Chapter 5 volume four

1. The dominant part in us, when it is natural, so loves what happens, that it always easily adapts itself to what may happen and present to it.For it does not demand any definite means, but tends to its end under all conditions; it even derives means for itself from its opposite, as fire grabs what falls into its flame.A hot fire is suppressed by what falls upon it, but when it is strong it soon possesses and devours what is thrown upon it, and by means of these things burns more and more. 2. Let no action be performed aimlessly, or not in accordance with sound principles of art. 3. People seek to retreat from themselves, in huts in the country, in the mountains and by the sea; you tend to desire these things too.But this is entirely a mark of the mortal, because whenever you want to withdraw into yourself you can do so.For nowhere can a man be more peaceful and less troubled than into his own mind, especially when he has such thoughts in his mind, and by thinking about them he immediately enters into complete peace.I insist: Serenity is nothing but the orderliness of the mind.So keep making yourself this retreat, renew yourself, keep your principles simple and basic, so that, when you want to appeal to them, they will be enough to completely purify the mind and rid you of all dissatisfaction And return home.Because, what are you dissatisfied with?Is it dissatisfaction with people's evil?Then let your mind recall this conclusion: that rational animals are interdependent, that suffering is part of justice, that men do evil without knowing it; Dead and reduced to ashes after battle; that will at last quiet thee. —but perhaps you are dissatisfied with what is allotted to you from the universe—then recall this thought instead: consider either God exists, or atoms, the accidental co-existence of things; or consider the arguments , they prove that the world is a political society, and that will silence you in the end. - but perhaps the corporeal thing still grabs you - consider this further: when the mind, once it has separated itself from the body, discovers its own strength, it does not make itself Mix with the breath; also think again of all that you have heard and agreed to in terms of pain and pleasure; and you will finally make yourself still. - but perhaps the desire for so-called fame will torment you - then look at how quickly all things are forgotten, look at the chaos of infinite time past and future; look at the emptiness of praise, look at those who pretend The fickleness and poverty of judgment of those who give praise, and the narrowness of the circle upon which praise is circumscribed, quiet yourself at last.For the whole earth is one point, and what a corner of the earth is your dwelling place, and how few things exist on it, and what kind of man is he who will praise you?

Keep this in mind then: remember to retreat into your own little territory, especially not to distract or strain you, but to remain free, to see as a person, as a being, as a citizen, as a mortal thing.The things that you are easy to touch and notice at your hand, let them be, are nothing but these two things: one is things that do not touch the soul, they are external and unchangeable, but our troubles only come from The opinion of the heart; the other is all these things, which you see change and disappear quickly; always bear in mind how many such changes you have witnessed.The universe is flux, life is opinion.

4. If our intellectual part is common, so far as we are rational beings, then reason is also common, and therefore also the reason which commands us to do and not to do; therefore there is also a common; we are all citizens of the same class; members of some political body; the world is, in a sense, one country.For who would say that the whole class is a member of another political community?It is from this common political body that arises our true intellectual faculties, reasoning faculties, and our faculties of the rule of law, or where else do they come from?For, just as the earthy part of me was given me from some earth, so some watery part from another element, and some fiery part from some particular spring. (since nothing comes from nothing and nothing returns to nothing), so the rational part also comes from some source.

5. Death, like reproduction, is a secret of nature. It is the combination and decomposition of the same elements. It is not something that people should be ashamed of at all, because it does not violate the nature of a rational animal and does not violate the principles of our structure. 6. It is natural and necessary that these evil things should be done by such people, and if one does not allow this, it is the same as not allowing the fig tree to have sap.But bear this in mind anyway: you and he are dead in a very short time, and soon even your name will be forgotten. 7. Drop your opinion, then you drop the complaint: "I'm hurt." And drop the complaint "I'm hurt," and the hurt disappears.

8. That which does not make a man bad, does not make his life bad, does not damage him from without or from within. 9. The nature of the universally useful has to do so. 10. Take everything that happens as it is rightly happening, and if you observe carefully, you will find that it is so.I mean here not only the continuity of the sequence of things, but the justification itself, as if it were done by a man who assigns a value to each thing.Observe then as you began, and whatever you do, do it with reference to the good, and do it with reference to what you will be understood to be good in this sense, and carry this through in all your actions.

