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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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146 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

ment as though at some unnatural procedure, while<br />

all the time dissolution is merely in<strong>to</strong> the original<br />

elements <strong>of</strong> composition. For dissolution means<br />

either dispersion <strong>of</strong> the elements <strong>of</strong> which I was<br />

compounded, or else a change from solid in<strong>to</strong> earthy<br />

and from pneumatic in<strong>to</strong> aerial, this being the<br />

mode <strong>of</strong> re-assumption in<strong>to</strong> the universal reason,<br />

whether its destiny be cyclic conflagration or alter-<br />

nations <strong>of</strong> eternal renovation. And do not regard<br />

the solid or the pneumatic elements as a natal<br />

part <strong>of</strong> being ; they are but accretions <strong>of</strong> yesterday<br />

or the day before, derived from food and respira-<br />

tion. The change affects that which is received<br />

from without, not the original <strong>of</strong>fspring <strong>of</strong> the<br />

mother's womb. But even admitting that you are<br />

intimately bound up with that by your individuality,<br />

that does not affect the present argument.<br />

You claim for yourself the attributes good,<br />

modest, true, open-minded, even-minded, high-<br />

minded : take care not <strong>to</strong> belie them. And should<br />

you forfeit them, make haste <strong>to</strong> reclaim them. The<br />

open mind, remember, should import discriminating<br />

observation and attention ; the even mind un-<br />

forced acceptance <strong>of</strong> the apportionments <strong>of</strong> Nature ;<br />

the high mind sovereignty <strong>of</strong> the intelligence over

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