it is true that these may impede my action, but they are no impediments
to my affects and disposition, which have the power of acting conditionally
and changing: for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to
its activity into an aid; and so that which is a hindrance is made
a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road
helps us on this road.
Reverence that which is best in the universe; and this is that which
makes use of all things and directs all things. And in like manner
also reverence that which is best in thyself; and this is of the same
kind as that. For in thyself also, that which makes use of everything
else, is this, and thy life is directed by this.
That which does no harm to the state, does no harm to the citizen.
In the case of every appearance of harm apply this rule: if the state
is not harmed by this, neither am I harmed. But if the state is harmed,
thou must not be angry with him who does harm to the state. Show him
where his error is.
Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear,
both the things which are and the things which are produced. For substance
is like a river in a continual flow, and the activities of things
are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite varieties;
and there is hardly anything which stands still. And consider this
which is near to thee, this boundless abyss of the past and of the
future in which all things disappear. How then is he not a fool who
is puffed up with such things or plagued about them and makes himself
miserable? for they vex him only for a time, and a short time.
Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small
portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval
has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny,
and how small a part of it thou art.
Does another do me wrong? Let him look to it. He has his own disposition,
his own activity. I now have what the universal nature wills me to
have; and I do what my nature now wills me to do.
Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by
the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let
it not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those
affects to their parts. But when these affects rise up to the mind
by virtue of that other sympathy that naturally exists in a body which
is all one, then thou must not strive to resist the sensation, for
it is natural: but let not the ruling part of itself add to the sensation
the opinion that it is either good or bad.
Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly
shows to them, his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned
to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus hath
given to every man for his guardian and guide, a portion of himself.
And this is every man's understanding and reason.
Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him
whose mouth smells foul? What good will this danger do thee? He has
such a mouth, he has such arm-pits: it is necessary that such an emanation
must come from such things- but the man has reason, it will be said,
and he is able, if he takes pain, to discover wherein he offends-
I wish thee well of thy discovery. Well then, and thou hast reason:
by thy rational faculty stir up his rational faculty; show him his
error, admonish him. For if he listens, thou wilt cure him, and there
is no need of anger. Neither tragic actor nor whore...
As thou intendest to live when thou art gone out,...so it is in thy
power to live here. But if men do not permit thee, then get away out
of life, yet so as if thou wert suffering no harm. The house is smoky,
and I quit it. Why dost thou think that this is any trouble? But so
long as nothing of the kind drives me out, I remain, am free, and
no man shall hinder me from doing what I choose; and I choose to do
what is according to the nature of the rational and social animal.
The intelligence of the universe is social. Accordingly it has made
the inferior things for the sake of the superior, and it has fitted
the superior to one another. Thou seest how it has subordinated, co-ordinated
and assigned to everything its proper portion, and has brought together
into concord with one another the things which are the best.
How hast thou behaved hitherto to the gods, thy parents, brethren,
children, teachers, to those who looked after thy infancy, to thy
friends, kinsfolk, to thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved
to all in such a way that this may be said of thee:
Never has wronged a man in deed or word. And call to recollection
both how many things thou hast passed through, and how many things
thou hast been able to endure: and that the history of thy life is
now complete and thy service is ended: and how many beautiful things
thou hast seen: and how many pleasures and pains thou hast despised;
and how many things called honourable thou hast spurned; and to how
many ill-minded folks thou hast shown a kind disposition.
Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and
knowledge? What soul then has skill and knowledge? That which knows
beginning and end, and knows the reason which pervades all substance
and through all time by fixed periods (revolutions) administers the
universe.
Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name
or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things which
are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and like
little dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling, laughing,
and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and justice
and truth are fled
Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth. What then is there which
still detains thee here? If the objects of sense are easily changed
and never stand still, and the organs of perception are dull and easily
receive false impressions; and the poor soul itself is an exhalation
from blood. But to have good repute amidst such a world as this is
an empty thing. Why then dost thou not wait in tranquility for thy
end, whether it is extinction or removal to another state? And until
that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate
the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to practise tolerance
and self-restraint; but as to everything which is beyond the limits
of the poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is neither thine
nor in thy power.
Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow of happiness, if thou
canst go by the right way, and think and act in the right way. These
two things are common both to the soul of God and to the soul of man,
and to the soul of every rational being, not to be hindered by another;
and to hold good to consist in the disposition to justice and the
practice of it, and in this to let thy desire find its termination.
