MARCUS AURELIUS MEDITATIONS: Wisdom from Roman Emperor & Stoic Philosophy - HQ Full Book - SECRETS OF POWER: Masters of Politics, Strategy & War

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Marcus Aurelius Meditations. Full audio book by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
the Roman Emperor, brought to you by Elite Consulting Group Introduction.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born on April twenty sixth a d.
One twenty one. His real name was m Annius Virus,

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and he was sprung of a noble family which claimed
descent from Numa, second King of Rome. Thus, the most
religious of emperors came of the blood of the most
pious of early kings. His father, Annius Virus, had held
high office in Rome, and his grandfather of the same
name had been thrice consul. Both his parents died young,

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but Marcus held them in loving remembrance. On his father's death,
Marcus was adopted by his grandfather, the consular Annius Virus,
and there was deep love between these two. On the
very first page of his book, Marcus gratefully declares how
of his grandfather he had learned to be gentle and meek,
and to refrain from all anger and passion. The Emperor

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Hadrian divined the fine character of the lad whom he
used to call not Verus but Vorisimus, more truthful than
his own name. He advanced Marcus to equestrian rank when
six years of age, and at the age of eight
made him a member of the ancient Salian priesthood the Boys,
and Annea Galieria Faustina was married to Antoninus Pious afterwards Emperor.

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Hence it came about that Antoninus, having no son, adopted Marcus,
changing his name to that which he is known by,
and betrothed him to his daughter Faustina. His education was
conducted with all care. The ablest teachers were engaged for him,
and he was trained in the strict doctrine of the
Stoic philosophy, which was his great delight. He was taught

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to dress plainly and to live simply, to avoid all
softness and luxury. His body was trained to hardihood by wrestling, hunting,
and outdoor games, and though his constitution was weak, he
showed great personal courage to encounter the fiercest boors. At
the same time he was kept from the extravagancies of
his day. The great excitement in Rome was the strife

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of the factions, as they were called in the circus.
The racing drivers used to adopt one of four colors red, blue, white,
or green, and their partisans showed an eagerness in supporting
them which nothing could surpass. Riot and corruption went in
the train of the racing chariots, and from all these

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things Marcus held severely aloof. In one forty Marcus was
raised to the consulship, and in one hundred and forty
five his betrothal was consummated by marriage. Two years later
Faustina brought him a daughter, and soon after the tribunate
and other imperial honors were conferred upon him. Antoninus Pious
died in one sixty one, and Marcus assumed the imperial state.

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He at once associated with himself el Ionius Comtists, whom
Antoninus had adopted as a younger son at the same time,
with Marcus, giving him the name of Lucius Aurelius Virus.
Henceforth the two are colleagues in the Empire, the junior
being trained, as it were, to succeed. No sooner was
Marcus settled upon the throne than wars broke out on

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all sides. In the east, Volagicis III of Parthia began
a long meditated revolt by destroying a whole Roman legion
in invading Syria. One hundred sixty two, Virus was sent
off in hot haste to quell this rising, and he
fulfilled his trust by plunging into drunkenness and debauchery, while
the war was left to his officers. Soon after, Marcus

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had to face a more serious danger at home in
the coalition of several powerful tribes on the northern frontier.
Chief among those were the Marcomanni or march Men, the
Quadi mentioned in this book, the Sarmatians, the Caddie, the Jaysuges.
In Rome itself there was pestilence and starvation, the one
brought from the east by Virus's legions, the other caused

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by floods which had destroyed vast quantities of grain. After
all have been done possible to allay famine and to
supply pressing needs, Marcus being forced even to sell the
imperial jewels to find money. Both emperors set forth to
a struggle which was to continue more or less during
the rest of Marcus's reign. During these wars, in one

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sixty nine, Virus died. We have no means of following
the campaigns in detail, but thus much is certain that
in the end the Romans succeeded in crushing the Barbarian
tribes and effecting a settlement which made the empire more secure.
Marcus was himself commander in chief, and victory was due
no less to his own ability than to his wisdom

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in choice of lieutenants, shown conspicuously in the case of Perdinax.
There were several important battles fought in these campaigns, and
one of them has become celebrated for the legend of
the Thundering Legion. In a battle against them Quaddy in
one hundred seventy four, the days seemed to be going
in favor of the foe, when on a sudden arose

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a great storm of thunder and rain. The lightning struck
the Barbarians with terror, and they turned to rout. In
later days, this storm was said to have been sent
in answer to the prayers of a legion which contained
many Christians, and the name Thundering Legion should be given
to it on this account. The title of Thundering Legion
is known at an earlier date, so this part of

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the story at least cannot be true. But the aid
of the storm is acknowledged by one of the scenes
carved on Antonine's column at Rome which commemorates these wars.
The settlement made after these troubles might have been more satisfactory,
but for an unexpected rising in the east. A vidious Cassius,
an able captain who had won renown in the Parthian Wars,

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was at this time chief governor of the eastern provinces.
By whatever means induced, he had conceived the project of
proclaiming himself emperor as soon as Marcus, who was then
in feeble health, should die. And a report having been
conveyed to him that Marcus was dead, Cassius did as
he had planned. Marcus, on hearing the news, immediately patched

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up a piece and returned home to meet this new peril.
The Emperor's great grief was that he must needs engage
in the horrors of civil strife. He praised the qualities
of Cassius and expressed a heartfelt wish that Cassius might
not be driven to do himself a hurt before he
should have the opportunity to grant a free pardon. But
before he could come to the east, news had come

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to Cassius that the Emperor still lived. His followers fell
away from him, and he was assassinated Marcus now went
to the east, and while there the murderers brought the
head of Cassius to him, but the emperor indignantly refused
their gift, nor would he admit the men to his presence.
On this journey, his wife, Faustina died. At his return,

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the emperor celebrated a triumph one hundred and seventy six.
Immediately afterwards, he repaired to Germany and took up once
more the Burden War. His operations were followed by complete success,
but the troubles of late years have been too much
for his constitution at no time robust, and on March seventeenth,
one hundred eighty he died in Pannonia. The good Emperor

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was not spared domestic troubles. Faustina had borne him several children,
of whom he was passionately fond. Their innocent faces may
still be seen in many a sculpture gallery, recalling with
odd effect, the dreamy countenance of their father. But they
died one by one, and when Marcus came to his
own end, only one of his sons still lived, the

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weak and worthless Commodists. On his father's death, commodists who
succeeded him undid the work of many campaigns by a
hasty and unwise peace, and his reign of twelve years
proved him to be a ferocious and bloodthirsty tyrant. Scandal
has made free with the name of Faustina herself, who
is accused not only of unfaithfulness, but of intriguing with

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Cassius and egging him on to his faith rebellion. It
must be admitted that these charges rest on no sure evidence,
and the emperor, at all events loved her dearly, nor
ever felt the slightest qualm of suspicion. As a soldier,
we have seen that Marcus was both capable and successful
as an administrator. He was prudent and conscientious. Although steeped

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in the teachings of philosophy, he did not attempt to
remodel the world on any preconceived plan. He trod the
path beaten by his predecessors, seeking only to do his
duty as well as he could and to keep out corruption.
He did some unwise things. It is true, to create
a compeer in empire, as he did with Verus, was

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a dangerous innovation which could only succeed if one of
the two effaced himself and under Diocletian. This very precedent
caused the Roman Empire to split into halves. He aired
in his civil administration by too much centralizing, but the
strong point of his reign was the administration of justice.
Marcus sought by law to protect the weak, to make

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the lot of the slaves less hard, to stand in
place of father to the fatherless. Charitable foundations were endowed
for rearing and educating poor children. The provinces were protected
against oppression, and public help was given to cities or
districts which might be visited by calamity. The great blot
on his name and one heart, indeed to explain, is

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his treatment of the Christians. In his reign, Justine at
Rome became a martyr to his faith, and Polycarp at Smyrna,
and we know of many outbreaks of fanaticism in the
provinces which caused the death of the faithful. It is
no excuse to plead that he knew nothing about the
atrocities done in his name. It was his duty to know,
and if he did not, he would have been the

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first to confess that he had failed in his duty.
But from his own tone in speaking of the Christians,
it is clear he knew them only from calumny, and
we hear of no measures taken even to secure that
they should have a fair hearing. In this respect, Trajan
was better than him. To a thoughtful mind, such a
religion as that of Rome would give small satisfaction. Its

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legends were often childish or impossible, Its teaching had little
to do with morality. The Roman religion was, in fact
of the nature of a bargain. Men paid certain sacrifices
and rights, and the gods granted their favor, irrespective of
right or wrong. In this case, all devout souls were
thrown back upon philosophy, as they had been, though to

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a less extent. In Greece. There were under the early
Empire two rival schools which practically divided the field between them,
Stoicism and Epicureanism. The ideal set before each was nominally
much the same. The Stoics aspired to apathia, the repression
of all emotion, and the Epicureans to ataraxia, freedom from

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all disturbance. Yet in the upshot the one has become
a synonym of stubborn endurance, the other for unbridled license.
With Epicureanism we have nothing to do now, but it
will be worth while to sketch the history and tenets
of the Stoic sect. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, was
born in Cyprus at some date unknown, but his life

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may be said roughly to be between the years three
fifty and two fifty b c. Cyprus has been from
time immemorial a meeting place of the East and West,
and although we cannot grant any importance to a possible
strain of Phoenician blood in him, for the Phoenicians were
no philosophers, yet it is quite likely that through Asia
Minor he may have come in touch with the far East.

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He studied under the Cynic Crates, but he did not
neglect other philosophical systems. After many years study, he opened
his own school in a colonnade in Athens called the
Painted Porch or Stoa, which gave the Stoics their name.
Next to Zeno, the school of the Porch chose most
to Chrysippus two hundred eighty two hundred seven b c.

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Who organized Stoicism into a system. Of him, it was said,
but for Chrysippus there had been no Porch. The Stoics
regarded speculation as a means to an end, and that
end was, as Zeno put it, to live consistently, or,
as it was later explained, to live in conformity with nature.
This conforming of the life to nature was the Stoic

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idea of virtue. This dictum might easily be taken to
mean that virtue consists in yielding to each natural impulse,
but that was very far from the Stoic meaning. In
order to live in accord with nature, it is necessary
to know what nature is, and to this end, a
threefold division of philosophy is made into physics, dealing with

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the universe and its laws, the problems of divine government
and teleology, logic which trains the mind to discern true
from false, and ethics, which applies the knowledge thus gained
and tested to practical life. The Stoic system of physics
was materialism with an infusion of pantheism. In contradiction to
Plato's view that the ideas or prototypes of phenomena alone

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really exist, the Stoics held that material objects alone existed,
but imminent in the material universe was a spiritual force
which acted through them, manifesting itself under many forms as fire, ether,
spirit soul reason the ruling principle. The universe then is God,
of whom the popular gods are manifestations, while legends and

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myths are allegorical. The soul of man is thus an
emanation from the Godhead, into whom it will eventually be reabsorbed.
The divine ruling principle makes all things work together for good,
but for the good of the whole. The highest good
of man is consciously to work with God for the
common good. And this is the sense in which the

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Stoic tried to live in accord with nature. In the individual.
It is virtue alone which enables him to do this.
As providence rules the universe, so virtue in the soul
must rule man in logic. The Stoic system is noteworthy
for their theory as to the test of truth, the criterion.
They compared the newborn soul to a sheet of paper

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ready for writing. Upon this the senses write their impressions,
and by experience of a number of these, the soul
unconsciously conceives general notions or anticipations. When the impression was
such as to be irresistible, it was called one that
holds fast, or, as they explained it, one proceeding from truth.
Ideas and inferences artificially produced by deduction or the like

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were tested by this holding perception of the ethical application
I have already spoken, the highest good was the virtuous life.
Virtue alone is happiness, and vice is unhappiness. Carrying this
theory to its extreme, the Stoics said that there could
be no gradations between virtue and vice, though of course

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each has its special manifestations. Moreover, nothing is good but virtue,
and nothing but vice is bad. Those outside things which
are commonly called good or bad at such as health
and sickness, wealth and poverty, pleasure and pain, are to
him indifferent. All these things are merely the sphere in

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which virtue may act. The ideal wise man is sufficient
unto himself in all things, and knowing these truths, he
will be happy even when stretched upon the rack. It
is probable that no Stoic claimed for himself that he
was this wise man, but that each strove after it
as an ideal, much as the Christian strives after a
likeness to Christ. The exaggeration in this statement was, however,

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so obvious that the later Stoics were driven to make
a further subdivision of things indifferent into what is preferable
and what is undesirable. They also held that for him
who had not attained to the perfect wisdom, certain actions
were proper. These were neither virtuous nor vicious, but like
the indifferent things, held a middle place. Two points in

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the Stoic system deserve special mention. One is a careful
distinction between things which are in our power and things
which are not. Desire and dislike, opinion and affection are
within the power of the will, whereas health, wealth, honor,
and other such are generally not so. The Stoic was
called upon to control his desires and affections and to

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guide his opinion, to bring his whole being under the
sway of the will or leading principle, just as the
universe is guided and governed by divine providence. This is
a special application of the favorite Greek virtue of moderation,
and has also its parallel in Christian ethics. The second
point is a strong insistence on the unity of the
universe and on man's duty as part of a great whole.

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Public spirit was the most splendid political virtue of the
ancient world, and it is here made cosmopolitan. It is
again instructive to note that Christian sages insisted on the
same thing. Christians are taught that they are members of
a world wide brotherhood where is neither Greek nor Hebrew
bond or free, and that they live their lives as

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fellow workers with God. Such is the system which underlies
the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Some knowledge of it is
necessary to the right understanding of the book. But for
us the chief interest lies elsewhere. We do not come
to Marcus Aurelius for a treatise on Stoicism. He is
no head of a school to lay down a body

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of doctrine for students. He does not even contemplate that
others should read what he writes. His philosophy is not
an eager intellectual inquiry, but more what we should call
religious feeling. The uncompromising stiffness of Zeno or Chrysippus is
softened and transformed by passing through a nature reverent and tolerant,
gentle and free from guile. The grim resignation which made

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life possible to the Stoic sage becomes in him almost
a mood of aspiration. His book records the innermost thoughts
of his heart, set down to ease it with such
moral maxims and reflections as may help him to bear
the burden of duty and accountless annoyances of a busy life.
It is instructive to compare the Meditations with another famous book,

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The Imitation of Christ. There is the same ideal of
self control in both. It should be a man's task,
says the Imitation, to overcome himself, and every day to
be stronger than himself. Inwithstanding of the passion standeth very
peace of heart. Let us set the acts to the root,
that we, being purged of our passions, may have a

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peaceable mind. To this end, there must be continual self examination.
If thou may not continually gather thyself together, namely, sometimes
do it at least once a day, the morning or
the evening. In the morning purpose in the evening, discuss
the manner what thou hast been this day in word,
work and thought. But while the Romans temper is a

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modest self reliance, the Christian aims at a more passive mood,
humbleness and meekness, and reliance on the presence and personal
friendship of God. The Roman scrutinizes his faults with severity,
but without the self contempt, which makes the Christian vile
in his own sight. The Christian, like the Roman, bids
study to withdraw thine heart from the love of things visible.

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But it is not the busy life of duty he
has in mind so much as the contempt of all
worldly things and the cutting away of all lower delectations.
Both rate men's praise or blame at their real worthlessness.
Let not thy peace, says the Christian, be in the
mouths of men, But it is to God censure. The
Christian appeals the Roman to his own soul. The petty

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annoyances of injustice or unkindness are looked on by each
with the same magnanimity. Why do the little thing said
or done against THEE make THEE sorry? It is no
new thing. It is not the first, nor shall it
be the last. If thou live long, at best, suffer patiently.
If thou canst not suffer joyously, The Christian should sorrow

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more for other men malice than for our own wrongs.
But the Roman is inclined to wash his hands of
the offender. Study to be patient in suffering and bearing
other men's de faults and all manner infirmities. Says the Christian.
But the Roman would never have thought to add, if
all men were perfect, what had we then to suffer
of other men? For God? The virtue of suffering in

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itself is an idea which does not meet us. In
the meditations, Both alike realize that man is one of
a great community. No man is sufficient to himself, says
the Christian. We must bear together, help together, comfort together.
But while he sees a chief importance in zeal in
exalted emotion, that is an avoidance of lukewarmness. The Roman

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thought mainly of the duty to be done as well
as might be, and less of the feeling which should
go with the doing of it. To the Saint, as
to the Emperor, the world is a poor thing at best. Verily,
it is a misery to live upon the earth, says
the Christian. Few and evil are the days of man's life,
which posseth aways suddenly as a shadow. But there is

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one great difference between the two books we are considering.
The imitation is addressed to others, the meditations by the
writer to himself. We learn nothing from the imitation of
the author's own life, except in so far as he
may be assumed to have practiced his own preachings. The
meditations reflect mood by mood the mind of him who
wrote them. In their intimacy and frankness lies their great charm.

