Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (novels to read for beginners .TXT) 📗
- Author: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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Hast Forgotten This, That Everything Which Happens, Always Happened So
And Will Happen So, And Now Happens So Everywhere; Forgotten This Too,
How Close Is The Kinship Between A Man And The Whole Human Race, For It
Is A Community, Not Of A Little Blood Or Seed, But Of Intelligence. And
Thou Hast Forgotten This Too, That Every Man's Intelligence Is A God And
Is An Efflux Of The Deity;[A] And Forgotten This, That Nothing Is A
Man's Own, But That His Child And His Body And His Very Soul Came From
The Deity; Forgotten This, That Everything Is Opinion; And Lastly Thou
Hast Forgotten That Every Man Lives The Present Time Only, And Loses
Only This.
[A] See Epictetus, Ii. 8, 9, Etc.
27. Constantly Bring To Thy Recollection Those Who Have Complained
Greatly About Anything, Those Who Have Been Most Conspicuous By The
Greatest Fame Or Misfortunes Or Enmities Or Fortunes Of Any Kind: Then
Think Where Are They All Now? Smoke And Ash And A Tale, Or Not Even A
Tale. And Let There Be Present To Thy Mind Also Everything Of This Sort,
How Fabius Catellinus Lived In The Country, And Lucius Lupus In His
Gardens, And Stertinius At Briae, And Tiberius At Capreae, And Velius
Rufus [Or Rufus At Velia]; And In Fine Think Of The Eager Pursuit Of
Anything Conjoined With Pride;[A] And How Worthless Everything Is After
Which Men Violently Strain; And How Much More Philosophical It Is For A
Man In The Opportunities Presented To Him To Show Himself Just,
Temperate, Obedient To The Gods, And To Do This With All Simplicity: For
The Pride Which Is Proud Of Its Want Of Pride Is The Most Intolerable Of
All.
[A] [Greek: Met' Oiêseôs. Oiêsis Kai Typhos], Epict. I. 8, 6.
28. To Those Who Ask, Where Hast Thou Seen The Gods, Or How Dost Thou
Comprehend That They Exist And So Worshippest Them, I Answer, In The
First Place, They May Be Seen Even With The Eyes;[A] In The Second
Place, Neither Have I Seen Even My Own Soul, And Yet I Honor It. Thus
Then With Respect To The Gods, From What I Constantly Experience Of
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 117Their Power, From This I Comprehend That They Exist, And I Venerate
Them.
[A] "Seen Even With The Eyes." It Is Supposed That This May Be
Explained By The Stoic Doctrine, That The Universe Is A God Or
Living Being (Iv. 40), And That The Celestial Bodies Are Gods
(Viii. 19). But The Emperor May Mean That We Know That The Gods
Exist, As He Afterwards States It, Because We See What They Do;
As We Know That Man Has Intellectual Powers, Because We See
What He Does, And In No Other Way Do We Know It. This Passage
Then Will Agree With The Passage In The Epistle To The Romans
(I. _V_. 20), And With The Epistle To The Colossians (I. _V_.
15), In Which Jesus Christ Is Named "The Image Of The Invisible
God;" And With The Passage In The Gospel Of St. John (Xiv. _V_.
9).
Gataker, Whose Notes Are A Wonderful Collection Of Learning,
And All Of It Sound And Good, Quotes A Passage Of Calvin Which
Is Founded On St. Paul's Language (Rom. I. _V_. 20): "God By
Creating The Universe [Or World, Mundum], Being Himself
Invisible, Has Presented Himself To Our Eyes Conspicuously In A
Certain Visible Form." He Also Quotes Seneca (De Benef. Iv. C.
8): "Quocunque Te Flexeris, Ibi Illum Videbis Occurrentem Tibi:
Nihil Ab Illo Vacat, Opus Suum Ipse Implet." Compare Also
Cicero, De Senectute (C. 22), Xenophon's Cyropaedia (Viii. 7),
And Mem. Iv. 3; Also Epictetus, I. 6, De Providentia. I Think
That My Interpretation Of Antoninus Is Right.
29. The Safety Of Life Is This, To Examine Everything All Through, What
It Is Itself, That Is Its Material, What The Formal Part; With All Thy
Soul To Do Justice And To Say The Truth. What Remains, Except To Enjoy
Life By Joining One Good Thing To Another So As Not To Leave Even The
Smallest Intervals Between?
30. There Is One Light Of The Sun, Though It Is Interrupted By Walls,
Mountains, And Other Things Infinite. There Is One Common Substance,[A]
Though It Is Distributed Among Countless Bodies Which Have Their Several
Qualities. There Is One Soul, Though It Is Distributed Among Infinite
Natures And Individual Circumscriptions [Or Individuals]. There Is One
Intelligent Soul, Though It Seems To Be Divided. Now In The Things Which
Have Been Mentioned, All The Other Parts, Such As Those Which Are Air
And Matter, Are Without Sensation And Have No Fellowship: And Yet Even
These Parts The Intelligent Principle Holds Together And The Gravitation
Towards The Same. But Intellect In A Peculiar Manner Tends To That Which
Is Of The Same Kin, And Combines With It, And The Feeling For Communion
Is Not Interrupted.