If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness,
and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it? And
what is the harm to the common weal?
Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of things,
but give help to all according to thy ability and their fitness; and
if they should have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent,
do not imagine this to be a damage. For it is a bad habit. But as
the old man, when he went away, asked back his foster-child's top,
remembering that it was a top, so do thou in this case also.
When thou art calling out on the Rostra, hast thou forgotten, man,
what these things are?- Yes; but they are objects of great concern
to these people- wilt thou too then be made a fool for these things?-
I was once a fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how.- But fortunate
means that a man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good
fortune is good disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.
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BOOK SIX
The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the
reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for
it has no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything
harmed by it. But all things are made and perfected according to this
reason.
Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold or warm, if
thou art doing thy duty; and whether thou art drowsy or satisfied
with sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying
or doing something else. For it is one of the acts of life, this act
by which we die: it is sufficient then in this act also to do well
what we have in hand.
Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its
value escape thee.
All existing things soon change, and they will either be reduced to
vapour, if indeed all substance is one, or they will be dispersed.
The reason which governs knows what its own disposition is, and what
it does, and on what material it works.
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.
Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social
act to another social act, thinking of God.
The ruling principle is that which rouses and turns itself, and while
it makes itself such as it is and such as it wills to be, it also
makes everything which happens appear to itself to be such as it wills.
In conformity to the nature of the universe every single thing is
accomplished, for certainly it is not in conformity to any other nature
that each thing is accomplished, either a nature which externally
comprehends this, or a nature which is comprehended within this nature,
or a nature external and independent of this.
The universe is either a confusion, and a mutual involution of things,
and a dispersion; or it is unity and order and providence. If then
it is the former, why do I desire to tarry in a fortuitous combination
of things and such a disorder? And why do I care about anything else
than how I shall at last become earth? And why am I disturbed, for
the dispersion of my elements will happen whatever I do. But if the
other supposition is true, I venerate, and I am firm, and I trust
in him who governs.
When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in
a manner, quickly return to thyself and do not continue out of tune
longer than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery
over the harmony by continually recurring to it.
If thou hadst a step-mother and a mother at the same time, thou wouldst
be dutiful to thy step-mother, but still thou wouldst constantly return
to thy mother. Let the court and philosophy now be to thee step-mother
and mother: return to philosophy frequently and repose in her, through
whom what thou meetest with in the court appears to thee tolerable,
and thou appearest tolerable in the court.
When we have meat before us and such eatables we receive the impression,
that this is the dead body of a fish, and this is the dead body of
a bird or of a pig; and again, that this Falernian is only a little
grape juice, and this purple robe some sheep's wool dyed with the
blood of a shell-fish: such then are these impressions, and they reach
the things themselves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind
of things they are. Just in the same way ought we to act all through
life, and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approbation,
we ought to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip
them of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show
is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when thou art most sure
that thou art employed about things worth thy pains, it is then that
it cheats thee most. Consider then what Crates says of Xenocrates
himself.
Most of the things which the multitude admire are referred to objects
of the most general kind, those which are held together by cohesion
or natural organization, such as stones, wood, fig-trees, vines, olives.
But those which are admired by men who are a little more reasonable
are referred to the things which are held together by a living principle,
as flocks, herds. Those which are admired by men who are still more
instructed are the things which are held together by a rational soul,
not however a universal soul, but rational so far as it is a soul
skilled in some art, or expert in some other way, or simply rational
so far as it possesses a number of slaves. But he who values rational
soul, a soul universal and fitted for political life, regards nothing
else except this; and above all things he keeps his soul in a condition
and in an activity conformable to reason and social life, and he co-operates
to this end with those who are of the same kind as himself.
Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out
of it; and of that which is coming into existence part is already
extinguished. Motions and changes are continually renewing the world,
just as the uninterrupted course of time is always renewing the infinite
duration of ages. In this flowing stream then, on which there is no
abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man
would set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in
love with one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed
out of sight. Something of this kind is the very life of every man,
like the exhalation of the blood and the respiration of the air. For
such as it is to have once drawn in the air and to have given it back,
which we do every moment, just the same is it with the whole respiratory
power, which thou didst receive at thy birth yesterday and the day
before, to give it back to the element from which thou didst first
draw it.
Neither is transpiration, as in plants, a thing to be valued, nor
respiration, as in domesticated animals and wild beasts, nor the receiving
of impressions by the appearances of things, nor being moved by desires
