WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:05.400 What is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen, and on 2 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:10.320 the occasion of everything which happens, keep this in mind, that it is 3 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:15.599 that which thou hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find the 4 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:21.239 same things with which the old histories are filled, those of the Middle Ages, 5 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:25.079 and those of our own day with which cities and houses are filled. 6 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:30.879 Now there is nothing new. All things are both familiar and short lived. 7 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:39.759 Two. How can our principles become dead unless the impressions thought which correspond to 8 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:45.479 them are extinguished. But it is in thy power continuously to fan these thoughts 9 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:50.359 into a flame. I can have that opinion about anything which I ought to 10 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:56.159 have. If I can, why am I disturbed? The things which are 11 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:00.679 external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind. Let this 12 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.359 be the state of thy effects, and thou standest erect to recover thy life 13 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:10.719 is in thy power look at things again as thou didst use to look at 14 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:15.599 them, For in this consists the recovery of thy life. Three. The 15 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:23.159 idle business of show plays on the stage. Flocks of sheep herds, exercises 16 00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:29.439 with spears, a bone to cast to little dogs, a bit of bread 17 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:34.599 into fish ponds, laborings of ants, and burden, carrying runnings about of 18 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:42.239 frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings, all alike. It is thy 19 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:45.359 duty, then, in the midst of such things, to show good humor, 20 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.599 and not a proud heir to understand, however, that every man is 21 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.640 worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself. 22 00:01:56.280 --> 00:02:00.760 Four. In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and in every 23 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:06.879 movement thou must observe what is doing. And in the one thou shouldst see 24 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:12.280 immediately to what end it refers. But in the other watch carefully what is 25 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:17.560 the thing signified? Five? Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? 26 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:23.240 If it is sufficient, I use it for the work as an instrument given 27 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:28.560 by the universal nature. But if it is not sufficient, then either I 28 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.000 retire from the work and give way to him who is able to do it 29 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:35.520 better, unless there be some reason why I ought not to do so, 30 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.800 or I do it as well as I can, taking to help me the 31 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:43.560 man who, with the aid of my ruling principle, can do what is 32 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:50.199 now fit and useful for the general good. For whatsoever, either by myself 33 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:53.240 or with another I can do. Ought to be directed to this, only 34 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:00.879 to that which is useful and well suited to society. Six. How many, 35 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:06.400 after being celebrated by fame, have been given up to oblivion, And 36 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:12.840 how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead. Seven. 37 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:16.840 Be not ashamed to be helped, For it is thy business to do 38 00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:22.719 thy duty, like a soldier in the assault on a town. How then, 39 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:25.840 if being lame, thou canst not mount up on the battlements alone, 40 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:34.759 but with the help of another it is possible. Eight. Let not future 41 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.520 things disturb THEE, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be 42 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:45.120 necessary, having with THEE the same reason which now thou usest for present things. 43 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:51.400 Nine. All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is 44 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:57.240 holy. And there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing, For things 45 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:02.240 have been coordinated, and they combine to form the same universe order. For 46 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:06.560 there is one universe made up of all things, and one God who pervades 47 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:13.199 all things, and one substance, and one law, one common reason in 48 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:18.040 all intelligent animals, and one truth. If indeed, there is also one 49 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:24.560 perfection for all animals which are of the same stock and participate in the same 50 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:30.160 reason. Ten, Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole, 51 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:38.199 and everything formal causal is very soon taken back into the universal reason, and 52 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:44.920 the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time. Eleven. To the 53 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.759 rational animal, the same act is according to nature, end according to reason. 54 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:57.879 Twelve, Be thou erect, or be made erect. Thirteen. Just 55 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.680 as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in one, 56 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:08.040 so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have been constituted 57 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:12.839 for one cooperation. And the perception of this will be more apparent to THEE. 58 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:16.759 If thou often sayest to thyself that I am a member of the system 59 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:23.600 of rational beings. But if thou sayest that thou art a part, thou 60 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:29.000 dost not yet love men from thy heart. Beneficence does not yet delight THEE. 61 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:32.519 For its own sake, Thou still doest it barely as a thing of 62 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:41.920 propriety, and not yet as doing good to thyself. Fourteen Let their fall 63 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:46.360 externally? What will on the parts which can feel the effects of this fall? 64 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:51.240 For those parts which have felt will complain if they choose. But I, 65 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.800 unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured. 66 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:03.319 And it is in my power not to think so. Fifteen Whatever any 67 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:09.000 one does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, 68 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:14.160 or the emerald or the purple were always saying this, Whatever any one 69 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:18.639 does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color. Sixteen. 