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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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BOOK xi MARCUS ANTONINUS 161<br />

our fathers had no fuller vision, neither will our<br />

children behold any new thing, but that the man<br />

<strong>of</strong> any understanding who has come <strong>to</strong> two-score<br />

years has in effect beheld all the uniform past and<br />

the uniform <strong>to</strong> come. And yet another property <strong>of</strong><br />

rational soul is love <strong>of</strong> neighbours, truth, self-respect,<br />

and that supreme self-reverence which is likewise<br />

an attribute <strong>of</strong> Law. And this implies that the<br />

law <strong>of</strong> Reason is coincident with the law <strong>of</strong> justice.<br />

You will be disenchanted <strong>of</strong> the delights <strong>of</strong> 2<br />

song and dance and the pancratium, if once you<br />

decompose the melody in<strong>to</strong> its constituent notes,<br />

and ask yourself one by one, '<br />

own ? '<br />

Is this the spell I<br />

You will turn from each in disgust. Or<br />

analyse dancing in the same way in<strong>to</strong> successions<br />

<strong>of</strong> motion and rest ; or do the same with the<br />

pancratium. In short, setting aside virtue and<br />

virtuous acts, you have but <strong>to</strong> press analysis <strong>to</strong><br />

the component parts and you<br />

Apply the process <strong>to</strong> life <strong>to</strong>o as a whole.<br />

are disenchanted.<br />

O for the soul ready, when the hour <strong>of</strong> dis- 3<br />

solution comes, for extinction or dispersion or<br />

survival !<br />

l<br />

But such readiness must proceed from<br />

inward conviction, not come <strong>of</strong> mere perversity,<br />

1<br />

Compare iv. 21, p. 40.<br />

M

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