BOOK SEVEN

  WHAT is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen. And on the

occasion of everything which happens keep this in mind, that it is

that which thou hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find

the same things, with which the old histories are filled, those of the

middle ages and those of our own day; with which cities and houses are

filled now. There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and

short-lived.

  How can our principles become dead, unless the impressions

(thoughts) which correspond to them are extinguished? But it is in thy

power continuously to fan these thoughts into a flame. I can have that

opinion about anything, which I ought to have. If I can, why am I

disturbed? The things which are external to my mind have no relation

at all to my mind.- Let this be the state of thy affects, and thou

standest erect. To recover thy life is in thy power. Look at things

again as thou didst use to look at them; for in this consists the

recovery of thy life.

  The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks of sheep,

herds, exercises with spears, a bone cast to little dogs, a bit of

bread into fish-ponds, labourings of ants and burden-carrying,

runnings about of frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings-

all alike. It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show

good humour and not a proud air; to understand however that every man

is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies

himself.

  In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and in every movement

thou must observe what is doing. And in the one thou shouldst see

immediately to what end it refers, but in the other watch carefully

what is the thing signified.

  Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? If it is sufficient,

I use it for the work as an instrument given by the universal

nature. But if it is not sufficient, then either I retire from the

work and give way to him who is able to do it better, unless there

be some reason why I ought not to do so; or I do it as well as I

can, taking to help me the man who with the aid of my ruling principle

can do what is now fit and useful for the general good. For whatsoever

either by myself or with another I can do, ought to be directed to

this only, to that which is useful and well suited to society.

  How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to

oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have

long been dead.

  Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty

like a soldier in the assault on a town. How then, if being lame

thou canst not mount up on the battlements alone, but with the help of

another it is possible?

  Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if

it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou

usest for present things.

  All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy;

and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing. For

things have been co-ordinated, and they combine to form the same

universe (order). For there is one universe made up of all things, and

one God who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, one

common reason in all intelligent animals, and one truth; if indeed

there is also one perfection for all animals which are of the same

stock and participate in the same reason.

  Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole;

and everything formal (causal) is very soon taken back into the

universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon

overwhelmed in time.

  To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and

according to reason.

  Be thou erect, or be made erect.

  Just as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in

one, so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have

been constituted for one co-operation. And the perception of this will

be more apparent to thee, if thou often sayest to thyself that I am

a member (melos) of the system of rational beings. But if (using the

letter r) thou sayest that thou art a part (meros) thou dost not yet

love men from thy heart; beneficence does not yet delight thee for its

own sake; thou still doest it barely as a thing of propriety, and

not yet as doing good to thyself.

  Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel

the effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will

complain, if they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened

is an evil, am not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.

  Whatever any one does or says, I must be good, just as if the

gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this,

Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.

  The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I mean, does not

frighten itself or cause itself pain. But if any one else can frighten

or pain it, let him do so. For the faculty itself will not by its

own opinion turn itself into such ways. Let the body itself take care,

if it can, that is suffer nothing, and let it speak, if it suffers.

But the soul itself, that which is subject to fear, to pain, which has

completely the power of forming an opinion about these things, will

suffer nothing, for it will never deviate into such a judgement. The

leading principle in itself wants nothing, unless it makes a want

for itself; and therefore it is both free from perturbation and

unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede itself.

  Eudaemonia (happiness) is a good daemon, or a good thing. What

then art thou doing here, O imagination? Go away, I entreat thee by

the gods, as thou didst come, for I want thee not. But thou art come

according to thy old fashion. I am not angry with thee: only go away.

  Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?

What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?

And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? And

canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can

anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou

not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same, and

equally necessary for the universal nature?

  Through the universal substance as through a furious torrent all

bodies are carried, being by their nature united with and

cooperating with the whole, as the parts of our body with one another.

How many a Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how many an Epictetus

has time already swallowed up? And let the same thought occur to

thee with reference to every man and thing.

  One thing only troubles me, lest I should do something which the

constitution of man does not allow, or in the way which it does not

allow, or what it does not allow now.

  Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the

forgetfulness of thee by all.