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These notes are not sermons, they are not even confessions.
There is always an air of self consciousness in confessions.
In such revelations, there is always a danger of unctuousness
or of vulgarity. For the best of men, Saint Augustine
is not always clear of offense, and John Bunyan himself
exaggerates venial peccadillos into heinous sins. But Marcus Aurelius is

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neither vulgar nor unctuous. He extenuates nothing, but nothing sets
down in malice, never poses before an audience. He may
not be profound, he is always sincere, and it is
a lofty and serene soul which is here disclosed before us.
Vulgar vices seem to have no temptation for him. This

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is not one tide and bound with chains which he
strives to break. The faults he detects in himself are
often such as most men would have no eyes to see.
To serve the divine spirit which is implanted within him,
a man must keep himself pure from all violent passion
and evil affection, from all rashness and vanity, and from
all manner of discontent, either in regard of the gods

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or men, or, as he says elsewhere, unspotted by pleasure,
undaunted by pain, unwavering courtesy and consideration are his aims. Whatsoever,
any man either doth or seth Thou must be good.
Doth any man offend? It is against himself that he
doth offend. Why should it trouble thee? The offender needs pity,

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not wrath. Those who must need needs be corrected should
be treated with tact and gentleness, and one must be
always ready to learn better. The best kind of revenge
is not to become like unto them. There are so
many hints of offense forgiven that we may believe the
notes followed sharp on the facts. Perhaps he has fallen
short of his aim, and thus seeks to call his

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principles to mind and to strengthen himself for the future.
That these sayings are not mere talk is plain from
the story of a videous Cassius, who would have usurped
his imperial throne. Thus the emperor faithfully carries out his
own principle that evil must be overcome with good for
each fault in others. Nature says he has given us

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a counteracting virtue, as for example, against the unthankful. It
hath given goodness and meekness as an antidote. One so
gentle towards a foe was sure to be a good friend.
And indeed his pages are full of generous gratitude to
those who had served him. In his first book he
sets down to account all the debts due to his
kinsfolk and teachers. To his grandfather, he owed his own

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gentle spirit to his father's shamefastness, and courage. He learned
of his mother to be religious and bountiful and single minded.
Rusticus did not work in vain if he showed his
pupil that his life needed amending. Apollonius taught him simplicity, reasonableness, gratitude,
a love of true liberty. So the list runs on.

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Every one he had dealings with seems to have given
him something good, a sure proof of the goodness of
his nature, which thought no evil. If his was that
honest and true heart, which is the Christian ideal, this
is the more wonderful, and that he lacked the faith
which makes Christian strong. He could say, it is true
either there is a God, and then all is well,

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or if all things go by chance and fortune. Yet
mayest thou use thine own providence in those things that
concern thee properly, and then art thou well? Or again
we must needs grant that there is a nature that
doth govern the universe. But his own part in the
scheme of things is so small that he does not
hope for any personal happiness beyond what a serene soul

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may win in this mortal life. O, my soul, the
time I trust will be when thou shalt be good, simple,
more open and visible than that body by which it
is enclosed. But this is said of the calm, contentment
with human lot which he hopes to attain, not of
a time when the trammels of the body shall be
cast off. For the rest the world and its fame

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and wealth, all is vanity. The gods may perhaps have
a particular care for him, but their especial care is
for the universe at large. Thus much should suffice. His
gods are better than the stoic gods who sit aloof
from all human things. Untroubled and uncaring, but his personal
hope is hardly stronger. On this point, he says little.

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Though there are many allusions to death as the natural end,
doubtless he expected his soul one day to be absorbed
into the universal soul, since nothing comes out of nothing
and nothing can be annihilated. His mood is one of
strenuous weariness. He does his duty as a good soldier,
waiting for the sound of the trumpet which shall sound
the retreat. He is not that cheerful confidence which led

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Socrates through a life no less noble, to a death
which was to bring him into the company of gods
he had worshiped and men whom he had revered. But
although Marcus Aurelius may have held intellectually that his soul
was destined to be absorbed and to lose consciousness of itself,
there were times when he felt, as all who hold
it must sometimes feel, how unsatisfying is such a creed.

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Then he gropes blindly after something less empty and vain.
Thou hast taken ship, He says, thou hast sailed, Thou
art come to land, Go out, if to another life,
there also shalt thou find gods who are everywhere. There
is more in this than the assumption of a rival theory.
For argument's sake. If worldly things be but as a dream,

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the thought is not far off that there may be
an awakening to what is real. When he speaks of
death as a necessary change, and points out that nothing
useful and profitable can be brought about without change, did
he perhaps think of the change in a corn of wheat,
which is not quickened except it die. Nature's marvelous power
of recreating out of corruption is surely not confined to

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bodily things. Many of his thoughts sound like far off
echoes of Saint Paul. And it is strange, indeed, that
this most Christian of emperors has nothing good to say
of the Christians. To him, they are only sectaries, violently
and passionately set upon opposition. Profound as philosophy. These meditations
certainly are not. But Marcus Aurelius was too sincere not

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to see the essence of such things as came within
his experience. Ancient religions were, for the most part concerned
with outward things. Do the necessary rights, and you propitiate
the gods, and these rites were often trivial sometimes violated
right feeling, or even more, even when the gods stood
on the side of righteousness, they were concerned with the

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act more than with the intent. But Marcus Aurelius knows
that what the heart is full of the man will do.
Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are. He says,
such will thy mind be in time, And every page
of the book shows us that he new thought was
sure to issue in act. He drills his soul, as

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it were, in right principles, that when the time comes,
it may be guided by them to wait until the
emergency is to be too late. He sees also the
true essence of happiness. If happiness did consist in pleasure,
how came notorious robbers, impure, abominable livers, parricides, and tyrants

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in so large a measure to have their part of pleasures?
He who had all the world's pleasures at command, can write,
thus a happy lot and portion is good inclinations of
the soul, good desires, good actions. By the irony of fate,
this man, so gentle and good, so desirous of quiet joys,
in a mind free from care, was set at the

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head of the Roman Empire. When great dangers threatened from
east and west. For several years, He himself commanded his
armies in chief in camp before the quady. He dates
the first book of his meditations and shows how he
could retire within himself amid the coarse clangor of arms.
The pomps and glories which he despised, were all his.

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What to most men is an ambition or a dream,
to him was a round of weary tasks which nothing
but the stern sense of duty could carry him through.
And he did his work well. His wars were slow
and tedious, but successful with a statesman's wisdom. He foresaw
the danger to roam of the Barbarian hordes from the north,

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and took measures to meet it. As it was, His
settlement gave two centuries of respite to the Roman Empire.
Had he fulfilled the plan of pushing the imperial frontiers
to the Elba, which seems to have been in his mind,
much more might have been accomplished, but death cut short
his designs. Truly a rare opportunity was given to Marcus

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or Realius of showing what the mind can do in
despite of circumstances. Most peaceful of warriors, a magnificent monarch
whose ideal was quiet happiness in home life bent to obscurity,
yet born to greatness, the loving father of children who
died young were turned out hateful. His life was one
paradox that nothing might lack. It was encamped before the

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face of the enemy, that he passed away and went
to his own place. The first book of my grandfather Verus,
I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to
refrain from all anger and passion. From the fame and
memory of him that begot me. I have learned both
shamefastness equals being modest, shy or bashful, and manlike behavior

(30:52):
of my mother. I have learned to be religious and bountiful,
and to forbear not only to do, but to intend
any evil, To content vent myself with a spare diet,
and to fly all such excess as is incidental to
great wealth of my great grandfather, both to frequent public
schools and auditories, and to get me good and able
teachers at home, And that I ought not to think

(31:13):
much if upon such occasions I were at excessive charges
of him that brought me up not to be fondly
addicted to either of the two great factions of the
coursers in the circus, called Prosini and Venity, nor in
the amphitheater Parili, to favor any of the gladiators or fencers,
as either the Parmelarii or the secutors. Moreover, to endure labor,

(31:36):
nor to need many things. When I have anything to do,
to do it myself rather than by others. Not to
meddle with many businesses, and not easily to admit of
any slander of diagnetis. Not to busy myself about vain things,
and not easily to believe those things which are commonly
spoken by such as take upon them to work wonders,

(31:57):
and by sorcerers or prestidigitators and impostors, concerning the power
of charms and their driving out of demons or evil spirits,
and the like. Not to keep quails for the game,
nor to be mad after such things, not to be
offended with other men's liberty of speech, and to apply
myself unto philosophy. Him Also I must think that ever

(32:20):
I heard first Becaius, then Tandasus and Marchianus, and that
I did write dialogs in my youth, and that I
took liking to the philosopher's little couch and skins, and
such other things which, by the Grecian discipline are proper
to those who profess philosophy. To Rusticus, I am beholding
that I first entered into the conceit that my life

(32:41):
wanted some redress and cure, and then that I did
not fall into the ambition of ordinary sophists, either to
write tracts concerning the common theorems, or to exhort men
unto virtue and the study of philosophy by public orations.
As also that I never, by way of ostentation, did
effect to show myself an active, able man for any
kind of bodily exercises, and that I gave over the

(33:04):
study of rhetoric and poetry, and of elegant, neat language,
that I did not use to walk about the house
in my long robe, nor to do any such things. Moreover,
I learned of him to write letters without any affectation
or curiosity, such as that was which by him was
written to my mother from Sinuessa, and to be easy
and ready to be reconciled and well pleased again with

(33:27):
them that had offended me, as soon as any of
them would be content to seek, unto me again to
read with diligence, not to rest satisfied with a light
and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken,
of whom also I must thank that ever I lighted
upon Epictetus's hyponemida, or moral commentaries and common factions, which

(33:48):
also he gave me of his own form Apollonius, true
liberty and unvariable steadfastness, And not to regard anything at all,
though never so little, but write and reason, and all,
whether in the sharpest pains, or after the loss of
a child, or in long diseases, to be still the
same man, who also was a present and visible example

(34:09):
unto me that it was possible for the same man
to be both vehement and remiss, a man not subject
to be vexed and offended with the incapacity of his
scholars and auditors in his lectures end expositions, and a
true pattern of a man who, of all his good
gifts and faculties, least esteemed in himself that his excellent
skill and ability to teach and persuade others. The common

(34:32):
theorems and maxims of the Stoic philosophy of him. Also
I learned how to receive favors and kindnesses from friends,
so that I might not become obnoxious unto them for them,
nor more yielding upon occasion than in right I ought,
And yet so that I should not pass them neither
as an unsensible and unthankful man of sextus mildness and

(34:53):
the pattern of a family governed with paternal affection and
a purpose to live according to nature, to be grave
without affectation, to observe carefully the several dispositions of my friends,
not to be offended with idiots, nor unseasonably to set
upon those that are carried with the vulgar opinions, with
the theorems and tenets of philosophers, his conversation being an

(35:14):
example how a man might accommodate himself to all men
and companies, so that yoe his company were sweeter and
more pleasing than any flatterer's cogging and fawning. Yet was it,
at the same time most respected and reverenced, who also
had a proper happiness and faculty rationally and methodically to
find out and set in order all necessary determinations and

(35:34):
instructions for a man's life. A man without ever the
least appearance of anger or any other passion able at
the same time most exactly to observe the stoic apathia
or unpassionateness, and yet to be most tender heered ever
of good credit, and yet almost without any noise or
rumor very learned, and yet making little show from Alexander

(35:56):
the Grammarian, to be unreprovable myself, and not reproachfully to
reprehend any man for a barbarism or a solecism, or
any false pronunciation, but dexterously, by way of answer or
testimony or confirmation of the same matter, to utter it
as it should have been spoken, or by some other
such close and indirect admonition, handsomely and civilly, to tell

(36:17):
him of it of fronto. To how much envy in
fraud and hypocrisy the state of a tyrannoust king is
subject unto, And how they who are commonly called eupatrides
i e. Nobly born, are in some sort incapable or
void of natural affection. Of Alexander the Platonic, not often,
nor without great necessity to say or to write to

(36:39):
any man in a letter. I am not at leisure
nor in this manner still to put off those duties
which we owe to our friends and acquaintances, under pretense
of urgent affairs of Catulus, not to contempt any friend's expostulation,
though unjust, but to strive to reduce him to his
former disposition freely and herely. To speak well of all

(36:59):
my masters upon any occasion, as it is reported of
Demicius and Athenodotus. And to love my children with true
affection from my brother Severus, to be kind and loving
to all them of my house and family, by whom
also I came to the knowledge of Thracia and Helvidius,
and Cato, and Dio and Brutus. He it was also

(37:20):
that did put me in the first conceit and desire
of an equal commonwealth administered by justice and equality, and
of a kingdom wherein should be regarded nothing more than
the good and welfare of the subjects of him. Also
to observe a constant tenor in the study and esteem
of philosophy, to be bountiful and liberal in the largest measure, always,

(37:40):
to hope the best, and to be confident that my
friends love me, in whom I moreover observed open dealing
towards those whom he reproved at any time, and that
his friends might, without all doubt or much observation, know
what he would or would not. So open and plain
was he from Claudius Maximus in all things, to endeavor
to have power of myself, and in nothing to be

(38:02):
carried about, to be cheerful and courageous in all sudden
chances and accidents, as in sicknesses, to love mildness and
moderation and gravity, and to do my business, whatsoever it be,
thoroughly and without querulousness. Whatsoever he said, all men believed
him that as he spake, so he thought, and whatsoever

(38:23):
he did, that he did it with a good intent.
His manner was never to wonder at anything, never to
be in haste, and yet never slow, nor to be
perplexed or dejected, or at any time unseemly or excessively,
to laugh, nor to be angry or suspicious, but ever
ready to do good and to forgive, and to speak truth.

(38:43):
And all this as one that seemed rather of himself
to have been straight and right, than ever to have
been rectified or redressed. Neither was there any man that
ever thought himself undervalued by him, or that could find
in his here to think himself a better man than he.
He would also be very pleasant and gracious. In my father.

(39:04):
I observed his meekness, his constancy without wavering in those
things which, after a due examination and deliberation he had determined,
how free from all vanity he carried himself in matter
of honor and dignity, his laboriousness and assiduity, his readiness
to hear any man that had ought to say, tending
to any common good. How generally and imperially he would

(39:26):
give every man his due, his skill and knowledge. When
rigor or extremity, or when remissness or moderation was in season,
how he did abstain from all unchaste love of youths,
his moderate condescending to other men's occasions, as an ordinary man,
neither absolutely requiring of his friends that they should wait
upon him at his ordinary meals, nor that they should

(39:48):
of necessity accompany him in his journeys, And that whensoever
any business, upon some necessary occasions was to be put
off and omitted before it could be ended, he was
ever found, when he went about it again, the same
man that he was before his accurate examination of things,
in consultations and patient hearing of others. He would not

(40:08):
hastily give over the search of the matter, as one
easy to be satisfied with sudden notions and apprehensions. His
care to preserve his friends, how neither at any time
he would carry himself towards them with disdainful neglect and
grow weary of them, nor yet at any time be
madly fond of them. His contented mind in all things,
his cheerful countenance, his care to foresee things afar off,

(40:32):
and to take order for the least without any noise
or clamor moreover, how all acclamations and flattery were repressed
by him, how carefully he observed all things necessary to
the government, and kept an account of the common expenses,
And how patiently he did abide that he was reprehended
by some for this, his strict and rigid kind of dealing.

(40:52):
How he was neither a superstitious worshiper of the gods,
nor an ambitious pleaser of men, or studious of popular applause,
but sober in all things, and everywhere observant of that
which was fitting no effector of novelties in those things
which conduced to his ease and convenience plenty whereof his
fortune did afford him without pride and bragging, yet with

(41:13):
all freedom and liberty, so that as he did freely
enjoy them without any anxiety or affectation when they were present,
so when absent he found no one of them. Moreover,
that he was never commended by any man as either
a learned, acute man, or an obsequious officious man, or
a fine orator, but as a ripe, mature man, a

(41:34):
perfect sound man, one that could not endure to be flattered,
able to govern both himself and others. Moreover, how much
he did honor all true philosophers, without upbraiding those that
were not. So his sociableness, his gracious and delightful conversation,
but never unto satiety, his care of his body within
bounds and measure, not as one that desired to live

(41:56):
long or over, studious of neatness and elegancy, and yet
not as one that did not regard it, so that,
through his own care and providence he seldom needed any inward,
physic or outward applications. But especially how ingeniously he would
yield to any that had obtained any peculiar faculty, as
either eloquence or the knowledge of the laws, or of

(42:18):
ancient customs, or the like, And how he concurred with
them in his best care and endeavor, that every one
of them might, in his kind, for that wherein he excelled,
be regarded and esteemed. And although he did all things
carefully after the ancient customs of his forefathers, yet even
of this was he not desirous that men should take
notice that he did imitate ancient customs. Again, how he

(42:41):
was not easily moved and tossed up and down, but
loved to be constant, both in the same places and businesses,
And how after his great fits of headache he would
return fresh and vigorous to his wanted affairs. Again that
secrets he neither had many, nor often, and such only
as concerned public matters. His discretion and moderation in exhibiting

(43:01):
of the public sites and shows for the pleasure and
pastime of the people, in public buildings, conjuries, and the like,
in all these things, having a respect unto men only
as men, and to the equity of the things themselves,
and not unto the glory that might follow. Never wont
to use the baths at unseasonable hours. No builder, never

(43:23):
curious or solicitous, either about his meat, or about the
workmanship or color of his clothes, or about anything that
belonged to external beauty in all his conversation, far from
all inhumanity, all boldness and incivility, all greediness and impetuosity,
never doing anything with such earnestness and intention that a

(43:44):
man could say of him that he did sweat about it.
But contrariwise, all things distinctly, as at leisure, without trouble, orderly, soundly,
and agreeably. A man might have applied that to him
which is recorded of Socrates, that he knew how to
want and to enjoy those things in the want, whereof
most men show themselves weak and in the fruition in temperate.

