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Chapter seven of Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This is a LibriVox recording. All

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LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,

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please visit LibriVox dot org. The
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,

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translated by George Long, Chapter seven. What is badness? It is

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that which thou hast often seen,
and on the occasion of everything which happens,

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Keep this in mind, that it
is that which thou hast often seen.

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Everywhere, up and down thou wilt
find the same things with which the

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old histories are filled, those of
the Middle Ages, and those of our

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own day with which cities and houses
are filled. Now there is nothing new.

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All things are both familiar and short
lived. Two. How can our

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principles become dead unless the impressions thoughts
which correspond to them are extinguished. But

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it is in thy power continuously to
fan these thoughts into a flame. I

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can have that opinion about anything which
I ought to have. If I can,

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why am I disturbed? The things
which are external to my mind have

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no relation at all to my mind. Let this be the state of thy

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effects. And thou standest erect to
recover thy life is in thy power look

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at things again as thou didst use
to look at them, For in this

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consists the recovery of thy life.
Three. The idle business of show plays

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on the stage, flocks of sheep, herds, exercises with spears, a

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bone to cast to little dogs,
a bit of bread into fish ponds,

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laborings of ants, and burden,
carrying, runnings about of frightened little mice,

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puppets pulled by strings, all alike. It is thy duty, then,

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in the midst of such things,
to show good humor, and not

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a proud air. To understand,
however, that every man is worth just

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so much as the things are worth
about which he busies himself. Four.

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In discourse, thou must attend to
what is said, and in every movement

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thou must observe what is doing.
And in the one thou shouldst see immediately

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to what end it refers. But
in the other, watch carefully what is

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the thing signified? Five? Is
my understanding sufficient for this or not?

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If it is sufficient, I use
it for the work as an instrument given

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by the universal nature. But if
it is not sufficient, then either I

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retire from the work, and give
way to him who is able to do

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it better, unless there be some
reason why I ought not to do so,

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or I do it as well as
I can, taking to help me

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the man who, with the aid
of my ruling principle can do what is

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now fit and useful for the general
good. For whatsoever, either by myself

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or with another, I can do, ought to be directed to this only

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to that which is useful and well
suited to society. Six. How many,

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after being celebrated by fame, have
been given up to oblivion, And

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how many who have celebrated the fame
of others have long been dead. Seven.

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Be not ashamed to be helped,
For it is thy business to do

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thy duty, like a soldier in
the assault on a town. How then,

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if being lame, thou canst not
mount up on the battlements alone,

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but with the help of another,
it is possible. Eight. Let not

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future things disturb THEE, for thou
wilt come to them, if it shall

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be necessary, having with THEE the
same reason which now thou usest for present

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things. Nine. All things are
implicated with one another, and the bond

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is holy, and there is hardly
anything unconnected with any other thing, for

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things have been coordinated, and they
combine to form the same universe order.

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For there is one universe made up
of all things, and one God who

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pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, one common reason

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in all intelligent animals, and one
truth. If indeed there is also one

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perfection for all animals which are of
the same stock and participate in the same

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reason. Ten, Everything material soon
disappears in the substance of the whole,

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and everything formal causal is very soon
taken back into the universal reason, and

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the memory of everything is very soon
overwhelmed in time. Eleven to the rational

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animal, the same act is according
to nature and according to reason. Twelve,

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be thou erect, or be made
erect. Thirteen. Just as it

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is with the members in those bodies
which are united in one, so it

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is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have been constituted for one

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co operation. And the perception of
this will be more apparent to thee if

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thou often sayest to thyself that I
am a member of the system of rational

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beings. But if thou sayest that
thou art a part, thou dost not

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yet love men from thy heart.
Beneficence does not yet delight thee. For

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its own sake, Thou still doest
it barely as a thing of propriety,

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and not yet as doing good to
thyself. Fourteen. Let there fall externally

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what will on the parts which can
feel the effects of this fall. For

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those parts which have felt, will
complain if they choose. But I,

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unless I think that what has happened
is an evil, am not injured.

