"Life's harvest reap like the wheat's fruitful ear."
And other things of the same kind.
After tragedy the old comedy was introduced, which had a magisterial
freedom of speech, and by its very plainness of speaking was useful in
reminding men to beware of insolence; and for this purpose too Diogenes
used to take from these writers.
[A] Sophocles, Oedipus Rex.
[B] See vii. 41, 38, 40.
But as to the middle comedy, which came next, observe what it was, and
again, for what object the new comedy was introduced, which gradually
sank down into a mere mimic artifice. That some good things are said
even by these writers, everybody knows: but the whole plan of such
poetry and dramaturgy, to what end does it look?
7. How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life
so well suited for philosophizing as this in which thou now happenest to
be.
8. A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut
off from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from
another man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a
branch, another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself
from his neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does
not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole
social system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed
society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to
us, and again to become a part which helps to make up the whole.
However, if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it
difficult for that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to
be restored to its former condition. Finally, the branch, which from the
first grew together with the tree, and has continued to have one life
with it, is not like that which after being cut off is then ingrafted,
for this is something like what the gardeners mean when they say that it
grows with the rest of the tree, but+ that it has not the same mind with
it.
9. As those who try to stand in thy way when thou art proceeding
according to right reason will not be able to turn thee aside from thy
proper action, so neither let them drive thee from thy benevolent
feelings toward them, but be on thy guard equally in both matters, not
only in the matter of steady judgment and action, but also in the matter
of gentleness to those who try to hinder or otherwise trouble thee. For
this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted
from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are
equally deserters from their post,--the man who does it through fear,
and the man who is alienated from him who is by nature a kinsman and a
friend.
10. There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate
the natures of things. But if this is so, that nature which is the most
perfect and the most comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of
the skill of art Now all arts do the inferior things for the sake of
the superior; therefore the universal nature does so too. And, indeed,
hence is the origin of justice, and in justice the other virtues have
their foundation: for justice will not be observed, if we either care
for middle things [things indifferent], or are easily deceived and
careless and changeable (v. 16. 30; vii. 55).
11. If the things do not come to thee, the pursuits and avoidances of
which disturb thee, still in a manner thou goest to them. Let then thy
judgment about them be at rest, and they will remain quiet, and thou
wilt not be seen either pursuing or avoiding.
12. The spherical form of the soul maintains its figure when it is
neither extended towards any object, nor contracted inwards, nor
dispersed, nor sinks down, but is illuminated by light, by which it sees
the truth,--the truth of all things and the truth that is in itself
(viii. 41, 45; xii. 3).
13. Suppose any man shall despise me. Let him look to that himself. But
I will look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything
deserving of contempt. Shall any man hate me? Let him look to it. But I
will be mild and benevolent towards every man, and ready to show even
him his mistake, not reproachfully, nor yet as making a display of my
endurance, but nobly and honestly, like the great Phocion, unless indeed
he only assumed it. For the interior [parts] ought to be such, and a
man ought to be seen by the gods neither dissatisfied with anything nor
complaining. For what evil is it to thee, if thou art now doing what is
agreeable to thy own nature, and art satisfied with that which at this
moment is suitable to the nature of the universe, since thou art a human
being placed at thy post in order that what is for the common advantage
may be done in some way?
14. Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to
raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
15. How unsound and insincere is he who says, I have determined to deal
with thee in a fair way!--What are thou doing, man? There is no occasion
to give this notice. It will soon show itself by acts. The voice ought
to be plainly written on the forehead. Such as a man's character is,+ he
immediately shows it in his eyes, just as he who is beloved forthwith
reads everything in the eyes of lovers. The man who is honest and good
ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander
as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not. But
the affectation of simplicity is like a crooked stick.[A] Nothing is
more disgraceful than a wolfish friendship [false friendship]. Avoid
this most of all. The good and simple and benevolent show all these
things in the eyes, and there is no mistaking.
[A] Instead of [Greek: skalmê] Saumaise reads [Greek: skambê].
There is a Greek proverb, [Greek: skambon xylon oudepot
orthon]: "You cannot make a crooked stick straight."
The wolfish friendship is an allusion to the fable of the sheep
and the wolves.