(44:07):
But to hold out firm and constant, and to keep
within the compass of true moderation and sobriety in either
a state is proper to a man who hath a
perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed himself in
the sickness of Maximus. From the gods I received that
I had good grandfathers and parents, a good sister, good masters,
good domestics, loving kinsmen, almost all that I have, and

(44:31):
that I never, through haste and rashness, transgressed against any
of them, notwithstanding that my disposition was such as that
such a thing might very well have been committed by me,
but that it was the mercy of the gods to
prevent such a concurring of matters and occasions as might
make me to incur this blame. That I was not
long brought up by the concubine of my father, that

(44:51):
I preserved the flower of my youth, that I took
not upon me to be a man before my time,
but rather put it off longer than I needed. That
I lived under the government of my lord and father,
who would take away from me all pride and vainglory,
and reduce me to that conceit and opinion. That it
was not impossible for a prince to live in the
court without a troop of guards and followers, extraordinary apparel,

(45:15):
such and such torches and statues, and other like particulars
of state and magnificence. But that a man may reduce
and contract himself almost to the state of a private man.
And yet for all that not to become the more
base and remiss in those public matters and affairs wherein
power and authority is requisite. That I have had such

(45:35):
a brother who, by his own example might stir me
up to think of myself, and by his respect and
love delight and please me. That I have got ingenuous children,
and that they were not born distorted, nor with any
other natural deformity. That I was no great proficient in
the study of rhetoric and poetry, and of other faculties
which perchance I might have dwelt upon if I had

(45:58):
found myself to go on in them with os success.
That I did by times prefer those by whom I
was brought up to such places and dignities which they
seemed unto me most to desire, and that I did
not put them off with hope and expectation that I
would do the same hereafter. That I ever knew, Apollonius
and Rusticus and Maximus, that I have had occasion often

(46:21):
and effectually to consider and meditate with myself concerning that
life which is according to nature, what the nature and
manner of it is. So that as for the gods,
and such suggestions, helps and inspirations as might be expected
from them, nothing did hinder, but that I might have
begun long before to live according to nature, or that
even now that I was not yet paacher, and in

(46:41):
present possession of that life, that I myself was the
only cause of it. That my body, in such a life,
hath been able to hold out so long, that I
never had to do with Benedicta and Theodotus. Yet, and afterwards,
when I fell into some fits of love, I was
soon cured that, having been often displeased with Rusticus, I

(47:02):
never did him anything for which afterwards I had occasion
to repent. That it being so that my mother was
to die young, yet she lived with me all her
latter years. That as often as I had a purpose
to help and succor any that either were poor or
fallen into some present necessity, I never was answered by
my officers that there was not ready money enough to
do it, and that I myself never had occasion to

(47:24):
require the like succor from any other. That I have
such a wife, so obedient, so loving, so ingenuous, that
I had choice of fit and able men to whom
I might commit the bringing up of my children, that
by dreams I have received help, as for other things,
so in particular, how I might stay my casting of

(47:44):
blood and cure my dizziness, as that also that happened
to thee in Kajada, as unto crises when he prayed
by the sea shore. And when I did first apply
myself to philosophy, that I did not fall into the
hands of some sophists, or spend my time either in
reading the manifold volumes of ordinary philosophers, nor in practicing
myself in the solution of arguments and fallacies, nor dwelt

(48:07):
upon the studies of the meteors and other natural curiosities.
All these things, without the assistance of the gods and fortune,
could not have been in the country of the quady
at Granua these betimes in the morning, say to yourself
this day I shall have to do with an idle,
curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty false,

(48:29):
or an envious man, an unsociable, uncharitable man. All these
ill qualities have happened unto them through ignorance of that
which is truly good and truly bad. But I that
understand the nature of that which is good, that it
only is to be desired, and of that which is bad,
that it only is truly odious and shameful. Who know
moreover that this transgressor whosoever he be, is my kinsman,

(48:54):
not by the same blood and seed, but by participation
of the same reason and of the same divine particle.
How can I either be hurt by any of those,
since it is not in their power to make me
incur anything that is truly reproachful or angry and ill
affected towards him who, by nature is so near unto me.
For we are all born to be fellow workers, as

(49:15):
the feet, the hands, and the eyelids, as the rose
of the upper and under teeth. For such therefore, to
be in opposition is against nature. And what is it
to chafe at and to be averse from? But to
be an opposition whatsoever I am is either flesh or life,
or that which we commonly call the mistress, an overruling
pair of man. Reason away with your books. Suffer not

(49:39):
your mind any more to be distracted and carried to
and fro for it will not be. But as even
now ready to die, think little of your flesh, blood, bones,
and a skin, a pretty piece of nip and twisted
work consisting of nerves, veins and arteries. Think no more
of it than so. And as for your life, consider
what it is o wind, not one constant wind, neither,

(50:02):
but every moment of an hour let out and sucked
in again. The third is your ruling pair. And here
consider you are an old man. Suffer not that excellent
pair to be brought in subjection and to become slavish.
Suffer it not to be drawn up and down with
unreasonable and unsociable lusts and motions, as it were with
wires and nerves. Suffer it not any more either to

(50:24):
repine at anything now present, or to fear and fly
anything to come which the destiny hath appointed thee. Whatsoever
proceeds from the gods immediately that any man will grant
totally depends from their divine providence. As for those things
that are commonly said to happen by fortune, even those
must be conceived to have dependence from nature, or from

(50:45):
that first and general connection and concatenation of all those
things which, more apparently, by the divine providence are administered
and brought to pass. All things flow from thence, and
whatsoever it is that is is both necessary and conducing
to the whole and whatsoever it is that is requisite
and necessary for the preservation of the general must of

(51:06):
necessity for every particular nature be good and be hooeful,
And as for the whole it is preserved, as by
the perpetual mutation and conversion of the simple elements one
into another, so also by the mutation and alteration of
things mixed and compounded. Let these things suffice thee Let
them be always unto thee as your general rules and precepts.

(51:28):
As for your thursd after books, away with it with
all speed, that you die not murmuring and complaining, but
truly meek and well satisfied, and from your here thankful
unto the gods. The second book, Remember how long you
have already put off these things, and how often a
certain day and hour, as it were, having been set
to you by the gods, you have neglected it. It

(51:51):
is high time for you to understand the true nature
both of the world, whereof you are a pair, and
of that Lord and governor of the world, from whom,
as a channel from the spring you yourself didst flow,
And that there is but a certain limit of time
appointed to you, which if you shall not make use of,
to calm and allay the many distempers of your soul.
It will pass away, and you with it, and never

(52:13):
after return. Let it be your earnest and incessant care
as a Roman and a man, to perform whatsoever it
is that you are about, with true and unfeigned gravity,
natural affection, freedom, and justice. And as for all other
cares and imaginations, how you may ease your mind of them,
which you shall do, if you shalt go about every

(52:34):
action as your last action, free from all vanity, all
passionate and wilful aberration, from reason, and from all hypocrisy
and self love and dislike, of those things which by
the fates or appointment of God have happened to you.
You see that those things which for a man to
hold on in a prosperous course and to live a
divine life are requisite and necessary, are not many. For

(52:57):
the Gods will require no more of any man that
shall but keep and observe these things. Do soul, do
abuse and contemn yourself yet a while, and the time
for you to respect yourself will be at an end.
Every man's happiness depends from himself. But behold, your life
is almost at an end. Whilst affording yourself no respect,

(53:18):
You dost make your happiness to consist in the souls
and conceits of other men. Why should any of these
things that happen externally so much distract you? Give yourself
leisure to learn some good thing, and cease roving and
wandering to and fro. You must also take heed of
another kind of wandering. For they are idle in their actions,

(53:38):
who toil and labor in this life, and have no
certain scope to which to direct all their motions and desires.
For not observing the state of another man's soul, scarce
was ever any man known to be unhappy. Tell whosoever
they be, that intend not and guide not by reason
and discretion the motions of their own souls. They must

(53:59):
have necessity be unhappy. These things you must always have
in mind. What is the nature of the universe, and
what is mine in particular this to that, what relation
it had, what kind of pair of what kind of
universe it is? And that there is nobody that can
hinder you, but that you may always both do and
speak those things which are agreeable to that nature, whereof

(54:20):
you are a pair. Theophrastus, where he compares sin with
sin as after a vulgar sense such things I grant
may be compared. Says well, and like a philosopher, that
those sins are greater which are committed through lust than
those which are committed through anger. For he that is
angry seems with a kind of grief and close contraction
of himself to turn away from reason. But he that

(54:42):
sins through lust, being overcome by pleasure, does in his
very sin beray a more impotent and unmanlike disposition. Well, then,
and like a philosopher does he say that he of
the two is the more to be condemned that sins
with pleasure than he that sins with grief. For indeed,
this latter may seem first to have been wronged, and

(55:03):
so in some manner, through grief thereof to have been
forced to be angry. Whereas he who through lust does
commit anything, did of himself merely resolve upon that action.
Whatsoever you dost affect, whatsoever you dost project, so do,
and so project all, as one who for aught, you know,
may at this very present a pair out of this life.

(55:24):
And as for death, if there be any gods, it
is no grievous thing to leave the society of men.
The gods will do you no hurt, you may be sure.
But if it be so that there be no gods,
or that they take no care of the world, why
should I desire to live in a world void of
gods and of all divine providence. But gods there be, certainly,

(55:46):
and they take care for the world. And as for
those things which be truly evil, as vice and wickedness,
such things they have put in a man's own power
that he might avoid them if he would, And had
there been anything besides that had been truly bad and evil,
they would have had a care of that also, that
a man might have avoided it. But why should there
be thought to hurt and prejudice a man's life in

(56:07):
this world, which cannot any ways make man himself the
better or the worse in his own person. Neither must
we think that the nature of the universe did, either
through ignorance pass these things, or, if not as ignorant
of them, yet as unable either to prevent or better
to order and dispose them. It cannot be that she,
through want, either of power or skill, should have committed

(56:28):
such a thing so as to suffer all things, both
good and bad equally and promiscuously to happen to all,
both good and bad, as for life therefore and death,
honor and dishonor, labor and pleasure, riches and poverty. All
these things happen to men, indeed, both good and bad equally,
but as things which of themselves are neither good nor bad,

(56:50):
because of themselves, neither shameful nor praiseworth her. Consider how
quickly all things are dissolved and resolved, the bodies and
substances themselves into the matter and substance of the world,
and their memories into the general age and time of
the world. Consider the nature of all worldly sensible things,
of those especially which either ensnare by pleasure, or for

(57:12):
their irksomeness are dreadful, or for their outward luster and
show are in great esteem and request, How vile and contemptible,
how base and corruptible, how destitute of all true life
and being they are. It is the pair of a
man endowed with a good understanding faculty to consider what
they themselves are, in very deed from whose bare conceits

(57:33):
and voices, honor and credit do proceed. As also what
it is to die, And how if a man shall
consider this by itself alone to die, and separate from
it in his mind all those things which with it
usually represent themselves to us. He can conceive of it
no otherwise then, as of a work of nature. And
he that fears any work of nature is a very

(57:53):
child now death. It is not only a work of nature,
but also conducing to nature. Consider with yourself, how man,
and by what pair of his is joined to God,
and how that pair of man is affected when it
is said to be diffused. There is nothing more wretched
than that soul, which, in a kind of circuit, compasseth

(58:13):
all things, searching even the very depths of the earth,
and by all signs and conjectures, prying into the very
thoughts of other men's souls. And yet of this is
not sensible that it is sufficient for a man to
apply himself wholly and to confine all his thoughts and
cares to the tendence of that spirit which is within him,
and truly and really to serve him. His service does

(58:35):
consist in this, that a man keep himself pure from
all violent passion and evil affection, from all rashness and vanity,
and from all manner of discontent, either in regard of
the gods or men. For indeed, whatsoever proceeds from the
gods deserves respect for their worth and excellency, and whatsoever
proceeds from men, as they are our kinsmen should by

(58:57):
us be entertained with love, always, sometimes as proceeding from
their ignorance of that which is truly good and bad,
a blindness no less than that by which we are
not able to discern between white and black with a
kind of pity and compassion. Also, if you should live
three thousand, or as many as ten thousands of years,
yet remember this, that man can pair with no life properly,

(59:20):
save with that little pair of life which he now lives.
And that which he lives is no other than that
which at every instant he pairs with. That then, which
is longest of duration, and that which is shortest, come
both to one effect. For although in regard of that
which is already passed there may be some inequality, yet
that time which is now present and in being, is

(59:42):
equal to all men, and that being at which we
pair with whensoever we die, it does manifestly appear that
it can be but a moment of time that we
then pair with. For as for that which is either
past or to come, a man cannot be said properly
to pair with it, For how should a man pair
with that which he had not? These two things, therefore,

(01:00:04):
you must remember first that all things in the world,
from all eternity, by a perpetual revolution of the same times,
and things ever continued and renewed, are of one kind
and nature, so that whether for a hundred or two
hundred years only, or for an infinite space of time,
a man see those things which are still the same,
it can be no matter of great moment. And secondly,

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that that life which any the longest liver or the
shortest liver pairs with, is for length and duration the
very same. For that only which is present is that
which either of them can lose, as being that only
which they have. For that which he had not, no
man can truly be said to lose. Remember that all
is but opinion and conceit. For those things are plain

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and apparent which were spoken to Monomous the cynic. And
as plain and apparent is the use that may be
made of those things, if that which is true and
serious in them be received, as well as that which
is sweet pleasing. A man's soul does wrong and disrespect itself. First,
and especially whenas much as in itself lies, it becomes
an apostem, and, as it were, an excrescency of the world.

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For to be grieved and displeased with anything that happens
in the world is direct apostasy from the nature of
the universe, pair of which all particular natures of the
world are. Secondly, when she either is averse from any man,
or led by contrary desires or affections tending to his
hurt and prejudice, such as are the souls of them
that are angry. Thirdly, when she is overcome by any

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pleasure or pain. Fourthly, when she does dissemble and covertly
and falsely either does or says anything. Fifthly, when she
does either affect or endeavor anything to no certain end,
but rashly and without due rasciascination and consideration, how consequent
or inconsequent, it is to the common end. For even

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the least things ought not to be done without relation
to the end, and the end of the reasonable creature
is to follow and obey Him who is the reason,
as it were, and the law of this great city
and ancient commonwealth. The time of a man's life is
as a point, the substance of it ever flowing, the
sense obscure, and the whole composition of the body tending

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to corruption. His soul is restless, fortune uncertain, and fame doubtful.
To be brief as a stream, so are all things
belonging to the body, as a dream or as a smoke,
So are all that belong to the soul. Our life
is a warfare and a mere pilgrimage. Fame after life
is no better than oblivion. What is it, then, that

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will adhere and follow only one thing philosophy, And philosophy
does consist in this. For a man to preserve that
spirit which is within him, from all manner of contumelise
and injuries, and above all pains or pleasures, never to
do anything either rashly or feignedly or hypocritically wholly, to
depend from himself and his own proper adds all things

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that happen to him, to embrace contentedly as coming from him,
from whom he himself also came, And above all things,
with all meekness and a calm cheerfulness, to expect death
as being nothing else but the resolution of those elements.
Of which every creature is composed. And if the elements
themselves suffer nothing by this their perpetual conversion of one

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into another, that dissolution and alteration, which is so common
to all, why should it be feared by any? Is
not this according to nature? But nothing that is according
to nature can be evil. Whilst I was at Carnuntum
the third Book, A man must not only consider how
daily his life wastes and decreases, but this also that

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if he live long, he cannot be certain whether his
understanding shall continue so able and sufficient for either discrete
consideration in matter of businesses, or for contemplation. It being
the thing whereon true knowledge of things, both the vine
and human does depend. For if once he shall begin
to dote his respiration nutrition, his imaginative and impetitive and

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other natural faculties may still continue the same, he shall
find no one of them. But how to make that
right use of himself, that he should, how to observe
exactly in all things that which is right and just,
how to redress and rectify all wrong or sudden apprehensions
and imaginations, And even of this particular, whether he should
live any longer or no to consider duly, for all

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such things, wherein the best strength and vigor of the
mind is most requisite, his power and ability will be
past and gone. You must have been therefore, not only
because you are every day nearer to death than other,
but also because that intellective faculty in you, whereby you
are enabled to know the true nature of things, and
to order all your actions by that knowledge, does daily

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waste and decay, or may fail you before you die.
This also you must observe that what whatsoever it is
that naturally does happen to things, natural, had somewhat in
itself that is pleasing and delightful. As a great loaf,
when it is baked, some pairs of it cleave, as
it were, and pair asunder, and make the crust of
it rugged and unequal. And yet those pairs of it,

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though in some sort it be against the are and
intention of baking itself, that they are thus cleft and pared,
which should have been, and were first made, all even
in uniform, they become it well nevertheless, and have a
certain peculiar property to stir the appetite. So figs are
accounted fairest and ripest. Then when they begin to shrink

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and wither, as it were, so ripe olives, when they
are next to putrefaction, then are they in their proper beauty.
The hanging down of grapes, the brow of a lion,
the froth of a foaming wild boar, and many other
like things. Though by themselves considered they are far from
any beauty, Yet because they happen naturally, they both are

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comely and delightful. So that if a man shall, with
a profound mind and ant apprehension consider all things in
the world, even among all those things which are but
mere accessories and natural appendices, as it were, there will
scarce appear anything to him wherein he will not find
matter of pleasure and delight. So will he behold with
as much pleasure the true richness of wild beasts as

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those which by skillful painters and other artificers are imitated.
So will he be able to perceive the proper ripeness
and beauty of old age, whether in man or woman,
and whatsoever else it is that is beautiful and alluring
in whatsoever is with sea havy in continent eyes, he
will soon find out and discern those and many other
things will he discern not credible to every one, but

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to them only who are truly and familiarly acquainted both
with nature itself and all natural things. Hippocrates, having cured
many sicknesses, fell sick himself and died. The Chaldeans and Astrologians,
having foretold the deaths of divers, were afterwards themselves surprised
by the faith. Alexander and Pompeius and Caius Caesar, having

(01:07:04):
destroyed so many towns and cut off in the field
so many thousands, both of horse and foot, yet they
themselves at last were fain to pair with their own lives. Heraclitus,
having written so many natural tracts concerning the last and
general conflagration of the world, died afterwards, all filled with
water within, and all bedaubed with dirt and dumb without lice.

