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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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92 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

in<strong>to</strong> being without change ? What after all is<br />

dearer, or more proper: <strong>to</strong> Nature? Can you<br />

have your bath, without change passing upon the<br />

firewood ? or nourishment, without change passing<br />

upon the viands ? Can any serviceable thing be<br />

accomplished without change? Do you not see<br />

that change within yourself is <strong>of</strong> a piece with this,<br />

and equally indispensable <strong>to</strong> Nature?<br />

19 Being is as it were a <strong>to</strong>rrent,<br />

in and out <strong>of</strong><br />

which all bodies pass, coalescing and co-operating<br />

with the whole, as the various parts in us do with<br />

one another. How many a Chrysippus, how<br />

many a Socrates, how many an Epictetus has<br />

time past swallowed up !<br />

Extend<br />

the thought <strong>to</strong><br />

every man and every thing whatsoever.<br />

20 One thing alone <strong>to</strong>rments me, the fear <strong>of</strong> doing<br />

something<br />

which is not meant for the constitution <strong>of</strong><br />

man, or in the way not meant, or not meant as yet.<br />

21 Soon you will have forgotten all ; soon all will<br />

have forgotten you.<br />

22 It is man's special gift <strong>to</strong> love even those<br />

who fall in<strong>to</strong> blunders : it operates as soon as it<br />

suggests, that men are your brothers, that sin is<br />

<strong>of</strong> ignorance and unintentional, that in a little you<br />

will both be dead, that, above all, no injury is done

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