Marcus Aurelius and the Later Stoics - College of Stoic Philosophers

"DESTINY OF MAN S SPIRIT 211of substrate and cause (evv\ov . . . cuTfwSe?, or as here,: Ildv TO evv\ov evafyavi^erai Ta^ara rfjTWVov(ria, K. nrcuv aiTiov els TOV TWV f O\cov Aoyova7ro\a^dveTai, and we cannot doubt that"is included in aina. (K. every cause is quickly:reassumed into the Universal viii.Keason.")25 :oerjaet rjTQi <7Ke8aa0T] va.i TO GvyKpl/ACiTLOV crov r) <r|3ea0f]i/aiTO Trvevfjuariov rj /jLeraa-rrjvat K. a\\a%ov Karara^Orivai,.("Either your mortal compound must be dispersedinto its Atoms, or else the breath of life must beextinguished, or be transmuted and enter a newxorder.")10. We may note that it is just possible to givea slightly more personal and hopeful meaning here,though, on the whole, I believe Dr. Kendall s translationgives the true sense transferred to another;command,and be set on duty in another iii, sphere." 3. Comparing life to a voyage, and marvelling at the reluctanceof passenger to disembark, although he has reached hisdestination ;rl Tavra ; eVe/3??? evrXeu 0*0,5 KaTtj^Oijs5K/3ijQi,. El IJLV e <f> Tepov PICK, ovSev 6e)v Kevov ovBeKt el be ev avaidOrjaia iravar) . . . dve^o/u-ez/o?K.\arpeiK0v. To this possible interpretation 58 lendsfsome countenance : O TOZ^ Odvarov fopovfjievos, r/TotavaidQ^cflav (fropeirai, rj ata6ij<Tiv erepoiav.A\\ elVeovfceri,, ovSe KCIKOV TWOS alcrdrjcrr) ("no pain in death,for it implies extinction of percipience,"the teachingof all the Dissolutionists) ; etVe d\\oiorepav alo-Qrjaiv1Cf. Herbert Spencer in his latest work, Facts and Comments :"What becomes of consciousness when it ends? We can only inferthat it is a specialized and individualized form of that Infinite andEternal Energy which transcends both our knowledge and our imagination ;and that at death its elements lapse into the Infinite and EternalEnergy whence theywere derived."