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Killed Democritus and Socrates, another sort of vermin, wicked, ungodly men.
How then stands the case you have taken ship, you
have sailed, you are come to land. Go out If
to another life, there also shalt you find gods who
are everywhere. If all life and sense shall cease, then

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shalt you cease also to be subject to either pains
or pleasures, and to serve and tend this vile cottage,
so much the viler by how much that which ministers
to it does excel, the one being a rational substance
and a spirit, the other nothing but earth and blood.
Spend not the remnant of your days in thoughts and
fancies concerning other men, when it is not in relation

(01:08:07):
to some common good, when by it you are hindered
from some other better work. That is, Spend not your
time in thinking what such a man does, and to
what end what he said, and what he thinks, and
what he is about, and such other things or curiosities
which make a man to rove and wander from the
care and observation of that pair of himself which is

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rational and overruling. See therefore, in the whole series and
connection of your thoughts, that you be careful to prevent
whatsoever is idle and impertinent, but especially whatsoever is curious
and malicious. And you must use yourself to think only
of such things, of which, if a man, upon a
sudden should ask you what it is that you are
now thinking, you may answer this and that freely and boldly.

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That so by your thoughts it may presently appear that
in all you is sincere and peaceable as becomes one
that is made for society, and regards not pleasures, nor
gives way to any voluptuous imaginations at all, free from
all contentiousness, envy, and suspicion, and from whatsoever else you
would blush to confess your thoughts were set upon He

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that is such, is he surely that does not put
off to lay hold on that which is best. Indeed,
a very priest and minister of the gods, well acquainted
and in good correspondence with him, especially that is seated
and placed within himself, as in a temple and sacery,
to whom also he keeps and preserves himself, unspotted by pleasure,
undaunted by pain, free from any manner of wrong or contumly,

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by himself offered to himself, not capable of any evil
from others, a wrestler of the best sort, and for
the highest prize, that he may not be cast down
by any passion or affection of his own, deeply dyed
and drenched in righteousness, embracing and accepting with his whole
here whatsoever either happened or is allotted to him, One

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who not often nor without some great necessity tending to
some public good minds what any other either speaks or
does or purposes. For those things only that are in
his own power, or that are truly his own, are
the objects of his employments, and his thoughts are ever
taken up with those things which, of the whole universe
are by the fates or providence destinated and appropriated to himself.

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Those things that are his own and in his own power,
he himself takes order for that they be good, And
as for those that happen to him, he believes them
to be so. For that lot and portion which is
assigned to every one, as it is unavoidable and necessary,
so is it always profitable. He remembers. Besides, that whatsoever
partakes of reason is akin to him, and that to

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care for all men generally is agreeing to the nature
of a man. But as for honor and praise, that
they ought not generally to be admitted and accepted of
from all, but from such only who live according to nature.
As for them that do not what manner of men
they be at home or abroad day or night, how
condition themselves with what manner of conditions, or with men

(01:11:05):
of what conditions they moil and pass away the time
together he knows and remembers right well. He therefore regards
not such praise and approbation as proceeding from them who
cannot like and approve themselves. Do nothing against your will,
nor contrary to the community, nor without due examination, nor
with reluctancy, affect not to set out your thoughts with curious,

(01:11:28):
neat language. Be neither a great talker nor a great undertaker. Moreover,
let your God that is in you to rule over
you find by you that he had to do with
a man, an aged man, a sociable man, a Roman,
a prince, one that had ordered his life as one
that expects, as it were nothing but the sound of

(01:11:48):
the trumpet sounding a retreat to de pair out of
this life with all expedition, One who, for his word
or actions neither needs an oath, nor any man to
be a witness, to be cheerful, and to stand in
no need either of other men's help or attendance, or
of that rest and tranquility which you must be beholding
to others. For rather like one that is straight of himself,

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or had ever been straight, than one that had been rectified.
If you shalt find anything in this mortal life better
than righteousness, then truth, temperance, fortitude, and in general better
than a mind contented both with those things which, according
to right and reason she does, and in those which,
without her will and knowledge, happen to you by the providence.

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If I say you canst find out anything better than this,
apply yourself to it with your whole heart, and that
which is best worsoever you dost find it, enjoy freely.
But if nothing you shall find worth art to be
preferred to that spirit which is within you. If nothing
better than to subject to you your's own lusts and desires,
and not to give way to any fancies or imaginations

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before you have duly considered of them, nothing better than
to withdraw yourself from all sensuality, and submit yourself to
the gods, and to have care of all men in general.
If you shalt find that all other things, in comparison
of this are but vile and of little moment, then
give not way to any other thing, which, being once
though but affected and inclined to it, will no more

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be in your power without all distraction, as you ought
to prefer, and to pursue after that good which is
your z own and your proper good. For it is
not lawful that anything that is of another and inferior
kind in nature, be it what it will, as either
popular applause or honor, or riches or pleasures, should be
suffered to confront and contest, as it were, with that

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which is rational and operatively good. For all these things,
if once thought but for a while, they begin to please,
they presently prevail and pervert a man's mind, or turn
a man from the right way. Do you, therefore, I say,
absolutely and freely, make choice of that which is best,
and stick to it. Now that they say is best,

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which is most profitable, If they mean profitable to man,
as he is a rational man, stand you to it
and maintain it. But if they mean profitable as he
is a creature, only reject it. And from this your
tenet and conclusion. Keep off carefully all plausible shows and
colors of external appearance, that you may be able to
discern things rightly. Never esteem of anything as profitable, which

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shall ever constrain you either to break your faith or
to lose your modesty, to hate any man, to suspect,
to curse, to dissemble, to lust after anything that requires
the secret of walls or veales. But he that prefers
before all things his rational pair and spirit, and the
sacred mysteries of virtue which issues from it. He shall
never lament, and exclaim, never sigh. He shall never want

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either solitude or company, And which is chiefest of all,
he shall live without either desire or fear. And as
for life, whether for a long or short time, he
shall enjoy. His soul thus compassed about with a body,
he is altogether indifferent. For if even now he were
to depair, he is as ready for it as for
any other action, which may be performed with modesty and decency.

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For all his life long, this is his only care,
that his mind may always be occupied in such intentions
and objects as are proper to a rational, sociable creature.
In the mind that is once truly disciplined and purged,
you canst not find anything either foul or impure, or
as it were, festered, nothing that is either servile or effected,

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No partial tie, no malicious averseness, nothing obnoxious, nothing concealed
the life of such an one. Death can never surprise
as imperfect as of an actor that should die before
he had ended, or the play itself were at an
end a man might speak, use your's operative faculty with
all honor and respect, for in her indeed is all

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that your opinion do not beget in your understanding anything
contrary to either nature or the proper constitution of a
rational creature. The end and object of a rational constitution
is to do nothing rashly, to be kindly affected towards men,
and in all things willingly, to submit to the Gods.
Casting therefore, all other things aside, keep yourself to these few,

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and remember withal that no man properly can be said
to live more than that which is now present, which
is but a moment of time. Whatsoever is besides either
is already past or uncertain. The time therefore that any
man does live is but a little, and the place
where he lives is but a very little corner of
the earth. And the greatest fame that can remain of

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a man after his death, even that is but little,
And that too, such as it is whilst it is,
is by the succession of silly, mortal men preserved, who
likewise shall shortly die, and even whilst they live, know
not what in very deed they themselves are, And much
less can no one who long before is dead and gone.
To these ever present helps and mementos, Let one more

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be added, ever, to make a particular description and delineation,
as it were, of every object that presents itself to
your mind, that you may wholly and truly contemplate it
in its own proper nature, bare and naked, holy, and
severally divided into its several pairs and quarters, and then
by yourself in your mind to call both it and
those things of which it does consist, and in which

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it shall be resolved, by their own proper, true names
and appellations. For there is nothing so effectual to beget
true magnanimity as to be able truly and methodically to
examine and consider all things that happen in this life,
and so to penetrate into their natures, that at the
same time this also may concur in our apprehensions. What

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is the true use of it? And what is the
true nature of this universe to which it is useful?
How much in regard of the universe may it be esteemed,
how much in regard of man, a citizen of the
Supreme city of which all other cities in the world are,
as it were, but houses and families. What is this
that now my fancy is set upon? Of what things?

(01:18:03):
Does it consist? How long can it last? Which of
all the virtues is the proper virtue for this present use,
as whether meekness, fortitude, truth, faith, sincerity, contemptation, or any
of the rest of everything. Therefore you must use yourself
to say, this immediately comes from God, this by that

(01:18:25):
fatal connection and concatenation of things, or by some coincidental casualty.
And as for this, it proceeds from my neighbor, my kinsman,
my fellow, through his ignorance, indeed, because he knows not
what is truly natural to him. But I know it,
and therefore carry myself towards him, according to the natural
law of fellowship, that is kindly and justly, as for

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those things that of themselves are altogether indifferent, as in
my best judgment, I conceive everything to deserve more or less,
so I carry myself towards it. If you shall intend
that which is present, follow the rule of right and
reason carefully, solidly, meekly, and shalt not intermix any other businesses,
but shall study this only to preserve your spirit unpolluted

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and pure, and shall cleave to Him without either hope
or fear of anything in all things that you shall
either do or speak, contenting yourself with heroical truth, you
shall live happily. And from this there is no man
that can hinder you. As physicians and chirogeons have always
their instruments ready at hand for all sudden cures, so
have you always your dogmata, in a readiness for the

(01:19:31):
knowledge of things both divine and human. And whatsoever you dost,
even in the smallest things that you dost, you must
ever remember that mutual relation and connection that is between
these two things divine and things human. For without relation
to God, you shalt never speed in any worldly actions,
nor on the other side, in any divine without some

(01:19:52):
respect had to things human, be not deceived, for you
shalt never live to read your moral commentaries, nor the
acts of the famous Romans and Grecians, nor those excerpta
from several books, all which you had provided and laid
up for yourself against yours old age. Haaven therefore to
an end and giving over all vain hopes, help yourself

(01:20:13):
in time if you care for yourself as you ought
to do, to steal, to sow, to buy, to be
at rest to see what is to be done, which
is not seen by the eyes, but by another kind
of sight. What these words mean, and how many ways
to be understood. They do not understand the body the
soul the understanding. As the senses naturally belong to the body,

(01:20:36):
and the desires and affections to the soul, So do
the dogmata to the understanding. To be capable of fancies
and imaginations is common to man and beast. To be
violently drawn and moved by the lusts and desires of
the soul is proper to wild beasts and monsters, such
as Phalorus and Nero were to follow. Reason for ordinary

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duties and actions is common to them also, who believe
not that there be any gods, and for their advantage,
would make no conscience to betray their own country, and who,
when once the doors be shut upon them, dare do anything.
If therefore all things else be common to these, likewise,
it follows that for a man to like and embrace
all things that happen and are destinated to him, and

(01:21:20):
not to trouble and molest that spirit which is seated
in the temple of his own breast. With a multitude
of vain fancies and imaginations, but to keep him propitious,
and to obey him as a god, never either speaking
anything contrary to truth or doing anything contrary to justice,
is the only true property of a good man, And
such a one, though no man should believe that he

(01:21:42):
lives as he does, either sincerely and conscionably or cheerful
and contentedly. Yet is he neither with any man at all,
angry for it, nor diverted by it from the way
that leads to the end of his life through which
a man must pass, pure, ever ready to depair, and
willing of himself, without any compulsion to fit in a
commodate himself to his proper lot and portion. The Fourth

(01:22:03):
Book that inward mistress part of man, if it be
in its own true natural temper, is towards all worldly
chances and events, ever so disposed and affected, that it
will easily turn and apply itself to that which may be,
and is within its own power to compass when that
cannot be, which at first it intended for. It never
does absolutely addict and apply itself to any one object.

(01:22:26):
But whatsoever it is that it does now intend and prosecute,
it does prosecute it with exception and reservation, so that
whatsoever it is that falls out contrary to its first intentions,
even that afterwards it makes its proper object, even as
the fire when it prevails upon those things that are
in his way, by which things, indeed, a little fire
would have been quenched. But a great fire does soon

(01:22:48):
turn to its own nature, and so consume whatsoever comes
in his way. Yet by those very things it is
made greater and greater. Let nothing be done rashly and
at random, but all things things according to the most
exact and perfect rules of art. They seek for themselves
private retiring places as country villages, the seashore mountains. Yeah,

(01:23:10):
you yourself, art won't a long much after such places.
But all this you must no proceeds from simplicity in
the highest degree. At what timesoever you wilt, it is
in your power to retire into yourself, and to be
at rest and free from all businesses. A man cannot
any whither retire better than to his own soul. He especially,

(01:23:31):
who is beforehand provided of such things within which, whensoever
he does withdraw himself to look in, may presently afford
to him perfect ease and tranquility. By tranquility, I understand
a decent, orderly disposition and carriage, free from all confusion
and tumultuousness. Afford then yourself this retiring continually, and thereby

(01:23:51):
refresh and renew yourself. Let these precepts be brief and fundamental, which,
as soon as you dost call them to mind, may
suffice you to purge your soul thrughly, and to send
you away well pleased with those things, whatsoever they be,
which now again, after this short withdrawing of your soul
into herself, you dost return to. For what is it
that you are defended at? Can it be at the

(01:24:13):
wickedness of men? When you dost call to mind this
conclusion that all reasonable creatures are made one for another,
and that it is part of justice to bear with them,
and that it is against their wills that they offend.
And how many already who once likewise prosecuted their enmities, suspected, hated,
and fiercely contended, are now long ago stretched out and

(01:24:36):
reduced to ashes. It is time for you to make
an end as for those things which, among the common
chances of the world, happen to you as your particular
lot and portion. Canst you be displeased with any of them?
When you dost call that our ordinary dilemma to mind,
either of providence or democritus, is atoms, and with it
whatsoever we brought to prove that the whole world is,

(01:24:58):
as it were, one city. And as for your body,
what canst you fear if you dost consider that your
mind and understanding, when once it has recollected itself and
knows its own power, has in this life and breath,
whether it runs smoothly and gently, or whether harshly and rudely,
no interest at all, but is altogether indifferent. And whatsoever
else you hast heard and assented to concerning either pain

(01:25:20):
or pleasure, but the care of thine honor and reputation
will perchance distract you. How can that be if you
dost look back and consider both how quickly all things
that are are forgotten, and what an immense chaos of
eternity was before and will follow after all things, And
the vanity of praise, and the inconstancy and variableness of

(01:25:42):
human judgments and opinions, and the narrowness of the place
wherein it is limited and circumscribed for the whole earth
is but as one point, and of it, this inhabited
part of it is but a very little part. And
of this part, how many in number, and what manner
of men are they that will commend you? What remains, then,

(01:26:02):
but that you often put in practice this kind of
retiring of yourself to this little part of yourself, And
above all things, keep yourself from distraction, and intend not
anything vehemently, but be free and consider all things as
a man whose proper object is virtue, as a man
whose true nature is to be kind and sociable, as
a citizen, as a mortal creature. Among other things which

(01:26:25):
to consider and look into you must use to withdraw yourself.
Let those two be among the most obvious, and at
hand one, that the things or objects themselves reach not
to the soul, but stand why, out still and quiet,
And that it is from the opinion only which is within,
that all the tumult and all the trouble does proceed
the next, that all these things which now you sayest,

(01:26:48):
shall within a very little well be changed and be
no more. And ever call to mind how many changes
and alterations in the world you yourself hast already been
an eye witness of in your time. This world is
mere change, and this life opinion. If to understand and
to be reasonable be common to all men, then is
that reason for which we are termed reasonable common to all?

