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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XXI. As thou thyself, whoever thou art, were made for the perfection

and consummation, being a member of it, of a common society; so must

every action of thine tend to the perfection and consummation of a life

that is truly sociable. What action soever of thine therefore that

either immediately or afar off, hath not reference to the common good,

that is an exorbitant and disorderly action; yea it is seditious;

as one among the people who from such and such a consent and unity,

should factiously divide and separate himself.

XXII. Children's anger, mere babels; wretched souls bearing

up dead bodies, that they may not have their fall so soon:

even as it is in that common dirge song. XXIII. Go to the quality

of the cause from which the effect doth proceed. Behold it

by itself bare and naked, separated from all that is material.

Then consider the utmost bounds of time that that cause,

thus and thus qualified, can subsist and abide.