The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

114 THE THOUGHTS OF v
content with that which happens to thee ; the one,
because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and
in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the
most ancient causes spun with thy destiny ; and the
other, because even that which comes severally to every
man is to the power which administers the universe a
cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very
continuance. For the integrity of the whole is mutilated,
if thou cuttest off anything whatever from the conjunction
and the continuity either of the parts or of the causes.
And thou dost cut off, as far as it is in thy power, when
thou art dissatisfied, and in a manner triest to put any
thing out of the way.
if
9. Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied,
thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to
right principles ; but when thou hast failed, return back
again, and be content if the greater part of what thou
doest is consistent with man s nature, and love this to
which thou returnest ;
and do not return to philosophy
she were a master, but act like those who have sore
as if
eyes and apply a bit of sponge and egg, or as another
applies a plaster, or drenching with water. For thus
thou wilt not fail to f obey reason, and thou wilt repose
in it. And remember that philosophy requires only the
things which thy nature requires ;
but thou wouldst have
something else which is not according to nature It may
be objected, Why what is more agreeable than this [which
I am doing] ? But is not this the very reason why
pleasure deceives us ? And consider if magnanimity,
freedom, simplicity, equanimity, piety, are not more
agreeable. For what is more agreeable than wisdom
itself, when thou thinkest of the security and the happy
of under
course of all things which depend on the faculty
standing and knowledge ?
10. Things are in such a kind of envelopment that they
have seemed to philosophers, not a few nor those common