Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
p. 61(Compare Epictetus* Discourses, i. 14 ; and Voltaire a Mad9. Necker, vol. lxvii. p. 278, ed. Lequien.) God exists then, but what do we know of his nature ? Antoninus says that the soul of man is an efflux from the divinity. We have bodies like animals, but we have reason, intelligence, as the gods.
Animals have life (^v;^), and what we call lute which exists by itself, but as a thing connected with an individual being, as a man. Accordingly it is the capacity of receiving impressions (Vorstellungen, <pavra<riai)t and forming from them distinct Ideas (Begriffe) , and perceiving differences. I do not think that these remarks will help the reader to the understanding of Antoninus, or his use of the words vovt and Xâyos.
The emperor's meaning must be got from his own words, and if it does not agree altogether with modern notions, it is not our business to force it into agreement, but simply to find out what his meaning is, if we can. Justinus (ad Diognetum, c. vii.) says that the omnipotent, all-creating, and invisible God has fixed truth and the holy, incomprehensible Logos in men's hearts; and this Logos is the architect and creator of the Universe.
In the first Apology (c. xxxil.) he says that the seed (<nr£pfia) from God is the Logos, which dwells in those who believe in God. So it appears that according to Justinus the Logos is only in such believers.
In the second Apology (c. viii.) he speaks of the seed of the Logos being implanted in all mankind; but those who order their lives according to Logos, such as the Stoics, have only a portion of the Logos (Kara airepfiaTiKou \6yov /u^pos), and have not the knowledge and contemplation of the entire Logos, which is Christ. Swedenborg's remarks (Angelic Wisdom, 240) are worth comparing with Justinus. The modern philosophor in substance agrees with the an, cient ; but he is more precise.
p. 62instincts or natural principles of action: but the rational animal man alone has a rational, intelligent soul (Jrvxr) AoyiKTJ, voepa). Antoninus insists on this continually : God is in man,1 and so we must constantly attend to the divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can have any knowledge of the nature of God.
The human soul is in a sense a portion of the divinity, and the soul alone has any communication with the Deity ; for as he says (xii. 2) : " With his intellectual part alone God touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from himself into these bodies. In fact he says that which is hidden within a man is life, that is, the man himself.
All the rest is vesture, covering, organs, instrument, which the living man, the real2 man, uses for the purpose of his present existence. The air is universally diffused for him who is able to respire ; and so for him who is willing to partake of it the intelligent power, which holds within it all things, is diffused as wide and free as the air (viii. 54). It is by living a divine life that man approaches to a knowl- 1 Comp.
Ep. to the Corinthians, i. 3. 17, and James iv. 8, 11 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. 8 This is also Swedenborg's doctrine of the soul. " As to what concerns the soul, of which it is said that it shall live after death, it is nothing else but the man himself, who lives in the body, that is, the interior man, who by the body acts in the world and from whom the body itself lives " (quoted
MABCUS AUBELIUS ANTONINZj*. 63 edge of the divinity.1 It is by following the divinity within, Saifxtw or 0eos, as Antoninus calls it, that man conies nearest to the Deity, the supreme good ; for man can never attain to perfect agreement with his internal guide (to iJyefionKoV).
"Live by Clissold, p. 456 of " The Practical Nature of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, in a Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin (Whately)," second edition, 1859; a book which theologians might read with profit). This is an old doctrine of the soul, which has been often proclaimed, but never better expressed than by the " Auctor de Mundo," c. 6, quoted by Gataker in his "Antoninus," p. 436.
The soul by which we live and have cities and houses is invisible, but it is seen by its works; for the whole method of life has been devised by it and ordered, and by it is held together.
In like manner we must think also about the Deity, who in power is most mighty, in beauty most comely, in life immortal, and in virtue supreme : wherefore though he is invisible to human nature, he is seen by his very works.'* Other passages to the same purpose are quoted by Gataker (p. 382).
Bishop Butler has the same as to the soul: " Upon the whole, then, our organs of sense and our limbs are certainly instruments, which the living persons, ourselves, make use of to perceive and move with. If this is not plain enough, he also says: "It follows that our organized bodies are no more ourselves, or part of ourselves, than any other matter around us." (Compare Anton, x. 38). 1 The reader may consult Discourse V.
