Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

74 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
every art is right adaptation of the product to the
end for which it is produced ; the gardener who
tends the vine, the horse-breaker, the dog-trainer,
all seek this end ; all forms of training and teach-
ing make for some object ; there lies the true end
of worth : secure that, and you need lay
claim to
nothing else. Give up prizing a multitude of other
things, or you will never be free, self-sufficing,
passionless. Inevitably you will envy, grudge,
and look askance at those who can rob you of
your prize, and plot against
those who have what
you yourself covet : the sense of something lacking
makes discord within, and leads on to constant
complaining against the gods. To respect and
honour your own understanding alone will put you
at satisfaction with yourself, in harmony with all
things social, and in accord with the gods, well
pleased that is to say with their dispensation and
world-ordering.
17 Upwards, downwards, round and round, course
the elements. But the motion of virtue is none
of these ; of some diviner mould, it pursues the
even tenor of courses unimagined.
To contemporaries
18 What a thing is man !
living at their side they will not give a good word,