1. What is vice? It is what you have often seen. In every instance of
it keep in mind that you have often seen the like before. Search up
and down; you will find sameness everywhere. Among the events which
fill the history of ancient, middle, and present ages; among the
things of which our cities and our households are full to-day, nothing
is new, all is familiar and fleeting.
2. How can the great principles of life become dead if the impressions
which correspond to them be not extinguished? These impressions you
may still rekindle. I can always form the proper opinion of this or
that; and, if so, why am I disturbed? What is external to my mind is
of no consequence to it. Learn this, and you stand upright; you can
always renew your life. See things again as once you saw them, and
your life is made new again.
3. Your vain concern for shows, for stage plays, for flocks and herds,
your little combats, are as bones cast for the contention of puppies,
as baits dropped into a fishpond, as the toil of ants and the burdens
that they bear, as the scampering of frightened mice, or the antics of
puppets jerked by wires. It is then your duty amid all this to stand
firm, kindly and not proud, yet to understand that a man's worth is
just the worth of that which he pursues.
4. In conversation we should give good heed to what is said, and in
every enterprise we should attend to what is done. In the latter case,
at once look to the end in view, and, in the former, note the meaning
intended.
5. Is my understanding sufficient for this business or not? If it be
sufficient, I use it for the work in hand as an instrument given to me
by nature. If it be not sufficient, I either give place to one better
fitted for the achievement, or, if for some reason this be not a
proper course, I do it as best I can, taking the aid of those who, by
directing my mind, can accomplish something fit and serviceable for
the common good. For all that I do, whether by myself or with the help
of others, should be directed solely towards what is fit and useful
for the public service.
6. How many of those who were once so mightily acclaimed are delivered
up to oblivion! And how many of those who acclaimed them are dead and
gone this many a day!
7. Be not ashamed of taking assistance. It is laid upon you to do your
part, as on a soldier when the wall is stormed. What, then, if you are
lame, and cannot scale the battlements alone, but can with another's
help?
8. Be not troubled about the future. You will come to it, if need be,
with the same power to reason, as you use upon your present business.
9. All things are twined together, in one sacred bond. Scarce is there
one thing quite foreign to another. They are all ranged together, and
leagued to form the same ordered whole. The Universe, compact of all
things, is one; through all things runs one divinity; being is one;
and law, which is the reason common to all intelligent creatures; and
truth is one as well, that is if there be but one sort of perfection
possible to all beings which are of the same nature and partake of the
same rational power.
10. Everything material is soon engulfed in the matter of the whole,
and every active cause is swiftly resumed into the Universal
reason. The memory of all things is quickly buried in eternity.
11. In the reasoning being to act according to nature is to act
according to reason.
12. Be upright either by nature or by correction.
13. In an organic unity bodily members play the same part as reasoning
beings among separate existences, since both are fitted for one joint
operation. This thought will come home to you the more vividly if you
say often to yourself: "I am a member of the mighty organism which is
made up of reasoning beings." If, instead of a member, you say that
you are merely a part, you have not as yet attained to a heartfelt
love of mankind. As yet you love not well-doing for its own sake
alone, and you still perform your bare duty, with no thought that you
are your own benefactor by the deed.
14. From the world without let what will affect whatever parts are
subject to such affection. Let the part which suffers complain, if it
will, of the suffering. But I, if I admit not that the hap is evil,
remain uninjured. Not to admit it is surely in my power.
15. Let any one say or do what he pleases, I must be a good man. It is
just as gold, or emeralds, or purple might say continually: "Let men
do or say what they please, I must be an emerald, and retain my
lustre."
16. The soul which rules you vexes not itself. It does not, for
example, awake its own fears or arouse its own desires. If another can
raise grief or terror in it, let him do so. By its own impressions it
will not be led into such emotions.
Let the body take thought, if it can, for itself, lest it suffer
anything, and complain when it suffers. The soul, by means of which we
experience fear and sorrow, and by means of which, indeed, we receive
any impression of these, will admit no suffering. You cannot force it
to any such opinion.
The ruling part is, in itself, free from all dependence, unless it
makes itself dependent. Similarly, it may be free from all disturbance
and obstruction, if it does not disturb and obstruct itself.
17. To have good fortune is to have a good spirit, or a good
mind. What do you here, Imagination? Be gone, I say, even as you
came. I have no need for you. You came, you say, after your ancient
fashion: I am not angry with you, only, be gone!