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And it is in my power not
to think so. Fifteen. Whatever any

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one does or says, I must
be good, just as if the gold,

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or the emerald or the purple were
always saying this. Whatever any one

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does or says, I must be
emerald and keep my color. Sixteen.

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The ruling faculty does not disturb itself, I mean, does not frighten itself

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or cause itself pain. But if
any one else can frighten or pain it,

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let him do so. For the
faculty itself will not by its own

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opinion and turn into such ways.
Let the body itself take care if it

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can, let it suffer nothing,
and let it speak if it suffers.

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But the soul itself, that which
is subject to fear, to pain,

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which has completely the power of forming
in an opinion about these things will suffer

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nothing, for it will never deviate
into such a judgment. The leading principle

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in itself wants nothing unless it makes
a want for itself, and therefore it

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is both free from perturbation and unimpeded
if it does not disturb and impede itself.

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Seventeen You dnemonia, happiness is a
good demon or a good thing.

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What then art thou doing here?
O imagination? Go away? I entreat

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THEE by the gods as thou didst
come, For I want THEE not,

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but thou art come according to thee
thy old fashion. I am not angry

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with thee, only go away?
Eighteen is any man afraid of change?

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Why? What can take place without
change? What then, is more pleasing

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or more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath unless

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the wood undergoes a change? And
canst thou be nourished unless the food undergoes

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a change? And can anything else
that is useful be accomplished without change?

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Dost thou not see then that for
thyself also to change is just the same

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and equally necessary for the universal nature. Nineteen Through the universal substance as through

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a furious torrent. All bodies are
carried, being by their nature united with

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and cooperating with the whole, as
the parts of our body with one another.

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How many a Chrysippus, how many
a Socrates? How many an Epictectus?

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Has time already swallowed up? And
let the same thought occur to THEE

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with reference to every man and thing. Twenty one. Thing only troubles me

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lest I should do something which the
constitution of man does not allow, or

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in the way which it does not
allow, or what it does not allow.

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Now twenty one, near is thy
forgetfulness of all things, and near

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the forgetfulness of THEE by all twenty
two it is peculiar to man to love

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even those who do wrong. And
this happens if when they do wrong,

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it occurs to THEE that they are
kinsmen, and that they do wrong through

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ignorance and unintentionally, and that soon
both of you will die, And above

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all that the wrong doer has done
THEE no harm, for he has not

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made thy ruling faculty worse than it
was before. Twenty three. The universal

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nature out of the universal substance,
as if it were wax. Now molds

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a horse, and when it has
broken this up, it uses the material

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for a tree, then for a
man, then for something else, And

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each of these things subsists for a
very short time. But it is no

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hardship for the vessel to be broken
up, just as there was none in

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its being fastened together. Twenty four
A scowling look is altogether unnatural when it

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is often assumed the result is that
all comeliness dies away, and at last

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is so completely extinguished that it cannot
be again lighted up at all. Try

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to conclude from this very fact that
it is contrary to reason. For if

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even the perception of doing wrong shall
depart, what reason is therefore living any

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longer? Twenty five Nature, which
governs the whole, will soon change all

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things which thou seest, and thou, of their substance will make other things,

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and again other things from the substance
of them, in order that the

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world may ever be new. Twenty
six. When a man has done thee

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any wrong, immediately consider with what
opinion about good or evil he has done

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wrong. For when thou hast seen
this, thou wilt pity him, and

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wilt neither wonder nor be angry.
For either thou thyself thinkest the same thing

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to be good that he does,
or another thing of the same kind,

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it is thy duty than to pardon
him. But if thou dost not think

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such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more readily be well disposed

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to him who is in error.
Twenty seven. Think not so much of

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what thou hast, not as of
what thou hast, but of the things

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which thou hast select the best,
and then reflect how eagerly they would have

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been sought if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however,

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take care that thou dost not,
through being so pleased with them, accustom

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thyself to overvalue them so as to
be disturbed, if ever, thou shouldst

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not have them. Twenty eight.
Retire into thyself. The rational principle which

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rules has this nature that it is
content with itself when it does what is

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just, and so secures tranquility.
Twenty nine. Wipe out the imagination,

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stop the pulling of the strings,
confine thyself to the present. Understand well

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what happens either to thee or to
another. Divide and distribute every object into

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the causal, formal and the material. Think of thy last hour. Let

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the wrong which is done by a
man stay there where the wrong was done.