70 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:25.279 The ruling faculty does not disturb itself, I mean, does not frighten itself 71 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:29.959 or cause itself pain. But if any one else can frighten or pain it, 72 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.720 let him do so, for the faculty itself will not, by its 73 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:39.480 own opinion, turn into such ways. Let the body itself take care if 74 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:44.839 it can, let it suffer nothing, and let it speak if it suffers. 75 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.160 But the soul itself, that which is subject to fear to pain, 76 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:54.480 which has completely the power of forming an opinion about these things, will suffer 77 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:59.879 nothing, for it will never deviate into such a judgment. The leading principle 78 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:04.839 in itself wants nothing unless it makes a want for itself, and therefore it 79 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:11.120 is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede 80 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:20.199 itself seventeen eudaemonia, happiness is a good demon or a good thing? What 81 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:27.120 then art thou doing here? O imagination? Go away? I entreat THEE 82 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:30.399 by the gods, as thou didst come, for I want THEE not, 83 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:36.680 but thou art come according to thy old fashion. I am not angry with 84 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:46.839 thee. Only go away? Eighteen Is any man afraid of change? Why? 85 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:50.680 What can take place without change? What then, is more pleasing or 86 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:56.879 more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath unless the 87 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.480 wood undergoes a change? And can thou be nourished unless the food undergoes a 88 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:09.240 change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost 89 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:13.000 thou not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same and 90 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:20.680 equally necessary for the universal nature. Nineteen Through the universal substance, as through 91 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:26.160 a furious torrent, all bodies are carried, being by their nature, united 92 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:31.480 with and cooperating with the whole, as the parts of our body with one 93 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:37.120 another. How many a Chrysippus, how many a Socrates? How many an 94 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.440 Epicectus? As time already swallowed up and let the same thought occur to thee 95 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:48.600 with reference to every man and thing. Twenty one. Thing only troubles me 96 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:54.440 lest I should do something which the constitution of man does not allow, or 97 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:58.600 in the way which it does not allow, or what it does not allow. 98 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:05.960 Now twenty one, near is thy forgetfulness of all things, and near 99 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:13.919 the forgetfulness of THEE by all. Twenty two it is peculiar to man to 100 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:18.960 love even those who do wrong. And this happens if when they do wrong, 101 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:22.799 it occurs to THEE that they are kinsmen, and that they do wrong 102 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:28.840 through ignorance and unintentionally, and that soon both of you will die, And 103 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:33.480 above all that the wrong doer has done THEE no harm, for he has 104 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:39.799 not made thy ruling faculty worse than it was before. Twenty three. The 105 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.720 universal nature, out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, 106 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.759 now molds a horse, And when it has broken this up, it uses 107 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:54.639 the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else. 108 00:09:54.799 --> 00:10:00.240 And each of these things subsist for a very short time. But it 109 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.399 is no hardship for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was 110 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:11.080 none in its being fastened together. Twenty four. A scowling look is altogether 111 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:16.440 unnatural. When it is often assumed, the result is that all comeliness dies 112 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:22.679 away, and at last is so completely extinguished that it cannot be again lighted 113 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:26.679 up at all. Try to conclude from this very fact that it is contrary 114 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:33.600 to reason. For if even the perception of doing wrong shall depart, what 115 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.799 reason is therefore living any longer. Twenty five Nature which governs the whole will 116 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:45.639 soon change all things which thou seest, and out of their substance will make 117 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:50.679 other things, and again other things from the substance of them, in order 118 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:56.600 that the world may ever be new. Twenty six. When a man has 119 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:01.600 done thee any wrong, a meat, consider with what opinion about good or 120 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:07.200 evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt 121 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:13.559 pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry. For either thou thyself 122 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:18.200 thinkest the same thing to be good that he does, or another thing of 123 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:24.759 the same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But if 124 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:28.279 thou dost not think such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more 125 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:37.080 readily be well disposed to him who is in error. Twenty seven Think not 126 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:41.879 so much of what thou hast, not as of what thou hast, but 127 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.879 of the things which thou hast, select the best, and then reflect how 128 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:52.360 eagerly they would have been sought if thou hadst them not. At the same 129 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:56.600 time, however, take care that thou dost not, through being so pleased 130 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:01.519 with them, accustom thyself to over value them, so as to be disturbed, 131 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:07.159 if ever, thou shouldst not have them. Twenty eight. Retire into 132 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:13.960 thyself. The rational principle which rules, has this nature, that it is 133 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:18.399 content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility. 