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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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i8 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

face, and mentally analyses the idea in<strong>to</strong> the im-<br />

pressions which it contains, will come <strong>to</strong> regard it<br />

simply as an act <strong>of</strong> nature ;<br />

and none but a child<br />

is terrified at that. Nay, and not merely an<br />

act <strong>of</strong> nature, but for nature's good. Finally, by<br />

intellect we learn how man has <strong>to</strong>uch with god,<br />

and with what part <strong>of</strong> his being, and how, when<br />

this takes place, the said part is affected.<br />

13 Nothing is more disheartening than the weary<br />

round <strong>of</strong> spying out everything, probing (as<br />

Pindar says) '<br />

the depths <strong>of</strong> earth/ guessing and<br />

prying at the secrets <strong>of</strong> our neighbours' souls,<br />

instead <strong>of</strong> realising that it is enough <strong>to</strong> keep<br />

solely <strong>to</strong> the god within, and <strong>to</strong> serve him with<br />

all honesty ; and our service <strong>to</strong> god is <strong>to</strong> keep<br />

him pure from passion, and waywardness, and dis-<br />

content with that which comes from gods or men.<br />

The gods' works command respect, by virtue <strong>of</strong><br />

their excellence ;<br />

<strong>of</strong> the bond <strong>of</strong> brotherhood ;<br />

the works <strong>of</strong> men love, by virtue<br />

and sometimes withal<br />

pity, by reason <strong>of</strong> their ignorance <strong>of</strong> good and evil,<br />

a blindness as disabling as that which obliterates<br />

distinction between black and white.<br />

14 Though you live three thousand years, ay or<br />

three million, no man, remember, can lose another

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