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Thirty Direct thy attention to what is
said. Let thy understanding enter into

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the things that are doing and the
things which do them. Thirty one adorn

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thyself with simplicity and modesty, and
with indifference towards the things which lie between

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virtue and vice. Love, mankind, follow God. The poet says that

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law rules all, and it is
enough to remember that law rules all.

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Thirty two about death, whether it
is a dispersion or a resolution into atoms

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or annihilation, it is I their
extinction or change. Thirty three About pain.

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The pain which is intolerable carries us
off, But that which lasts a

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long time is tolerable. And the
mind maintains its own tranquility by retiring into

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itself, and the ruling faculty is
not made worse. But the parts which

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are harmed by pain, let them, if they can give their opinion about

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it. Thirty four About fame,
Look at the minds of those who seek

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fame. Observe what they are,
and what kind of things they avoid,

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and what kind of things they pursue. And consider that as the heaps of

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sand piled on one another hide the
former sands. So in life, the

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events which go before are soon covered
by those which come after. Thirty five

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from Plato, the man who has
an elevated mind and takes a view of

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all time and of all substance,
dost thou suppose it possible for him to

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think that human life is anything great. It is not possible, he said.

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Such a man then will think that
death also is no evil, certainly

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not. Thirty six from Antisthenis,
it is royal to do good and to

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be abused. Thirty seven. It
is a base thing for the countenance to

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be obedient and to regulate and compose
itself as the mind commands, and for

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the mind not to be regulated and
composed by itself. Thirty eight. It

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is not right to vex ourselves at
things, for they care not about it.

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Thirty nine. To the immortal gods
and us give joy. Forty Life

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must be reaped like the ripe ears
of corn. One man is born,

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another dies forty one. If gods
care not for me and for my children,

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there is a reason for it.
Forty two, for the good is

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with me and the just forty three. No joining others in their wailing no

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violent emotion forty four from Plato.
But I would make this man a sufficient

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answer. Which is this, thou
sayest not well if thou thinkest that a

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man who is good for anything at
all ought to compute the hazard of life

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or death, and should not rather
look to this only in all that he

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does, whether he is doing what
is just or unjust, and the works

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of a good or a bad man
forty five. For thus it is men

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of Athens in truth. Wherever a
man has placed himself thinking it the best

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place for him, or has been
placed by a commander, there, in

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my opinion, he ought to stay
and to abide the hazard, taking nothing

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into the reckoning, either death or
anything else before the baseness of deserting his

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post forty six. But my good
friend, reflect whether that which is noble

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and good is not something different from
saving and being saved for as to a

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man living such or such a time, at least one who is really a

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man, consider if this is not
a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts,

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and there must be no love of
life. But as to these matters,

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a man must entrust them to the
deity, and believe that what the

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women say that no man can escape
his destiny, the next inquiry being how

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he may best live the time that
he has to live. Forty seven.

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Look round at the courses of the
stars, as if thou wert going along

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with them, and constantly consider the
changes of the elements into one another.

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For such thoughts purge away the filth
of the trene life. Forty eight.

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This is a fine saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about men

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should look also at earthly things,
as if he viewed them from some higher

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place. Should look at them in
their assemblies, armies, agricultural labors,

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marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts of justice,

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desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations, markets, a

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mixture of all things, and an
orderly combination of contraries. Forty nine.

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Consider the past, such great changes
of political supremacies. Thou mayst foresee also

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the things which will be, For
they will certainly be of like form,

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and it is not possible that they
should deviate from the order of the things

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which take place now. Accordingly,
to have contemplated human life forty years is

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the same as to have contemplated it
for ten thousand years. For what more

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wilt thou see fifty that which has
grown from the earth to the earth,

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but that which has sprung from heavenly
seed back to the heavenly realme's returns.