18. Do you dread change? What can come without it? What can be pleasanter
or more proper to universal nature? Can you heat your bath unless wood
undergoes a change? Can you be fed unless a change is wrought upon
your food? Can any useful thing be done without changes? Do you not
see, then, that this change also which is working in you is even such
as these, and alike necessary to the nature of the Universe?
19. Through the substance of the Universe, as through a torrent, all
bodies are borne. They are all of the same nature, and fellow-workers
with the whole, even as our several members are fellow-workers with
one another. How many a Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how many an
Epictetus hath the course of ages swallowed up! Let this thought be
with you about every man, and upon all occasions.
20. For this alone I am concerned; that I do nothing that suits not
the nature of man, nothing as man's nature would not have it, nothing
that it wishes not yet.
21. The time is at hand when you shall forget all things, and when all
shall forget you.
22. It is man's special business to love even those who err; and to
this love you attain, if it is borne in upon you that even these
sinners are your kin, and that they offend through ignorance and
against their will. Remember also that in a little while both you and
they must die: remember before all things that they have not harmed
you, for they have not made your soul worse than it was before.
23. Presiding nature from the universal substance, as from wax, now
forms a horse, now breaks it up again, making of its matter a tree,
afterwards a man, and again something different. Each of these shapes
subsists but for a little. Yet there is nothing dreadful for the chest
in being taken to pieces, any more than there formerly was in being
put together.
24. A wrathful look is completely against nature. When the countenance
is often thus deformed, its beauty dies, in the end is quenched for
ever, and cannot be revived again. Seek to comprehend from this very
fact that it is against reason. And if the sense of moral evil be gone
as well, why should a man wish to remain alive?
25. In a little space Nature, the supreme and universal ruler, will
change all things that you behold; out of their substance she will
make other things, and others again out of the substance of these, so
that the Universe may be ever new.
26. Whenever someone offends you, consider straightway how he has
erred in his conceptions of good or evil. When you see where his error
lies you will pity him, and be neither surprised nor angry. Indeed you
yourself perhaps still wrongly count good the same things as he does,
or things just like them. Your duty then is to forgive. And, if you
cease from these false ideas of good and bad, you will find it the
easier to grant indulgence to him who is still mistaken.
27. Dwell not on what you lack so much as on what you have
already. Select the best of what you have, and consider how
passionately you would have longed for it had it not been yours. Yet
be watchful, lest by this joy in what you have you accustom yourself
to value it too highly; so that, if it should fail, you would be
distressed.
28. Retire within yourself. The reasoning power that rules you
naturally finds contentment with itself in just dealing, and in the
calm which such dealing brings.
29. Blot out imagination. Check the brutal impulses of the
passions. Confine your energies to the present time. Observe clearly
all that happens either to yourself or to another. Divide and analyse
all objects into cause and matter. Take thought for your last
hour. Let another's sin remain where the guilt lies.
30. Apply your mind to what is said. Penetrate all happenings and the
causes thereof.
31. Rejoice yourself with simplicity, modesty, and indifference to all
things that lie between good and bad. Love mankind, and obey God. "All
things," says someone, "go by law and order." But what if there be
naught beyond the atoms? Even if that be so, suffice it to remember
that all things, save very few, are swayed by law.
32. Concerning death: If the Universe be a concourse of atoms, death
is a scattering of these; if it be an ordered unity, death is an
extinction or a translation to another state.
33. Concerning pain: Pain which cannot be borne brings us
deliverance. Pain that lasts musts needs be bearable. The mind can
abstract itself from the body, and the soul takes no hurt. As to the
parts which suffer by pain, let them, if they can, make their own
protest.
34. Concerning glory: Consider the understanding of men, what they
shun, and what they pursue. And reflect that, as heaps of sand are
driven one upon another, and the later drifts bury and hide those that
went before, so, too, in life the former ages are soon buried by the
next.
35. This from Plato: "'To the man who has true grandeur of mind, and
who contemplates all time and all being, can human life appear a great
matter?' 'Impossible,' says the other. 'Can then such a one count death
a thing of dread?' 'No, indeed.'"
36. It is a saying of Antisthenes, that it is the part of a king to do
good and reap reproach.
37. It is a shameful thing that the countenance should obey the mind,
should compose and order itself as the mind bids it, while the mind
cannot compose and order itself as it wills.
38. Vain is all anger at external things
For they regard it nothing.--
39. Give joy to us and to the immortal Gods.
40. For life is, like the laden ear, cut down;
And some must fall and some unreaped remain.
