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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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138 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

substance it can be nothing else. Only,<br />

as in<br />

god's sight, be yourself .from this day forth more<br />

simple-hearted and good. It is the same whether<br />

you witness it a hundred years<br />

or three.<br />

38 If he did wrong, with him lies the evil.<br />

Suppose<br />

after all he did not !<br />

39 Either all things spring from a single source<br />

possessed <strong>of</strong> mind, and combine and fit <strong>to</strong>gether<br />

as for a single body, and in that case the part<br />

has no right <strong>to</strong> quarrel with the good <strong>of</strong> the whole :<br />

or else, it is a concourse <strong>of</strong> a<strong>to</strong>ms, a welter ending<br />

in dispersion. Why then perturb yourself?<br />

Say <strong>to</strong> your Inner Self, Are you dead, perished,<br />

false <strong>to</strong> yourself? like a beast, do you but join<br />

the herd and chew the cud ?<br />

40 The gods either have power, or they have not.<br />

If they have not, why pray at all ? If they have,<br />

why not pray for deliverance from the fear, or the<br />

desire, or the pain, which the thing causes, rather<br />

than for the withholding or the giving <strong>of</strong> the<br />

particular thing ? Assuredly, if they can help<br />

men at all, this is the way <strong>of</strong> help. But perhaps<br />

you will say, The gods have put all that in my<br />

own power. Then is it not better <strong>to</strong> exercise<br />

your power and remain free, rather than <strong>to</strong> be set

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