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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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x TO HIMSELF 153<br />

The man drops seed in<strong>to</strong> the womb and goes 26<br />

his way, and thereupon a new cause takes up the<br />

work and perfects the babe. What a flower <strong>of</strong><br />

what a seed ! Or<br />

again, one passes food through<br />

the gullet, and thereupon a new cause takes up<br />

the work, and makes <strong>of</strong> it sensation, impulse, in a<br />

word life and all forms <strong>of</strong> vital strength. Con-<br />

sider all that passes within the veil, and perceive<br />

the power implied, just as we perceive the upward<br />

and downward force <strong>of</strong> gravitation not with the<br />

outward eye, yet no less palpably.<br />

Let imagination remind you how all the varied 27<br />

present does but repeat the past,<br />

and rehearse the<br />

future. From your own experience, or from the<br />

page <strong>of</strong> his<strong>to</strong>ry, picture <strong>to</strong> yourself the same<br />

dramas, the self-same scenes reproduced : the court<br />

<strong>of</strong> Hadrian, the court <strong>of</strong> <strong>An<strong>to</strong>ninus</strong>, the court <strong>of</strong><br />

Philip, Alexander, Crcesus ; the same s<strong>to</strong>ck ro/es,<br />

only with change <strong>of</strong> ac<strong>to</strong>rs.<br />

He who feels umbrage or discontent at any- 28<br />

thing is like a sacrificial pig,<br />

which kicks and<br />

squeals. And he who sits silent and solitary on<br />

his couch, bemoaning our bonds,<br />

is in the same<br />

case. To the reasonable being and <strong>to</strong> him only<br />

is it vouchsafed <strong>to</strong> go freely hand in hand with all

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