1. Man must consider, not only that each day part of his life is
spent, and that less and less remains to him, but also that, even if
he live longer, it is very uncertain whether his intelligence will
suffice as heretofore for the understanding of his affairs, and for
grasping that knowledge which aims at comprehending things human and
divine. When dotage begins, breath, nourishment, fancy, impulse, and
so forth will not fail him. But self-command, accurate appreciation of
duty, power to scrutinize what strikes his senses, or even to decide
whether he should take his departure, all powers, indeed, which demand
a well-trained understanding, must be extinguished in him. Let him be
up and doing then, not only because death comes nearer every day, but
because understanding and intelligence often leave us before we die.
2. Observe what grace and charm appear even in the accidents that
accompany Nature's work. Thus some parts of a loaf crack and burst in
the baking; and this cracking, though in a manner contrary to the
design of the baker, looks well and invites the appetite. Figs, too,
gape when at their ripest, and in ripe olives the very approach to
rotting adds a special beauty to the fruit. The droop of ears of corn,
the bent brows of the lion, the foam at a boar's mouth, and many other
things, are far from comely in themselves, yet, since they accompany
the works of Nature, they make part of her adornment, and rejoice the
beholder. Thus, if a man be sensitive to such things, and have a more
than common penetration into the constitution of the whole, scarce
anything connected with Nature will fail to give him pleasure, as he
comes to understand it. Such a man will contemplate in the real world
the fierce jaws of wild beasts with no less delight than when
sculptors or painters set forth for him their presentments. With like
pleasure will his chaste eyes behold the maturity and grace of old age
in man or woman, and the inviting charms of youth. Many such things
will strike him, things not credible to the many, but which come to
him alone who is truly familiar with the works of Nature and near to
her own heart.
3. Hippocrates, who had healed many diseases, himself fell sick, and
died. The Chaldeans foretold the fatal hours of multitudes, and
afterwards fate carried themselves away. Alexander, Pompey, and Gaius
Caesar, who so often razed whole cities, and cut off in battle so many
myriads of horse and foot, at last departed from this life
themselves. Heraclitus, after his many speculations on the
conflagration of the world, died, swollen with water and plastered
with cow-dung. Vermin destroyed Democritus; Socrates was killed by
vermin of another sort. What of all this? You have gone aboard, made
your voyage, come to harbour. Disembark: if into another life, there
will God be also; if into nothingness, at least you will have done
with bearing pain and pleasure, and with your slavery to this vessel
so much meaner than its slave. For the soul is intelligence and deity,
the body dust and corruption.
4. Waste not what remains of life in consideration about others, when
it makes not for the common good. Be sure you are neglecting other
work if you busy yourself with what such a one is doing and why, with
what he is saying, thinking, or scheming. All such things do but
divert you from the steadfast guardianship of your own soul. It
behoves you, then, in every train of thought to shun all that is
aimless or useless, and, above all, everything officious or
malignant. Accustom yourself so, and only so, to think, that, if any
one were suddenly to ask you, "Of what are you thinking-now?" you
could answer frankly and at once, "Of so and so." Then it will plainly
appear that you are all simplicity and kindliness, as befits a social
being who takes little thought for enjoyment or any phantom pleasure;
who spurns contentiousness, envy, or suspicion; or any passion the
harbouring of which one would blush to own. For such a man, who has
finally determined to be henceforth among the best, is, as it were, a
priest and minister of the Gods, using the spirit within him, which
preserves a man unspotted from pleasure, unwounded by any pain,
inaccessible to all insult, innocent of all evil; a champion in the
noblest of all contests--the contest for victory over every
passion. He is penetrated with justice; he welcomes with all his heart
whatever befalls, or is appointed by Providence. He troubles not
often, or ever without pressing public need, to consider what another
may say, or do, or design. Solely intent upon his own conduct, ever
mindful of his own concurrent part in the destiny of the Universe, he
orders his conduct well, persuaded that his part is good. For the lot
appointed to every man is part of the law of all things as well as a
law for him. He forgets not that all rational beings are akin, and
that the love of all mankind is part of the nature of man; also that
we must not think as all men think, but only as those who live a life
accordant with nature. As for those who live otherwise, he remembers
always how they act at home and abroad, by night and by day, and how
and with whom they are found in company. And so he cannot esteem the
praise of such, for they enjoy not their own approbation.
5. In action be neither grudging, nor selfish, nor ill-advised, nor
constrained. Let not your thought be adorned with overmuch nicety. Be
not a babbler or a busybody. Let the God within direct you as a manly
being, as an elder, a statesman, a Roman, and a ruler, standing
prepared like one who awaits the recall from life, in marching order;
requiring neither an oath nor the testimony of any man. And withal, be
cheerful, and independent of the assistance and the peace that comes
from others; for, it is a man's duty to stand upright, self-supporting,
not supported.
6. If in the life of man you find anything better than justice, truth,
sobriety, manliness; and, in sum, anything better than the
satisfaction of your soul with itself in that wherein it is given to
you to follow right reason; and with fate in that which is determined
beyond your control; if, I say, you find aught better than this, then
turn thereto with all your heart, and enjoy it as the best that is to
be found. But if nothing seems to you better than the divinity seated
within you, which has conquered all your impulses, which sifts all
your thoughts, which, as Socrates said, has detached itself from the
promptings of sense, and devoted itself to God and to the love of
mankind; if you find every other thing small and worthless compared
with this, see that you give place to no other which might turn,
divert, or distract you from holding in highest esteem the good which
is especially and properly your own. For it is not permitted to us to
substitute for that which is good in reason or in fact anything not
agreeable thereto, such as the praise of the many, power, riches, or
the pursuit of pleasure. All these things may seem admissible for a
moment; but presently they get the upper hand, and lead us astray. But
do you, I say, frankly and freely choose the best, and keep to it. The
best is what is for your advantage. If now you choose what is for your
spiritual advantage, hold it fast; if what is for your bodily
advantage, admit that it is so chosen, and keep your choice with all
modesty. Only see that you make a sure discrimination.