16. As to living in the best way, this power is in the soul, if it be
indifferent to things which are indifferent. And it will be indifferent,
if it looks on each of these things separately and all together, and if
it remembers that not one of them produces in us an opinion about
itself, nor comes to us; but these things remain immovable, and it is we
ourselves who produce the judgments about them, and, as we may say,
write them in ourselves, it being in our power not to write them, and it
being in our power, if perchance these judgments have imperceptibly got
admission to our minds, to wipe them out; and if we remember also that
such attention will only be for a short time, and then life will be at
an end. Besides, what trouble is there at all in doing this? For if
these things are according to nature, rejoice in them and they will be
easy to thee: but if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to thy
own nature, and strive towards this, even if it bring no reputation; for
every man is allowed to seek his own good.
17. Consider whence each thing is come, and of what it consists, + and
into what it changes, and what kind of a thing it will be when it has
changed, and that it will sustain no harm.
18. [If any have offended against thee, consider first]: What is my
relation to men, and that we are made for one another; and in another
respect I was made to be set over them, as a ram over the flock or a
bull over the herd. But examine the matter from first principles, from
this. If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all
things: if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the
superior, and these for the sake of one another (ii. 1; ix. 39; v. 16;
iii. 4).
Second, consider what kind of men they are at table, in bed, and so
forth; and particularly, under what compulsions in respect of opinions
they are; and as to their acts, consider with what pride they do what
they do (viii. 14; ix. 34).
Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be
displeased: but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so
involuntarily and in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly
deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power
of behaving to each man according to his deserts. Accordingly men are
pained when they are called unjust, ungrateful, and greedy, and in a
word wrong-doers to their neighbors (vii. 62, 63; ii. 1; vii. 26; viii.
29).
Fourth, consider that thou also doest many things wrong, and that thou
art a man like others; and even if thou dost abstain from certain
faults, still thou hast the disposition to commit them, though either
through cowardice, or concern about reputation, or some such mean
motive, thou dost abstain from such faults (i. 17).
Fifth, consider that thou dost not even understand whether men are doing
wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to
circumstances. And in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him
to pass a correct judgment on another man's acts (ix. 38; iv. 51).
Sixth, consider when thou art much vexed or grieved, that man's life is
only a moment, and after a short time we are all laid out dead (vii. 58;
iv. 48).
Seventh, that it is not men's acts which disturb us, for those acts have
their foundation in men's ruling principles, but it is our own opinions
which disturb us. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss
thy judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and thy
anger is gone. How then shall I take away these opinions? By reflecting
that no wrongful act of another brings shame on thee: for unless that
which is shameful is alone bad, thou also must of necessity do many
things wrong, and become a robber and everything else (v. 25; vii. 16).
Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and
vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we
are angry and vexed (iv. 39, 49; vii. 24).
Ninth, consider that a good disposition is invincible if it be genuine,
and not an affected smile and acting a part. For what will the most
violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition
towards him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him
and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to
do thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for
something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring
thyself, my child.--And show him with gentle tact and by general
principles that this is so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor
any animals which are formed by nature to be gregarious. And thou must
do this neither with any double meaning nor in the way of reproach, but
affectionately and without any rancor in thy soul; and not as if thou
wert lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander may admire, but either
when he is alone, and if others are present ...[A]
[A] It appears that there is a defect in the text here.
Remember these nine rules, as if thou hadst received them as a gift from
the Muses, and begin at last to be a man while thou livest. But thou
must equally avoid nattering men and being vexed at them, for both are
unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be present to thee in the
excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that
mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so
also are they more manly; and he who possesses these qualities possesses
strength, nerves, and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of
passion and discontent. For in the same degree in which a man's mind is
nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer
to strength: and as the sense of pain is a characteristic of weakness,
so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger,
both are wounded and both submit.
But if thou wilt, receive also a tenth present from the leader of the
Muses [Apollo], and it is this,--that to expect bad men not to do wrong
is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to
allow men to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do thee any
wrong, is irrational and tyrannical.
