Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

vii TO HIMSELF 93
you ; your
was before.
Inner Self is not made worse than it
From the sum of being, as from wax, Nature 23
now moulds a nag ; then breaks it up, and utilises
the material to make a tree ; next, a man ; next,
some other thing ;
and each has but a brief exist-
ence. But it is no hardship for the chest to be
broken up, any more than to be knocked together.
A scowl upon the face is a violation of nature. 24
Repeated often, beauty dies with it, and finally
becomes quenched, past all rekindling. From this v
fact try to understand, that it is contrary to reason ;
if once sensibility to sin is lost, what object in
still living on ?
A little while, and nature which disposeth all 25
things will change all that you see, and of their
substance make new things, and others again of
theirs, that the world may be ever fresh.
When any one does you a wrong, set yourself 26
at once to consider, what was the point of view,
good or bad, that led him wrong. As soon as you
perceive it, you will be sorry for him, not surprised
or angry. For your own view of good is either
the same as his, or something like in kind : and
you will make allowance. Or supposing your