7. Never esteem aught of advantage which will oblige you to break your
faith, or to desert your honour; to hate, to suspect, or to execrate
any man; to play a part; or to set your mind on anything that needs to
be hidden by wall or curtain. He who to all things prefers the soul,
the divinity within him, and the sacred cult of its virtues, makes no
tragic groan or gesture. He needs neither solitude nor a crowd of
spectators; and, best of all, he will live neither seeking nor
shunning death. Whether the soul shall use its surrounding body for a
longer or shorter space is to him indifferent. Were he to depart this
moment he would go as readily as he would do any other seemly and
proper action, holding one thing only in life-long avoidance--to find
his soul in any case unbefitting an intelligent social being.
8. In the soul of the chastened and purified man you would find
nothing putrid, foul, or festering. Fate does not cut off his life
before its proper end; as one would say of an actor who left the stage
before his part was ended, or he had reached his appointed exit. There
remains nothing servile or affected, nothing too conventional or too
seclusive, nothing that fears censure or courts concealment.
9. Hold in honour the faculty which forms opinions. It depends on this
faculty alone that no opinion your soul entertains be inconsistent
with the nature and constitution of the rational being. It ensures
that we form no rash judgments, that we are kindly to men, and
obedient to the Gods.
10. Cast from you then all other things, retaining these few. Remember
also that every man lives only this present moment, which is a
fleeting instant: the rest of time is either spent or quite
unknown. Short is the time which each of us has to live, and small the
corner of the earth he has to live in. Short is the longest
posthumous fame, and this preserved through a succession of poor
mortals, soon themselves to die; men who knew not themselves, far less
those who died long ago.
11. To these maxims add this other. Accurately define or describe
every thing that strikes your imagination, so that you may see and
distinguish what it is in naked essence, and what it is in its
entirety; that you may tell yourself the proper name of the thing
itself, and the names of the parts of which it is compounded, and into
which it will be resolved. Nothing makes mind greater than the power
to enquire into all things that present themselves in life; and, while
you examine them, to consider at the same time of what fashion is the
Universe, and what is the function in it of these things, of what
importance they are to the whole, of what to man who is a citizen of
that highest city of which all other cities are but households.
Consider what is this thing that now makes an impression on you, of
what it is composed, and how long it is destined to endure. Consider
also for what virtue it calls; whether it be gentleness, courage,
truthfulness, fidelity, simplicity, independence, or any other. Say,
therefore, of each event: "This comes from God:" or "This comes from
the conjunction and intertexture of the strands of fate, or from some
chance or hazard of that kind:" or "This comes from one of my own
tribe, from my kinsman, from my friend. He is, indeed, ignorant of
what accords with nature; but I am not, and will therefore use him
kindly and justly, according to the natural and social law. As to
things indifferent, I strive to appraise them at their proper value."
12. If you discharge your present duty with firm and zealous, yet
kindly, observance of the laws of reason; if you regard no by-gains,
but keep pure within you your immortal part, as if obliged to restore
it at once to him who gave it; if you hold to this with no further
desires or aversions, and be content with the natural discharge of
your present task, and with the heroic sincerity of all you say or
utter, you will live well. And herein no man can hinder you.
13. As surgeons have ever their knives and instruments at hand for the
sudden emergencies of their art, so do you keep ready the principles
requisite for understanding things divine and human, and for doing all
things, even the least important, in the remembrance of the bond
between the two. For in neglecting this, you will scant your duty both
to Gods and men.
14. Cease your wandering, for you are not like to read again your own
memoirs, or the deeds of the ancient Greeks and Romans, or those
collections from the writings of others that you laid up for your old
age. Hasten then to your proper end. Fling away vain hopes, and, if
you have any care for yourself, fly to your own succour while yet you
may.
15. Men understand not all that is signified by the words--to steal,
to sow, to buy, to rest, to see what is to be done. For it is not the
bodily eye but another sort of sight that must discern these things.
16. We have body, soul, and intelligence. To the body belong the
senses, to the soul the passions, to the intelligence principles. To
be affected by the imagery of sense belongs to the beasts of the field
no less than to us. To be swayed by gusts of passion is common to us
with the wild beasts, with the most effeminate wretches, with Nero and
with Phalaris. Moreover, the possession of a mind to guide us to what
seems fitting is shared by us, with atheists, with traitors to their
country, and with such as shut their doors and sin. If, then, all the
rest is common as we have seen, there remains to the good man this
special excellence; to welcome with pleasure all that happens or is
ordained, not to defile the divinity enthroned in his breast, not to
perturb it with a crowd of images, but to preserve it in tranquillity,
and obey it as a God: to observe truth in all he says, and justice in
his every action. And though others may not believe that he lives thus
in simplicity, modesty, and contentment, he neither takes this
unbelief amiss from any one, nor quits the road which leads to the
true end of life, at which he ought to arrive pure, calm, ready to
take his departure, and accommodated without compulsion to his fate.
END OF THE THIRD BOOK.