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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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36 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

yourself borne part. The world is a process <strong>of</strong><br />

variation ; life a process <strong>of</strong> views.<br />

If the mind-element is common <strong>to</strong> us all, so<br />

likewise is that reason which makes us rational ;<br />

and therefore <strong>to</strong>o that reason, which bids us do or<br />

leave undone ; and therefore the world-law ; there-<br />

fore we are fellow-citizens, and share a common<br />

citizenship ; and the world is as it were a city.<br />

What other citizenship is common <strong>to</strong> the whole<br />

<strong>of</strong> humankind ? From thence, even from this<br />

common citizenship, comes our franchise mind,<br />

reason, and law. If not, whence indeed ? For<br />

just as the earthly element in me is derived from<br />

earth, the watery from another element, breath<br />

from a given source, and again the hot and igneous<br />

from its own proper source for nothing comes from<br />

nothing, or can pass in<strong>to</strong> nothing so assuredly<br />

the mind-element has likewise its own origin.<br />

Death, like birth, is a revelation <strong>of</strong> nature ; a<br />

composition <strong>of</strong> elements and answering dissolution.<br />

There is nothing in it <strong>to</strong> cause us shame. It is<br />

in consonance with the nature <strong>of</strong> a being possessed<br />

<strong>of</strong> mind, and does not contradict the reason <strong>of</strong> its<br />

constitution.<br />

That from such and such causes given effects

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