19. There are four principal aberrations of the superior faculty against
which thou shouldst be constantly on thy guard, and when thou hast
detected them, thou shouldst wipe them out and say on each occasion
thus: This thought is not necessary: this tends to destroy social union:
this which thou art going to say comes not from the real thoughts; for
thou shouldst consider it among the most absurd of things for a man not
to speak from his real thoughts. But the fourth is when thou shalt
reproach thyself for anything, for this is an evidence of the diviner
part within thee being overpowered and yielding to the less honorable
and to the perishable part, the body, and to its gross pleasures (iv.
24; ii. 16).
20. Thy aerial part and all the fiery parts which are mingled in thee,
though by nature they have an upward tendency, still in obedience to the
disposition of the universe they are overpowered here in the compound
mass [the body]. And also the whole of the earthy part in thee and the
watery, though their tendency is downward, still are raised up and
occupy a position which is not their natural one. In this manner then
the elemental parts obey the universal; for when they have been fixed in
any place, perforce they remain there until again the universal shall
sound the signal for dissolution. Is it not then strange that thy
intelligent part only should be disobedient and discontented with its
own place? And yet no force is imposed on it, but only those things
which are conformable to its nature: still it does not submit, but is
carried in the opposite direction. For the movement towards injustice
and intemperance and to anger and grief and fear is nothing else than
the act of one who deviates from nature. And also when the ruling
faculty is discontented with anything that happens, then too it deserts
its post: for it is constituted for piety and reverence towards the gods
no less than for justice. For these qualities also are comprehended
under the generic term of contentment with the constitution of things,
and indeed they are prior[A] to acts of justice.
[A] The word [Greek: presbytera], which is here translated
"prior," may also mean "superior;" but Antoninus seems to say
that piety and reverence of the gods precede all virtues, and
that other virtues are derived from them, even justice, which
in another passage (xi. 10) he makes the foundation of all
virtues. The ancient notion of justice is that of giving to
every one his due. It is not a legal definition, as some have
supposed, but a moral rule which law cannot in all cases
enforce. Besides, law has its own rules, which are sometimes
moral and sometimes immoral; but it enforces them all simply
because they are general rules, and if it did not or could not
enforce them, so far Law would not be Law. Justice, or the
doing what is just, implies a universal rule and obedience to
it; and as we all live under universal Law, which commands both
our body and our intelligence, and is the law of our nature,
that is, the law of the whole constitution of a man, we must
endeavor to discover what this supreme Law is. It is the will
of the power that rules all. By acting in obedience to this
will, we do justice, and by consequence everything else that we
ought to do.
21. He who has not one and always the same object in life, cannot be one
and the same all through his life. But what I have said is not enough,
unless this also is added, what this object ought to be. For as there is
not the same opinion about all the things which in some way or other are
considered by the majority to be good, but only about some certain
things, that is, things which concern the common interest, so also ought
we to propose to ourselves an object which shall be of a common kind
[social] and political. For he who directs all his own efforts to this
object, will make all his acts alike, and thus will always be the same.
22. Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm
and trepidation of the town mouse.[A]
23. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of
Lamiae,--bugbears to frighten children.
24. The Lacedaemonians at their public spectacles used to set seats in
the shade for strangers, but themselves sat down anywhere.
25. Socrates excused himself to Perdiccas[B] for not going to him,
saying, It is because I would not perish by the worst of all ends; that
is, I would not receive a favor and then be unable to return it.
26. In the writings of the [Ephesians][C] there was this precept,
constantly to think of some one of the men of former times who practiced
virtue.
[A] The story is told by Horace in his Satires (ii. 6), and by
others since but not better.
[B] Perhaps the emperor made a mistake here, for other writers
say that it was Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas, who invited
Socrates to Macedonia.
[C] Gataker suggested [Greek: Epekoureiôn] for [Greek:
Ephesiôn].
27. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens that we
may be reminded of those bodies which continually do the same things
and in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their
purity and nudity. For there is no veil over a star.
28. Consider what a man Socrates was when he dressed himself in a skin,
after Xanthippe had taken his cloak and gone out, and what Socrates said
to his friends who were ashamed of him and drew back from him when they
saw him dressed thus.
29. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down
rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules
thyself. Much more is this so in life.