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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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40 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

For which <strong>of</strong> these can praise beautify, or censure<br />

mar? Is the emerald less perfect, for lacking<br />

praise ? or is gold, or ivory, or purple ? a lyre or<br />

a poniard, a floweret or a shrub ?<br />

21 If souls survive death, how can the air hold<br />

them from all eternity ? How, we reply, does<br />

earth hold the bodies <strong>of</strong> generation after generation<br />

committed <strong>to</strong> the grave ? Just as on earth, after<br />

a certain term <strong>of</strong> survival, change and dissolution<br />

<strong>of</strong> substance makes room for other dead bodies,<br />

so <strong>to</strong>o the souls transmuted in<strong>to</strong> air, after a period<br />

<strong>of</strong> survival, change by processes <strong>of</strong> diffusion and<br />

<strong>of</strong> ignition, and are resumed in<strong>to</strong> the seminal prin-<br />

ciple <strong>of</strong> the universe, and in this way make room<br />

for others <strong>to</strong> take up their habitation in their stead.<br />

Such is the natural answer, assuming the survival<br />

<strong>of</strong> souls. And we must consider not only the sum<br />

<strong>to</strong>tal <strong>of</strong> bodies duly buried, but also <strong>of</strong> creatures<br />

daily devoured by ourselves and the other animals.<br />

What numbers are thus consumed, and as it were<br />

buried in the bodies <strong>of</strong> those who feed on them !<br />

Yet the requisite room is provided by the assimila-<br />

tion in<strong>to</strong> blood, and forms <strong>of</strong> variation in<strong>to</strong> air or fire.<br />

How can the truth be searched out in this case ?<br />

By distinguishing between matter and cause.

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