11. Do not have the same opinion of things as the one who has wronged you has, or wish you had, but see things as they are. 12. A man should always take these two rules as his motto: one is to do only what the governing and legislating faculty of reason advises concerning dealing with the interests of men; You get rid of opinions, then change your opinions.But this change of opinion must come only from some kind of persuasion, as on what is just or what is in the common interest, and not because it seems mere pleasure or fame. 13. Are you rational?I have got.So why don't you use it?Is it because when it's going to go this way, you want something else?

14 You exist as a part.You will disappear into that which produced you; but rather, you will be withdrawn by transfiguration into its generative principle. 15. Plenty of frankincense on the same altar: one dropped earlier, one later; and this does not make them any different. 16. If you go back to your principles and worship reason, in ten days you will be like a god to people, and now you will be like a beast and an ape to them. 17. Don't act as if you will live a thousand years.Death watches over you.Do good while you live, when good is within your power. 18. He who does not inquire what his neighbor says, does, or thinks, but looks only at what he himself does, at what is just and pure, or, as Urgacheon says, who does not look round How many troubles are spared by the man who walks along the straight path when the morals of others are depraved!

19. He who has a strong desire for posthumous fame does not think that those who remember him will soon themselves die, and then their children and grandchildren, until all memory is passed through those who foolishly worshiped and died. Ultimately obliterated.But suppose those who will remember him are even immortal, so that the memory will be permanent, so what does that mean to you?I don't say what it means to the dead, but what it means to the living.Praise, unless it does serve some purpose, what else is it?Since you are now unseemly rejecting this gift of nature, and clinging to something else...

20. Everything that is beautiful in every way is beautiful in itself, and its beauty belongs to itself, without praise as a part of it.So being praised doesn't make a thing better or worse.I firmly believe that this also applies to what the common people call beautiful, for example, material things or works of art.What is truly beautiful needs nothing but law, truth, benevolence, or temperance.And which of these things is beautiful because it is praised, or is it ugly because it is condemned?Does not praise make things bad like emeralds, or gold, ivory, purple robes, lyres, short swords, flowers, and bushes?

21. If souls continue to exist, how can the atmosphere accommodate them infinitely? - But how can the earth contain the bodies of those who have been buried throughout the ages?Here just as these corpses change after they remain for a while, whatever form they become, their decomposition makes room for other corpses, so also the souls that move into the air, after continuing to exist for a while, become Changed and disintegrated, acquired a flame-like nature by merging into a regenerated intelligence of the universe, in this way to make room for the incarnate souls who got there.This is the answer one might give to this assumption of the continued existence of the soul.But we must consider not only the number of bodies so buried, but also the number of animals and other carnivores that we eat every day.For what an amount is consumed so that they are somehow buried in the bodies of those who feed on them!Yet the earth still receives bodies by turning them into blood, into elements like air or fire.How can we get in touch with the truth by exploring this matter?By dividing material and formal causes.

