Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (e book free reading TXT) 📖
- Author: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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And As The Universe Is Made Up Out Of All Bodies To Be Such A Body As It
Is, So Out Of All Existing Causes Necessity [Destiny] Is Made Up To Be
Such A Cause As It Is. And Even Those Who Are Completely Ignorant
Understand What I Mean; For They Say, It [Necessity, Destiny] Brought
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 59This To Such A Person.--This Then Was Brought And This Was Prescribed To
Him. Let Us Then Receive These Things, As Well As Those Which
Aesculapius Prescribes. Many As A Matter Of Course Even Among His
Prescriptions Are Disagreeable, But We Accept Them In The Hope Of
Health. Let The Perfecting And Accomplishment Of The Things Which The
Common Nature Judges To Be Good, Be Judged By Thee To Be Of The Same
Kind As Thy Health. And So Accept Everything Which Happens, Even If It
Seem Disagreeable, Because It Leads To This, To The Health Of The
Universe And To The Prosperity And Felicity Of Zeus [The Universe]. For
He Would Not Have Brought On Any Man What He Has Brought, If It Were Not
Useful For The Whole. Neither Does The Nature Of Anything, Whatever It
May Be, Cause Anything Which Is Not Suitable To That Which Is Directed
By It. For Two Reasons Then It Is Right To Be Content With That Which
Happens To Thee; The One, Because It Was Done For Thee And Prescribed
For Thee, And In A Manner Had Reference To Thee, Originally From The
Most Ancient Causes Spun With Thy Destiny; And The Other, Because Even
That Which Comes Severally To Every Man Is To The Power Which
Administers The Universe A Cause Of Felicity And Perfection, Nay Even Of
Its Very Continuance. For The Integrity Of The Whole Is Mutilated, If
Thou Cuttest Off Anything Whatever From The Conjunction And The
Continuity Either Of The Parts Or Of The Causes. And Thou Dost Cut Off,
As Far As It Is In Thy Power, When Thou Art Dissatisfied, And In A
Manner Triest To Put Anything Out Of The Way.
[A] In This Section There Is A Play On The Meaning Of [Greek:
Sumbainein].
[Illustration: The Capitol And Temple Of Jupiter]
9. Be Not Disgusted, Nor Discouraged, Nor Dissatisfied, If Thou Dost Not
Succeed In Doing Everything According To Right Principles, But When
Thou Hast Failed, Return Back Again, And Be Content If The Greater Part
Of What Thou Doest Is Consistent With Man's Nature, And Love This To
Which Thou Returnest; And Do Not Return To Philosophy As If She Were A
Master, But Act Like Those Who Have Sore Eyes And Apply A Bit Of Sponge
And Egg, Or As Another Applies A Plaster, Or Drenching With Water. For
Thus Thou Wilt Not Fail To + Obey Reason, And Thou Wilt Repose In It.
And Remember That Philosophy Requires Only Things Which Thy Nature
Requires; But Thou Wouldst Have Something Else Which Is Not According To
Nature.--It May Be Objected, Why, What Is More Agreeable Than This
[Which I Am Doing]? But Is Not This The Very Reason Why Pleasure
Deceives Us? And Consider If Magnanimity, Freedom, Simplicity,
Equanimity, Piety, Are Not More Agreeable. For What Is More Agreeable
Than Wisdom Itself, When Thou Thinkest Of The Security And The Happy
Course Of All Things Which Depend On The Faculty Of Understanding And
Knowledge?
10. Things Are In Such A Kind Of Envelopment That They Have Seemed To
Philosophers, Not A Few Nor Those Common Philosophers, Altogether
Unintelligible; Nay Even To The Stoics Themselves They Seem Difficult To
Understand. And All Our Assent Is Changeable; For Where Is The Man Who
Never Changes? Carry Thy Thoughts Then To The Objects Themselves, And
Consider How Short-Lived They Are And Worthless, And That They May Be In
The Possession Of A Filthy Wretch Or A Whore Or A Robber. Then Turn To
The Morals Of Those Who Live With Thee, And It Is Hardly Possible To
Endure Even The Most Agreeable Of Them, To Say Nothing Of A Man Being
Hardly Able To Endure Himself. In Such Darkness Then And Dirt, And In So
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 60Constant A Flux Both Of Substance And Of Time, And Of Motion And Of
Things Moved, What There Is Worth Being Highly Prized, Or Even An Object
Of Serious Pursuit, I Cannot Imagine. But On The Contrary It Is A Man's
Duty To Comfort Himself, And To Wait For The Natural Dissolution, And
Not To Be Vexed At The Delay, But To Rest In These Principles Only: The
One, That Nothing Will Happen To Me Which Is Not Conformable To The
Nature Of The Universe; And The Other, That It Is In My Power Never To
Act Contrary To My God And Daemon: For There Is No Man Who Will Compel
Me To This.