[A] Iv. 40.
31. What Dost Thou Wish--To Continue To Exist? Well, Dost Thou Wish To
Have Sensation, Movement, Growth, And Then Again To Cease To Grow, To
Use Thy Speech, To Think? What Is There Of All These Things Which Seems
To Thee Worth Desiring? But If It Is Easy To Set Little Value On All
These Things, Turn To That Which Remains, Which Is To Follow Reason And
God. But It Is Inconsistent With Honoring Reason And God To Be Troubled
Because By Death A Man Will Be Deprived Of The Other Things.
32. How Small A Part Of The Boundless And Unfathomable Time Is Assigned
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 118To Every Man, For It Is Very Soon Swallowed Up In The Eternal! And How
Small A Part Of The Whole Substance; And How Small A Part Of The
Universal Soul; And On What A Small Clod Of The Whole Earth Thou
Creepest! Reflecting On All This, Consider Nothing To Be Great, Except
To Act As Thy Nature Leads Thee, And To Endure That Which The Common
Nature Brings.
33. How Does The Ruling Faculty Make Use Of Itself? For All Lies In
This. But Everything Else, Whether It Is In The Power Of Thy Will Or
Not, Is Only Lifeless Ashes And Smoke.
34. This Reflection Is Most Adapted To Move Us To Contempt Of Death,
That Even Those Who Think Pleasure To Be A Good And Pain An Evil Still
Have Despised It.
35. The Man To Whom That Only Is Good Which Comes In Due Season, And To
Whom It Is The Same Thing Whether He Has Done More Or Fewer Acts
Conformable To Right Reason, And To Whom It Makes No Difference Whether
He Contemplates The World For A Longer Or A Shorter Time--For This Man
Neither Is Death A Terrible Thing (Iii. 7; Vi. 23; X. 20; Xii. 23).
36. Man, Thou Hast Been A Citizen In This Great State [The World];[A]
What Difference Does It Make To Thee Whether For Five Years [Or Three]?
For That Which Is Conformable To The Laws Is Just For All. Where Is The
Hardship Then, If No Tyrant Nor Yet An Unjust Judge Sends Thee Away
From The State, But Nature, Who Brought Thee Into It? The Same As If A
Praetor Who Has Employed An Actor Dismisses Him From The Stage.[B]--"But
I Have Not Finished The Five Acts, But Only Three Of Them."--Thou Sayest
Well, But In Life The Three Acts Are The Whole Drama; For What Shall Be
A Complete Drama Is Determined By Him Who Was Once The Cause Of Its
Composition, And Now Of Its Dissolution: But Thou Art The Cause Of
Neither. Depart Then Satisfied, For He Also Who Releases Thee Is
Satisfied.
[A] Ii. 16; Iii. 11; Iv. 29.
[B] Iii. 8; Xi. 1.
Index Of Terms Pg 119
[Greek: Adiaphora] (Indifferentia, Cicero, Seneca, Epp. 82); Things
Indifferent, Neither Good Nor Bad; The Same As [Greek: Mesa
Index Of Terms Pg 120[Greek: Aischros] (Turpis, Cic.), Ugly; Morally Ugly.
[Greek: Aitia], Cause.
[Greek: Aitiôdes], [Greek: Aition], [Greek: To], The Formal Or Formative
Principle, The Cause.
[Greek: Akoinônêtos], Unsocial.
[Greek: Anaphora], Reference, Relation To A Purpose.
[Greek: Anypexairetôs], Unconditionally.
[Greek: Aporroia], Efflux.
[Greek: Aproaireta], [Greek: Ta], The Things Which Are Not In Our Will
Or Power.
[Greek: Archê], A First Principle.
[Greek: Atomoi] (Corpora Individua, Cic.), Atoms.
[Greek: Autarkeia] Est Quae Parvo Contenta Omne Id Respuit Quod Abundat
(Cic.); Contentment.
[Greek: Autarkes], Sufficient In Itself; Contented.
[Greek: Aphormai], Means, Principles. The Word Has Also Other
Significations In Epictetus. Index Ed. Schweig.
[Greek: Gignomena], [Greek: Ta], Things Which Are Produced, Come Into
Existence.
[Greek: Daimôn], God, God In Man, Man's Intelligent Principle.
[Greek: Diathesis], Disposition, Affection Of The Mind.
[Greek: Diairesis], Division Of Things Into Their Parts, Dissection,
Resolution, Analysis.
[Greek: Dialektikê], Ars Bene Disserendi Et Vera Ac Falsa Dijudicandi
(Cic.).
[Greek: Dialysis], Dissolution, The Opposite Of [Greek: Sygkrisis].
[Greek: Dianoia], Understanding; Sometimes, The Mind Generally,
The Whole Intellectual Power.
[Greek: Dogmata] (Decreta, Cic.), Principles.
[Greek: Dynamis Noera], Intellectual Faculty.
[Greek: Enkrateia], Temperance, Self-Restraint.
[Greek: Eidos] In Divisione Formae Sunt, Quas Graeci [Greek: Eidê]
Vocant; Nostri, Si Qui Haec Forte Tractant, Species Appellant (Cic.).
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