is either the matter itself, or the dogma, or the operation,
or the true sense and signification.
XXI. Most justly have these things happened unto thee:
why dost not thou amend? O but thou hadst rather become
good to-morrow, than to be so to-day. XXII. Shall I do it?
I will; so the end of my action be to do good unto men.
Doth anything by way of cross or adversity happen unto me?
I accept it, with reference unto the Gods, and their providence;
the fountain of all things, from which whatsoever comes to pass,
doth hang and depend.
XXIII. By one action judge of the rest: this bathing which usually
takes up so much of our time, what is it? Oil, sweat, filth;
or the sordes of the body: an excre-mentitious viscosity,
the excrements of oil and other ointments used about the body,
and mixed with the sordes of the body: all base and loathsome.
And such almost is every part of our life; and every
worldly object. XXIV. Lucilla buried Verus; then was Lucilla
herself buried by others. So Secunda Maximus, then Secunda herself.
So Epitynchanus, Diotimus; then Epitynchanus himself.
So Antoninus Pius, Faustina his wife; then Antoninus himself.
This is the course of the world. First Celer, Adrianus;
then Adrianus himself. And those austere ones; those that
foretold other men's deaths; those that were so proud
and stately, where are they now? Those austere ones I mean,
such as were Charax, and Demetrius the Platonic, and Eudaemon,
and others like unto those. They were all but for one day;
all dead and gone long since. Some of them no sooner dead,
than forgotten. Others soon turned into fables. Of others,
even that which was fabulous, is now long since forgotten.
This thereafter thou must remember, that whatsoever thou art
compounded of, shall soon be dispersed, and that thy life and breath,
or thy soul, shall either he no more or shall ranslated,
and appointed to some certain place and station. XXV. The true
joy of a man, is to do that which properly belongs unto a man.
That which is most proper unto a man, is, first, to he kindly
affected towards them that are of the same kind and nature as he is
himself to contemn all sensual motions and appetites, to discern
rightly all plausible fancies and imaginations, to contemplate
the nature of the universe; both it, and things that are done in it.
In which kind of con templation three several relations are
to be observed The first, to the apparent secondary cause.
The Second to the first original cause, God, from whom
originally proceeds whatsoever doth happen in the world.
The third and last, to them that we live and converse with:
what use may be made of it, to their use and benefit XXVI.
If pain be an evil, either it is in regard of the body; (and that
cannot be, because the body of itself is altogether insensible:)
or in regard of the soul But it is in the power of the soul,
to preserve her own peace and tranquillity, and not to suppose
that pain is evil. For all judgment and deliberation;
all prosecution, or aversation is from within, whither the sense
of evil (except it be let in by opinion) cannot penetrate.
XXVII. Wipe off all idle fancies, and say unto thyselF incessantly;
Now if I will, it is in my power to keep out of this my soul
all wickedness, all lust, and concupiscences, all trouble
and confusion. But on the contrary to behold and consider
all things according to their true nature, and to carry
myself towards everything according to its true worth.
Remember then this thy power that nature hath given thee.