Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

30 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
component elements into which it can be analysed.
Nothing so emancipates the mind, as the power of
systematically and truthfully testing everything
that affects our life, and looking into them in such
a way as to infer the kind of order to which each
belongs, the special use which it subserves, its
relation and value to the universe, and in particular
to man as a citizen and member of that supreme
world-city,
of which all other cities form as it
were households. What is the object, ask, which
now produces the given impression upon me? of
what is it compounded ? how long has it to last ?
on what virtue does it make demand ? gentleness,
courage, truth, good faith, simplicity, self-help, or
what ? In each case say, This comes from god ;
or, This is part of the co-ordination, the concaten-
ating web, the concurrence of destiny : or, This is
from one who is of the same stock and kind and
fellowship as I, but who is ignorant of his true
relation to nature ; I am not ignorant, and there-
fore in accordance with nature's law of fellowship
I treat him kindly and justly ; though at the same
time in things relative I strive to hit their proper
worth.
12 If you put to use the present, earnestly, vigor-