Book 9 continued Marcus Aurelius Meditations

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Episode Transcript

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The universal cause is like a wintertorrent. It carries everything along with it.
But how worthless are all these poorpeople who are engaged in matters political,
and, as they suppose, areplaying the philosopher all drivelers. Well,
then, man, do what naturenow requires. Set thyself in motion
if it is in thy power,and do not look about thee to see

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if anyone will observe it, noryet expect Plato's republic. But be content
if the smallest thing goes on,Well, and consider such an event to
be no small matter. For whocan change men's opinions? And without a
change of opinions, what else isthere than the slavery of men who groan
while they pretend to obey. Comenow and tell me of Alexander and Philip

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and Demetrius of Falorum. They themselvesshall judge whether they discovered what the common
nature required and trained themselves accordingly.But if they acted like tragedy heroes,
no one has condemned me to imitatethem. Simple and modest is the work
of philosophy. Draw me not asideto indolence and pride. Look down from
above on the countless herds of menand their countless solemnities, and the infinitely

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varied voyagings in storms and calms,and the differences among those who are born,
who live together and die. Andconsider too the life lived by others
in olden time, and the lifeof those who will live after THEE,
and the life now lived among barbarousnations. And how many know not even
thy name, and how many willsoon forget it, And how they who

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perhaps now are praising THEE will verysoon blame THEE. And that neither a
posthumous name is of any value,nor reputation, nor anything else. Let
there be freedom from perturbations with respectto the things which come from the external
cause. And let there be justicein the things done by virtue of the
internal cause. That is, letthere be movement and action terminating in this

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in social acts, for this isaccording to thy nature. Thou canst remove
out of the way many useless things, among those which disturb THEE, for
they lie entirely in thy opinion.And thou wilt then gain for thyself ample
space by comprehending the whole universe inthy mind, and by contemplating the eternity
of time and observing the rapid changeof every several things. How short is

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the time from birth to dissolution,and the illimitable time before birth, as
well as the equally boundless time afterdissolution. And all that thou seest will
quickly perish, and those who havebeen spectators of its dissolution will very soon
perish too. And he who diesat these extremist old age will be brought
into the same condition with him whodied prematurely. What are these men's leading

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principles? And about what kind ofthings are they busy? And for what
kind of reasons do they love andhonor? Imagine that thou seest their poor
souls laid bare when they think thatthey do harm by their blame or good
by their praise. What an idealoss is nothing else than change, But
the universal nature delights in change andin obedience to her. All things are

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now done well, and from eternityhave been done in like form, and
will be such to time without end. What then, dost thou say that
all things have been and all thingsalways will be bad, and that no
power has ever been found in somany gods to rectify these things. But
the world has been condemned to befound in never ceasing evil, the rottenness

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of the matter which is the foundationof everything, water, dust, bones,
filth, or again marble rocks,the callosities of the earth, and
gold and silver, the sediments andgarments, only bits of hair and purple
dye, blood and everything else isof the same kind. And that which
is of the nature of breath isalso another thing of the same kind,
changing from this to that. Enoughof this wretched life and murmuring and apish

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tricks. Why art thou disturbed?What is there new in this? What
unsettles thee? Is it the formof the thing? Look at it?
Or is it the matter? Lookat it? But besides these there is
nothing towards the gods. Then nowbecome at last more simple and better.
It is the same weather. Weexamine these things for one hundred years or
three. If any man has donewrong, the harm is his own.

