Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (top romance novels .txt) 📖
- Author: Marcus Aurelius
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arrogant, suspecting, plotting, wishing for some to die, grumbling about
the present, loving, heaping up treasure, desiring consulship, kingly
power. Well, then, that life of these people no longer exists at all.
Again, remove to the times of Trajan. Again, all is the same. Their life
too is gone. In like manner view also the other epochs of time and of
whole nations, and see how many after great efforts soon fell and were
resolved into the elements. But chiefly thou shouldst think of those whom
thou hast thyself known distracting themselves about idle things,
neglecting to do what was in accordance with their proper constitution,
and to hold firmly to this and to be content with it. And herein it is
necessary to remember that the attention given to everything has its
proper value and proportion. For thus thou wilt not be dissatisfied, if
thou appliest thyself to smaller matters no further than is fit.
33. The words which were formerly familiar are now antiquated: so also
the names of those who were famed of old, are now in a manner antiquated,
Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Leonnatus, and a little after also Scipio and
Cato, then Augustus, then also Hadrianus and Antoninus. For all things
soon pass away and become a mere tale, and complete oblivion soon buries
them. And I say this of those who have shone in a wondrous way. For the
rest, as soon as they have breathed out their breath, they are gone, and
no man speaks of them. And, to conclude the matter, what is even an
eternal remembrance? A mere nothing. What then is that about which we
ought to employ our serious pains? This one thing, thoughts just, and
acts social, and words which never lie, and a disposition which gladly
accepts all that happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a
principle and source of the same kind.
34. Willingly give thyself up to Clotho [one of the fates], allowing her
to spin thy thread into whatever thing she pleases.
35. Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that
which is remembered.
36. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom
thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much
as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For
everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But
thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a
womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.
37. Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, nor free from
perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things,
nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in
acting justly.
38. Examine men’s ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of
things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.
39. What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of
another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering.
Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power
of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form [such]
opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor
body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let
the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let
it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to
the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives
contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither
according to nature nor contrary to nature.
40. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one
substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one
perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things
act with one movement; and how all things are the co-operating causes of
all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread
and the contexture of the web.
41. Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as Epictetus used to
say (I. C. 19).
42. It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to
subsist in consequence of change.
43. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a
violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away,
and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.
44. Everything which happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in
spring and the fruit in summer; for such is disease, and death, and
calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.
45. In the series of things, those which follow are always aptly fitted
to those which have gone before: for this series is not like a mere
enumeration of disjointed things, which has only a necessary sequence,
but it is a rational connection: and as all existing things are arranged
together harmoniously, so the things which come into existence exhibit no
mere succession, but a certain wonderful relationship (VI. 38; VII. 9;
VII. 75, note).
46. Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is
to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death
of air is to become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who forgets
whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are
most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and
the things which they daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider
that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in
sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who
learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.
47. If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-morrow, or certainly on
the day after to-morrow, thou wouldst not care much whether it was on the
third day or on the morrow, unless thou wast in the highest degree mean-spirited; for how small is the difference. So think it no great thing to
die after as many years as thou canst name rather than to-morrow.
48. Think continually how many physicians are dead after often
contracting their eyebrows over the sick; and how many astrologers after
predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many
philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many
heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their
power over men’s lives with terrible insolence, as if they were immortal;
and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii
and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom
thou hast known, one after another. One man after burying another has
been laid out dead, and another buries him; and all this in a short time.
To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are,
and what was yesterday a little mucus, to-morrow will be a mummy or
ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature,
and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is
ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it
grew.
49. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but
it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I,
though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain,
neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing
as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have
continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a
misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that
a man’s misfortune which is not a deviation from man’s nature? And does a
thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man’s nature, when it is not
contrary to the will of man’s nature? Well, thou knowest the will of
nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just,
magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions
and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and
everything else, by the presence of which man’s nature obtains all that
is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation
to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear
it nobly is good fortune.
50. It is a vulgar, but still a useful help towards contempt of death, to
pass in review those who have tenaciously stuck to life. What more then
have they gained than those who have died early? Certainly they lie in
their tombs somewhere at last, Cadicianus, Fabius, Julianus, Lepidus, or
any one else like them, who have carried out many to be buried, and then
were carried out themselves. Altogether the interval is small [between
birth and death]; and consider with how much trouble, and in company with
what sort of people, and in what a feeble body this interval is
laboriously passed. Do not then consider life a thing of any value. For
look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is
before thee, another boundless space. In this infinity then what is the
difference between him who lives three days and him who lives three
generations?
51. Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural:
accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason.
For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all
artifice and ostentatious display.
BOOK V.
1. In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be
present,—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I
dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for
which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie
in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—
Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or
exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the
ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their
several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a
human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according
to thy nature?—But it is necessary to take rest also.—It is necessary.
However, Nature has fixed bounds to this too: she has fixed bounds to
eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what
is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of
what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou
wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several
arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but
thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art,
or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or
the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a
violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to
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