Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (novels to read for beginners .TXT) 📗
- Author: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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Those Who Are Produced In Continuous Series And To Those Who Come After
Them By Virtue Of A Certain Original Movement Of Providence, According
To Which It Moved From A Certain Beginning To This Ordering Of Things,
Having Conceived Certain Principles Of The Things Which Were To Be, And
Having Determined Powers Productive Of Beings And Of Changes And Of Such
Like Successions (Vii. 75).
[A] "As There Is Not Any Action Or Natural Event, Which We Are
Acquainted With, So Single And Unconnected As Not To Have A
Respect To Some Other Actions And Events, So Possibly Each Of
Them, When It Has Not An Immediate, May Yet Have A Remote,
Natural Relation To Other Actions And Events, Much Beyond The
Compass Of This Present World." Again: "Things Seemingly The
Most Insignificant Imaginable Are Perpetually Observed To Be
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 93Necessary Conditions To Other Things Of The Greatest
Importance, So That Any One Thing Whatever May, For Aught We
Know To The Contrary, Be A Necessary Condition To Any
Other."--Butler's Analogy, Chap. 7. See All The Chapter. Some
Critics Take [Greek: Ta Hyparchonta] In This Passage Of
Antoninus To Be The Same As [Greek: Ta Honta]: But If That Were
So He Might Have Said [Greek: Pros Allêla] Instead Of [Greek:
Pros Ta Hyparchonta]. Perhaps The Meaning Of [Greek: Pros Ta
Hyparchonta] May Be "To All Prior Things." If So, The
Translation Is Still Correct. See Vi. 38.
2. It Would Be A Man's Happiest Lot To Depart From Mankind Without
Having Had Any Taste Of Lying And Hypocrisy And Luxury And Pride.
However, To Breathe Out One's Life When A Man Has Had Enough Of These
Things Is The Next Best Voyage, As The Saying Is. Hast Thou Determined
To Abide With Vice, And Hast Not Experience Yet Induced Thee To Fly From
This Pestilence? For The Destruction Of The Understanding Is A
Pestilence, Much More, Indeed, Than Any Such Corruption And Change Of
This Atmosphere Which Surrounds Us. For This Corruption Is A Pestilence
Of Animals So Far As They Are Animals; But The Other Is A Pestilence Of
Men So Far As They Are Men.
3. Do Not Despise Death, But Be Well Content With It, Since This Too Is
One Of Those Things Which Nature Wills. For Such As It Is To Be Young
And To Grow Old, And To Increase And To Reach Maturity, And To Have
Teeth And Beard And Gray Hairs, And To Beget And To Be Pregnant And To
Bring Forth, And All The Other Natural Operations Which The Seasons Of
Thy Life Bring, Such Also Is Dissolution. This, Then, Is Consistent With
The Character Of A Reflecting Man--To Be Neither Careless Nor Impatient
Nor Contemptuous With Respect To Death, But To Wait For It As One Of The
Operations Of Nature. As Thou Now Waitest For The Time When The Child
Shall Come Out Of Thy Wife's Womb, So Be Ready For The Time When Thy
Soul Shall Fall Out Of This Envelope.[A] But If Thou Requirest Also A
Vulgar Kind Of Comfort Which Shall Reach Thy Heart, Thou Wilt Be Made
Best Reconciled To Death By Observing The Objects From Which Thou Art
Going To Be Removed, And The Morals Of Those With Whom Thy Soul Will No
Longer Be Mingled. For It Is No Way Right To Be Offended With Men, But
It Is Thy Duty To Care For Them And To Bear With Them Gently; And Yet To
Remember That Thy Departure Will Not Be From Men Who Have The Same
Principles As Thyself. For This Is The Only Thing, If There Be Any,
Which Could Draw Us The Contrary Way And Attach Us To Life,--To Be
Permitted To Live With Those Who Have The Same Principles As Ourselves.
But Now Thou Seest How Great Is The Trouble Arising From The Discordance
Of Those Who Live Together, So That Thou Mayst Say, Come Quick, O Death,
Lest Perchance I, Too, Should Forget Myself.
[A] Note 1 Of The Philosophy, P. 76.
4. He Who Does Wrong Does Wrong Against Himself. He Who Acts Unjustly
Acts Unjustly To Himself, Because He Makes Himself Bad.
5. He Often Acts Unjustly Who Does Not Do A Certain Thing; Not Only He
Who Does A Certain Thing.
6. Thy Present Opinion Founded On Understanding, And Thy Present Conduct
Directed To Social Good, And Thy Present Disposition Of Contentment With
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 94Everything Which Happens+--That Is Enough.
7. Wipe Out Imagination; Check Desire: Extinguish Appetite: Keep The
Ruling Faculty In Its Own Power.
8. Among The Animals Which Have Not Reason One Life Is Distributed; But
Among Reasonable Animals One Intelligent Soul Is Distributed: Just As
There Is One Earth Of All Things Which Are Of An Earthly Nature, And We
See By One Light, And Breathe One Air, All Of Us That Have The Faculty
Of Vision And All That Have Life.
9. All Things Which Participate In Anything Which Is Common To Them All,
Move Towards That Which Is Of The Same Kind With Themselves. Everything
Which Is Earthy Turns Towards The Earth, Everything Which Is Liquid
Flows Together, And Everything Which Is Of An Aerial Kind Does The
Same, So That They Require Something To Keep Them Asunder, And The
Application Of Force. Fire Indeed Moves Upwards On Account Of The
Elemental Fire, But It Is So Ready To Be Kindled Together With All The
Fire Which Is Here, That Even Every Substance Which Is Somewhat Dry Is
Easily Ignited, Because There Is Less Mingled With It Of That Which Is A
Hindrance To Ignition. Accordingly, Then, Everything Also Which
Participates In The Common Intelligent Nature Moves In Like Manner
Towards That Which Is Of The Same Kind With Itself, Or Moves Even More.