(01:27:11):
If reason is general, then is that reason also which
proscribeth what is to be done and what not common
to all? If that then law? If law, then are
we fellow citizens. If so, then are we partners in
some one commonweal? If so, then the world is, as
it were, a city for which other commonweal? Is it

(01:27:34):
that all men can be said to be members of
from this common city? It is that understanding, reason and
law is derived to us, for from once else. For
as that which in me is earthly, I have from
some common earth, and that which is moist from some
other element is imparted as my breath, and life has
its proper fountain, and that likewise which is dry and

(01:27:56):
fiery in me. For there is nothing which does not
proceed from something. As also there is nothing that can
be reduced to mere nothing. So also is there some
common beginning from whence my understanding has proceeded? As generation
is so also death a secret of nature's wisdom, a
mixture of elements resolved into the same elements again, a
thing surely which no man ought to be ashamed of.

(01:28:19):
In a series of other fatal events and consequences which
a rational creature is subject to, not improper or incongruous,
nor contrary to the natural and proper constitution of man himself,
such and such things from such and such causes must
of necessity proceed. He that would not have such things
to happen is as he that would have the fig

(01:28:40):
tree grow. Whyh out any sap or moisture in some
Remember this, that within a very little while both you
and he shall both be dead, and after a little
while more, not so much as your names and memories
shall be remaining. Let opinion be taken away, and no
man will think himself wronged. If no man shall think

(01:29:01):
himself wronged, then is there no more any such thing
is wrong. That which makes not man himself the worse
cannot make his life the worse. Neither can it hurt him,
either inwardly or outwardly. It was expedient in nature that
it should be so, and therefore necessary. Whatsoever does happen
in the world does happen justly. And so if you

(01:29:22):
dost well take heed, ye shalt find it, I say,
not only in right order, by a series of inevitable consequences,
but according to justice, and as it were, by way
of equal distribution, according to the true worth of everything.
Continue then to take notice of it as you hast begun,
and whatsoever you dost do it not, why out this proviso,

(01:29:42):
that it be a thing of that nature, that a
good man, as the word good is properly taken, may
do it. This observed carefully in every action, conceit no
such things as he that wrongeth you conceiveth or would
have you to conceive. But look into the matter itself,
and see what it is in very truth. These two
rules you must have always in a readiness. First, do

(01:30:06):
nothing at all, but what reason proceeding from that regal
and supreme part shall for the good and benefit of
men suggest to you. And secondly, if any man that
is present shall be able to rectify you, or to
turn you from some erroneous persuasion, that you be always
ready to change your mind. And this change to proceed
not from any respect of any pleasure or credit thereon,

(01:30:27):
depending but always from some probable apparent ground of justice.
Or of some public good, thereby to be furthered, or
from some other such inducement. Hast you reason I have?
Why then makest you not use of it? For if
your reason do her part, what more canst you require
as a part. Hitherto you hast had a particular subsistence.

(01:30:50):
And now shalt you vanish away into the common substance
of him who first begot you? Or rather you shall
be resumed again into that original rational substance out of
which all others have issued and are propagated. Many small
pieces of frankincense are set upon the same altar. One
drops first, and is consumed another after, and it comes

(01:31:10):
all to one within ten days. If so happen, you
shall be esteemed a god of them who Now, if
you shalt return to the dogmata and to the honoring
of reason, will esteem of you no better than of
a mere brute and of an ape. Not as yeough
you hatst you sands of years to live, Death hangs
over you, whilst yet you livest, whilst you mayst be good.

(01:31:33):
Now much time and leisure does he gain who is
not curious to know what his neighbor has said or
has done? Or has attempted, but only what he does himself,
that it may be just and holy, or to express it,
in Agathos's words, not to look about upon the evil
conditions of others, but to run on straight in a line.
Why have any loose and extravagant agitation, He who is

(01:31:56):
greedy of credit and reputation after his death does not
consider that they themselves by whom he is remembered, shall
soon after every one of them be dead, and they,
likewise that succeed those, until at last all memory, which hitherto,
by the succession of men admiring soon after dying, has
had its course, be quite extinct. But suppose that both

(01:32:16):
they that shall remember you, and your memory with them,
should be immortal. What is that to you? I will
not say to you after you are dead, but even
to you living? What is your praise? But only for
a secret and politic consideration, which we call omicron capa
amicron nu amicron neu alphineu, or dispensation. For as for
that that it is the gift of nature, whatsoever is

(01:32:39):
commended in you, what might be objected from? Thence, let that,
now that we are upon another consideration, be omitted as unseasonable.
That which is fair and goodly, whatsoever it be, and
in what respects soever it be? That it is fair
and goodly, it is so of itself, and terminates in itself,
not admitting praise as a part or member. That therefore

(01:33:00):
which is praised is not thereby made either better or worse.
This I understand, even of those things that are commonly
called fair and good, as those which are commended, either
for the matter itself or for curious workmanship. As for
that which is truly good, what can it stand in
need of more than either justice or truth, or more
than either kindness and modesty? Which, of all those either

(01:33:23):
becomes good or fair? Because commended or dispraised, suffers any damage?
Does the emerald become worse in itself or more vile
if it be not commended? Does gold, or ivory or purple?
Is there anything that does yo? Never so common as
a knife, a flower, or a tree? If so be

(01:33:44):
that the souls remain after death, say they that will
not believe it, How is the air from all eternity
able to contain them? How is the earth, say I, ever,
from that time, able to contain the bodies of them
that are buried. For as here the change and resolution
of day dead bodies into another kind of subsistence, whatsoever
it be, Winkie face makes place for other dead bodies.

(01:34:06):
So the souls after death transferred into the air, after
they have conversed there a while, are, either by way
of transmutation or transfusion or conflagration, received again into that
original rational substance from which all others do proceed, and
so give way to those souls who, before coupled and
associated to bodies, now begin to subsist single. This upon

(01:34:29):
a supposition that the souls after death do for a
while subsist single, may be answered. And here, besides the
number of bodies so buried and contained by the earth,
we may further consider the number of several beasts eaten
by us men and by other creatures. For notwithstanding that
such a multitude of them is daily consumed, and as

(01:34:50):
it were, buried in the bodies of the eaters, yet
is the same place and body able to contain them,
by reason of their conversion partly into blood, partly into
air and fire. What in these things is the speculation
of truth to divide things into that which is passive
and material and that which is active and formal, not

(01:35:10):
to wander out of the way, but upon every motion,
desire to perform that which is just, and ever to
be careful to attain to the true natural apprehension of
every fancy that presents itself. Whatsoever is expedient to you,
O world, is expedient to me. Nothing can either be
unseasonable to me or out of date, which to you

(01:35:30):
is seasonable. Whatsoever your seasons bear, shall ever by me
be esteemed as happy fruit and increase, O nature. From
you are all things. In you, all things subsist, and
to you all tend. Could he say of Athens, you
lovely city of sea crops, and shalt not you say
of the world, you lovely city of God? They will

(01:35:53):
say commonly, meddle not with many things, if you will
live cheerfully. Certainly, there is nothing better than for a
man to confine himself to necessary actions, to such and
so many only as reason in a creature that knows
itself born, for society will command and enjoin. This will
not only procure that cheerfulness which from the goodness, but

(01:36:14):
that also which from the paucity of actions does usually proceed.
For since it is so that most of those things
which we either speak or do are unnecessary. If a
man shall cut them off, it must needs follow that
he shall thereby gain much leisure and save much trouble.
And therefore, at every action a man must privately, by
way of admonition, suggest to himself, what may not this

(01:36:38):
that now I go about be of the number of
unnecessary actions. Neither must he use himself to cut off
actions only, but yachts and imaginations also that are unnecessary
for soul will unnecessary consequent actions the better be prevented
and cut off. Try also, how a good man's life
of one who is well pleased with those things whatsoever,

(01:37:00):
which among the common changes and chances of this world,
fall to his own lot and share, and can live
well contented and fully satisfied in the justice of his
own proper present action, and in the goodness of his
disposition for the future. Will agree with you. You hast
had experience of that other kind of life. Make now
trial of this also trouble not yourself any more. Henceforth,

(01:37:21):
reduce yourself to perfect simplicity. Does any man offend, it
is against himself that he does offend. Why should it
trouble you, has anything happened to you? It is well,
whatsoever it be, it is that which, of all the
common chances of the world, from the very beginning, in
the series of all other things that have or shall happen,

(01:37:42):
was destinated and appointed to you to comprehend all in
a few words, our life is short. We must endeavor
to gain the present time with best discretion and justice,
use recreation with sobriety. Either this world is a capisigma
meu amicron, or comely because all disposed and governed by
certain order, or if it be a mixture, ye'll confused.

(01:38:05):
Yet still it is a comely peace. For is it
possible that in you there should be any beauty at all,
and that in the whole world there should be nothing
but disorder and confusion, And all things in it too
by natural different properties, one from another, differenced and distinguished,
and yet all through diffused, and by natural simpayer one
to another, united as they are. A black rom malign disposition,

(01:38:29):
an effeminate disposition and hard inexorable disposition, a wild and
human disposition, a sheepish disposition, a childish disposition, a blockish,
a false a skirl, a fraudulent a tyrannical What then,
if he be a stranger in the world that knows
not the things that are in it, why not be
a stranger as well, that wonders at the things that

(01:38:50):
are done in it? He is a true fugitive that
flies from reason by which men are sociable. He blind,
who cannot see with the eyes of his understanding. He poor,
that stands in need of another, and has not in
himself all things needful for this life. He an app
esteem of the world, who, by being discontented with those

(01:39:11):
things that happened to him in the world, does as
it were, apostatize and separate himself from common nature's rational administration.
For the same nature it is that brings this to you,
whatsoever it be that first brought you into the world.
He raises sedition in the city, who, by irrational actions
withdraws his own soul from that one uncommon soul of

(01:39:32):
all rational creatures. There is who why out so much
as a coat? And there is who why out so
much as a book does put philosophy in practice. I
am half naked, neither have I bread to eat, And
yet I depart not from reason seth one, But I
say I want the food of good teaching and instructions,

(01:39:53):
And yet I depart not from reason. What art and
professions soever you hast learned, endeavor to affect it and
comfort yourself in it. And pass the remainder of your
life as one who from his whole heart commits himself
and whatsoever belongs to him to the gods. And as
for men, carry not yourself either tyrannically or servilely towards
any Consider in my mind, for example's sake, the times

(01:40:16):
of Aspasian, you shalt see but the same things, some marrying,
some bringing up children, some sick, some dying, some fighting,
some feasting, some merchandising, some tilling, some flattering, some boasting,
some suspecting, some undermining, some wishing to die, some fretting
and murmuring at their present estate, some wooing, some hoarding,

(01:40:38):
some seeking after magistracies, and some after kingdoms. And is
not that their age quite over and ended? Again, consider
now the times of Trajan. There likewise you sayest the
very self same things, and that age also is now
over and ended. In the like manner. Consider other periods,

(01:40:59):
both of time and of whole nations, And see how
many men, after they had with all their might and
main intended and prosecuted some one worldly thing or other,
did soon after drop away and were resolved into the elements.
But especially you must call to mind them who you, yourself,
in your lifetime hast known much distracted about vain things,
and in the meantime neglecting to do that, and closely

(01:41:21):
and unseparably as fully satisfied with it, to adhere to it,
which their own proper constitution did require. And here you
must remember that your carriage in every business must be
according to the worth and due proportion of it. For
so shalt you not easily be tired out and vexed,
if you shall not dwell upon small matters longer than
is fitting. Those words which once were common and ordinary

(01:41:45):
are now become obscure and obsolete. And so the names
of men, once commonly known and famous, are now become,
in a manner obscure and obsolete names. Camillus quiso, Beligius, Leonadus,
not long after sick Cato, then Augustus, then a dryness
than Antoninus Pious. All these in a short time will

(01:42:06):
be out of date, and as things of another world,
as it were, become fabulous. And this I say of
them who once shine as the wonders of their ages.
For as for the rest, no sooner are they expired,
than with them all their fame and memory. And what
is it then, that shall always be remembered? All is vanity?

(01:42:27):
What is it that we must bestow our care and
diligence upon, even upon this, only that our minds and
wills be just, that our actions be charitable, that our
speech be never deceitful, or that our understanding be not
subject to error, that our inclination be always set to
embrace whatsoever shall happen to us as necessary, as usual,

(01:42:47):
as ordinary, as flowing from such a beginning, and such
a fountain from which both you, yourself, and all things
are Willingly therefore and wholly surrender up yourself to that
fatal concatenation, yielding up your to the fates, to be
disposed of at their pleasure. Whatsoever is now present, and
from day to day has its existence, all objects of memories,

(01:43:09):
and the minds and memories themselves. Incessantly consider all things
that are have there being by change and alteration. Use
yourself therefore, often to meditate upon this, that the nature
of the universe delights in nothing more than in altering
those things that are, and in making others like to them,
so that we may say that whatsoever is is but

(01:43:31):
as it were, the seed of that which shall be.
For if you think that that only a seed which
either the earth or the womb receiveth you are very simple.
You art now ready to die. And yet hast you
not attained to that perfect simplicity. You art yet subject
to many troubles and perturbations, not yet free from all
fear and suspicion of external accidents, nor yet either so

(01:43:53):
meekly disposed towards all men as you shouldest, or so
affected as one whose only study and only wisdom is
to be just in all his actions. Behold and observe
what is the state of their rational part, and those
that the world does account wise? See what things they
fly and are afraid of, and what things they hunt after.

(01:44:14):
In another man's mind and understanding, your evil cannot subsist,
nor in any proper temper or distemper of the natural
constitution of your body, which is but, as it were,
the coat or cottage of your soul. Wherein, then, but
in that part of you, wherein the conceit and apprehension
of any misery can subsist. Let not that part therefore

(01:44:34):
admit any such conceit, and then all is well. Ye
owe your body, which is so near it should either
be cut or burnt, or suffer any corruption or putrefaction.
Yet let that part to which it belongs to judge
of these be still at rest. That is, let her
judge this, that whatsoever it is that equally may happen
to a wicked man and to a good man, is

(01:44:55):
neither good nor evil. For that which happens equally to
him that lives a according to nature, and to him
that does not, is neither according to nature nor against it,
and by consequent neither good nor bad. Ver Consider and
think upon the world as being but one living substance,
and having but one soul, And how all things in

(01:45:15):
the world are terminated into one sensitive power, and are
done by one general motion, as it were, and deliberation
of that one soul. And how all things that are
concur in the cause of one another's being, And by
what manner of connection and concatenation all things happen. What
art you that better and divine part excepted, But as

(01:45:36):
Epictetus said, well, a wretched soul appointed to carry a
carcass up and down to suffer. Change can be no hurt,
as no benefit. It is by change to attain to being.
The age and time of the world is, as it were,
a flood and swift current, consisting of the things that
are brought to pass in the world. For as soon

(01:45:56):
as anything has appeared and is passed away, another succeeds,
and that also will presently out of sight. Whatsoever does
happen in the world is in the course of nature
as usual and ordinary, as arose in the spring and
fruit in summer. Of the same nature is sickness and death,
slander and lying in wait, And whatsoever else ordinarily does

(01:46:18):
to fools use to be occasion either of joy or sorrow.
That whatsoever it is that comes after does always vary naturally,
and as it were, familiarly follow upon that which was before.
For you must consider the things of the world not
as a loose, independent number consisting merely of necessary events,
but as a discrete connection of things, orderly inharmoniously disposed.

(01:46:42):
There is then to be seen in the things of
the world, not a bare succession, but an admirable correspondence
and affinity. Let that of Heraclitis never be out of
your mind, that the death of earth is water, and
the death of water is air, and the death of
air is fire, and so on the contrary. Remember him also,
who was ignorant, whither the way did lead, And how

(01:47:05):
that reason, being the thing by which all things in
the world are administered, and which men are continually and
most inwardly conversant with, yet is the thing which ordinarily
they are most in opposition with, And how those things
which daily happen among them cease not daily to be
strange to them. And that we should not either speak
or do anything as men in their sleep by opinion

(01:47:25):
and bear imagination, For then we think we speak and do,
and that we must not be as children who follow
their father's example for best reason alleging their bear since
we were involved, or as by successive tradition from our
forefathers we have received it. Even as if any of
the gods should tell you you shalt certainly die tomorrow

(01:47:46):
or next day, you wouldst not, except you were extremely
base and pusillanimous, take it for a great benefit, rather
to die the next day after than tomorrow for alas
what is the difference. So for the same reason, think
it no great matter to die rather many years after
than the very next day. Let it be your perpetual meditation.

