Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

x TO HIMSELF 145
do nothing for self-seeking, but shall feel concern
for all such parts, directing every endeavour to-
wards the common good, and diverting it from the
contrary. So long as I pursue this course, life
must perforce flow smooth, smooth as the ideal
life of one ever occupied in the well-being of his
fellow-citizens, and accepting gladly whatever the
city assigns him as his part.
The parts of the whole, which are compre- 7
hended in the growth and nature of the world-
order, must necessarily perish signifying thereby
variation of form. Now if such variation is
inherently an evil and a necessity for the parts,
how can the whole escape deterioration, seeing
that the parts are prone to variation, and so
constituted as to perish in a variety of ways ?
Did nature, we ask, purposely intend the injury
of things which are part of herself, and make them
liable, nay necessarily incident, to injury ? or were
such results unforeseen by nature ? Neither sup-
position is credible. But suppose, dropping the
term Nature, we explain them as the natural course
of things, see the absurdity ; we first speak of
change as natural to the parts of the universe, and
then in the same breath express surprise or resent-