Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the
busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious,
unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their
ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the
nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it
is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin
to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it
participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of
the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no
one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my
kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like
feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and
lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to
nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to
turn away.
Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and
the ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract
thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying,
despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and a network, a
contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See the breath also,
what kind of a thing it is, air, and not always the same, but
every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third then is the
ruling part: consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let
this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a
puppet to unsocial movements, no longer either be dissatisfied
with thy present lot, or shrink from the future.
All that is from the gods is full of Providence. That which is
from fortune is not separated from nature or without an
interweaving and involution with the things which are ordered by
Providence. From thence all things flow; and there is besides
necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole
universe, of which thou art a part. But that is good for every
part of nature which the nature of the whole brings, and what
serves to maintain this nature. Now the universe is preserved,
as by the changes of the elements so by the changes of things
compounded of the elements. Let these principles be enough for
thee, let them always be fixed opinions. But cast away the
thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmuring, but
cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods. |