(01:48:07):
How many physicians, who once looked so grim and so
theatrically shrunk their brows upon their patients, are dead and
gone themselves. How many astrologers after that, in great ostentation
they had foretold the death of some others. How many philosophers,
after so many elaborate tracts and volumes concerning either mortality
or immortality. How many brave captains and commanders after the

(01:48:30):
death and slaughter of so many. How many kings and tyrants,
after they had, with such horror and insolency, abused their
power upon men's lives, as yeo themselves had been immortal.
How many, that I may so speak, whole cities, both
men and towns, hellas Pompeii, Herculaneum, and others innumerable are

(01:48:50):
dead and gone run them over. Also, whom you, yourself,
one after another, hast known in your time to drop away,
Such and such a one took care of such and
such a one's burial, and soon after was buried himself.
So one, so another, and all things in a short time.
For herein leath all indeed, ever to look upon all

(01:49:12):
worldly things as things for their continuance, that are but
for a day, and for their worth most vile and contemptible.
As for example, what is man that which, but the
other day, when he was conceived, was vile snivel, and
within few days shall be either an embalmed carcass or
mere ashes. Thus must you, according to truth and nature,

(01:49:33):
truly consider how man's life is but for a very
moment of time, and so depart meek and contented, even
as if a ripe ballive falling should praise the ground
that bear her and give thanks to the tree that
begot her. You must be like a promontory of the sea,
against which yeoh, the waves beat continually. Yet it both
itself stands, and about it are those swelling waves, stilled

(01:49:55):
and quieted. Oh, wretched I to whom this mischance is happened,
nay happy I to whom this thing being happened, I
can continue why out grief, neither wounded by that which
is present, nor in fear of that which is to come.
For as for this it might have happened to any man.
But any man having such a thing befallen him could

(01:50:16):
not have continued? Why out grief? Why then should there
rather be an unhappiness than this a happiness? But, however,
canst you, O man, term that unhappiness which is no
mischance to the nature of man? I? Canst you think
that a mischance to the nature of man, which is
not contrary to the end and will of his nature? What, then,

(01:50:37):
hast you learned is the will of man's nature? Does that, then,
which has happened to you hinder you from being just
or magnanimous, or temperate, or wise, or circumspect, or true,
or modest, or free, or from anything else, of all

(01:50:58):
those things in the present enjoying and possess whereof the
nature of man, as then enjoying all that is proper
to her is fully satisfied. Now to conclude upon all
occasion of sorrow, remember henceforth to make use of this dogma,
that whatsoever it is that has happened to you is
in very deed no such thing of itself as a misfortune,

(01:51:18):
but that to bear it generously is certainly great happiness.
It is but an ordinary course one. Yet it is
a good effectual remedy against the fear of death. For
a man to consider in his mind the examples of
such who greedily and covetously, as it were, did for
a long time enjoy their lives, What have they got
more than they whose deaths have been untimely? Are not

(01:51:41):
they themselves dead at the last as conditions Fabius Juliinus Lepidus,
or any other who, in their lifetime, having buried many
were at the last buried themselves. The whole space of
any man's life is but little, and as little as
it is with what troubles, with what manner of dispose, positions,
and in the society, of how wretched a body must

(01:52:03):
it be passed. Let it be therefore to you altogether
as a matter of indifferency. For if you shall look backward,
behold what an infinite chaos of time does present itself
to you. And as infinite a chaos, if you shall
look forward in that which is so infinite, what difference
can there be between that which liveth but three days

(01:52:24):
and that which liveth three ages. Let your course ever
be the most compendious way, the most compendious, is that
which is according to nature, that is in all both
words and deeds, ever to follow that which is most
sound and perfect. For such a resolution will free a
man from all trouble strife dissembling an ostentation the Fifth Book.

(01:52:48):
In the morning, when you find yourself unwilling to rise,
consider with yourself presently it is to go about a
man's work that I am stirred up? Am I then
yet unwilling to go about that for which I myself
was born and brought forth into this world? Or was
I made for this? To lay me down and make
much of myself in a warm bed? Oh? But this

(01:53:09):
is pleasing? And was it then for this that you
were born? That you might enjoy pleasure? Was it not
in very truth for this that you might always be
busy and in action? See you not, how all things
in the world, besides how every tree and plant, how
sparrows and ants, spiders and bees, how all in their
kind are intent, as it were, orderly, to perform whatsoever

(01:53:31):
towards the preservation of this orderly universe naturally does become
and belong to them. And will not you do that
which belongs to a man to do? Will not you
run to do that which the nature does require? But
you must have some rest, Yes you must. Nature has
of that also, as well as of eating and drinking,

(01:53:52):
allowed you a certain stint. But you guessed beyond your
stint and beyond that which would suffice, And in matter
of action there you come short of that which you
may it must needs be therefore that you do not
love yourself, for if you did, you would also love
your nature and that which your nature does propose to
herself as her end. Others, as many as take pleasure

(01:54:14):
in their trade and profession, can even pine themselves at
their works, and neglect their bodies and their food for it.
And do you less honor your nature than an ordinary
mechanic his trade, or a good dancer his art. Then
a covetous man his silver, and vainglorious man applause These
to whatsoever they take an affection, can be content to
want their meat and sleep. To further, that every one

(01:54:37):
which he affects, and shall actions tending to the common
good of human society seem more vile to you or
warrior of less respect and intention. How easy a thing
is it for a man to put off from him
all turbulent, adventitious imaginations, and presently to be in perfect
rest and tranquility. Think yourself fit and warrior to speak

(01:54:58):
or to do anything that is according to nature, And
let not the reproach or report of some that may
ensue upon it ever deter you, if it be right
and honest to be spoken or done. Under value not
yourself so much as to be discouraged from it. As
for them, they have their own rational overruling part, and
their own proper inclination, which you must not stand and

(01:55:19):
look about to take notice of, but go on straight,
whether both thine own particular and the common nature do
lead you, And the way of both these is but one.
I continue my course by actions according to nature, until
I fall and cease, breathing out my last breath into
that air by which continually breathed in I did live,
and falling upon that earth, out of whose gifts and

(01:55:42):
fruits my father gathered his seed, my mother her blood,
and my nurse her milk, out of which for so
many years I have been provided both of meat and drink.
And lastly, which beareth me that tread upon it, and
beareth with me that so many ways do abuse it,
or so freely make use of it, so many ways
to so many ends. No man can admire you for

(01:56:03):
your sharp, acute language. Such is your natural disability, that
way be it. So. Yet there be many other good things,
for the want of which you canst not plead the
want or natural ability. Let them be seen in you,
which depend wholly from you. Sincerity, gravity, laboriousness, contempt of pleasures.
Be not querulous, be content with little, be kind, Be free,

(01:56:27):
avoid all superfluity, all vain prattling, Be magnanimous. Do not
you perceive how many things there be which, notwithstanding any
pretense of natural indisposition and unfitness, you might have performed
and exhibited. And yet still you do voluntarily continue drooping downwards?
Or wilt you say that it is through defect of

(01:56:47):
your natural constitution that you are constrained to murmur, to
be base and wretched, to flatter, now, to accuse, and
now to please and pacify your body, to be vainglorious,
to be so giddy headed and un settled in your thoughts, Nay, witnesses,
be the gods of all these you might have been
rid long ago. Only this you must have been contented with,

(01:57:09):
to have borne the blame of one that is somewhat slow,
and dull, wherein you must so exercise yourself as one
who neither does much take to heart this is natural defect,
nor yet pleaseth himself in it. Such there be, who,
when they have done a good turn to any, are
ready to set them on the score for it, and
to require retaliation. Others there be who, yo, they stand

(01:57:31):
not upon retaliation, to require any. Yet they think with
themselves nevertheless, that such a one is their debtor, And
they know as their word is, what they have done.
Others again there be, who, when they have done any
such thing, do not so much as know what they
have done, but are like to the vine which beareth
her grapes, And when once she has borne her own

(01:57:51):
proper fruit, is contented and seeks for no further recompense.
As a horse after a race, and a hunting dog
when he has hunted, and a be when she has
made her honey, look not for applause and commendation. So
neither does that man that rightly does understand his own
nature when he has done a good turn, but from
one does proceed to do another. Even as Divine, after

(01:58:12):
she has once borne fruit in her own proper season,
is ready for another time you therefore must be one
of them who what they do barely do it? Why
out any further yacht, and are in a manner insensible
of what they do? Nay, But will some reply perchance
this very thing. A rational man is bound to to
understand what it is that he doeth. For it is

(01:58:34):
the property, say they, of one that is naturally sociable,
to be sensible that he does operate sociably. Nay, and
to desire that the party himself that is sociably dealt
with should be sensible of it too. I answer, that
which you sayest is true indeed, but the true meaning
of that which is said you dost not understand. And

(01:58:56):
therefore art you one of those first whom I mentioned,
For they also are led by a probable appearance of reason.
But if you dost desire to understand truly what it
is that is said, fear not that you shall therefore
give over any sociable action. The form of the Athenian's
prayer did run thus, O rain rain good Jupiter upon

(01:59:17):
all the grounds and fields that belonged to the Athenians.
Either we should not pray at all, or thus absolutely
and freely and not everyone for himself in particular alone,
as we say commonly, the physician has prescribed to this
man writing to another cold baths, to a third to
go barefoot. So it is alike to say the nature

(01:59:38):
of the universe has prescribed to this man's sickness or blindness,
or some loss or damage, or some such thing. For
as there when we say of a physician that he
has prescribed anything, our meaning is that he has appointed
this for that as subordinate in conducing to health. So
here whatsoever does happen to any is ordained to him
as a thing subordinate, to say the fates. And therefore

(02:00:01):
do we say of such things that they do sigma
upsilon new, beta, alpha, neuepsil, and iota new, that is,
happen or fall together, as of square stones, when either
in walls or pyramids, in a certain position, they fit
one another and agree, as it were, in an harmony.
The Masons say that they do sigma upsilon, mew, beta, alpha, neuepsil,

(02:00:21):
and iota new, as if you shouldst say, fall together,
so that in the general yeoh, the things be divers
that make it. Yet the consent or harmony itself is
but one, and as the whole world is made up
of all the particular bodies of the world, one perfect
and complete body of the same nature that particular bodies.
So is the destiny of particular causes and events, one

(02:00:43):
general one of the same nature that particular causes. Are
what I now say. Even they that are mere idiots
are not ignorant of, for they say commonly tauamicran tauamicron
piepsil and roepsola eu eupsilon tao. That is, this is
destiny has brought upon him. This therefore is by the
fates properly and particularly brought upon this, as that to

(02:01:04):
this in particular is by the physician prescribed these. Therefore,
let us accept of d like manner, as we do
those that are prescribed to us our physicians. For them
also in themselves shall we find to contain many harsh things,
But we nevertheless, in hope of health and recovery, accept
of them. Let the fulfilling and accomplishment of those things

(02:01:25):
which the common nature has determined be to you as
your health. Accept then, and be pleased with whatsoever does happen, YEO,
otherwise harsh and unpleasing, as tending to that end, to
the health and welfare of the universe and to Jove's
happiness and prosperity. For this, whatsoever it be, should not
have been produced, had it not conduced to the good

(02:01:46):
of the universe. For neither does any ordinary particular nature
bring anything to pass that is not to whatsoever is
within the sphere of its own proper administration in government
agreeable and subordinate. For these two can considerations, then you
must be well pleased with anything that does happen to you. First,
because that for you, properly it was brought to pass,

(02:02:08):
and to you it was prescribed, and that from the
very beginning, by the series and connection of the first causes,
it has ever had a reference to you. And secondly,
because the good success and perfect welfare, and indeed the
very continuance of Him that is, the administrator of the whole,
does in a manner depend on it for the whole,
because whole, therefore, entire and perfect, is maimed and mutilated

(02:02:32):
if you shalt cut off anything at all, whereby the
coherence and contiguity as of parts, so of causes, is
maintained and preserved, of which certain it is that you
do as much as leath in you cut off, and
in some sort violently takes somewhat away. As often as
you are displeased with anything that happeneth be not discontented,

(02:02:54):
Be not disheartened, be not out of hope. If often
it succeed not so well with you punctually in precisely
to do all things according to the right dogmata, but
being once cast off, return to them again. And as
for those many in more frequent occurrences, either of worldly
distractions or human infirmities, which is a man you canst not,
but in some measure be subject to be not you

(02:03:16):
discontented with them. But however, love and effect that only
which you dost return to a philosopher's life and proper
occupation after the most exact manner, And when you dost
return to your philosophy, return not to it as the
manner of some is after play and liberty, as it
were to their schoolmasters and pedagogues, But as they that

(02:03:37):
have sore eyes to their sponge and egg, or as
another to his cataplasm, or as others to their fomentations.
So shalt not you make it a matter of ostentation
at all to obey reason, but of ease and comfort
and Remember that philosophy requireth nothing of you, but what
your nature requireth. And wouldst you yourself desire anything that
is not according to nature? For which of these says

(02:03:59):
to you, that which is according to nature or against it,
is of itself more kind and pleasing? Is it not?
For that respect? Especially that pleasure itself is to so
many men's hurt and overthrow most prevalent, because esteemed commonly
most kind and natural. But consider well whether magnanimity rather,
and true liberty, and true simplicity, and equanimity and holiness,

(02:04:23):
whether these be not most kind and natural? And prudency itself?
What more kind and amiable than it? When you shall
truly consider with yourself what it is through all the
proper objects of your rational intellectual faculty. Currently to go on,
why out any fall or stumble? As for the things
of the world, their true nature is in a manner
so involved with obscurity that to many philosophers, and those

(02:04:47):
no mean ones, they seemed altogether incomprehensible. And the stoics themselves, yeh,
they judge them not altogether incomprehensible, yet scarce, and not
why out much difficulty comprehensible? So that all ass of
ours is fallible, For who is he that is infallible
in his conclusions? From the nature of things? Pass now
to their subjects, and matter, how temporary, how vile are they,

(02:05:10):
I such as may be in the power and possession
of some abominable loose liver, of some common strumpet, of
some notorious oppressor and extortioner. Pass from thence to the
dispositions of them that you do ordinarily converse with. How
hardly do we bear, even with the most loving and
amiable that I may not say, how hard it is
for us to bear, even with our own selves, in

(02:05:32):
such obscurity and impurity of things, in such and so
continual a flux, both of the substances and time, both
of the motions themselves and things moved. What it is
that we can fasten upon, either to honor and respect especially,
or seriously and studiously to seek after I cannot so
much as conceive, for indeed they are things. Contrary, you

(02:05:55):
must comfort yourself in the expectation of your natural dissolution,
and in the meantime not grief at the delay, but
rest contented in those two things. First, that nothing shall
happen to you which is not according to the nature
of the universe. Secondly, that it is in your power
to do nothing against thine own proper God and inward spirit.

(02:06:16):
For it is not in any man's power to constrain
you to transgress against him. What is the use that now,
at this present I make of my soul? Thus, from
time to time, and upon all occasions, you must put
this question to yourself. What is now that part of
mind which they call the rational mistress part employed About
whose soul do I now properly possess a child's or

(02:06:40):
a youth's, a woman's, or a tyrants, some brute, or
some wild beast's soul? What those things are in themselves,
which by the greatest part are esteemed good? You mayst
gather even from this. For if a man shall hear
things mentioned as good which are really good, indeed, such

(02:07:00):
as are prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, after so much heard
and conceived, he cannot endure to hear of any more,
for the word good is properly spoken of them. But
as for those which by the vulgar are esteemed good,
if he shall hear them mentioned as good, he does hearken.
For more, he is well contented to hear that what
is spoken by the comedian is but familiarly and popularly spoken,

(02:07:24):
so that even the vulgar apprehend the difference. For why
is it else that this offends? Not in needs not
to be excused when virtues are styled good, But that
which is spoken in commendation of wealth, pleasure, or honor,
we entertain it only as merely and pleasantly spoken. Proceed therefore,
and inquire further whether it may not be that those

(02:07:45):
things also, which being mentioned upon the stage were merely,
and with great applause of the multitude scoffed at with
this jest, that they that possessed them had not in
all the world of their own, Such was their affluence
in plenty, so much as a place where to avoid
their excrements. Whether I say, those ought not also in
very deed to be much respected and esteemed of as

(02:08:06):
the only things that are truly good, All that I
consist of is either form or matter. No corruption can
reduce either of these to nothing, For neither did I
of nothing become a subsistent creature. Every part of mind, then,
will by mutation be disposed into a certain part of
the whole world and that in time into another part,

(02:08:26):
and so in infinitum, by which kind of mutation I
also became what I am, And so did they that
begot me, and they before them, and so upwards in infinitum.
For so we may be allowed to speak, Yeoh, the
age and government of the world be to some certain
periods of time limited and confined. Reason and rational power

(02:08:47):
are faculties which content themselves with themselves and their own
proper operations, And as for their first inclination and motion,
that they take from themselves, but their progress is right
to the end, and iye object which is in their way,
as it were, and leath just before them that is
which is feasible and possible, whether it be that which

(02:09:07):
at the first they propose to themselves or no, for
which reason also such actions are termed capile. For tauomicron, rot, theta, sigma, epsol,
and iota to intimate the directness of the way by
which they are achieved. Nothing must be yaught to belong
to a man which does not belong to him as
he is a man. These the event of purposes, are

(02:09:29):
not things required in a man. The nature of man
does not profess any such things. The final ends and
consummations of actions are nothing at all to a man's nature.
The end therefore of a man, or the sumum bonum,
whereby that end is fulfilled, cannot consist in the consummation
of actions purposed and intended. Again, concerning these outward worldly things,

(02:09:53):
were it so that any of them did properly belong
to man, then would it not belong to man to
condemn them and to stand in opposition with them. Neither
would he be praise warrior that can live wy out them,
or he good if these were good? Indeed, who of
his own accord does deprive himself of any of them?
But we see contrariwise that the more a man does

(02:10:13):
withdraw himself from these, wherein external pomp and greatness does consist,
or any other like these, or the better he does
bear with the loss of these, the better he is accounted.
Such as your yachts and ordinary cogitations are such, will
your mind be in time? For the soul does, as
it will, receive its tincture from the fancies and imaginations.

