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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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ii8 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

Sensation must see <strong>to</strong> that. Has impulse or<br />

endeavour suffered some check ? Well,<br />

without reservation, you<br />

if it was<br />

therein did reason a<br />

wrong ; accept the universal limitation, and forth-<br />

with the injury or contravention vanishes. But<br />

the freehold <strong>of</strong> the mind none other may con-<br />

travene ; fire cannot <strong>to</strong>uch it, nor steel, nor tyrant,<br />

nor slander, nor any other thing ; so long as it<br />

abides " poised as a sphere self-orbed."<br />

42 What right have I <strong>to</strong> vex myself, when I never<br />

yet wilfully vexed another ?<br />

43 To every man his own good cheer. Be mine<br />

- health in the Inner Self; estranged from no<br />

man, and from no vicissitude <strong>of</strong> men,<br />

let me look<br />

on everything and accept everything with charitable<br />

eye, and use each according <strong>to</strong> its worth.<br />

44 Harvest the present. Those who prefer pursuit<br />

<strong>of</strong> after-fame do not reflect that posterity will be<br />

men just like those who gall them now ; and that<br />

they <strong>to</strong>o will be but mortal. And after all what<br />

matters <strong>to</strong> you the rattle <strong>of</strong> their voices, or the<br />

kind <strong>of</strong> views they entertain about you ?<br />

45 Take me and cast me where you will. There<br />

I shall still have my deity within serene, content<br />

so long as it can feel and act after the ordering <strong>of</strong>

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