41. Me and my children, if the Gods neglect,
It is for some good reason.
42. For I keep right and justice on my side.
43. Weep not with them, and still these throbs of woe.
44. From Plato:--"I would make him this just answer, 'You are
mistaken, my friend, to think that a man of any worth should count the
chances of living and dying. Should he not rather, in all he does,
consider simply whether he is acting justly or unjustly, whether he is
playing the part of a good man or a bad?'"
45. He says again:--"In truth, Athenians, the matter stands thus:
Wheresoever a man has chosen his stand, judging it the fittest for
him, or wheresoever he is stationed by his commander, there, I think,
he should stay at all hazards, making no account of death, or any
other evil but dishonour."
46. Again:--"Consider, my friend, whether the truly noble and the
truly good be not something quite apart from saving and being
saved. The man who is a man indeed should not set his heart on living
through a few more years of life, nor should he make that the end of
his desire. Rather he should commit the matter to the will of God;
assenting to the maxim which even women use, that 'no man can elude
his destiny,' and studying in addition how he may spend the life that
remains to him for the best."
47. Contemplate the courses of the stars, as one should do that
revolves along with them. Consider also without ceasing the changes of
elements, one into another. Speculations upon such things cleanse away
the filth of this earthly life.
48. It is a good thought of Plato's, that when we discourse of men we
should "look down, as from a high place," on all things earthly; on
herds and armies; on husbandry and marriage; on partings, births, and
deaths; on the tumults of the courts of justice; on the desert places
of the earth; on the varied spectacle of savage nations; on feasting
and lamentation; on traffic; on the medley of all things, and the
order which emerges from their contrariety.
49. Consider the past, and the revolutions of so many Empires; and
thence you may foresee what shall happen hereafter. It will be ever
the same in all things; nor can events leave the rhythm in which they
are now moving. Wherefore it is much the same to view human life for
forty, as for a myriad of years. What more is there to see?
50. To earth returns whatever sprang from earth,
But what's of heavenly seed remounts to heaven.
This imports either the loosing of a knot of atoms, or a similar
dispersion of immutable elements.
51. By meats and drinks, and charms and magic arts
Death's course they would divert, and thus escape.
. . . . . . .
The gale that blows from God we must endure,
Toiling, but not repining.....
52. He is a better wrestler than you, but not more public-spirited,
more modest, or better prepared for the accidents of fate; not more
gentle toward the short-comings of his neighbours.
53. Wherever we can act conformably to the reason which is common to
Gods and men, there we have nothing to dread. Where we can profit by
prosperous activity which proceeds in agreement with the constitution
of our nature, we need suspect no harm.
54. In all places, and at all times you may devoutly accept your
present fortune, and deal in justice with your present company. You
may take pains to understand all arising imaginations, that none may
steal upon you before you comprehend them.
55. Pry not into the souls of others; but rather look straight to the
goal whither nature is leading you; whither the nature of the Universe
by external events, and whither your own nature by the tendency of
your own action. Each being must perform the part for which it was
created. Now all other beings are created for the sake of those among
them which have reason; as all lower things exist for the sake of
things superior to them; and reasoning beings were created for one
another. The leading principle in man's nature, then, is the social
spirit; and the second is victory over the solicitations of the
body. For it is proper to the workings of reason to set bounds to
themselves, and never to be overpowered by the calls of sense or by
the stirrings of passion, both of which are animal in their
nature. The intellect claims to reign over these, and never to be
subjected to them; and rightly, because it is equipped to command and
use all the lower powers. The third element in the constitution of a
reasoning being is caution against rashness and error. Let the soul go
forth straight upon her way in the possession of these principles, and
she stands seized of her full estate.
56. Consider yourself as dead, your life as finished and past. Live
what yet remains according to Nature's laws, as an overplus granted to
you beyond your hope.
57. Love that only which is your hap, which comes upon you as your
part in Fate's great spinning. What, indeed, can fit you better?
58. Upon every accident keep in view those to whom the like has
happened. They stormed at the event, wondered and complained. But now
where are they? They are gone for ever. Why should you act the like
part? Leave these unnatural commotions to fickle men who change and
are changed. Yourself take thought how you may make good use of such
events. Good use for them there is; they will make matter for good
actions. Let it be your sole effort and desire to gain your own
approval in every action; and remember that the material objects of
both that effort and of that desire are things indifferent.
59. Look inward. Within is the fountain of Good. Dig constantly and it
will ever well forth.