134 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:26.320 Twenty nine. Wipe out the imagination, stop the pulling of the strings, 135 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:33.759 Confine thyself to the present. Understand well what happens either to thee or to 136 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:39.240 another. Divide and distribute every object into the causal, formal, and the 137 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:46.360 material. Think of thy last hour. Let the wrong which is done by 138 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:52.799 a man stay there where the wrong was done. Thirty Direct thy attention to 139 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:58.240 what is said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and 140 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:05.639 the things which do them. Thirty one. Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, 141 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:11.480 and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice, love, 142 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:18.840 mankind, follow God. The poet says that law rules all, and 143 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:26.519 it is enough to remember that law rules all. Thirty two about death, 144 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:33.080 whether it is a dispersion or a resolution into atoms or annihilation, it is 145 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:43.360 either extinction or change. Thirty three about pain. The pain which is intolerable 146 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:48.919 carries us off, But that which lasts a long time is tolerable. And 147 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:54.720 the mind maintains its own tranquility by retiring into itself. And the ruling faculty 148 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:58.399 is not made worse. But the parts which are harmed by pain, let 149 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:05.720 them if they can give their opinion about it. Thirty four about fame. 150 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:11.200 Look at the minds of those who seek fame. Observe what they are, 151 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:16.080 and what kind of things they avoid, and what kind of things they pursue. 152 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:20.320 And consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the 153 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:26.519 former sands, so in life, the events which go before are soon covered 154 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:33.120 by those which come after. Thirty five from Plato. The man who has 155 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:37.679 an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, 156 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:43.080 dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything great. 157 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.480 It is not possible, he said, such a man then will think 158 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:56.519 that death also is no evil, certainly not thirty six from Antisthenes. It 159 00:14:56.679 --> 00:15:03.519 is royal to do good and to be abused. Thirty seven. It is 160 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:09.279 a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose itself 161 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.440 as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and composed 162 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:22.519 by itself. Thirty eight. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, 163 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:28.759 for they care not about it. Thirty nine. To the immortal gods 164 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:35.879 and us give joy. Forty Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of 165 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:45.559 corn. One man is born, another dies Forty one. If gods care 166 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:52.480 not for me and for my children, there is a reason for it forty 167 00:15:52.480 --> 00:16:00.559 two. For the good is with me and the just forty three. No 168 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:10.080 joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion forty four from Plato. But 169 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:15.559 I would make this man a sufficient answer. Which is this? Thou sayest 170 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.840 not well if thou thinkest that a man who is good for anything at all 171 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:23.559 ought to compute the hazard of life or death, and should not rather look 172 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.879 to this only in all that he does, whether he is doing what is 173 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:33.080 just or unjust, and the works of a good or a bad man. 174 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:41.799 Forty five. For thus it is men of Athens in truth. Wherever a 175 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:47.919 man has placed himself thinking it the best place for him, or has been 176 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:52.200 placed by a commander, there, in my opinion, he ought to stay 177 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:56.799 and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or 178 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:04.440 anything else before the base of deserting his post. Forty six. But, 179 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:10.319 my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good is not something 180 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:15.839 different from saving and being saved, for as to a man living such or 181 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:21.440 such a time, at least one who is really a man, consider if 182 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:25.440 this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts, and there must 183 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.400 be no love of life. But as to these matters, a man must 184 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:33.960 entrust them to the deity, and believe that what the women say, that 185 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:38.599 no man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best 186 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:45.799 live the time that he has to live. Forty seven. Look round at 187 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:51.079 the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along with them, 188 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:56.319 and constantly consider the changes of the elements into one another. For such thoughts 189 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:03.480 purge away the filth of the Tureene life forty eight. This is a fine 190 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:08.960 saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about men should look also at 191 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:15.039 earthly things, as if he viewed them from some higher place, should look 192 00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:21.880 at them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural labors, marriages, treaties, 193 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:29.079 births, deaths, noise of the courts of justice, desert places, various 194 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:36.440 nations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things, 195 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:42.680 and an orderly combination of contraries. Forty nine. Consider the past, 196 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:51.359 such great changes of political supremacies. Thou mayest foresee also the things which will 197 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.880 be, For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not 198 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:59.920 possible that they should deviate from the order of the things which take place now. 199 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:06.240 Accordingly, to have contemplated human life forty years is the same as to 200 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:12.359 have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see fifty 201 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:18.799 that which has grown from the earth to