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But perhaps he has not done wrongeither. All things proceed from one intelligent
source and come together as in onebody, and the part ought not to
find fault with what is done forthe benefit of the whole. Or there
are only atoms and nothing else,then mixture and dispersion. Why then art
thou disturbed? Say to the rulingfaculty, Art thou dead, Art thou

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corrupted, Art thou playing the hypocrite? Art thou become a beast. Dost
thou herd and feed with the rest. Either the gods have no power,
they have power. If then theyhave no power, why dost thou pray
to them? But if they havepower, why dost thou not pray for
them to give THEE the faculty ofnot fearing any of the things which thou

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fearest, or of not desiring anyof the which thou desirest, or not
being pained at anything, rather thanpray that any of these things should not
happen or happen. For certainly,if they can cooperate with men, they
can cooperate for these purposes. Butperhaps thou wilt say, the gods have
placed them in thy power. Well, then is it not better to use

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what is in thy power like afree man than to desire in a slavish
and abject way what is not inthy power. And who has told THEE
that the gods do not aid useven in the things which are in our
power, begin then to pray forsuch things, And thou wilt see one
man prays, Thus, how shallI be able to lie with that woman?
Do thou pray? Thus? Howshall I not desire to lie with

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her? Another? Praise? Thus? How shall I be released from this?
Another praise? How shall I notdesire to be released another? Thus?
How shall I not lose my littleson? Thou? Thus? How
shall I not be afraid to losehim? In fine? Turn thy prayers?
This way? And see what comes? Epicurus says, in my sickness,
my conversation was not about my bodilysufferings, Nor says he, did

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I talk on such subjects to thosewho visited me. But I continued to
discourse on the nature of things asbefore, keeping to this main point,
how the mind, while participating insuch movements as go on in the poor
flesh, shall be free from perturbations, then maintain its proper good. Nor
did I, he says, givethe physicians if an opportunity of putting on

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solemn looks as if they were doingsomething great. But my life went on
well and happily. Do then thesame that he did, both in sickness,
if thou art sick, and inany other circumstances. For never to
desert philosophy in any events that maybefall us, nor to hold trifling talk,
either with an ignorant man or withone unacquainted with nature, as a

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principle of all schools of philosophy,but to be intent only on that which
thou art now doing, and onthe instrument by which thou doest it.
When thou art offended with any man'sshameless conduct, immediately ask thyself, is
it possible, then that shameless menshould not be in the world. It
is not possible. Do not thenrequire what is impossible? For this man

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also is one of those shameless menwho must, of necessity be in the
world. Let the same considerations bepresent to thy mind in the case of
the knave and the faithless man,and of every man who does wrong in
any way. For at the sametime that thou dost remind thyself that it
is impossible that such kind of menshould not exist, thou wilt become more

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kindly disposed towards everyone individually. Itis useful to perceive this too immediately when
the occasion arises. What virtue Naturehas given to man to oppose to every
wrongful act? For she has givento man as an antidote against the stupid
man a mildness, and against anotherkind of man some other power. And
in all cases it is possible forTHEE to correct by teaching the man who

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is gone astray. For every manwho errors misses his object and is gone
astray. Besides, wherein hast thoubeen injured? For thou wilt find that
no one among those against whom thouart irritated, has done anything by which
thy mind could be made worse.But that which is evil to THEE and
harmful has its foundation only in themind. And what harm is done,

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or what is there strange if theman who has not been instructed does the
acts of an uninstructed man. Considerwhether thou shouldst not rather blame thyself,
because thou dost not expect such aman to err in such a way.
For thou hadst means given THEE bythy reason to suppose that it was likely
that he would commit this error,And yet thou hast forgotten and art amazed
that he is erred. But mostof all, when thou blamest a man

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as faithless or ungrateful, turned tothyself, for the fault is manifestly thy
own. Whether thou didst trust thata man who had such a disposition would
keep his promise, Or when conferringthy kindness, thou didst not confer it
absolutely, nor yet in such wayas to have received from thy very act
all the profit. What more dostthou want when thou hast done a man

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of service? Art thou not contentthat thou hast done something conformable to thy
nature? And dost thou seek tobe paid for it, just as if
the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feat for walking. For
as these members are formed for aparticular purpose, and by working according to

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their several constitutions, obtain what istheir own, so also as man is
formed by nature to acts of benevolence. When he has done anything benevolent or
in any other way conducive to thecommon interest, he has acted conformably to
his constitution, and he gets whatis his own.