Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

vni TO HIMSELF 115
satisfied ; and that, no man can hinder.
outer obstacle,' you say, '
will interfere.'
' Some
'
Nay,
but nothing can touch the justice, wisdom, reason-
ableness of the intention.'
form of action be prevented ?
*
But may
' '
Possibly ;
not some
but by
welcoming that prevention, and with a good grace
adopting the alternative, you
at once substitute
a course that will fit into its place in the whole
we have in view.'
Modestly take, cheerfully resign.
33
Have you ever seen a dismembered hand, or 34
foot, or decapitated head, lying severed from the
body to which it belonged ? Such does a man,
so far as he can, make himself, when he refuses to
accept what befalls, and isolates himself, or when
he pursues self-seeking action. You are cast out
from the unity of nature, of which you are an
organic part ; you dismember your own self. But
here is this beautiful provision, that it is in your
power to re-enter the unity.
No other part of the
whole doth god privilege, when once severed and
dismembered, to reunite. But consider the goodness
of god, with which he has honoured man : he
has put it in his power never to be sundered at all
from the whole ; and if sundered, then to rejoin