(02:10:35):
Die it therefore, and thoroughly soak it with the assiduity
of these cogitations, as for example, wheresoever you mayst live there,
it is in your power to live well and happy.
But you mayst live at the court there, then also
mayest you live well and happy. Again, that which everything
is made for, he is also made to that, and

(02:10:57):
cannot but naturally incline to it, that which anything does
naturally incline to. Therein is his end. Wherein the end
of everything does consist. Therein also does his good and
benefit consist. Society. Therefore is the proper good of a
rational creature, for that we are made for society. It
has long since been demonstrated, or can any man make

(02:11:20):
any question of this, That whatsoever is naturally worse and inferior,
is ordinarily subordinated to that which is better, And that
those things that are best are made one for another,
and those things that have souls are better than those
that have none. And of those that have those best
that have rational souls. To desire things impossible is the

(02:11:43):
part of a madman. But it is a thing impossible
that wicked man should not commit some such things. Neither
does anything happen to any man which, in the ordinary
course of nature, as natural to him, does not happen
again the same things happen to others also. And truly,
if either he that is ignorant that such a thing

(02:12:04):
has happened to him, or he that is ambitious to
be commended for his magnanimity, can be patient and is
not grieved, is it not a grievous thing that either
ignorance or a vain desire to please and to be
commended should be more powerful and effectual than true prudence.
As for the things themselves, they touch not the soul.
Neither can they have any access to it. Neither can they,

(02:12:26):
of themselves any ways, either affect it or move it.
For she herself alone can affect and move herself. And
according as the dogmata and opinions are which she does
vouchsafe herself, so are those things which, as accessories have
any coexistence with her. After one consideration, man is nearest
to us, as we are bound to do them good

(02:12:48):
and to bear with them. But as he may oppose
any of our true proper actions, so man is to me,
but as a thing indifferent, even as the sun, or
the wind, or some wild beast. By some of these,
it may be that some operation or other of mind
may be hindered. However, of my mind and resolution itself.
There can be no let or impediment by reason of

(02:13:10):
that ordinary constant, both exception or reservation, wherewith it inclineth
and ready conversion of objects from that which may not
be to that which may be, which, in the prosecution
of its inclinations, as occasion serves, it does observe. For
by these the mind does turn and convert any impediment
whatsoever to be her aim and purpose, so that what

(02:13:32):
before was the impediment is now the principal object of
her working, and that which before was in her way
is now her readiest way. Honor that which is chiefest
and most powerful in the world, and that is it
which makes use of all things and governs all things.
So also in yourself, honor that which is chiefest and

(02:13:52):
most powerful, and is of one kind and nature with
that which we now spake of, For it is the
very same which, being in you, turneth all other things
to its own use, and by whom also your life
is governed. That which does not hurt the city itself
cannot hurt any citizen. This rule you must remember to
apply and make use of upon every conceit and apprehension

(02:14:15):
of wrong if the whole city be not hurt by this,
neither am I certainly, And if the whole be not,
why should I make it my private grievance? Consider rather,
what it is wherein he is overseen, that is ought
to have done the wrong again? Often meditate, how swiftly
all things that subsist and all things that are done
in the world are carried away, and as it were,

(02:14:38):
conveyed out of sight. For both the substance themselves we
see as a flood, are in a continual flux, and
all actions in a perpetual change, and the causes themselves
subject to a use and alterations. Neither is there anything
almost that may ever be said to be now settled
and constant next to this, and which follows upon it.

(02:14:58):
Consider both the infinite witness of the time already passed
and the immense vastness of that which is to come,
wherein all things are to be resolved and annihilated. Art
not you, then, a very fool, who for these things
are either puffed up with pride or distracted with cares,
Or canst find in your heart to make such moans
as for a thing that would trouble you for a

(02:15:19):
very long time. Consider the whole universe, whereof you art
but a very little part, and the whole age of
the world together, whereof but a short and very momentary
portion is allotted to you, and all the fates and
destinies together, of which how much is it that comes
to your part? And share Again, another does trespass against me,

(02:15:40):
Let him look to that he is master of his
own disposition and of his own operation. I, for my part,
am in the mean time and possession of as much
as the common nature would have me to possess, and
that which mine own nature would have me do I
do Let not that chief commanding part of your soul
be ever subject to any variation through any corporal, either

(02:16:01):
pain or pleasure. Neither suffer it to be mixed with these.
But let it both circumscribe itself and confine those affections
to their own proper parts and members. But if at
any time they do reflect and rebound upon the mind
and understanding, as in an united and compacted body, it
must needs winkie face. Then must you not go about
to resist sense and feeling? It being natural? However, let

(02:16:24):
not your understanding to this natural sense and feeling, which
whether to our flesh pleasant or painful, is to us
nothing properly add an opinion of either good or bad.
And all is well to live with the gods. He
liveth with the gods, who at all times affords to
them the spectacle of a soul both contented and well pleased,
with whatsoever is afforded or allotted to her, and performing

(02:16:47):
whatsoever is pleasing to that spirit, whom, being part of himself,
Jove has appointed to every man as his overseer and governor.
Be not angry, neither with him whose breath, neither with
him whose armholes are offensive. What can he do? Such
is his breath naturally, and such are his armholes, And
from such such an effect, and such a smell, must

(02:17:10):
of necessity proceed. Oh But the man, sayest you, has
understanding in him, and might of himself know that he,
by standing near, cannot choose but offend. And you, also,
God bless you, hast understanding. Let your reasonable faculty work
upon his reasonable faculty, show him his fault, admonish him.

(02:17:32):
If he hearkened to you, you hast cured him. And
there will be no more occasion of anger, where there
shall neither roarer be nor harlot. Why so as you
dost purpose to live, when you hast retired yourself to
some such place where neither roarer nor harlot is, so
mayest you here? And if they will not suffer you,

(02:17:53):
then mayst you leave your life rather than your calling.
But so is one that does not think himself anyways wronged,
only as one would say, here is a smoke. I
will out of it. And what a great matter is this? Now?
Till some such thing force me out? I will continue free.
Neither shall any man hinder me to do what I will,
And my will shall ever be by the proper nature

(02:18:15):
of a reasonable and sociable creature, regulated and directed. That
rational essence by which the universe is governed is for
community and society. And therefore has it both made the
things that are worse for the best, and has allied
in knit together those which are best, as it were
in an harmony. Sayest you not how it has subordinated

(02:18:35):
and coordinated, and how it has distributed to everything according
to its worth, and those which have the pre eminency
and superiority above all? Has it united together into a
mutual consent and agreement. How hast you carried yourself, hitherto
towards the gods, towards your parents, towards your brethren, towards

(02:18:57):
your wife, towards your children, towards your masters, your foster fathers,
your friends, your domestics, your servants. Is it so with
you that hitherto you hast neither by word or deed
wronged any of them? Remember withal through how many things

(02:19:17):
you hast already passed, and how many you has been
able to endure, so that now the legend of your
life is full and your charge is accomplished again. How
many truly good things have certainly by you been discerned,
How many pleasures? How many pains hast you passed over
with contempt? How many things eternally glorious? Hast you despised towards?

(02:19:39):
How many perverse unreasonable men? Hast you carried yourself kindly
and discreetly? Why should imprudent unlearned soul's trouble that which
is both learned and prudent, and which is that that
is so she that understand at the beginning and the end,
and has the true knowledge of that rational essence that
passeth through all things, subsisting and through all ages being

(02:20:01):
ever the same, disposing and dispensing, as it were this universe,
by certain periods of time, within a very little while,
you will be either ashes or a saltum, and a name, perchance,
and perchance not so much as a name. And what
is that but an empty sound and a rebounding echo.
Those things which in this life are dearest to us,

(02:20:22):
and of most account they are in themselves but vain, putrid, contemptible,
the most weighty and serious, if rightly esteemed, But as
puppies biting one another, or toward children, now laughing and
then crying, as for faith and modesty, and justice and truth,
they long since, as one of the poets has it,

(02:20:44):
have abandoned this spacious earth and retired themselves to heaven.
What is it, then, that does keep you here? If
things sensible be so mutable and unsettled, and the senses
so obscure and so fallible, and our souls nothing but
an exhalation of blood, and to be incredit among such
be but vanity. What is it that you dost stay

(02:21:07):
for an extinction or a translation, either of them, with
a propitious and contented mind. But still that time come,
what will content you? What? Else but to worship and
praise the Gods, and to do good to men, to
bear with them, and to forbear to do them any wrong.
And for all external things belonging either to this your

(02:21:29):
wretched body or life, to remember that they are neither
thine nor in your power. You mayst always speed if
you wilt, but make choice of the right way, if
in the course both of thine opinions and actions you
wilt observe a true method. These two things be common
to the souls, as of God, so of men, and
of every reasonable creature. First that in their own proper

(02:21:51):
work they cannot be hindered by anything. And secondly, that
their happiness does consist in a disposition to and in
the practice of righteousness, and that in these their desire
is terminated. If this neither be my wicked act, nor
an act anyways depending from any wickedness of mine, and
that by it the public is not hurt, what does
it concern me? And wherein can the public be hurt?

(02:22:15):
For you must not altogether be carried by conceit and
common opinion. As for help, you must afford that to them,
after your best ability, and as occasions shall require Yeoh
they sustain damage. But in these middle or worldly things.
But however, do not you conceive that they are truly
hurt thereby, for that is not right. But as that
old foster father in the comedy, being now to take

(02:22:37):
his leave, does, with a great deal of ceremony, require
his foster child's rhombus or rattle top, remembering nevertheless that
it is but a rhombus, So here also do you likewise,
for indeed, what is all this pleading and public balling
for at the courts? O man, hast you forgotten what
those things are? Yet? But they are things that others

(02:22:58):
much care for and highly esteem of. Wilt you therefore
be a fool too? Once I was, let that suffice,
Let death surprise me when it will and where it will.
I may be epsilon uomicron iotao amicron, or a happy
man nevertheless, for he is a happy man who, in
his lifetime deleth to himself a happy lot and portion.

(02:23:22):
A happy lot and portion is good inclinations of the soul,
good desires, good actions. The sixth book, the matter itself,
of which the universe does consist, is of itself very
tractable and pliable, that rational essence that does govern It
has in itself no cause to do evil. It has

(02:23:43):
no evil in itself. Neither can it do anything that
is evil, neither can anything be hurt by it. And
all things are done and determined according to its will
and prescript. Be it all one to you, whether half
frozen or well worn, whether only slumbering or after a
full sleep, whether discommended or commended, you do your duty,

(02:24:03):
or whether dying or doing somewhat else, For that also
to die must among the rest, be reckoned as one
of the duties and actions of our lives. Look in.
Let not either the proper quality or the true worth
of anything pass you before you hast fully apprehended it.
All substances come soon to their change, and either they
shall be resolved by way of exhalation, if so be

(02:24:26):
that all things shall be reunited into one substance, or
as others maintain, they shall be scattered and dispersed. As
for that rational essence by which all things are governed,
as it best understand itself, both its own disposition and
what it does, and what matter it had to do
with and accordingly does all things. So we that do
not no wonder if we wonder at many things, the

(02:24:48):
reasons whereof we cannot comprehend. The best kind of revenge
is not to become like to them. Let this be
your only joy and your only comfort, from one sociable
kind action, without intermission to pass to another. God being
ever in your mind the rational commanding part as it alone,
can stir up and turn itself, so it makes both

(02:25:09):
itself to be and everything that happen to appear to
itself as it will itself. According to the nature of
the universe, all things, particular are determined, not according to
any other nature, either about compassing and containing, or within
dispersed and contained, or without depending. Either this universe is
a mere confused mass and an intricate context of things,

(02:25:32):
which shall in time be scattered and dispersed again, or
it is a union consisting of order and administered by providence.
If the first, why should I desire to continue any
longer in this fortuit confusion and commction, Or why should
I take care for anything else but that, as soon
as may be, I may be earth again. And why
should I trouble myself any more whilst I seek to

(02:25:55):
please the gods whatsoever I do. Dispersion is my end
and will come upon me, whether I will or no.
But if the latter be, then am not I religious
in vain? Then will I be quiet and patient and
put my trust in him who is the governor of all.
Whensoever by some present hard occurrences you are constrained to

(02:26:15):
be in some sort troubled and vexed, return to yourself
as soon as may be, and be not out of
tune longer than you must needs. For so shalt you
be the better able to keep your part another time,
and to maintain the harmony. If you dost use yourself
to this continually, once out presently, to have recourse to it,
and to begin again. If it were that you had

(02:26:35):
at one time both a stepmother and a natural mother living,
you wouldst honor and respect her also, nevertheless to thine
own natural mother, would your refuge and recourse be continually.
So let the court and your philosophy be to you,
have recourse to it often, and comfort yourself in her
by whom it is that those other things are made
tolerable to you, and you also in those things not

(02:26:58):
intolerable to others. How marvelous useful it is for a
man to represent to himself, meats, and all such things
that are for the mouth under a right apprehension and imagination,
as for example, this is the carcass of a fish,
this of a bird, and this of a hog, And
again more generally, this fulernum, this excellent, highly commended wine,

(02:27:20):
is but the bare juice of an ordinary grape. This
purple robe, but sheep's hairs dyed with the blood of
a shell fish. So for coitus it is but the
attrition of an ordinary base entrail, and the excretion of
a little vile snivel with a certain kind of convulsion.
According to Hippocrates his opinion, how excellent useful are these

(02:27:41):
lively fancies and representations of things, thus penetrating in passing
through the objects to make their true nature known an apparent.
This must you use all your life long, and upon
all occasions. And then especially when matters are apprehended as
of great worth and respect, your art and care must
be to uncover them, and to behold their vileness, and

(02:28:03):
to take away from them all those serious circumstances and
expressions under which they made so grave a show for
outward pomp and appearance. Is a great juggler. And then
especially art, you moost in danger to be beguiled by it,
when to a man's thinking you most seemiest to be
employed about matters of moment. See what Crates Pronounceth concerning

(02:28:24):
xenocrites himself. Those things which the common sort of people
do admire are most of them such things as are
very general, and may be comprehended under things merely natural
or naturally affected and qualified as stones, wood, figs, vines, olives.
Those that be admired by them, that are more moderate

(02:28:44):
and restrained, are comprehended under things animated as flocks and herds,
those that are yet more gentle and curious. Their admiration
is commonly confined to reasonable creatures, only, not in general
as they are reasonable, but as they are capable of art,
or of some craft in subtle invention, or perchance barely
to reasonable creatures, as they that delight in the possession

(02:29:07):
of many slaves. But he that honors a reasonable soul
in general, as it is reasonable and naturally sociable, does
little regard anything else, and above all things, is careful
to preserve his own in the continual habit and exercise
both of reason and sociableness, and thereby does co operate
with him, of whose nature he does also participate God.

