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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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56 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

nise it, in such phrases as '<br />

So it came <strong>to</strong> pass for<br />

him.' So and so then* was brought <strong>to</strong> pass, was<br />

'<br />

ordered '<br />

for the man. Let us accept such<br />

orders, as we do the orders <strong>of</strong> our ^Esculapius.<br />

They are rough <strong>of</strong>tentimes, yet we welcome them<br />

in hope <strong>of</strong> health. Try<br />

<strong>to</strong> think <strong>of</strong> the execution<br />

and consummation <strong>of</strong> Nature's good pleasure as<br />

you do <strong>of</strong> bodily good health. Welcome all that<br />

comes, perverse though it may seem,<br />

for it leads<br />

you <strong>to</strong> the goal, the health <strong>of</strong> the world-order,<br />

the welfare and well-being <strong>of</strong> Zeus. He would not<br />

bring this on the individual, were it not for the<br />

good <strong>of</strong> the whole. Each change and chance<br />

that nature brings, is in correspondence with that<br />

which exists by her disposal. On two grounds<br />

then you should accept with acquiescence what-<br />

ever befalls first, because it happened <strong>to</strong> you,<br />

was ordered for you, affected you, as part<br />

<strong>of</strong> the web issuing from the primal causation ;<br />

secondly, because that which comes upon the<br />

individual contributes <strong>to</strong> the welfare, the con-<br />

summation, yea and the survival, <strong>of</strong> the power<br />

which disposes all things. As with the parts, so<br />

is it with the causes ; you cannot sever any<br />

fragment <strong>of</strong> the connected unity, without mutilat-

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