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Page 79
25. Cast away opinion: thou art saved. Who then hinders thee from
casting it away?
26. When thou art troubled about anything, thou hast forgotten this,
that all things happen according to the universal nature; and forgotten
this, that a man's wrongful act is nothing to thee; and further thou
hast forgotten this, that everything which happens, always happened so
and will happen so, and now happens so everywhere; forgotten this too,
how close is the kinship between a man and the whole human race, for it
is a community, not of a little blood or seed, but of intelligence. And
thou hast forgotten this too, that every man's intelligence is a god and
is an efflux of the Deity;[A] and forgotten this, that nothing is a
man's own, but that his child and his body and his very soul came from
the Deity; forgotten this, that everything is opinion; and lastly thou
hast forgotten that every man lives the present time only, and loses
only this.
[A] See Epictetus, ii. 8, 9, etc.
27. Constantly bring to thy recollection those who have complained
greatly about anything, those who have been most conspicuous by the
greatest fame or misfortunes or enmities or fortunes of any kind: then
think where are they all now? Smoke and ash and a tale, or not even a
tale. And let there be present to thy mind also everything of this sort,
how Fabius Catellinus lived in the country, and Lucius Lupus in his
gardens, and Stertinius at Briae, and Tiberius at Capreae, and Velius
Rufus [or Rufus at Velia]; and in fine think of the eager pursuit of
anything conjoined with pride;[A] and how worthless everything is after
which men violently strain; and how much more philosophical it is for a
man in the opportunities presented to him to show himself just,
temperate, obedient to the gods, and to do this with all simplicity: for
the pride which is proud of its want of pride is the most intolerable of
all.
[A] [Greek: met' oi�se�s. Oi�sis kai typhos], Epict. i. 8, 6.
28. To those who ask, Where hast thou seen the gods, or how dost thou
comprehend that they exist and so worshippest them, I answer, in the
first place, they may be seen even with the eyes;[A] in the second
place, neither have I seen even my own soul, and yet I honor it. Thus
then with respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of
their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate
them.
[A] "Seen even with the eyes." It is supposed that this may be
explained by the Stoic doctrine, that the universe is a god or
living being (iv. 40), and that the celestial bodies are gods
(viii. 19). But the emperor may mean that we know that the gods
exist, as he afterwards states it, because we see what they do;
as we know that man has intellectual powers, because we see
what he does, and in no other way do we know it. This passage
then will agree with the passage in the Epistle to the Romans
(i. _v_. 20), and with the Epistle to the Colossians (i. _v_.
15), in which Jesus Christ is named "the image of the invisible
god;" and with the passage in the Gospel of St. John (xiv. _v_.
9).
Gataker, whose notes are a wonderful collection of learning,
and all of it sound and good, quotes a passage of Calvin which
is founded on St. Paul's language (Rom. i. _v_. 20): "God by
creating the universe [or world, mundum], being himself
invisible, has presented himself to our eyes conspicuously in a
certain visible form." He also quotes Seneca (De Benef. iv. c.
8): "Quocunque te flexeris, ibi illum videbis occurrentem tibi:
nihil ab illo vacat, opus suum ipse implet." Compare also
Cicero, De Senectute (c. 22), Xenophon's Cyropaedia (viii. 7),
and Mem. iv. 3; also Epictetus, i. 6, de Providentia. I think
that my interpretation of Antoninus is right.
29. The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what
it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy
soul to do justice and to say the truth. What remains, except to enjoy
life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the
smallest intervals between?
30. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls,
mountains, and other things infinite. There is one common substance,[A]
though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several
qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among infinite
natures and individual circumscriptions [or individuals]. There is one
intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided. Now in the things which
have been mentioned, all the other parts, such as those which are air
and matter, are without sensation and have no fellowship: and yet even
these parts the intelligent principle holds together and the gravitation
towards the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which
is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion
is not interrupted.
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