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This is either a dissolution of the
mutual involution of the atoms, or a

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similar dispersion of the insancient elements.
Fifty one. With food and drinks and

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cunning magic arts turning the channel's course. To escape from death the breeze which

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Heaven has sent, we must endure
and toil without complaining. Fifty two.

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Another may be more expert in casting
his opponent, but he is not more

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social, nor more modest, nor
better disciplined to meet all that happens,

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nor more considerate with respect to the
faults of his neighbors. Fifty three.

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Where any work can be done conformably
to the reason which is common to gods

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and men, there we have nothing
to fear. For. Where we are

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able to get profits by means of
the activity which is successful and proceeds according

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to our constitution, there no harm
is to be suspected. Fifty four.

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Everywhere and at all times, it
is in thy power piously, to acquiesce

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in thy present condition, and to
behave justly to those who are about THEE,

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and to exert thy skill upon thy
present thoughts, that nothing shall steal

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into them without being well examined.
Fifty five. Do not look around THEE

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to discover other men's ruling principles,
but look straight to this to what nature

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leads THEE, both the universal nature
through the things which happen to THEE,

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and thy own nature through the acts
which must be done by THEE. But

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every being ought to do that which
is according to its constitution, and all

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other things have been constituted for the
sake of rational beings, just as among

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irrational things, the inferior for the
sake of the superior, but the rational

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for the sake of one another.
The prime principle, then, in man's

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constitution is the social and the second
is not to yield to the persuasions of

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the bobs. For it is the
peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion

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to circumscribe itself and never to be
overpowered either by the motion of the senses

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or of the appetites. For both
our animal but the intelligent motion claims superiority

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and does not permit itself to be
overpowered by the others, and with good

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reason, for it is formed by
nature to use all of them. The

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third thing in the rational constitution is
freedom from error and from deception. Let

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then, the ruling principle, holding
fast to these things, go straight on,

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and it has what is its own. Fifty six. Consider thyself to

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be dead, and to have completed
thy life up to the present time,

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and live according to nature the remainder
which is allowed to thee. Fifty seven

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Love that only which happens to THEE
and is spun with the thread of thy

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destiny, For what is more suitable. Fifty eight In everything which happens,

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keep before thy eyes those to whom
the same things happened, and how they

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were vexed and treated them as strange
things, and found fault with them.

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And now where are they nowhere?
Why then dost thou too choose to act

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in the same way? And why
dost thou not leave these agitations which are

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foreign to nature and those who cause
them, and those who are moved by

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them? And why art thou not
altogether intent upon the right way of making

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use of the things which happen to
THEE. For then thou wilt use them

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well, and they will be a
material for thee to work on. Only

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attend to thyself and resolve to be
a good man in every act which thou

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doest, and remember fifty nine look
within. Within is the fountain of good,

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and it will ever bubble up if
thou wilt ever dig sixty The body

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ought to be compact and to show
no irregularity, either in motion or attitude.

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For what the mind shows in the
face, by maintaining in it the

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expression of intelligence and propriety that ought
to be required also in the whole body.

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But all these things should be observed
without affectation. Sixty one. The

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art of life is more like the
wrestler's art than the dancers, in respect

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of this, that it should stand
ready and firm to meet onsets which are

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sudden and unexpected. Sixty two.
Constantly observe who those are, whose approbation

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thou wishest to have, and what
ruling princes they possess. For then thou

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wilt neither blame those who offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their approbation.

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If thou lookest to the sources of
their opinions and appetites. Sixty three.

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Every soul, the philosopher says,
is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently,

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in the same way it is deprived
of justice, and temperance, and benevolence,

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and everything of the kind. It
is most necessary to bear this constantly

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in mind, for thus thou wilt
be more gentle towards all sixty four.

