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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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cviii INTRODUCTION SECT.<br />

transi<strong>to</strong>ry, but in the latter even life as it is loses all<br />

moral meaning and motive. 1 But besides the inadmis-<br />

sible alternatives there remain hypotheses between which<br />

<strong>Marcus</strong> feels it unimportant <strong>to</strong> decide. Death may<br />

mean final extinction 2 <strong>of</strong> the Pneuma a conclusion<br />

which Cicero imputes <strong>to</strong> another Roman S<strong>to</strong>ic, Cornutus,<br />

and <strong>to</strong> which <strong>Marcus</strong> feels at least no ethical objection.<br />

But in assuming the destruction instead <strong>of</strong> the reabsorp-<br />

tion <strong>of</strong> the life-giving spirit, it does from the physical<br />

side sap the S<strong>to</strong>ic dogma, which regards the sum <strong>of</strong><br />

Pneuma as constant and eternal; and in all serious<br />

discussion 3 <strong>of</strong> the subject<br />

<strong>Marcus</strong> adheres <strong>to</strong> the<br />

orthodox tenet <strong>of</strong> reabsorption. At the death <strong>of</strong> the<br />

body the soul undergoes change <strong>of</strong> place and phase,*<br />

and returns <strong>to</strong> something approaching its pre-incarnate<br />

\condition. Some S<strong>to</strong>ics placed such disembodied souls<br />

'in the upper regions,'<br />

or 'in the sub-lunar '<br />

stellar' sphere. And these speculations<br />

or 'the<br />

are in the<br />

'<br />

writer's mind when he speaks <strong>of</strong> souls passing in<strong>to</strong> the<br />

air,' 5 the upper or rarer air that is <strong>to</strong> say,<br />

'<br />

fiery ether '<br />

akin <strong>to</strong> the<br />

<strong>of</strong> which soul is constituted. There,<br />

peradventure by progressive assimilation, analogous <strong>to</strong><br />

the gradual decomposition <strong>of</strong> the mortal body, it is<br />

eventually<br />

reabsorbed or reassumed in<strong>to</strong> the seminal<br />

principles <strong>of</strong> life, 6 out <strong>of</strong> which it originally sprang,<br />

1 vi. 10.<br />

2

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