|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 28
[A] Pindar, in the Theaetetus of Plato. See xi. 1.
14. Though thou shouldest be going to live three thousand years and as
many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any
other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this
which he now loses. The longest and shortest are thus brought to the
same. For the present is the same to all, though that which perish is
not the same;+[A] and so that which is lost appears to be a mere
moment. For a man cannot lose either the past or the future: for what a
man has not, how can any one take this from him? These two things then
thou must bear in mind; the one, that all things from eternity are of
like forms and come round in a circle, and that it makes no difference
whether a man shall see the same things during a hundred years, or two
hundred, or an infinite time; and the second, that the longest liver and
he who will die soonest lose just the same. For the present is the only
thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true that this is the
only thing which he has, and that a man cannot lose a thing if he has it
not.
[A] See Gataker's note.
15. Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus
is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man
receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.
16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it
becomes an abscess, and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as
it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of
ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other
things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to
itself when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with
the intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry.
In the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is
overpowered by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and
does or says anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows
any act of its own and any movement to be without an aim, and does
anything thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being
right that even the smallest things be done with reference to an end;
and the end of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of
the most ancient city and polity.
17. Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux,
and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject
to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and
fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything
which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a
dream and vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and
after fame is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a
man? One thing, and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping
the daemon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to
pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely
and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of another man's doing or not
doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens, and all that
is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he
himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as
being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every
living being is compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements
themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man
have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the
elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is
according to nature.
This in Carnuntum.[A]
[A] Carnuntum was a town of Pannonia, on the south side of the
Danube, about thirty miles east of Vindobona (Vienna).
Orosius (vii. 15) and Eutropius (viii. 13) say that Antoninus
remained three years at Carmuntum during his war with the
Marcomanni.
III.
We ought to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and a
smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into
the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain
whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the
comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which
strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he
shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and
imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will
not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the
measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and
considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else
of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason,--all this is
already extinguished. We must make haste, then, not only because we are
daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the
understanding of them cease first.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|