The universal cause is like a winter torrent. It carries everything along with it.
But how worthless are all these poor people who are engaged in matters political,
and, as they suppose, are playing the philosopher all drivelers. Well,
then, man, do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion
if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee to see
if anyone will observe it, nor yet expect Plato's republic. But be content
if the smallest thing goes on, Well, and consider such an event to
be no small matter. For who can change men's opinions? And without a
change of opinions, what else is there than the slavery of men who groan
while they pretend to obey. Come now and tell me of Alexander and Philip
and Demetrius of Falorum. They themselves shall judge whether they discovered what the common
nature required and trained themselves accordingly. But if they acted like tragedy heroes,
no one has condemned me to imitate them. Simple and modest is the work
of philosophy. Draw me not aside to indolence and pride. Look down from
above on the countless herds of men and their countless solemnities, and the infinitely
varied voyagings in storms and calms, and the differences among those who are born,
who live together and die. And consider too the life lived by others
in olden time, and the life of those who will live after THEE,
and the life now lived among barbarous nations. And how many know not even
thy name, and how many will soon forget it, And how they who
perhaps now are praising THEE will very soon blame THEE. And that neither a
posthumous name is of any value, nor reputation, nor anything else. Let
there be freedom from perturbations with respect to the things which come from the external
cause. And let there be justice in the things done by virtue of the
internal cause. That is, let there be movement and action terminating in this
in social acts, for this is according to thy nature. Thou canst remove
out of the way many useless things, among those which disturb THEE, for
they lie entirely in thy opinion. And thou wilt then gain for thyself ample
space by comprehending the whole universe in thy mind, and by contemplating the eternity
of time and observing the rapid change of every several things. How short is
the time from birth to dissolution, and the illimitable time before birth, as
well as the equally boundless time after dissolution. And all that thou seest will
quickly perish, and those who have been spectators of its dissolution will very soon
perish too. And he who dies at these extremist old age will be brought
into the same condition with him who died prematurely. What are these men's leading
principles? And about what kind of things are they busy? And for what
kind of reasons do they love and honor? Imagine that thou seest their poor
souls laid bare when they think that they do harm by their blame or good
by their praise. What an idea loss is nothing else than change, But
the universal nature delights in change and in obedience to her. All things are
now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and
will be such to time without end. What then, dost thou say that
all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no
power has ever been found in so many gods to rectify these things. But
the world has been condemned to be found in never ceasing evil, the rottenness
of the matter which is the foundation of everything, water, dust, bones,
filth, or again marble rocks, the callosities of the earth, and
gold and silver, the sediments and garments, only bits of hair and purple
dye, blood and everything else is of the same kind. And that which
is of the nature of breath is also another thing of the same kind,
changing from this to that. Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish
tricks. Why art thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What
unsettles thee? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it?
Or is it the matter? Look at it? But besides these there is
nothing towards the gods. Then now become at last more simple and better.
It is the same weather. We examine these things for one hundred years or
three. If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own.
But perhaps he has not done wrong either. All things proceed from one intelligent
source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to
find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole. Or there
are only atoms and nothing else, then mixture and dispersion. Why then art
thou disturbed? Say to the ruling faculty, Art thou dead, Art thou
corrupted, Art thou playing the hypocrite? Art thou become a beast. Dost
thou herd and feed with the rest. Either the gods have no power,
they have power. If then they have no power, why dost thou pray
to them? But if they have power, why dost thou not pray for
them to give THEE the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou
fearest, or of not desiring any of the which thou desirest, or not
being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not
happen or happen. For certainly, if they can cooperate with men, they
can cooperate for these purposes. But perhaps thou wilt say, the gods have
placed them in thy power. Well, then is it not better to use
what is in thy power like a free man than to desire in a slavish
and abject way what is not in thy power. And who has told THEE
that the gods do not aid us even in the things which are in our
power, begin then to pray for such things, And thou wilt see one
man prays, Thus, how shall I be able to lie with that woman?
Do thou pray? Thus? How shall I not desire to lie with
her? Another? Praise? Thus? How shall I be released from this?
Another praise? How shall I not desire to be released another? Thus?
How shall I not lose my little son? Thou? Thus? How
shall I not be afraid to lose him? In fine? Turn thy prayers?
This way? And see what comes? Epicurus says, in my sickness,
my conversation was not about my bodily sufferings, Nor says he, did
I talk on such subjects to those who visited me. But I continued to
discourse on the nature of things as before, keeping to this main point,
how the mind, while participating in such movements as go on in the poor
flesh, shall be free from perturbations, then maintain its proper good. Nor
did I, he says, give the physicians if an opportunity of putting on
solemn looks as if they were doing something great. But my life went on
well and happily. Do then the same that he did, both in sickness,
if thou art sick, and in any other circumstances. For never to
desert philosophy in any events that may befall us, nor to hold trifling talk,
either with an ignorant man or with one unacquainted with nature, as a
principle of all schools of philosophy, but to be intent only on that which
thou art now doing, and on the instrument by which thou doest it.
When thou art offended with any man's shameless conduct, immediately ask thyself, is
it possible, then that shameless men should not be in the world. It
is not possible. Do not then require what is impossible? For this man
also is one of those shameless men who must, of necessity be in the
world. Let the same considerations be present to thy mind in the case of
the knave and the faithless man, and of every man who does wrong in
any way. For at the same time that thou dost remind thyself that it
is impossible that such kind of men should not exist, thou wilt become more
kindly disposed towards everyone individually. It is useful to perceive this too immediately when
the occasion arises. What virtue Nature has given to man to oppose to every
wrongful act? For she has given to man as an antidote against the stupid
man a mildness, and against another kind of man some other power. And
in all cases it is possible for THEE to correct by teaching the man who
is gone astray. For every man who errors misses his object and is gone
astray. Besides, wherein hast thou been injured? For thou wilt find that
no one among those against whom thou art irritated, has done anything by which
thy mind could be made worse. But that which is evil to THEE and
harmful has its foundation only in the mind. And what harm is done,
or what is there strange if the man who has not been instructed does the
acts of an uninstructed man. Consider whether thou shouldst not rather blame thyself,
because thou dost not expect such a man to err in such a way.
For thou hadst means given THEE by thy reason to suppose that it was likely
that he would commit this error, And yet thou hast forgotten and art amazed
that he is erred. But most of all, when thou blamest a man
as faithless or ungrateful, turned to thyself, for the fault is manifestly thy
own. Whether thou didst trust that a man who had such a disposition would
keep his promise, Or when conferring thy kindness, thou didst not confer it
absolutely, nor yet in such way as to have received from thy very act
all the profit. What more dost thou want when thou hast done a man
of service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy
nature? And dost thou seek to be paid for it, just as if
the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feat for walking. For
as these members are formed for a particular purpose, and by working according to
their several constitutions, obtain what is their own, so also as man is
formed by nature to acts of benevolence. When he has done anything benevolent or
in any other way conducive to the common interest, he has acted conformably to
his constitution, and he gets what is his own.