Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

in TO HIMSELF 29
still incomplete, like an actor quitting the stage
before the piece is finished and played out. He
does not cringe nor brag, he does not lean nor
yet stand off, he is accountable to none and yet
has no concealments.
Treat reverently your assumptive faculty : by
it and it alone is your Inner Self secured against
9
assumptions not in harmony with nature and with
the constitution of a rational creature. It is our
warranty for mental circumspection, for community
with men, and for the walk with gods.
Casting all else away,
hold fast these few 10
verities. And bear in mind withal that every man
lives only in the present, this passing moment ;
all else is life outlived, or yet undisclosed. Man's
life has but a tiny span, tiny as the corner of earth
on which he lives, short as fame's longest tenure,
handed along the line of short-lived mortals, who
do not even know themselves, far less the dead
of long ago.
To these add yet one injunction more. Always 11
define and outline carefully the object of percep-
tion, so as to realise its naked substance, to dis-
criminate its own totality by aid of its surroundings,
to master its specific attributes, and those of the