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Page 49
18. Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without
change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal
nature? And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change?
and canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can
anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou
not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same, and
equally necessary for the universal nature?
19. Through the universal substance as through a furious torrent all
bodies are carried, being by their nature united with and co-operating
with the whole, as the parts of our body with one another. How many a
Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how many an Epictetus has time already
swallowed up! And let the same thought occur to thee with reference to
every man and thing (v. 23; vi. 15).
20. One thing only troubles me, lest I should do something which the
constitution of man does not allow, or in the way which it does not
allow, or what it does not allow now.
21. Near is thy forgetfulness of all things; and near the forgetfulness
of thee by all.
22. It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong. And this
happens, if when they do wrong it occurs to thee that they are kinsmen,
and that they do wrong through ignorance and unintentionally, and that
soon both of you will die; and above all, that the wrong-doer has done
thee no harm, for he has not made thy ruling faculty worse than it was
before.
23. The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were
wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the
material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each
of these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no hardship
for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its being
fastened together (viii. 50).
24. A scowling look is altogether unnatural; when it is often
assumed,[A] the result is that all comeliness dies away, and at last is
so completely extinguished that it cannot be again lighted up at
all. Try to conclude from this very fact that it is contrary to reason.
For if even the perception of doing wrong shall depart, what reason is
there for living any longer?
[A] This is corrupt.
25. Nature which governs the whole will soon change all things thou
seest, and out of their substance will make other things, and again
other things from the substance of them, in order that the world may be
ever new (xii. 23).
26. When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what
opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen
this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry. For
either thou thyself thinkest the same thing to be good that he does, or
another thing of the same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But
if thou dost not think such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more
readily be well disposed to him who is in error.
27. Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of
the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how eagerly
they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time,
however, take care that thou dost not through being so pleased with them
accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou
shouldst not have them.
28. Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this
nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so
secures tranquillity.
29. Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine
thyself to the present. Understand well what happens either to thee or
to another. Divide and distribute every object into the causal [formal]
and the material. Think of thy last hour. Let the wrong which is done by
a man stay there where the wrong was done (viii. 29).
30. Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy understanding enter
into the things that are doing and the things which do them (vii. 4).
31. Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, and with indifference
towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind.
Follow God. The poet says that law rules all--+ And it is enough to
remember that law rules all.+[A]
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