9781945186240

It created lower things for the sake of higher ones, and attuned the
higher ones to one another. Look how it subordinates, how it connects, how
it assigns each thing what each deserves, and brings the better things into
alignment.
31. How have you behaved to the gods, to your parents, to your siblings,
to your wife, to your children, to your teachers, to your nurses, to your
friends, to your relatives, to your slaves? Have they all had from you
nothing “wrong and unworthy, either word or deed”?
Consider all that you’ve gone through, all that you’ve survived. And
that the story of your life is done, your assignment complete. How many
good things have you seen? How much pain and pleasure have you
resisted? How many honors have you declined? How many unkind people
have you been kind to?
32. Why do other souls—unskilled, untrained—disturb the soul with
skill and understanding?
—And which is that?
The one that knows the beginning and the end, and knows the logos that
runs through all things and that assigns to all a place, each in its allotted
span, throughout the whole of time.
33. Soon you’ll be ashes, or bones. A mere name, at most—and even
that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, and
trivial. Dogs snarling at each other. Quarreling children—laughing and then
bursting into tears a moment later. Trust, shame, justice, truth—“gone from
the earth and only found in heaven.”
Why are you still here? Sensory objects are shifting and unstable; our
senses dim and easily deceived; the soul itself a decoction of the blood;
fame in a world like this is worthless.
—And so?
Wait for it patiently—annihilation or metamorphosis.
—And until that time comes—what?
Honor and revere the gods, treat human beings as they deserve, be
tolerant with others and strict with yourself. Remember, nothing belongs to
you but your flesh and blood—and nothing else is under your control.