60. Keep the body steady, without irregularity, whether in its motions
or in its postures. For, as the soul shews itself in the countenance
by a wise and graceful air, it should require the same expressive
power of the whole body. But all this must be practised without
affectation.
61. The art of Life is more like that of the wrestler than of the
dancer; for the wrestler must always be ready on his guard, and stand
firm against the sudden, unforeseen efforts of his adversary.
62. Consider constantly what manner of men they are whose approbation
you desire, and what may be the character of their souls. Then you
will neither accuse such as err unwillingly, nor need their
commendation when you look into the springs of their opinions and
their desires.
63. "Every soul," says Plato, "parts unwillingly with truth." You may
say the same of justice, temperance, good-nature, and every virtue. It
is most necessary to keep this ever in mind; for, if you do, you will
be more kindly towards all men.
64. In all pain keep in mind that there is no baseness in it, that it
cannot harm the soul which guides you, nor destroy that soul as a
reasoning or as a social force. In most pain you may find help in the
saying of Epicurus, that "pain is neither unbearable nor everlasting,
if you bear in mind its narrow limits, and allow no additions from
your imagination." Remember also that we are fretted, though we see it
not, by many things which are of the same nature as pain, things such
as drowsiness, excessive heat, want of appetite. When any of these
things annoy you, say to yourself that you are giving in to pain.
65. Look to it that you feel not towards the most inhuman of mankind,
as they feel towards their fellows.
66. Whence do we conclude that Telauges had not a brighter genius than
Socrates? 'Tis not enough that Socrates died more gloriously or argued
more acutely with the sophists; or that he kept watch more patiently
through a frosty night; or because, when ordered to arrest the
innocent Salaminian, he judged it more noble to disobey; or because of
any stately airs and graces he assumed in public, in which we may very
justly refuse to believe. But, assuming all this true, when we
consider Socrates, we must ask what manner of soul he had. Could he
find contentment in acting with justice towards men, and with piety
towards the Gods, neither vainly provoked by the vices of others, nor
servilely flattering them in their ignorance; counting nothing strange
that the Ruler of the Universe appointed, not sinking under anything
as intolerable, and never yielding up his soul in surrender to the
passions of the flesh.
67. Nature has not so blended the soul with the body that it cannot
fix its own bounds, and execute its own office by itself. It is very
possible to be a God among men, and yet be recognised by
none. Remember that always, and this as well, that the happiness of
life lies in very few things. And though you despair of becoming great
in Logic or in Science, you need not despair of becoming a free man,
full of modesty and unselfishness, and of obedience unto God.
68. It is in your power to live superior to all violence, and in the
greatest calm of mind, were all men to rail against you as they
pleased; and though wild beasts were to tear asunder the wretched
members of this fleshly mass which has grown with your growth. What is
to hinder the soul amid all this from preserving itself in all
tranquillity, in just judgments about surrounding things, and in ready
use of whatever is cast in its way? Judgment may say to accident:--
"Your real nature is this or that, though you appear otherwise in the
eyes of men." Use may say to circumstance:--"I was looking for
you. To me all that is present is ever matter for rational and social
virtue, in sum, for that art which is proper both to man and God. All
that befalls is fit and familiar for the purposes of God or
man. Nothing is either new or intractable, but everything is well
known and fit to work upon."
69. It is the perfection of morals to spend each day as if it were the
last of life, without excitement, without sloth, and without
hypocrisy.
70. The Gods, who are immortal, are not vexed that in a long eternity
they must ever bear with the wickedness and the multitude of
sinners. Nay, they even lavish on them all manner of loving care. But
you, who are presently to cease from being, can, forsooth, endure no
more, though you are one of the sinners yourself!
71. It is ridiculous that you flee not from the vice that is in
yourself, as you have it in your power to do; but are still striving
to flee from the vice in others, which you can never do.
72. Whatever the rational and social faculty finds fit neither for
rational nor for social ends, it justly ranks as inferior to itself.
73. When you have done a kind action, another has benefited. Why do
you, like the fools, require some third thing in addition--a
reputation for benevolence or a return for it.
74. No man wearies of what brings him gain, and your gain lies in
acting according to nature. Be not weary, therefore, of gaining by the
act which gives others gain.
75. Nature set about making an ordered universe; and now, either all
that is follows a law of necessary consequence and connexion, or we
must admit that there is least rationality in the things which are
most excellent, and which appear to be most special objects for the
impulses of the universal mind. Remembrance of this will give you
calmness on many an occasion.
END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.