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In every pain, let this thought
be present, that there is no dishonor

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in it. Nor does it make
the governing intelligence worse, for it does

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not damage the intelligence, either so
far as the intelligence is rational, or

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so far as it is social.
Indeed, in the case of most pains,

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let this remark of Epicurus aid thee
that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting,

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if thou bearest in mind that it
has limits, and if thou addest

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nothing to it in imagination. And
remember this too, that we do not

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perceive that many things which are disagreeable
to us are the same as pain,

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such as excessive drowsiness, and the
being scorched by heat, and the having

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no appetite. When then thou art
discontented about any of these things, say

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to thyself that thou art yielding to
pain, sixty five, take care not

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to feel towards the inhuman as they
feel towards man sixty six. How do

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we know if Telgus was not superior
in character to Socrates? For it is

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not enough that Socrates dies a more
noble death, and disputed more skillfully with

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the Sophists, and passed the night
in the cold with more endurance, and

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that when he was bid to arrest
Leon of Salamis, he considered it more

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noble to refuse, and that he
walked in a swaggering way in the streets.

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Though as to this fact one may
have great doubts if it was true.

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But we ought to inquire what kind
of a soul it was that Socrates

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possessed, and if he was able
to be content with being just towards men

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and pious towards the gods, neither
idly vexed on account of men's villainy,

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nor yet making himself a slave to
any man's ignorance, nor receiving as strange

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anything that fell to his share out
of the universal, nor enduring it as

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intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to
sympathize with the effects of the miserable flesh.

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Sixty seven, Nature has not so
mingled the intelligence with the composition of

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the body, has not to have
allowed THEE the power of circumscribing thyself and

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of bringing under subjection to thyself all
that is that is thy own. For

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it is very possible to be a
divine man and to be recognized as such

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by no one. Always bear this
in mind. And another thing too,

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that very little, indeed is necessary
for living a happy life. And because

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thou hast despaired of becoming a dialectician
and skilled in the knowledge of nature,

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do not for this reason renounce the
hope of being both free and modest,

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and social and obedient to God.
Sixty eight. It is in thy power

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to live free from all compulsion,
in the greatest tranquility of mind, even

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if all the world cry out against
THEE as much as they choose, and

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even if wild beasts tear in pieces
the memory of this needed matter which has

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grown around THEE. For what hinders
the mind in the midst of all this,

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from maintaining itself in tranquility and in
a just judgment of all surrounding things,

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and in a ready use of the
objects which are presented to it,

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so that the judgment may say to
the thing which falls under its observation,

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00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:27.200
this thou art in substance, though
in men's opinion thou mayest appear to be

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of a different kind. And the
use shall say, to that which falls

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under the hand, thou art the
thing that I was seeking for to me,

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that which presents itself is always a
material for virtue, both rational and

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political, and in a word,
for the exercise of art which belongs to

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man or God. For everything which
happens has a relationship either to God or

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man, and is neither new nor
difficult to handle, but usual and apt

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matter to work on. Sixty nine. The perfection of moral character consists in

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this, in passing every day as
the last, and in being neither violently

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excited nor torpid, nor playing the
hypocrite. Seventy The gods who are immortal

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are not vexed, because during so
long a time they must tolerate continually men

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as such as they are, and
so many of them bad. And besides

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this, they also take care of
them in all ways. But thou,

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who art destined to end so soon, art thou wearied of enduring the bad?

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And this too, when thou art
one of them seventy one. It

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is a ridiculous thing for a man
not to fly from his own badness,

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which is indeed possible, but to
fly from other men's badness, which is

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impossible. Seventy two. Whatever the
rational and political faculty finds to be neither

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intelligent nor social, it properly judges
to be inferior to itself. Seventy three.

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When thou hast done a good act, and another hast received it,

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00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:26.400
why dost thou still look for a
third thing besides these, as fools do,

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either to have the reputation of having
done a good act or to obtain

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a return. Seventy four. No
man is tired of receiving what is useful,

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00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:44.119
but it is useful to act according
to nature. Do not then,

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00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:48.160
be tired of receiving what is useful
by doing it to others? Seventy five.

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The nature of the all moved to
make the universe. But now either

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00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:00.119
everything that takes place comes by way
of consequence or continuity, or even the

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00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:06.880
chief things towards which the ruling power
of the universe directs its own movement are

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00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:12.839
governed by no rational principle. If
this is remembered, it will make thee

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more tranquil in many things. Note
one, the end of this section is

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unintelligible. End of Chapter seven