the earth, but that which has 202 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:25.319 sprung from heavenly seed back to the heavenly realm's returns. This is either a 203 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:30.759 dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the 204 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:40.160 insancient elements fifty one with food and drinks and cunning magic arts turning the channel's 205 00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:45.440 course. To escape from death the breeze which Heaven has sent, we must 206 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:53.119 endure and toil without complaining. Fifty two. Another babe may be more expert 207 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:59.440 in casting his opponent, but he is not more social, nor more modest, 208 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:03.759 nor better discipline to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect 209 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:10.200 to the faults of his neighbors. Fifty three. Where any work can be 210 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:15.000 done conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we 211 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:18.200 have nothing to fear for. Where we are able to get profits by means 212 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:25.119 of the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our constitution, there no 213 00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:33.039 harm is to be suspected. Fifty four. Everywhere and at all times, 214 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:37.640 it is in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to 215 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:42.400 behave justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill upon 216 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:48.720 thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without being well examined. 217 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:55.720 Fifty five. Do not look around thee to discover other men's ruling principles, 218 00:20:55.759 --> 00:21:00.359 but look straight to this to what nature leads thee both the universal nature through 219 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:04.440 the things which happen to THEE, and thy own nature through the acts which 220 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:08.680 must be done by THEE. But every being ought to do that which is 221 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:14.920 according to its constitution, And all other things have been constituted for the sake 222 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:19.680 of rational beings, just as among irrational things, the inferior for the sake 223 00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:26.279 of the superior, but the rational for the sake of one another. The 224 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:30.839 prime principle, then, in man's constitution, is the social and the second 225 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:36.240 is not to yield to the persuasions of the body. For it is the 226 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:41.640 peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, and never to 227 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:47.799 be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or of the appetites. For 228 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:53.640 both our animal. But the intelligent motion claims superiority and does not permit itself 229 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:59.480 to be overpowered by the others, and with good reason, for it is 230 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:03.119 formed by nature to use all of them. The third thing in the rational 231 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:10.240 constitution is freedom from error and from deception. Let then the ruling principle, 232 00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:14.720 holding fast to these things, go straight on, and it has what is 233 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:22.480 its own fifty six, Consider thyself to be dead and to have completed thy 234 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:29.640 life up to the present time, and live according to nature the remainder which 235 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:37.240 is allowed to THEE. Fifty seven Love that only which happens to THEE and 236 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.200 is spun with the thread of thy destiny, For what is more suitable. 237 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:48.440 Fifty eight In everything which happens, Keep before thy eyes those to whom the 238 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:53.799 same things happened, and how they were vexed and treated them as strange things, 239 00:22:53.920 --> 00:23:00.480 and found fault with them. And now where are they nowhere? Why 240 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:04.759 then dost thou too choose to act in the same way? And why dost 241 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:11.000 thou not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature and those who cause them, 242 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:15.359 and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether 243 00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:18.480 intent upon the right way of making use of the things which happen to THEE? 244 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:22.880 For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material 245 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:30.039 for THEE to work on. Only attend to thyself and resolve to be a 246 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:37.200 good man in every act which thou doest. And remember fifty nine look within 247 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:42.880 within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up if thou 248 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:52.039 wilt ever dig Sixty The body ought to be compact, and to show no 249 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.200 irregularity, either in motion or attitude. For what the mind shows in the 250 00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:02.359 face, by maintaining in it the expression of intei, eligence, and propriety 251 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:06.799 that ought to be required also in the whole body. But all these things 252 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:14.240 should be observed without affectation. Sixty one. The art of life is more 253 00:24:14.279 --> 00:24:18.359 like the wrestler's art than the dancers, in respect of this, that it 254 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:26.400 should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected. Sixty 255 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:32.720 two. Constantly observe who those are, whose approbation thou wishest to have, 256 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:37.400 and what ruling principles they possess. For then thou wilt neither blame those who 257 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:44.599 offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their approbation, if thou lookest to the 258 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:51.519 sources of their opinions and appetites. Sixty three. Every soul, the philosopher 259 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:57.920 says, is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently, in the same way it 260 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:03.759 is deprived of us and temperance, and benevolence, and everything of the kind. 261 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:08.200 It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou 262 00:25:08.279 --> 00:25:15.799 wilt be more gentle towards all sixty four. In every pain, let this 263 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:19.680 thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, Nor does it 264 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:25.839 make the governing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence, either 265 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:30.319 so far as the intelligence is rational, or so far as it is social. 