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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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168 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

18 Heads <strong>of</strong> Philosophy<br />

First. My<br />

relation <strong>to</strong>wards men. We are<br />

made for one another : or another point <strong>of</strong> view<br />

I have been set at their head,<br />

as the ram heads<br />

the flock, or the bull the herd : or, going back <strong>to</strong><br />

the beginning If not a<strong>to</strong>ms, then nature dis-<br />

posing all ;<br />

if so, things lower exist for the higher,<br />

and the higher for one another.<br />

Second. What are men like in board, in bed,<br />

and so on ? above all, what principles do they<br />

hold binding? and how far does pride enter in<strong>to</strong><br />

their actual conduct ?<br />

Third. If others are doing right, you have no<br />

call <strong>to</strong> feel sore ; if wrong, it is not wilful, but<br />

comes <strong>of</strong> ignorance. Just as " No soul wilfully<br />

misses truth" * none wilfully disallows another's<br />

due; are not men distressed if called unjust, or<br />

ungracious, or grasping, or in any other way un-<br />

neighbourly ?<br />

Fourth. You are like others, and <strong>of</strong>ten do<br />

wrong yourself. Even if you abstain from some<br />

forms <strong>of</strong> wrong, all the same you<br />

have the bent<br />

for wrongdoing, though cowardice or desire for<br />

1 See vii. 63.

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