertain.
+
+2: Lorium was a villa on the coast north of Rome, and there Antoninus was
+brought up, and he died there. This also is corrupt.
+
+3: This is corrupt.
+
+4: Antoninus here uses the word [Greek: kosmos] both in the sense of the
+Universe and of Order; and it is difficult to express his meaning.
+
+5: This is corrupt.
+
+6: It appears that there is a defect in the text here.
+
+7: The story is told by Horace in his Satires and by others since, but
+not better.
+
+8: "Seen even with the eyes." It is supposed that this may be explained
+by the Stoic doctrine, that the universe is a god or living being (IV.
+40), and that the celestial bodies are gods (VIII. 19). But the emperor
+may mean that we know that the gods exist, as he afterwards states it,
+because we see what they do; as we know that man has intellectual powers,
+because we see what he does, and in no other way do we know it.
+
+9: The Stoics made three divisions of philosophy,--Physic, Ethic, and
+Logic (VIII. 13). This division, we are told by Diogenes, was made by
+Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect, and by Chrysippus; but
+these philosophers placed the three divisions in the following order,--
+Logic, Physic, Ethic. It appears, however, that this division was made
+before Zeno's time, and acknowledged by Plato, as Cicero remarks. Logic
+is not synonymous with our term Logic in the narrower sense of that word.
+
+Cleanthes, a Stoic, subdivided the three divisions, and made six,--
+Dialectic and Rhetoric, comprised in Logic; Ethic and Politic; Physic and
+Theology. This division was merely for practical use, for all Philosophy
+is one. Even among the earliest Stoics Logic, or Dialectic, does not
+occupy the same place as in Plato: it is considered only as an instrument
+which is to be used for the other divisions of Philosophy. An exposition
+of the earlier Stoic doctrines and of their modifications would require a
+volume. My object is to explain only the opinions of Antoninus, so far as
+they can be collected from his book.
+
+According to the subdivision of Cleanthes, Physic and Theology go
+together, or the study of the nature of Things, and the study of the
+nature of the Deity, so far as man can understand the Deity, and of his
+government of the universe. This division or subdivision is not formally
+adopted by Antoninus, for, as already observed, there is no method in his
+book; but it is virtually contained in it.
+
+Cleanthes also connects Ethic and Politic, or the study of the principles
+of morals and the study of the constitution of civil society; and
+undoubtedly he did well in subdividing Ethic into two parts, Ethic in the
+narrower sense and Politic; for though the two are intimately connected,
+they are also very distinct, and many questions can only be properly
+discussed by carefully observing the distinction. Antoninus does not
+treat of Politic. His subject is Ethic, and Ethic in its practical
+application to his own conduct in life as a man and as a governor. His
+Ethic is founded on his doctrines about man's nature, the Universal
+Nature, and the relation of every man to everything else. It is therefore
+intimately and inseparably connected with Physic, or the nature of
+Things, and with Theology, or the Nature of the Deity. He advises us to
+examine well all the impressions on our minds and to form a right
+judgment of them, to make just conclusions, and to inquire into the
+meaning of words, and so far to apply Dialectic; but he has no attempt at
+any exposition of Dialectic, and his philosophy is in substance purely
+moral and practical. He says, "Constantly and, if it be possible, on the
+occasion of every Impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of
+Physic, of Ethic, and of Dialectic": which is only another way of telling
+us to examine the impression in every possible way. In another passage
+(III. 11) he says, "To the aids which have been mentioned, let this one
+still be added: make for thyself a definition or description of the
+object which is presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a
+thing it is in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety,
+and tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the things of which it
+has been compounded, and into which it will be resolved." Such an
+examination implies a use of Dialectic, which Antoninus accordingly
+employed as a means towards establishing his Physical, Theological, and
+Ethical principles.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Thoughts Of The Emperor Marcus
+Aurelius Antoninus, by Marcus Aurelius
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS OF MARCUS AURELIUS ***
+
+This file should be named 6920.txt or 6920.zip
+
+Produced by Robert Nield, Tom Allen, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/6920.zip b/old/6920.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc8d1bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/6920.zip