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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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134 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK<br />

<strong>to</strong> commend yourself <strong>to</strong> their good opinion.<br />

Yet<br />

kindliness remains a duty ; love is nature's claim.<br />

And see ! the gods aid them in all manner <strong>of</strong><br />

ways, by dream and by oracle, yes even <strong>to</strong> gain<br />

the ends, on which they are bent.<br />

28 Up and down, <strong>to</strong> and fro, moves the world's<br />

round, from age <strong>to</strong> age. Either the World-mind im-<br />

parts each individual impulse<br />

in which case, accept<br />

the impulse it imparts : or else it gave the impulse<br />

once for all, with all its long entail <strong>of</strong> conse-<br />

quence. It comes <strong>to</strong> this either a concourse <strong>of</strong><br />

a<strong>to</strong>ms, or an appointment <strong>of</strong> destiny. 1<br />

In fine,<br />

either god works, and all is well ; or, if all<br />

is random, be not you <strong>to</strong>o a part <strong>of</strong> the<br />

random.<br />

Anon earth will cover us all ; then earth in its<br />

turn will change ;<br />

then the resultant <strong>of</strong> the change ;<br />

then the resultant <strong>of</strong> the resultant, and so ad<br />

infinitum. The billows <strong>of</strong> change and variation<br />

roll apace, and he who ponders them will feel<br />

29 contempt for all things<br />

mortal. The universal<br />

cause is like a winter <strong>to</strong>rrent ; it sweeps all<br />

before it.<br />

How cheap in sooth are these pygmies <strong>of</strong><br />

1 The res<strong>to</strong>ration is conjectural.

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