(02:29:29):
Some things hasten to be, and others to be no more,
And even whatsoever now is some part thereof had already perished.
Perpetual fluxes and alterations renew the world, as the perpetual
course of time does make the age of the world
of itself infinite, to appear always fresh and new in
such a flux and course of all things. What of

(02:29:51):
these things that hasten so fast away should any man regard,
Since among all there is not any that a man
may fasten and fix upon, as if a man would
settle his affection upon some ordinary sparrow living by him,
who is no sooner seen than out of sight. For
we must not think otherwise of our lives than as
a mere exhalation of blood, or of an ordinary respiration

(02:30:13):
of air. For what in our common apprehension is to
breathe in the air and to breathe it out again,
which we do daily? So much is it, and no
more at once to breathe out all your respirative faculty
into that common air from whence but lately as being,
but from yesterday and to day you didst first breathe
it in and with it life not vegetative spiration. It

(02:30:36):
is not, surely which plants have that in this life
should be so dear to us, nor sensitive respiration, the
proper life of beasts, both tame and wild, Nor this
are imaginative faculty. Nor that we are subject to be
led and carried up and down by the strength of
our sensual appetites, or that we can gather and live together,
or that we can feed, For that, in effect is

(02:30:58):
no better than that we can avoid the excrements of
our food. What is it, then, that should be dear
to us to hear a clattering noise? If not that,
then neither to be applauded by the tongues of men.
For the praises of many tongues is in effect no
better than the clattering of so many tongues. If then
neither applause, what is their remaining that should be dear

(02:31:21):
to you? This? I think that, in all your motions
and actions you be moved and restrained according to thine
own true natural constitution and construction only, And to this
even ordinary arts and professions do lead us. For it
is that which every art does aim at that whatsoever
it is that is by art affected and prepared, may

(02:31:42):
be fit for that work that it is prepared for.
This is the end that he that dresseth the vine,
and he that takes upon him either to tame colts
or to train up dogs, does aim at? What else
does the education of children and all learned professions tend to. Certainly,
then it is that which should be dear to us. Also,

(02:32:02):
if in this particular it go well with you care
not for the obtaining of other things. But is it
so that you canst not but respect other things? Also?
Then canst not you truly be free? Then canst you
not have self content? Then wilt you ever be subject
to passions? For it is not possible but that you

(02:32:22):
must be envious and jealous and suspicious of them whom
you knowest can bereave you of such things, and again
a secret under miner of them, whom you sayest in
present possession of that which is dear to you to
be short, he must of necessity be full of confusion
within himself, and often accuse the gods whosoever stands in
need of these things. But if you shalt honor and

(02:32:45):
respect your mind, only that will make you acceptable towards yourself,
towards your friends, very tractable and conformable, and concordant with
the gods, that is, accepting with praises whatsoever they shall
think good to appoint and a lot to you. Under
Above and about are the motions of the elements. But
the motion of virtue is none of those motions, but

(02:33:07):
is somewhat more excellent and divine. Whose way to speed
and prosper in it must be through a way that
is not easily comprehended. Who can choose but wonder at them?
They will not speak well of them that are at
the same time with them and live with them. Yet
they themselves are very ambitious that they that shall follow,

(02:33:27):
whom they have never seen nor shall ever see, should
speak well of them, as if a man should grieve
that he had not been commended by them that lived
before him. Do not ever conceive anything impossible to man
which by you cannot, or not why much difficulty be effected.
But whatsoever in general you can'st conceive possible and proper

(02:33:47):
to any man, think that very possible to you. Also
suppose that at the polestra somebody had all to torn
you with his nails and had broken your head. Well,
you are wounded, Yet you dost not exclaim you art
not offended with him. You dost not suspect him for
it afterwards, as one that watcheth to do you a

(02:34:08):
mischief yeat Even then, YEO, ye dost your best to
save yourself from him, yet not from him as an enemy.
It is not by way of any suspicious indignation, but
by way of gentle and friendly declination. Keep the same
mind and disposition in other parts of your life. Also,
for many things there be which we must conceite and apprehend,

(02:34:30):
as yo, we had had to do with an antagonist
at the Palestra. For as I said, it is very
possible for us to avoid and decline. Yeo, we neither
suspect nor hate. If anybody shall reprove me, and shall
make it apparent to me that in any either opinion
or action of mine I do err, I will most
gladly retract. For it is the truth that I seek after,

(02:34:52):
by which I am sure that never any man was hurt,
and as sure that he is hurt that continueth in
any error or ignorance whatsoever, I, for my part, will
do what belongs to me. As for other things, whether
things unsensible or things irrational, or if rational yet deceived
in ignorant of the true way, they shall not trouble
or distract me. For as for those creatures which are

(02:35:16):
not endued with reason, in all other things and matters
of the world, whatsoever, I freely and generously, as one
endued with reason, of things that have none, make use
of them. And as for men towards them, as naturally
partakers of the same reason, My care is to carry
myself sociably. But whatsoever it is that you art about,

(02:35:36):
remember to call upon the gods. And as for the time,
how long you shalt live to do these things, let
it be altogether indifferent to you, for even three such
hours are sufficient. Alexander of Macedon and he that dressed
his mules, when once dead, both came to one For
either they were both resumed into those original rational essences,

(02:35:57):
from whence all things in the world are propagated, or
or both, after one fashion, were scattered into atoms. Consider
how many different things, whether they concern our bodies or
our souls, in a moment of time, come to pass
in every one of us. And so you will not
wonder if many more things, or rather all things that
are done, can at one time subsist and coexist in

(02:36:18):
that both one in general, which we call the world.
If any should put this question to you, how this
word Antoninus is written, whilst you not presently fix thine
intention upon it, and utter out and order every letter
of it? And if any shall begin to gainsay you
and quarrel with you about it, wilt you quarrel with
him again? Or rather go on meekly as you hast

(02:36:39):
begun until you hast numbered out every letter here. Then
likewise remember that every duty that belongs to a man
does consist of some certain letters or numbers, as it were,
to which why, out any noise or tumult, keeping yourself,
you must orderly proceed to your proposed end, for bearing
to quarrel with him that would quarrel and fall out
with you? Is it not what a cruel thing to

(02:37:01):
forbid men to affect those things which they conceive to
agree best with their own natures, and to tend most
to their own proper good and behoof But you, after
a sort, denius them this liberty as often as you
are angry with them, for their sins, for surely they
are led to those sins, whatsoever they be, as to
their proper good and commodity. But it is not so

(02:37:24):
you will object. Perchance, you therefore teach them better and
make it appear to them. But be not you angry
with them. Death is a cessation from the impression of
the senses, the tyranny of the passions, the errors of
the mind, and the servitude of the body. If in
this kind of life your body be able to hold out,
it is a shame that your soul should faint first

(02:37:46):
and give over take heed. Lest of a philosopher, you
become a mere caesar in time, and receive a new
tincture from the court. For it may happen if you
dost not take heed. Keep yourself therefore truly simple good,
sincere grave, free from all ostentation, a lover of that
which is just, religious, kind, tender hearted, strong and vigorous

(02:38:09):
to undergo anything that becomes you endeavor to continue such
as philosophy. Had you wholly and constantly applied yourself to
it would have made and secured you worship the gods
procure the welfare of men. This life is short. Charitable
actions and a holy disposition is the only fruit of

(02:38:29):
this earthly life. Do all things as becometh the disciple
of Antoninus Pious. Remember his resolute constancy in things that
were done by him according to reason, his equability in
all things, his sanctity, the cheerfulness of his countenance, his sweetness,
And how free he was from all vainglory, How careful
to come to the true and exact knowledge of matters

(02:38:51):
in hand, And how he would, by no means give
over till he did fully and plainly understand the whole
state of the business. And how patiently and why out
any contestation he would bear with them that did unjustly
condemn him. How he would never be over hasty in anything,
nor give year to slanders and false accusations, but examine

(02:39:11):
and observe with best diligence the several actions and dispositions
of men. Again, how he was no backbiter, nor easily frightened,
nor suspicious, and in his language free from all affectation
and curiosity. And how easily he would content himself with
few things as lodging, bedding, clothing, and ordinary nourishment and attendants.

(02:39:33):
How able to endure labor, how patient able, through his
spare diet, to continue from morning to evening. Why out
any necessity of withdrawing before his accustomed hours, to the
necessities of nature, his uniformity and constancy in matter of friendship,
how he would bear with them that with all boldness
and liberty opposed his opinions, and even rejoice if any

(02:39:54):
man could better advise him. And lastly, how religious he was,
wy out superstition all these things of him. Remember that,
whensoever your last hour shall come upon you, it may
find you as it did him, ready for it. In
the possession of a good conscience. Stir up your mind
and recall your wits again from your natural dreams and visions.

(02:40:15):
And when you are perfectly awoken, and canst perceive that
they were but dreams that troubled you, as one newly
awakened out of another kind of sleep, look upon these
worldly things with the same mind as you didst upon
those that you saw aust in your sleep. I consist
of body and soul. To my body all things are indifferent.
For of itself it cannot affect one thing more than another,

(02:40:37):
with apprehension of any difference. As for my mind, all
things which are not within the verge of her own
operation are indifferent to her, and for her own operations
those altogether depend on her. Neither does she busy herself
about any but those that are present, for as for
future and past operations, those also are now at this
present indifferent to her. As long as the foot does

(02:41:00):
that which belongeth to it to do, and the hand
that which belongs to it, their labor, whatsoever it be,
is not unnatural. So a man, as long as he
does that which is proper to a man, his labor
cannot be against nature. And if it be not against nature,
then neither is it hurtful to him. But if it
were so that happiness did consist in pleasure, how came

(02:41:21):
notorious robbers, impure, abominable livers, parricides, and tyrants in so
large a measure to have their part of pleasures? Dost
you not see how even those that profess mechanic arts
yew in some respect they be no better than near idiots.
Yet they stick close to the course of their trade.
Neither can they find in their heart to decline from it.

(02:41:41):
And is it not a grievous thing that an architect
or a physician shall respect the course and mysteries of
their profession, more than a man the proper course and
condition of his own nature, reason which is common to
him and to the gods Asia Europe. What are they
but as corners of the whole world, of which the
whole sein d is, but as one drop, and the

(02:42:02):
great mount Athos but as a clod, as all present
time is, but as one point of eternity, All petty things,
all things that are soon altered, soon perished, And all
things come from one beginning, either all severally in particularly
deliberated and resolved upon by the general ruler and governor
of all, or all by necessary consequence, so that the

(02:42:25):
dreadful hiatus of a gaping lion, and all poison and
all hurtful things are but as the thorn and the
mire the necessary consequences of goodly fair things. Think not
of these therefore, as things contrary to those which you
dost much honor and respect. But consider in your mind
the true fountain of all, he that seat the things

(02:42:46):
that are now had seen, all that either was ever
or ever shall be. For all things are of one kind,
and all like one to another. Meditate often upon the
connection of all things in the world, and upon the
mutual relation that they have one to another. For all
things are after a sort, folded and involved one within another,
and by these means all agree well together. For one

(02:43:09):
thing is consequent to another by local motion, by natural
conspiration and agreement, and by substantial union or reduction of
all substances into one. Fit and accommodate yourself to that
estate and to those occurrences which by the destinies have
been annexed to you. And love those men whom your
fate it is to live with, But love them truly.

(02:43:31):
An instrument, a tool, a utensil, whatsoever it be, if
it be fit for the purpose it was made for,
it is as it should be. Your heaperchance that made
and fitted it be out of sight and gone. But
in things natural, that power which had framed and fitted
them is an abodath within them still, for which reason
she ought also the more to be respected, And we

(02:43:52):
are the more obliged if we may live and pass
our time according to her purpose and intention, to think
that all is well with us, and according to our
our own minds. After this manner also, and in this respect,
it is that he that is all in all does
enjoy his happiness. What things soever are not within the
proper power and jurisdiction of thine own will, either to

(02:44:13):
compass or avoid. If you shall propose to yourself any
of those things as either good or evil, it must
needs be that according as you shall either fall into
that which you dost think evil, or miss of that
which you dost think good, so wilt you be ready
both to complain of the gods and to hate those
men who either shall be so indeed, or shall by
you be suspected as the cause either of your missing

(02:44:36):
of the one or falling into the other. And indeed
we must needs commit many evils if we incline to
any of these things, more or less with an opinion
of any difference. But if we mind and fancy those
things only as good and bad, which wholly depend of
our own wills, there is no more occasion why we
should either murmur against the gods or be at enmity

(02:44:58):
with any man. We all work to one effect, some
willingly and with a rational apprehension of what we do.
Others wy out any such knowledge, as I think Heraclitis
in a place speaketh of them that sleep, that even
they do work in their kind and do confer to
the general operations of the world. One man therefore does

(02:45:19):
co operate after one sort, and another after another sort.
But even he that does murmur, and to his power
does resist and hinder even he, as much as any
does co operate. For of such also did the world
stand in need. Now do you consider among which of
these you will rank yourself. For as for him who
is the administrator of all, he will make good use

(02:45:40):
of you, whether you wilt or no, and make you
as a part and member of the whole. So to
co operate with him, that whatsoever you doest, shall turn
to the furtherance of his own counsels and resolutions. But
be not you for shame such a part of the
whole as that vile and ridiculous verse which Chrysippus in
a place does mention, is a part of the comedy.

(02:46:02):
Does either the Sun take upon him to do that
which belongs to the rain, or his son Esculapius, that
which to the earth does properly belong. How is it
with every one of the stars in particular? Yeo, they
all differ one from another, and have their several charges
and functions by themselves. Do they not all nevertheless concur
and co operate to one end. If so be that

(02:46:25):
the gods have deliberated in particular of those things that
should happen to me, I must stand to their deliberation
as discreet and wise. For that a god should be
an imprudent god is a thing hard even to conceive.
And why should they resolve to do me hurt? For
what profit either to them or the universe, which they
specially take care for, could arise from it. But if

(02:46:47):
so be that they have not deliberated of me in particular,
certainly they have of the whole in general, and those
things which in consequence and coherence of this general deliberation
happen to me in particular, I am bound to embrace
an except of But if so be that they have
not deliberated at all, which indeed is very religious for
any man to believe. For, then let us neither sacrifice,

(02:47:09):
nor pray, nor respect our oaths, neither let us any
more use any of those things which we persuaded of
the presence in secret conversation of the gods among us
daily use and practice. But I say, if so be
that they have not indeed, either in general or particular,
deliberated of any of those things that happen to us
in this world. Yet God be thanked that of those

(02:47:31):
things that concern myself, it is lawful for me to
deliberate myself, And all my deliberation is but concerning that
which may be to me most profitable. Now that to
every one is most profitable, which is according to his
own constitution and nature. And my nature is to be
rational in all my actions, and as a good and
natural member of a city and commonwealth towards my fellow members,

(02:47:55):
ever to be sociably and kindly disposed and affected d
in country, as I am Antoninus is Rome as a
man the whole world. Those things therefore, that are expedient
and profitable to those cities, are the only things that
are good and expedient for me. Whatsoever in any kind
does happen to any one is expedient to the whole,

(02:48:18):
And thus much to content us might suffice that it
is expedient for the whole in general. But yet this
also shalt you generally perceive, if you dost diligently take heed,
that whatsoever does happen to any one man or men.
And now I am content that the word expedient should
more generally be understood of those things which we otherwise

(02:48:38):
call middle things, or things indifferent, as health, wealth, and
the like. As the ordinary shows of the theater and
of other such places, when you are presented with them,
affect you as the same things still seen, and in
the same fashion make the sight ingrateful and tedious. So
must all the things that we see all our life
long affect us, where all things above and below are

(02:49:02):
still the same, and from the same causes. When then
will there be an end. Let the several deaths of
men of all sorts, and of all sorts, of professions,
and of all sort of nations be a perpetual object
of your yachts, so that you may even come down
to Fellistio, Phoebus and Oregonian pass. Now to other generations.

(02:49:24):
Thither shall we, after many changes, Where so many brave
orators are, Where so many grave philosophers Heraclitis, Pythagoras, Socrates,
Where so many heroes of the old times, and then
so many brave captains of the latter times, and so
many kings after all these, where Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, where

(02:49:46):
so many other sharp, generous industrious, subtle, peremptory dispositions, And
among others, even they that have been the greatest scoffers
and writers of the frailty and brevity of this are
human life, as manipus and others, as many as there
have been such as he of all these, consider that
they long since are all dead and gone. And what

(02:50:09):
do they suffer by? It? May they that have not
so much as a name remaining? What are they the
worse for it? One thing there is, and that only
which is worth our while in this world, and ought
by us much to be esteemed, And that is according
to truth and righteousness, meekly and lovingly to converse with
false and unrighteous men, when you will comfort and cheer yourself,

(02:50:32):
call to mind the several gifts and virtues of them
whom you dost daily converse with, as for example, the
industry of the one, the modesty of another, the liberality
of a third of another, some other thing. For nothing
can so much rejoice you as the resemblances and parallels
of several virtues visible and eminent in the dispositions of

(02:50:52):
those who live with you, especially when all at once,
as near as may be, they represent themselves to you,
and there therefore you must have them always in a readiness.
Dost you grieve that you dost weigh but so many
pounds and not three hundred? Rather, just as much reason
hast you to grieve that you must live but so
many years and not longer. For as for bulk and substance,

(02:51:16):
you dost content yourself with that proportion of it that
is allotted to you, So shouldst you for time. Let
us do our best endeavors to persuade them. But however,
if reason and justice lead you to it, do it. Yeoh,
they be never so much against it. But if any
shall by forcewithstand you and hinder you in it, convert
your virtuous inclination from one object to another, from justice

(02:51:39):
to contented equanimity and cheerful patience, so that what in
the one is your hindrance, you mayst make use of
it for the exercise of another virtue. And remember that
it was with due exception and reservation that you didst
at first incline and desire, For you didst not set
your mind upon things impossible? Upon what then, that all

(02:52:00):
your desires might ever be moderated with this due kind
of reservation, And this you hast and mayst always obtain
whether the thing desired be in your power or no.
And what do I care for more? If that for
which I was born and brought forth into the world
to rule all my desires with reason and discretion, may
be the ambitious suppose of another man's act, praise and

(02:52:24):
applause to be his own happiness, the voluptuous his own
sense and feeling. But he that is wise his own action.
It is in your power absolutely to exclude all manner
of conceit and opinion as concerning this matter, and by
the same means to exclude all grief and sorrow from
your soul. For as for the things and objects themselves,

(02:52:46):
they of themselves have no such power whereby to beget
in force upon us any opinion at all. Use yourself
when any man speaks to you, so to hearken to
him as that in the interim you give not way
to any other yachts, that so you may, as far
as is possible, seem fixed and fastened to his very soul.
Whosoever he be that speaks to you, that which is

(02:53:07):
not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bee.
Will either passengers or patience find fault and complain, either
the one if they be well carried, or the others
if well cured. Do they take care for any more
than this, the one that their shipmaster may bring them
safe to land, and the other that their physician may
affect their recovery. How many of them who came into

(02:53:30):
the world at the same time when I did, are
already gone out of it? To them that are sick
of the jaundice, honey seems bitter, and to them that
are bitten by a mad dog the water terrible, and
to children a little ball seems a fine thing. And
why then should I be angry? Or do I think
that error and false opinion is less powerful to make

(02:53:51):
men transgress than either collar being immoderate and excessive to
cause the jaundice, or poison to cause rage. No man
can hinder you to live as your nature does require.
Nothing can happen to you. But what the common good
of nature does require? What manner of men they be,
whom they seek to please, and what to get? And

(02:54:13):
by what actions? How soon time will cover and bury
all things, And how many it had already buried

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