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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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84 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

ence <strong>of</strong> life ; up and down, everything<br />

mono<strong>to</strong>nous round. How long? How long?<br />

is one<br />

47 Constantly realise the dead men <strong>of</strong> all kinds,<br />

<strong>of</strong> every vocation, <strong>of</strong> every nationality, all dead.<br />

Come down if you will <strong>to</strong> Philistion, Phoebus,<br />

Origanion. Pass now <strong>to</strong> other 'tribes <strong>of</strong> the<br />

great<br />

dead '<br />

: we <strong>to</strong>o must pass whither so many<br />

have gone before skilled ora<strong>to</strong>rs, august philo-<br />

sophers, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates ;<br />

the heroes <strong>of</strong> old time ; generals and monarchs<br />

that came after ; and in their train Eudoxus,<br />

Hipparchus, Archimedes, minds keen and l<strong>of</strong>ty,<br />

wits busy supple and precocious ; yes and the<br />

Menippuses <strong>to</strong>o, who have made man's fateful<br />

fleeting life their jest. Realise all these, all long<br />

since in the dust. What matters it <strong>to</strong> them ?<br />

what, still more, <strong>to</strong> those who have not even left<br />

a name ? Here one thing is <strong>of</strong> real worth, <strong>to</strong><br />

live out life in truth and justice, with charity even<br />

<strong>to</strong> the false and the unjust.<br />

48 When you want <strong>to</strong> cheer your spirits, con-<br />

sider the excellences <strong>of</strong> those about you one so<br />

effective, another so unassuming, another so openhanded,<br />

and so on and so on. Nothing is more<br />

cheering than exemplifications<br />

<strong>of</strong> virtue in the

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