|
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 46
[B] Cicero, De Natura Deorum. iii. 32.
42. We are all working together to one end, some with knowledge and
design, and others without knowing what they do; as men also when they
are asleep, of whom it is Heraclitus, I think, who says that they are
laborers and co-operators in the things which take place in the
universe. But men co-operate after different fashions: and even those
co-operate abundantly, who find fault with what happens and those who
try to oppose it and to hinder it; for the universe had need even of
such men as these. It remains then for thee to understand among what
kind of workmen thou placest thyself; for he who rules all things will
certainly make a right use of thee, and he will receive thee among some
part of the co-operators and of those whose labors conduce to one end.
But be not thou such a part as the mean and ridiculous verse in the
play, which Chrysippus speaks of.[A]
[A] Plutarch, adversus Stoicos, c. 14.
43. Does the sun undertake to do the work of the rain, or Aesculapius
the work of the Fruit-bearer [the earth]? And how is it with respect to
each of the stars--are they not different and yet they work together to
the same end?
44. If the gods have determined about me and about the things which must
happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to
imagine a deity without forethought; and as to doing me harm, why
should they have any desire towards that? for what advantage would
result to them from this or to the whole, which is the special object of
their providence? But if they have not determined about me individually,
they have certainly determined about the whole at least, and the things
which happen by way of sequence in this general arrangement I ought to
accept with pleasure and to be content with them. But if they determine
about nothing,--which it is wicked to believe, or if we do believe it,
let us neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear by them, nor do anything
else which we do as if the gods were present and lived with us,--but if
however the gods determine about none of the things which concern us, I
am able to determine about myself, and I can inquire about that which is
useful; and that is useful to every man which is conformable to his own
constitution and nature. But my nature is rational and social; and my
city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome, but so far as I am
a man, it is the world. The things then which are useful to these cities
are alone useful to me.
45. Whatever happens to every man, this is for the interest of the
universal: this might be sufficient. But further thou wilt observe this
also as a general truth, if thou dost observe, that whatever is
profitable to any man is profitable also to other men. But let the word
profitable be taken here in the common sense as said of things of the
middle kind [neither good nor bad].
46. As it happens to thee in the amphitheatre and such places, that the
continual sight of the same things, and the uniformity, make the
spectacle wearisome, so it is in the whole of life; for all things
above, below, are the same and from the same. How long then?
47. Think continually that all kinds of men and all kinds of pursuits
and of all nations are dead, so that thy thoughts come down even to
Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn thy thoughts to the other
kinds [of men]. To that place then we must remove, where there are so
many great orators, and so many noble philosophers, Heraclitus,
Pythagoras, Socrates; so many heroes of former days, and so many
generals after them, and tyrants; besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus,
Archimedes, and other men of acute natural talents, great minds, lovers
of labor, versatile, confident, mockers even of the perishable and
ephemeral life of man, as Menippus and such as are like him. As to all
these consider that they have long been in the dust. What harm then is
this to them; and what to those whose names are altogether unknown? One
thing here is worth a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice,
with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.
48. When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those
who live with thee; for instance, the activity of one, and the modesty
of another, and the liberality of a third, and some other good quality
of a fourth. For nothing delights so much as the examples of the
virtues, when they are exhibited in the morals of those who live with us
and present themselves in abundance, as far as is possible. Wherefore we
must keep them before us.
49. Thou art not dissatisfied. I suppose, because thou weighest only so
many litrae and not three hundred. Be not dissatisfied then that thou
must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied
with the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be
content with the time.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|