Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

x TO HIMSELF 159
in freedom thereby. Why then should one cling
to longer sojourn here ? Yet do not therefore
leave them with any lack of charity ; keep true
to your own wont, friendly well-wishing and
serene, here too not dissociating yourself from
others. As in euthanasia the soul slips quietly
from the body, so let your departure be. Of these
elements nature joined and compounded you :
now
she dissolves the union. Be it dissolved : I part
from what was mine yet unresisting, unrebelli-
ously ; just one step more in nature's course.
Whatever is done, and whoever does it, so far 37
as may be, make it a habit to ask the further
question, To what does the man's action tend?
And begin with yourself, testing yourself first of all.
That which pulls the strings, remember, is the 38
power concealed within ; there is the mandate,
the life, there, one may say,
the man. Never
confound it with the mere containing shell, and
the various appended organs. They may be
compared to tools, with this difference, that the
connexion is organic. Indeed, apart from the
inner cause which dictates action or inaction, the
parts are of no more use, than the weaver's
shuttle, the writer's pen, or the coachman's whip.