For So Much As It Is Superior In Comparison With All Other Things, In
The Same Degree Also Is It More Ready To Mingle With And To Be Fused
With That Which Is Akin To It. Accordingly Among Animals Devoid Of
Reason We Find Swarms Of Bees, And Herds Of Cattle, And The Nurture Of
Young Birds, And In A Manner, Loves; For Even In Animals There Are
Souls, And That Power Which Brings Them Together Is Seen To Exert Itself
In A Superior Degree, And In Such A Way As Never Has Been Observed In
Plants Nor In Stones Nor In Trees. But In Rational Animals There Are
Political Communities And Friendships, And Families And Meetings Of
People; And In Wars, Treaties, And Armistices. But In The Things Which
Are Still Superior, Even Though They Are Separated From One Another,
Unity In A Manner Exists, As In The Stars. Thus The Ascent To The Higher
Degree Is Able To Produce A Sympathy Even In Things Which Are
Separated. See, Then, What Now Takes Place; For Only Intelligent Animals
Have Now Forgotten This Mutual Desire And Inclination, And In Them Alone
The Property Of Flowing Together Is Not Seen. But Still, Though Men
Strive To Avoid [This Union], They Are Caught And Held By It, For Their
Nature Is Too Strong For Them; And Thou Wilt See What I Say, If Thou
Only Observest. Sooner, Then, Will One Find Anything Earthy Which Comes
In Contact With No Earthy Thing, Than A Man Altogether Separated From
Other Men.
10. Both Man And God And The Universe Produce Fruit; At The Proper
Seasons Each Produces It. But And If Usage Has Especially Fixed These
Terms To The Vine And Like Things, This Is Nothing. Reason Produces
Fruit Both For All And For Itself, And There Are Produced From It Other
Things Of The Same Kind As Reason Itself.
11. If Thou Art Able, Correct By Teaching Those Who Do Wrong; But If
Thou Canst Not, Remember That Indulgence Is Given To Thee For This
Purpose. And The Gods, Too, Are Indulgent To Such Persons; And For Some
Purposes They Even Help Them To Get Health, Wealth, Reputation; So Kind
They Are. And It Is In Thy Power Also; Or Say, Who Hinders Thee?
12. Labor Not As One Who Is Wretched, Nor Yet As One Who Would Be Pitied
Or Admired; But Direct Thy Will To One Thing Only--To Put Thyself In
Motion And To Check Thyself, As The Social Reason Requires.
13. To-Day I Have Got Out Of All Trouble, Or Rather I Have Cast Out All
Trouble, For It Was Not Outside, But Within And In My Opinions.
14. All Things Are The Same, Familiar In Experience, And Ephemeral In
Time, And Worthless In The Matter. Everything Now Is Just As It Was In
The Time Of Those Whom We Have Buried.
15. Things Stand Outside Of Us, Themselves By Themselves, Neither
Knowing Aught Of Themselves, Nor Expressing Any Judgment. What Is It,
Then, Which Does Judge About Them? The Ruling Faculty.
16. Not In Passivity But In Activity Lie The Evil And The Good Of The
Rational Social Animal, Just As His Virtue And His Vice Lie Not In
Passivity But In Activity.[A]
[A] Virtutis Omnis Laus In Actione Consistit.--_Cicero_, De
Off., 1. 6.
17. For The Stone Which Has Been Thrown Up It Is No Evil To Come Down,
Nor Indeed Any Good To Have Been Carried Up (Viii. 20).
18. Penetrate Inwards Into Men's Leading Principles, And Thou Wilt See
What Judges Thou Art Afraid Of, And What Kind Of Judges They Are Of
Themselves.
19. All Things Are Changing: And Thou Thyself Art In Continuous Mutation
And In A Manner In Continuous Destruction, And The Whole Universe Too.
20. It Is Thy Duty To Leave Another Man's Wrongful Act There Where It Is
(Vii. 29; Ix. 38).
21. Termination Of Activity, Cessation From Movement And Opinion, And
In A Sense Their Death, Is No Evil. Turn Thy Thoughts Now To The
Consideration Of Thy Life, Thy Life As A Child, As A Youth, Thy Manhood,
Thy Old Age, For In These Also Every Change Was A Death. Is This
Anything To Fear? Turn Thy Thoughts Now To Thy Life Under Thy
Grandfather, Then To Thy Life Under Thy Mother, Then To Thy Life Under
Thy Father; And As Thou Findest Many Other Differences And Changes And
Terminations, Ask Thyself, Is This Anything To Fear? In Like Manner,
Then, Neither Are The Termination And Cessation And Change Of Thy Whole
Life A Thing To Be Afraid Of.
22. Hasten [To Examine] Thy Own Ruling Faculty And That Of The Universe
And That Of Thy Neighbor: Thy Own, That Thou Mayst Make It Just: And
That Of The Universe, That Thou Mayst Remember Of What Thou Art A Part;
And That Of Thy Neighbor, That Thou Mayst Know Whether He Has Acted
Ignorantly Or With Knowledge, And Thou Mayst Also Consider That His
Ruling Faculty Is Akin To Thine.
23. As Thou Thyself Art A Component Part Of A Social System, So Let
Every Act Of Thine Be A Component Part Of Social Life. Whatever Act Of
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