Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

44 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
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times of Trajan ! Again
it is the same. That
life too is dead. So likewise scan the many
registers of ages and of nations ; see how hard
they strove, how fast they fell, and were resolved
into the elements. Above all dwell in retrospect
on those whom you yourself have seen straining
after vanities, instead of following out the law of
their own being, and, clinging tight to that, resting
content. This acts as a sure reminder that interest
in an object must be in proportion to the real
worth of the particular object. It will save you
from disheartenment not to become unduly en-
grossed in things of lesser moment
33 The accustomed phrases of old days are the
archaisms of to-day.
So too the names that were
once on all men's lips, are now as it were archaisms
Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Dentatus ;
and a little
later, Scipio and Cato ; yes even Augustus, and so
with Hadrian and Antoninus. All things fade, as
a tale that is told, and soon are buried in complete
oblivion. This is true even of the shining lights
of fame. As for the rest, no sooner is the breath
out of them, than they are *
to fortune and to fame
unknown.' 1 And what, after all, is eternity of
1 Marcus quotes two familiar epithets from Homer, Od. i. 242.