"Of the existence and nature of God," in John Smith's " Select Discourses. He has prefixed as a text to this Discourse, the striking passage of Agapetus, Paraenes. § 3: "He who knows himself will know God ; and he who knows God will be made like to God; and he will be made like to God, who has become worthy God; and he becomes worthy of God, who does
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 61 (Compare Epictetus* Discourses, i. 14 ; and Voltaire a Mad9. Necker, vol. lxvii. p. 278, ed. Lequien.) God exists then, but what do we know of his nature ? Antoninus says that the soul of man is an efflux from the divinity. We have bodies like animals, but we have reason, intelligence, as the gods.
Animals have life (^v;^), and what we call lute which exists by itself, but as a thing connected with an individual being, as a man. Accordingly it is the capacity of receiving impressions (Vorstellungen, <pavra<riai)t and forming from them distinct Ideas (Begriffe) , and perceiving differences. I do not think that these remarks will help the reader to the understanding of Antoninus, or his use of the words vovt and Xâyos.
The emperor's meaning must be got from his own words, and if it does not agree altogether with modern notions, it is not our business to force it into agreement, but simply to find out what his meaning is, if we can. Justinus (ad Diognetum, c. vii.) says that the omnipotent, all-creating, and invisible God has fixed truth and the holy, incomprehensible Logos in men's hearts; and this Logos is the architect and creator of the Universe.
In the first Apology (c. xxxil.) he says that the seed (<nr£pfia) from God is the Logos, which dwells in those who believe in God. So it appears that according to Justinus the Logos is only in such believers.
In the second Apology (c. viii.) he speaks of the seed of the Logos being implanted in all mankind; but those who order their lives according to Logos, such as the Stoics, have only a portion of the Logos (Kara airepfiaTiKou \6yov /u^pos), and have not the knowledge and contemplation of the entire Logos, which is Christ. Swedenborg's remarks (Angelic Wisdom, 240) are worth comparing with Justinus. The modern philosophor in substance agrees with the an, cient ; but he is more precise.
62 PHILOSOPHY. instincts or natural principles of action: but the rational animal man alone has a rational, intelligent soul (Jrvxr) AoyiKTJ, voepa). Antoninus insists on this continually : God is in man,1 and so we must constantly attend to the divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can have any knowledge of the nature of God.
The human soul is in a sense a portion of the divinity, and the soul alone has any communication with the Deity ; for as he says (xii. 2) : " With his intellectual part alone God touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from himself into these bodies. In fact he says that which is hidden within a man is life, that is, the man himself.
All the rest is vesture, covering, organs, instrument, which the living man, the real2 man, uses for the purpose of his present existence. The air is universally diffused for him who is able to respire ; and so for him who is willing to partake of it the intelligent power, which holds within it all things, is diffused as wide and free as the air (viii. 54). It is by living a divine life that man approaches to a knowl- 1 Comp.
Ep. to the Corinthians, i. 3. 17, and James iv. 8, 11 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. 8 This is also Swedenborg's doctrine of the soul. " As to what concerns the soul, of which it is said that it shall live after death, it is nothing else but the man himself, who lives in the body, that is, the interior man, who by the body acts in the world and from whom the body itself lives " (quoted
MABCUS AUBELIUS ANTONINZj*. 63 edge of the divinity.1 It is by following the divinity within, Saifxtw or 0eos, as Antoninus calls it, that man conies nearest to the Deity, the supreme good ; for man can never attain to perfect agreement with his internal guide (to iJyefionKoV).
"Live by Clissold, p. 456 of " The Practical Nature of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, in a Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin (Whately)," second edition, 1859; a book which theologians might read with profit). This is an old doctrine of the soul, which has been often proclaimed, but never better expressed than by the " Auctor de Mundo," c. 6, quoted by Gataker in his "Antoninus," p. 436.
The soul by which we live and have cities and houses is invisible, but it is seen by its works; for the whole method of life has been devised by it and ordered, and by it is held together.
In like manner we must think also about the Deity, who in power is most mighty, in beauty most comely, in life immortal, and in virtue supreme : wherefore though he is invisible to human nature, he is seen by his very works.'* Other passages to the same purpose are quoted by Gataker (p. 382).
Bishop Butler has the same as to the soul: " Upon the whole, then, our organs of sense and our limbs are certainly instruments, which the living persons, ourselves, make use of to perceive and move with. If this is not plain enough, he also says: "It follows that our organized bodies are no more ourselves, or part of ourselves, than any other matter around us." (Compare Anton, x. 38). 1 The reader may consult Discourse V.
"Of the existence and nature of God," in John Smith's " Select Discourses. He has prefixed as a text to this Discourse, the striking passage of Agapetus, Paraenes. § 3: "He who knows himself will know God ; and he who knows God will be made like to God; and he will be made like to God, who has become worthy God; and he becomes worthy of God, who does
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