Meditations, Marcus Aurelius [websites to read books for free TXT] 📗

Quarrels of little children and their sports, and poor spirits

carrying about dead bodies [such is everything]; and so what is exhibited

in the representation of the mansions of the dead strikes our eyes more

clearly.

 

25. Examine into the quality of the form of an object, and detach it

altogether from its material part, and then contemplate it; then

determine the time, the longest which a thing of this peculiar form is

naturally made to endure.

 

26. Thou hast endured infinite troubles through not being contented with

thy ruling faculty when it does the things which it is constituted by

nature to do. But enough [of this].

 

27. When another blames thee or hates thee, or when men say about thee

anything injurious, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see

what kind of men they are. Thou wilt discover that there is no reason to

take any trouble that these men may have this or that opinion about thee.

However, thou must be well disposed towards them, for by nature they are

friends. And the gods too aid them in all ways, by dreams, by signs,

towards the attainment of those things on which they set a value.

 

28. The periodic movements of the universe are the same, up and down from

age to age. And either the universal intelligence puts itself in motion

for every separate effect, and if this is so, be thou content with that

which is the result of its activity: or it puts itself in motion once,

and everything else comes by way of sequence in a manner; or indivisible

elements are the origin of all things.—In a word, if there is a god, all

is well; and if chance rules, do not thou also be governed by it (VI. 44;

VII. 75).

 

Soon will the earth cover us all: then the earth, too, will change, and

the things also which result from change will continue to change forever,

and these again forever. For if a man reflects on the changes and

transformations which follow one another like wave after wave and their

rapidity, he will despise everything which is perishable (XII. 21).

 

29. The universal cause is like a winter torrent: it carries everything

along with it. But how worthless are all these poor people who are

engaged in matters political, and, as they suppose, are playing the

philosopher! All drivellers. Well then, man: do what nature now requires.

Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee

to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato’s Republic: but

be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event

to be no small matter. For who can change men’s opinions? and without a

change of opinions what else is there than the slavery of men who groan

while they pretend to obey? Come now and tell me of Alexander and

Philippus and Demetrius of Phalerum. They themselves shall judge whether

they discovered what the common nature required, and trained themselves

accordingly. But if they acted like tragedy heroes, no one has condemned

me to imitate them. Simple and modest is the work of philosophy. Draw me

not aside to insolence and pride.

 

30. Look down from above on the countless herds of men and their

countless solemnities, and the infinitely varied voyagings in storms and

calms, and the differences among those who are born, who live together,

and die. And consider, too, the life lived by others in olden time, and

the life of those who will live after thee, and the life now lived among

barbarous nations, and how many know not even thy name, and how many will

soon forget it, and how they who perhaps now are praising thee will very

soon blame thee, and that neither a posthumous name is of any value, nor

reputation, nor anything else.

 

31. Let there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things

which come from the external cause; and let there be justice in the

things done by virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be

movement and action terminating in this, in social acts, for this is

according to thy nature.

 

32. Thou canst remove out of the way many useless things among those

which disturb thee, for they lie entirely in thy opinion; and thou wilt

then gain for thyself ample space by comprehending the whole universe in

thy mind, and by contemplating the eternity of time, and observing the

rapid change of every several thing, how short is the time from birth to

dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth as well as the equally

boundless time after dissolution!

 

33. All that thou seest will quickly perish, and those who have been

spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too. And he who dies

at the extremest old age will be brought into the same condition with him

who died prematurely.

 

34. What are these men’s leading principles, and about what kind of

things are they busy, and for what kind of reasons do they love and

honor? Imagine that thou seest their poor souls laid bare. When they

think that they do harm by their blame or good by their praise, what an

idea!

 

35. Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights

in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from

eternity have been done in like form, and will be such to time without

end. What, then, dost thou say,—that all things have been and all things

always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found in so many gods

to rectify these things, but the world has been condemned to be bound in

never ceasing evil (IV. 45; VII. 88)?

 

36. The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything:

water, dust, bones, filth: or again, marble rocks, the callosities of the

earth; and gold and silver, the sediments; and garments, only bits of

hair; and purple dye, blood; and everything else is of the same kind. And

that which is of the nature of breath is also another thing of the same

kind, changing from this to that.

 

37. Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art

thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the

form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. But

besides these there is nothing. Towards the gods then, now become at last

more simple and better. It is the same whether we examine these things

for a hundred years or three.

 

38. If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has

not done wrong.

 

39. Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come

together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what

is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing

else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to

the ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing

the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with

the rest?

 

40. Either the gods have no power or they have power. If, then, they have

no power, why dost thou pray to them? But if they have power, why dost

thou not pray for them to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the

things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which

thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any

of these things should not happen or happen? for certainly if they can

co-operate with men, they can co-operate for these purposes. But perhaps

thou wilt say the gods have placed them in thy power. Well, then, is it

not better to use what is in thy power like a free man than to desire in

a slavish and abject way what is not in thy power? And who has told thee

that the gods do not aid us even in the things which are in our power?

Begin, then, to pray for such things, and thou wilt see. One man prays

thus: How shall I be able to lie with that woman? Do thou pray thus: How

shall I not desire to lie with her? Another prays thus: How shall I be

released from this? Another prays: How shall I not desire to be released?

Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? Thou thus: How shall I

not be afraid to lose him? In fine, turn thy prayers this way, and see

what comes.

 

41. Epicurus says, In my sickness my conversation was not about my bodily

sufferings, nor, says he, did I talk on such subjects to those who

visited me; but I continued to discourse on the nature of things as

before, keeping to this main point, how the mind, while participating in

such movements as go on in the poor flesh, shall be free from

perturbations and maintain its proper good. Nor did I, he says, give the

physicians an opportunity of putting on solemn looks, as if they were

doing something great, but my life went on well and happily. Do, then,

the same that he did both in sickness, if thou art sick, and in any other

circumstances; for never to desert philosophy in any events that may

befall us, nor to hold trifling talk either with an ignorant man or with

one unacquainted with nature, is a principle of all schools of

philosophy; but to be intent only on that which thou art now doing and on

the instrument by which thou dost it.

 

42. When thou art offended with any man’s shameless conduct, immediately

ask thyself, Is it possible, then, that shameless men should not be in

the world? It is not possible. Do not, then, require what is impossible.

For this man also is one of those shameless men who must of necessity be

in the world. Let the same considerations be present to thy mind in the

case of the knave, and the faithless man, and of every man who does wrong

in any way. For at the same time that thou dost remind thyself that it is

impossible that such kind of men should not exist, thou wilt become more

kindly disposed towards every one individually. It is useful to perceive

this, too, immediately when the occasion arises, what virtue nature has

given to man to oppose to every wrongful act. For she has given to man,

as an antidote against the stupid man, mildness, and against another kind

of man some other power. And in all cases it is possible for thee to

correct by teaching the man who is gone astray; for every man who errs

misses his object and is gone astray. Besides, wherein hast thou been

injured? For thou wilt find that no one among those against whom thou art

irritated has done anything by which thy mind could be made worse; but

that which is evil to thee and harmful has its foundation only in the

mind. And what harm is done or what is there strange, if the man who has

not been instructed does the acts of an uninstructed man? Consider

whether thou shouldst not rather blame thyself, because thou didst not

expect such a man to err in such a way. For thou hadst means given thee

by thy reason to suppose that it was likely that he would commit this

error, and yet thou hast forgotten and art amazed that he has erred. But

most of all when thou blamest a man as faithless or