Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (top 10 inspirational books .TXT) 📗
- Author: Marcus Aurelius
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[order]; and of these things which are called misfortunes not one harms
law. What then does not harm law does not harm either state or citizen.
34. To him who is penetrated by true principles even the briefest precept
is sufficient, and any common precept, to remind him that he should be
free from grief and fear. For example,—
“Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground—
So is the race of men.”
Leaves, also, are thy children; and leaves, too, are they who cry out as
if they were worthy of credit and bestow their praise, or on the contrary
curse, or secretly blame and sneer; and leaves, in like manner, are those
who shall receive and transmit a man’s fame to after-times. For all such
things as these “are produced in the season of spring,” as the poet says;
then the wind casts them down; then the forest produces other leaves in
their places. But a brief existence is common to all things, and yet thou
avoidest and pursuest all things as if they would be eternal. A little
time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who has attended thee to thy
grave another will soon lament.
35. The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I
wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye. And
the healthy hearing and smelling ought to be ready to perceive all that
can be heard and smelled. And the healthy stomach ought to be with
respect to all food just as the mill with respect to all things which it
is formed to grind. And accordingly the healthy understanding ought to be
prepared for everything which happens; but that which says, Let my dear
children live, and let all men praise whatever I may do, is an eye which
seeks for green things, or teeth which seek for soft things.
36. There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he
is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen. Suppose that
he was a good and wise man, will there not be at last some one to say to
himself, Let us at last breathe freely, being relieved from this
schoolmaster? It is true that he was harsh to none of us, but I perceived
that he tacitly condemns us.—This is what is said of a good man. But in
our own case how many other things are there for which there are many who
wish to get rid of us. Thou wilt consider this, then, when thou art
dying, and thou wilt depart more contentedly by reflecting thus: I am
going away from such a life, in which even my associates in behalf of
whom I have striven so much, prayed, and cared, themselves wish me to
depart, hoping perchance to get some little advantage by it. Why then
should a man cling to a longer stay here? Do not however for this reason
go away less kindly disposed to them, but preserving thy own character,
and friendly and benevolent and mild, and on the other hand not as if
thou wast torn away; but as when a man dies a quiet death, the poor soul
is easily separated from the body, such also ought thy departure from men
to be, for nature united thee to them and associated thee. But does she
now dissolve the union? Well, I am separated as from kinsmen, not however
dragged resisting, but without compulsion; for this, too, is one of the
things according to nature.
37. Accustom thyself as much as possible on the occasion of anything
being done by any person to inquire with thyself, For what object is this
man doing this? But begin with thyself, and examine thyself first.
38. Remember that this which pulls the strings is the thing which is
hidden within: this is the power of persuasion, this is life, this, if
one may so say, is man. In contemplating thyself never include the vessel
which surrounds thee and these instruments which are attached about it.
For they are like to an axe, differing only in this, that they grow to
the body. For indeed there is no more use in these parts without the
cause which moves and checks them than in the weaver’s shuttle, and the
writer’s pen, and the driver’s whip.
BOOK XI.
1. These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself,
analyses itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it
bears itself enjoys,—for the fruits of plants and that in animals which
corresponds to fruits others enjoy,—it obtains its own end, wherever the
limit of life may be fixed. Not as in a dance and in a play and in such
like things, where the whole action is incomplete if anything cuts it
short; but in every part, and where-ever it may be stopped, it makes what
has been set before it full and complete, so that it can say, I have what
is my own. And further it traverses the whole universe, and the
surrounding vacuum, and surveys its form, and it extends itself into the
infinity of time, and embraces and comprehends the periodical renovation
of all things, and it comprehends that those who come after us will see
nothing new, nor have those before us seen anything more, but in a manner
he who is forty years old, if he has any understanding at all, has seen
by virtue of the uniformity that prevails all things which have been and
all that will be. This too is a property of the rational soul, love of
one’s neighbor, and truth and modesty, and to value nothing more than
itself, which is also the property of Law. Thus then right reason differs
not at all from the reason of justice.
2. Thou wilt set little value on pleasing song and dancing and the
pancratium, if thou wilt distribute the melody of the voice into its
several sounds, and ask thyself as to each, if thou art mastered by this;
for thou wilt be prevented by shame from confessing it: and in the matter
of dancing, if at each movement and attitude thou wilt do the same; and
the like also in the matter of the pancratium. In all things, then,
except virtue and the acts of virtue, remember to apply thyself to their
several parts, and by this division to come to value them little: and
apply this rule also to thy whole life.
3. What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be
separated from the body, and ready either to be extinguished or dispersed
or continue to exist; but so that this readiness comes from a man’s own
judgment, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but
considerately and with dignity and in a way to persuade another, without
tragic show.
4. Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had
my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop [doing
such good].
5. What is thy art? To be good. And how is this accomplished well except
by general principles, some about the nature of the universe, and others
about the proper constitution of man?
6. At first tragedies were brought on the stage as means of reminding men
of the things which happen to them, and that it is according to nature
for things to happen so, and that, if you are delighted with what is
shown on the stage, you should not be troubled with that which takes
place on the larger stage. For you see that these things must be
accomplished thus, and that even they bear them who cry out, “O
Cithaeron.” And, indeed, some things are said well by the dramatic
writers, of which kind is the following especially:—
“Me and my children if the gods neglect,
This has its reason too.”
And again,—
“We must not chafe and fret at that which happens.”
And,—
“Life’s harvest reap like the wheat’s fruitful ear.”
And other things of the same kind.
After tragedy the old comedy was introduced, which had a magisterial
freedom of speech, and by its very plainness of speaking was useful in
reminding men to beware of insolence; and for this purpose too Diogenes
used to take from these writers.
But as to the middle comedy, which came next, observe what it was, and
again, for what object the new comedy was introduced, which gradually
sank down into a mere mimic artifice. That some good things are said even
by these writers, everybody knows: but the whole plan of such poetry and
dramaturgy, to what end does it look?
7. How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life
so well suited for philosophizing as this in which thou now happenest to
be.
8. A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off
from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from another
man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a branch,
another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself from his
neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know
that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social
system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed
society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to
us, and again to become a part which helps to make up the whole. However,
if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it difficult for
that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be restored to
its former condition. Finally, the branch, which from the first grew
together with the tree, and has continued to have one life with it, is
not like that which after being cut off is then ingrafted, for this is
something like what the gardeners mean when they say that it grows with
the rest of the tree, but that it has not the same mind with it.
9. As those who try to stand in thy way when thou art proceeding
according to right reason will not be able to turn thee aside from thy
proper action, so neither let them drive thee from thy benevolent
feelings towards them, but be on thy guard equally in both matters, not
only in the matter of steady judgment and action, but also in the matter
of gentleness to those who try to hinder or otherwise trouble thee. For
this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted
from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are
equally deserters from their post,—the man who does it through fear, and
the man who is alienated from him who is by nature a kinsman and a
friend.
10. There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the
natures of things. But if this is so, that nature which is the most
perfect and the most comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of
the skill of art. Now all arts do the inferior things for the sake of the
superior; therefore the universal nature does so too. And, indeed, hence
is the origin of justice, and in justice the other virtues have their
foundation: for justice will not be observed, if we either care for
middle things [things indifferent], or are easily deceived and careless
and changeable (V. 16,
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