Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
MARCUS A UBELIUcr ANTONINUS.
101 ruler and a father who was able to take away all pride from me, and to bring me to the knowledge that it is possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches and statues, and such-like show; but that it is in such a man's power to bring himself very near to the fashion of a private person, without being for this reason either meaner in thought, or more remiss in action, with respect to the things which must be done for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler.
I thank the gods for giving me such a brother,1 who was able by his moral character to rouse me to vigilance over myself, and who at the same time pleased me by his respect and affection ; that my children have not been stupid nor deformed in body ; that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, and the other studies, in which I should perhaps have been completely engaged, if I had seen that I was making progress in them ; that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the station of honor, which they seemed to desire, without putting them off with hope of my doing it some other time after, because they were then still young ; that I knew Apollonius, Rusticus, Maximus ; that I received clear and frequent impressions about living according to nature, and what 1 The emperor had no brother except L. Verus, his brother by adoption.
p. 102kind of a life that is, so that, so far as depended on the gods, and their gifts, and help, and inspirations, nothing hindered me from forthwith living according to nature, though I still fall short of it through my own fault, and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and, I may almost say, their direct instructions ; that my body has held out so long in such a kind of life ; that 1 never touched either Benedicta or Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into amatory passions, 1 was cured, and, though I was often out of humor writh Rusticus, I never did anything of which I had occasion to repent ; that, though it was my mother's fate to die young, she spent the last years of her life with me ; that, whenever I wished to help any man in his need, or on any other occasion, I was never told that I had not the means of doing it ; and that to myself the same necessity never happened, to receive anything from another ; that I have such a wife,1 so obedient, and so affectionate, and so simple ; that I had abundance of good masters for my children ; and that remedies have been shown to me by dreams, both others, and against bloodspitting and giddiness2 . . . ; and that, when I had an inclination to philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and that I did not waste my time on 1 See the Life of Antoninus. • This is corrupt.
p. 103writers [of histories], or in the resolution of syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances in the heavens ; for all these things require the help of the gods and fortune. Among the Quadi at the Granua.1 1 The Quadi lived in the southern part of Bohemia and Moravia; and Antoninus made a campaign against them. (See the Life.) Granua is probably the river Graan, which flows into the Danube. If these words are genuine, Antoninus may have written this first book during the war with the Quadi. In the first edition of Antoninus, and in the older editions, the first three sections of the second book make the conclusion of the first book. Gataker placed them at the beginning of the second book.
II. 1. Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.1 To act against one another, then, is contrary to nature ; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. 2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away thy 1 Xenophon, Mem. tt. 3. 18.
MARCUS A UBELIUcr ANTONINUS.
101 ruler and a father who was able to take away all pride from me, and to bring me to the knowledge that it is possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches and statues, and such-like show; but that it is in such a man's power to bring himself very near to the fashion of a private person, without being for this reason either meaner in thought, or more remiss in action, with respect to the things which must be done for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler.
I thank the gods for giving me such a brother,1 who was able by his moral character to rouse me to vigilance over myself, and who at the same time pleased me by his respect and affection ; that my children have not been stupid nor deformed in body ; that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, and the other studies, in which I should perhaps have been completely engaged, if I had seen that I was making progress in them ; that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the station of honor, which they seemed to desire, without putting them off with hope of my doing it some other time after, because they were then still young ; that I knew Apollonius, Rusticus, Maximus ; that I received clear and frequent impressions about living according to nature, and what 1 The emperor had no brother except L. Verus, his brother by adoption.
102 MEDITATIONS. kind of a life that is, so that, so far as depended on the gods, and their gifts, and help, and inspirations, nothing hindered me from forthwith living according to nature, though I still fall short of it through my own fault, and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and, I may almost say, their direct instructions ; that my body has held out so long in such a kind of life ; that 1 never touched either Benedicta or Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into amatory passions, 1 was cured, and, though I was often out of humor writh Rusticus, I never did anything of which I had occasion to repent ; that, though it was my mother's fate to die young, she spent the last years of her life with me ; that, whenever I wished to help any man in his need, or on any other occasion, I was never told that I had not the means of doing it ; and that to myself the same necessity never happened, to receive anything from another ; that I have such a wife,1 so obedient, and so affectionate, and so simple ; that I had abundance of good masters for my children ; and that remedies have been shown to me by dreams, both others, and against bloodspitting and giddiness2 . . . ; and that, when I had an inclination to philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and that I did not waste my time on 1 See the Life of Antoninus. • This is corrupt.
MARCUS AUBELIUS ANTONINUS. 103 writers [of histories], or in the resolution of syllogisms, or occupy myself about the investigation of appearances in the heavens ; for all these things require the help of the gods and fortune. Among the Quadi at the Granua.1 1 The Quadi lived in the southern part of Bohemia and Moravia; and Antoninus made a campaign against them. (See the Life.) Granua is probably the river Graan, which flows into the Danube. If these words are genuine, Antoninus may have written this first book during the war with the Quadi. In the first edition of Antoninus, and in the older editions, the first three sections of the second book make the conclusion of the first book. Gataker placed them at the beginning of the second book.
II. 1. Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.1 To act against one another, then, is contrary to nature ; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. 2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away your 1 Xenophon, Mem. tt. 3. 18.
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