  It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong. And this

happens, if when they do wrong it occurs to thee that they are

kinsmen, and that they do wrong through ignorance and unintentionally,

and that soon both of you will die; and above all, that the wrong-doer

has done thee no harm, for he has not made thy ruling faculty worse

than it was before.

  The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were

wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the

material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each

of these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no

hardship for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its

being fastened together.

  A scowling look is altogether unnatural; when it is often assumed,

the result is that all comeliness dies away, and at last is so

completely extinguished that it cannot be again lighted up at all. Try

to conclude from this very fact that it is contrary to reason. For

if even the perception of doing wrong shall depart, what reason is

there for living any longer?

  Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things which

thou seest, and out of their substance will make other things, and

again other things from the substance of them, in order that the world

may be ever new.

  When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what

opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast

seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry.

For either thou thyself thinkest the same thing to be good that he

does or another thing of the same kind. It is thy duty then to

pardon him. But if thou dost not think such things to be good or evil,

thou wilt more readily be well disposed to him who is in error.

  Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of

the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how

eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the

same time however take care that thou dost not through being so

pleased with them accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be

disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.

  Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this

nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just,

and so secures tranquility.

  Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine

thyself to the present. Understand well what happens either to thee or

to another. Divide and distribute every object into the causal

(formal) and the material. Think of thy last hour. Let the wrong which

is done by a man stay there where the wrong was done.

  Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter

into the things that are doing and the things which do them.

  Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty and with indifference

towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind.

Follow God. The poet says that Law rules all.- And it is enough to

remember that Law rules all.

  About death: Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms,

or annihilation, it is either extinction or change.

  About pain: The pain which is intolerable carries us off; but that

which lasts a long time is tolerable; and the mind maintains its own

tranquility by retiring into itself, and the ruling faculty is not

made worse. But the parts which are harmed by pain, let them, if

they can, give their opinion about it.

  About fame: Look at the minds of those who seek fame, observe what

they are, and what kind of things they avoid, and what kind of

things they pursue. And consider that as the heaps of sand piled on

one another hide the former sands, so in life the events which go

before are soon covered by those which come after.

  From Plato: The man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all

time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to

think that human life is anything great? it is not possible, he said.-

Such a man then will think that death also is no evil.- Certainly not.

  From Antisthenes: It is royal to do good and to be abused.

  It is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to

regulate and compose itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not

to be regulated and composed by itself.

  It is not right to vex ourselves at things,

  For they care nought about it.

  To the immortal gods and us give joy.

  Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn:

  One man is born; another dies.

  If gods care not for me and for my children,

  There is a reason for it.

  For the good is with me, and the just.

  No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion.

  From Plato: But I would make this man a sufficient answer, which

is this: Thou sayest not well, if thou thinkest that a man who is good

for anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death,

and should not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether

he is doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a bad

man.

  For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed

himself thinking it the best place for him, or has been placed by a

commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the

hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything

else, before the baseness of deserting his post.

  But, my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good is

not something different from saving and being saved; for as to a man

living such or such a time, at least one who is really a man, consider

if this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts: and there

must be no love of life: but as to these matters a man must intrust

them to the deity and believe what the women say, that no man can

escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the

time that he has to live.

  Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going

along with them; and constantly consider the changes of the elements

into one another; for such thoughts purge away the filth of the

terrene life.

  This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men

should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some

higher place; should look at them in their assemblies, armies,

agricultural labours, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of

the courts of justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians,

feasts, lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things and an

orderly combination of contraries.

  Consider the past; such great changes of political supremacies. Thou

mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will

certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should

deviate from the order of the things which take place now: accordingly

to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have

contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?

  That which has grown from the earth to the earth,

  But that which has sprung from heavenly seed,

  Back to the heavenly realms returns.

This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or

a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.

  With food and drinks and cunning magic arts

  Turning the channel's course to 'scape from death.

    The breeze which heaven has sent

  We must endure, and toil without complaining.

  Another may be more expert in casting his opponent; but he is not

more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all

that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his

neighbours.

  Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common

to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear: for where we are

able to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and

proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm is to be

suspected.

  Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to

acquiesce in th