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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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i ORIGINS OF STOICISM xxix<br />

universe, first gave the name <strong>of</strong> Cosmos <strong>to</strong> the world,<br />

and ascribing the cosmic order <strong>to</strong> some constraining<br />

power, declared that at the heart <strong>of</strong> things the quickening<br />

soul and seminal origin <strong>of</strong> all being was God, the one,<br />

eternal and unchanging. His doctrine <strong>of</strong> the music <strong>of</strong><br />

the spheres and his conception <strong>of</strong> the soul as a harmony,<br />

<strong>of</strong><br />

seem <strong>to</strong> foreshadow that *<br />

smooth and even flow '<br />

soul in which the S<strong>to</strong>ics found the realisation <strong>of</strong> man's<br />

Inner Self. And behind the coincidences <strong>of</strong> mood and<br />

language, they revered in him 'the holy or august<br />

philosopher,' l who first taught philosophy as an authori-<br />

tative 'way <strong>of</strong> life,' who studying <strong>to</strong> possess his soul in<br />

peace began each day with litanies and chanting <strong>of</strong><br />

ancient hymns, and night and morning prescribed upon<br />

himself and his disciples the rule and exercise <strong>of</strong> self-<br />

examination, 2 <strong>to</strong> tune the soul in<strong>to</strong> accord with life.<br />

The revived Pythagorean brotherhood <strong>of</strong> post-Christian<br />

centuries, adepts bound not so much by tenets <strong>of</strong> a<br />

common creed as by disciplines <strong>of</strong> philosophic life,<br />

cherished the true spirit <strong>of</strong> the master, his rule <strong>of</strong> silence<br />

'<br />

and <strong>of</strong> worship, when they bid us every morning lift<br />

our eyes <strong>to</strong> heaven, <strong>to</strong> meditate upon the heavenly<br />

bodies pursuing their everlasting round their order,<br />

their purity, their nakedness. For no star wears a veil.' 3<br />

1 vi. 47.<br />

2 Cf. ii. i.<br />

3 xi. 27.

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