11. About What Am I Now Employing My Own Soul? On Every Occasion I Must
Ask Myself This Question, And Inquire, What Have I Now In This Part Of
Me Which They Call The Ruling Principle? And Whose Soul Have I
Now,--That Of A Child, Or Of A Young Man, Or Of A Feeble Woman, Or Of A
Tyrant, Or Of A Domestic Animal, Or Of A Wild Beast?
12. What Kind Of Things Those Are Which Appear Good To The Many, We May
Learn Even From This. For If Any Man Should Conceive Certain Things As
Being Really Good, Such As Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, He
Would Not After Having First Conceived These Endure To Listen To
Anything+ Which Should Not Be In Harmony With What Is Really Good.+ But
If A Man Has First Conceived As Good The Things Which Appear To The Many
To Be Good, He Will Listen And Readily Receive As Very Applicable That
Which Was Said By The Comic Writer. +Thus Even The Many Perceive The
Difference.+ For Were It Not So, This Saying Would Not Offend And Would
Not Be Rejected [In The First Case], While We Receive It When It Is Said
Of Wealth, And Of The Means Which Further Luxury And Fame, As Said Fitly
And Wittily. Go On Then And Ask If We Should Value And Think Those
Things To Be Good, To Which After Their First Conception In The Mind The
Words Of The Comic Writer Might Be Aptly Applied,--That He Who Has Them,
Through Pure Abundance Has Not A Place To Ease Himself In.
13. I Am Composed Of The Formal And The Material; And Neither Of Them
Will Perish Into Non-Existence, As Neither Of Them Came Into Existence
Out Of Non-Existence. Every Part Of Me Then Will Be Reduced By Change
Into Some Part Of The Universe, And That Again Will Change Into Another
Part Of The Universe, And So On Forever. And By Consequence Of Such A
Change I Too Exist, And Those Who Begot Me, And So On Forever In The
Other Direction. For Nothing Hinders Us From Saying So, Even If The
Universe Is Administered According To Definite Periods [Of Revolution].
14. Reason And The Reasoning Art [Philosophy] Are Powers Which Are
Sufficient For Themselves And For Their Own Works. They Move Then From A
First Principle Which Is Their Own, And They Make Their Way To The End
Which Is Proposed To Them; And This Is The Reason Why Such Acts Are
Named Catorthoseis Or Right Acts, Which Word Signifies That They Proceed
By The Right Road.
15. None Of These Things Ought To Be Called A Man's, Which Do Not Belong
To A Man, As Man. They Are Not Required Of A Man, Nor Does Man's Nature
Promise Them, Nor Are They The Means Of Man's Nature Attaining Its End.
Neither Then Does The End Of Man Lie In These Things, Nor Yet That Which
Aids To The Accomplishment Of This End, And That Which Aids Toward This
End Is That Which Is Good. Besides, If Any Of These Things Did Belong To
Story 3 (The Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antonius) Pg 61Man, It Would Not Be Right For A Man To Despise Them And To Set Himself
Against Them; Nor Would A Man Be Worthy Of Praise Who Snowed That He Did
Not Want These Things, Nor Would He Who Stinted Himself In Any Of Them
Be Good, If Indeed These Things Were Good. But Now The More Of These
Things A Man Deprives Himself Of, Or Of Other Things Like Them, Or Even
When He Is Deprived Of Any Of Them, The More Patiently He Endures The
Loss, Just In The Same Degree He Is A Better Man.
16. Such As Are Thy Habitual Thoughts, Such Also Will Be The Character
Of Thy Mind; For The Soul Is Dyed By The Thoughts. Dye It Then With A
Continuous Series Of Such Thoughts As These: For Instance, That Where A
Man Can Live, There He Can Also Live Well. But He Must Live In A Palace;
Well Then, He Can Also Live Well In A Palace. And Again, Consider That
For Whatever Purpose Each Thing Has Been Constituted, For This It Has
Been Constituted, And Towards This It Is Carried; And Its End Is In That
Towards Which It Is Carried; And Where The End Is, There Also Is The
Advantage And The Good Of Each Thing. Now The Good For The Reasonable
Animal Is Society; For That We Are Made For Society Has Been Shown
Above.[A] Is It Not Plain That The Inferior Exists For The Sake Of The
Superior? But The Things Which Have Life Are Superior To Those Which
Have Not Life, And Of Those Which Have Life The Superior Are Those Which
Have Reason.
[A] Ii. 1.
17. To Seek What Is Impossible Is Madness: And It Is Impossible That The
Bad Should Not Do Something Of This Kind.
18. Nothing Happens To Any Man Which He Is Not Formed By Nature To Bear.
The Same Things Happen To Another, And Either Because He Does Not See
That They Have Happened, Or Because He Would Show A Great Spirit, He Is
Firm And Remains Unharmed. It Is A Shame Then That Ignorance And Conceit
Should Be Stronger Than Wisdom.
19. Things Themselves Touch Not The Soul, Not In The Least Degree; Nor
Have They Admission To The Soul, Nor Can They Turn Or Move The Soul: But
The Soul Turns And Moves Itself Alone, And Whatever Judgments It May
Think
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