266 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:36.240 Indeed, in the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus 267 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:42.079 aid thee that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bearest in mind 268 00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:47.440 that it has limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. 269 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.400 And remember this too, that we do not perceive that many things which are 270 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:59.720 disagreeable to us are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and 271 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:06.920 being scorched by heat, and the having no appetite. When then thou art 272 00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:11.839 discontented about any of these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to 273 00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:21.240 pain. Sixty five take care not to feel towards the inhuman as they feel 274 00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:26.160 towards men. Sixty six. How do we know if Telogus was not superior 275 00:26:26.200 --> 00:26:32.079 in character to Socrates, For it is not enough that Socrates dies a more 276 00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:37.160 noble death, and disputed more skillfully with the Sophists, and passed the night 277 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:42.599 in the cold with more endurance, and that when he was bid to arrest 278 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:48.240 Leon of Salamis, he considered it more noble to refuse, and that he 279 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:52.839 walked in a swaggering way in the streets. Though as to this fact one 280 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:57.319 may have great doubts if it was true. But we ought to inquire what 281 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:03.359 kind of a soul it was that Socrates possessed, and if he was able 282 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:08.039 to be content with being just towards men and pious towards the gods. Neither 283 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:14.559 idly vexed on account of men's villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to 284 00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:19.480 any man's ignorance, nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share out 285 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:26.680 of the universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to 286 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:36.039 sympathize with the effects of the miserable flesh. Sixty seven. Nature has not 287 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:41.319 so mingled the intelligence with the composition of the body as not to have allowed 288 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:48.160 thee the power of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under subjection to thyself all that 289 00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:52.759 is that is thy own. For it is very possible to be a divine 290 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:57.279 man and to be recognized as such by no one always bear this in mind, 291 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:03.000 and another thing too, that very little, indeed is necessary for living 292 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:10.400 a happy life. And because thou hast despaired of becoming a dialectician and skilled 293 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:14.680 in the knowledge of nature, do not, for this reason renounce the hope 294 00:28:14.680 --> 00:28:19.319 of being both free and modest, and social and obedient to God. Sixty 295 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:23.240 eight. It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion, in 296 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:29.680 the greatest tranquility of mind, even if all the world cry out against THEE 297 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:33.920 as much as they choose, and even if wild beasts tear in peaces the 298 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:38.519 members of this needed matter which has grown around thee. For what hinders the 299 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:44.279 mind in the midst of all this, from maintaining itself in tranquility and in 300 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:48.400 a just judgment of all surrounding things, and in already use of the objects 301 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:52.480 which are presented to it, So that the judgment may say, to the 302 00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:59.839 thing which falls under its observation, This thou art in substance, though in 303 00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:04.200 men's opinion thou mayest appear to be of a different kind, and the use 304 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:10.039 shall say to that which falls under the hand, Thou art the thing that 305 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:15.200 I was seeking for to me, that which presents itself is always a material 306 00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:21.079 for virtue, both rational and political, and in a word, for the 307 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:26.200 exercise of art, which belongs to man or God. For everything which happens 308 00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:32.759 has a relationship either to God or man, and is neither new nor difficult 309 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:38.119 to handle, but usual and apt matter to work on. Sixty nine. 310 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:45.079 The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the 311 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:49.400 last, and in be that neither violently excited, nor torpid, nor playing 312 00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:57.119 the hypocrite. Seventy The gods who are immortal are not vexed, because during 313 00:29:57.160 --> 00:30:03.599 so long a time they must tolerate it continually men as such as they are, 314 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:07.519 and so many of them bad. And besides this, they also take 315 00:30:07.559 --> 00:30:12.440 care of them in all ways. But thou, who art destined to end 316 00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:18.839 so soon, art thou wearied of enduring the bad? And this too when 317 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:23.839 thou art one of them. Seventy one. It is a ridiculous thing for 318 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:29.599 a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, 319 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:36.759 but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible. Seventy two. 320 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:44.400 Whatever the rational and political faculty finds to be neither intelligent nor social, it 321 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:52.240 properly judges to be inferior to itself. Seventy three. When thou hast done 322 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:56.400 a good act and another hast received it, why dost thou still look for 323 00:30:56.440 --> 00:31:03.000 a third thing besides these as fools do, either to have the reputation of 324 00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:08.680 having done a good act, or to obtain a return. Seventy four. 325 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:15.599 No man is tired of receiving what is useful, but it is useful to 326 00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:18.960 act according to nature. Do not then, be tired of receiving what is 327 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:25.440 useful by doing it to others. Seventy five. The nature of the all 328 00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:30.240 moved to make the universe. But now either everything that takes place comes by 329 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:37.680 way of consequence or continuity, or even the chief things towards which the ruling 330 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:42.240 power of the universe directs its own movement are governed by no rational principle. 331 00:31:44.519 --> 00:31:48.759 If this is remembered, it will make thee more tranquil in many things. 332 00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:53.680 Note one, the end of this section is unintelligible.