The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANTONINUS 65
The Stoics and Antoninus among them call some things
beautiful (xaKa) and some ugly (at<rj$>a),
and as they are
beautiful so they are good, and as they are ugly so they
are evil or bad (n, 1). All these things good and evil are
in our power, absolutely some of the stricter Stoics would
say ;
in a manner only, as those who would not depart
altogether from common sense would say ; practically
they are to a great degree in the power of some persons
and in some circumstances, but in a small degree only in
other persons and in other circumstances. The Stoics
maintain man s free-will as to the things which are in his
power for as to the ;
things which are out of his power,
free-will terminating in action is of course excluded by
the very terms of the expression. I
hardly know if we
can discover exactly Antoninus notion of the free-will
of man, nor is the question worth the inquiry. What he
does mean and does say is intelligible. All the things
which are not in our power (aTrpoalpera)
are indifferent :
they are neither good nor bad, morally. Such are life,
health, wealth, power, disease, poverty and death. Life
and death are all men s portion. Health, wealth, power,
disease and poverty happen to men indifferently to the
good and to the bad ;
to those who live according to nature
and to those who do not. Life, says the emperor,
is
a warfare and a stranger s sojourn, and after fame is
oblivion (n, 17). After speaking of those men who have
disturbed the world and then died, and of the death of
philosophers such as Heraclitus and Democritus who was
destroyed by lice, and of Socrates whom other lice (his
enemies) destroyed, he says What means all this ?
:
Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou
art come to shore ; get out. If indeed to another life,
there is no want of gods, not even there. But if to a
state without sensation, thou wilt cease to be held by
pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the vessel which
is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior :
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