22. Let not your thoughts be confused, but respect justice in every action, and insist on using the ability to perceive or understand to every impression. 23. O universe, everything that is in harmony with you is also in harmony with me.Everything that is right for you is right for me.O nature, all that your season brings is fruit to me: from thee all things come, and to thee all things return.Says the poet, dear city of Cyclops; shall I not also say, dear city of Zeus? 24. The philosopher said, if you are willing to be quiet, please do few things.But consider whether it would be better to say: do what is necessary, and all that the reason of the gregarious animal requires, and do as it is required.For it brings not only the peace of doing well, but the peace of doing little.Since the vast majority of things we say and do are unnecessary, a man will have more leisure and less discomfort if he cancels them.Therefore, every time a person does something, he should ask himself: Is this a necessary thing?One should discard not only unnecessary actions, but also unnecessary thoughts, so that frivolous actions do not follow. 25. Try how to adapt to you the life of a good man, that is, the life of a man who is content with his share of the whole, with his own just actions and benevolent qualities. 26. Have you seen those things?Also pay attention to look at the other side of things.Don't disturb yourself.To make you very simple.Has anyone done evil to you?Then he is also doing evil to himself.Did something happen to you?Well, all that has happened from eternity in the universe was assigned to you and spun for you.After all, your life is short.You must focus on using the present with reason and justice, staying awake in your relaxation. 27. It's either a well-ordered universe, or it's a mess of chaos thrown together, but it's still a universe.But how is it possible that there is no order in the All, but there is some order in you?While all things are so separate, scattered and resonant, there is also a certain order within you. 28. A ferocious character, a cowardly character, a stubborn character, cruel, childish, animal, clumsy, hypocritical, indecent, deceitful, bossy. 29. If he is an outsider to the universe who does not know what is in it, then he is also an outsider who does not know what is going on in it.He is a fugitive from social reason; a blind man who closes the doors of understanding, a wretch who needs others instead of drawing from himself all that is useful for life.He is a superfluity in the universe, withdrawing and separating himself from the reason of our common nature by being dissatisfied with what happens, because the same nature that produced these things also produced him: he is split from the state A fragment that separates one's own soul from the souls of the rational animals that have merged into one. 30. One is a philosopher without a corset, the other is a man without a book, which is also a half-naked man.He said, I have no bread, I am with reason. - I do not get food and clothing from my knowledge, I live with my reason. 31. Love the art you have learned, however meager it may be, be content with it, and spend the rest of your life like a man who trusts in God with his whole body, mind, and all, and makes yourself nothing The tyrant is no one's slave. 32. Consider, for example, the time of Vespeschen, and you will see all these things: people marrying, sick, dying, fighting, feasting, trading, farming, flattery, arrogance, suspicion, intrigue, cursing, complaining, Fall in love, gather wealth, desire the power of elders and kings.And the lives of these people are now completely gone.Going back to the time of Trajan, all the same, their lives were lost.Look in the same way at other ages and at whole peoples, and see how many soon after a great effort fall down, disintegrated into elements.But you should think chiefly of those of your own acquaintance, who distract themselves with unprofitable things, and do not know to do what is in their proper structure, whereby you cling firmly to your structure and be content with it.Here it is necessary to remember that the attention given to everything has its own proper value and proportion.For then you will not be dissatisfied, as long as you do not draw your attention to little things too much. 33. Familiar words are now obsolete, and so are the names of those who were famous in the past, to some extent forgotten. Cummyles, Caesar, Wallaces, Leolatus And later Scipio, Cato, then Augustus, and Hedrian and Antony.Because all things pass quickly and become mere legends, and complete forgetting will soon cover them.What I say also applies to those who are conspicuous in various strange ways, and as for the rest, as soon as they breathe their last breath, they die, and no one speaks of them.After all, what is even an eternal memorial?Just a nothingness.So what is it that we should really be making serious efforts to do? 34. Voluntarily surrender yourself to Crotor, one of the three Fates, and let her spin your thread into whatever she pleases. 35. Everything lasts but one day, the rememberer and the remembered. 36. Constantly observe all things which are replaced in change, and accustom you to consider that the nature of the universe loves to change that which exists, and to create new like things.For everything that exists is in a sense the seed of that which will exist.But you consider only the seed that is sown in the earth or in the womb: but this is a very vague conception. 37. You are not long in the world, but you have not yet made yourself simple and simple, freed from troubles, not freed from doubts about being damaged by external things, not yet cultivated a disposition to treat everyone kindly, and not yet able to make your Wisdom is used only to act righteously. 38. Examine the dominant part of men's minds, even those of wise men, and see what they avoid and what they pursue. 39. What is evil to you does not exist in the governing principles of others, nor in the changes and transformations of your body.Where is it then?is in this part of you.There is the capacity to form opinions about evil.Then let this ability not form this opinion, and everything will be normal.If the poor body that is nearest to it is mutilated, burned, festered, and rotten, still let that part which forms an opinion on these The things of good and bad people are by no means evil.For the same things happen to those who live against nature as to those who live according to nature, neither against nor in accordance with nature. 40. Always regard the universe as a living thing, having a substance and a soul; notice how everything is related to perception, to the perception of a living thing; how everything moves in a manner of motion; How all things are the cause of the co-operation of all things that exist; note also the ever-spinning thread and the interconnection of the parts of the web. 41. You are a little soul with a body, as Epictetus used to say. 42. It is not a bad thing that things undergo change, and it is not a good thing that things maintain their existence because of changes. 43. Time is like a river made up of various events, and it is a swift river. Because just seeing one thing, it is taken away, and another thing replaces it, and this one will also be taken away. take away. 44. Everything that happens is as dear and familiar as spring roses and summer fruits, for sickness, death, slander, treachery, and whatever else pleases or vexes a fool. 45. In the series of things, what follows always matches exactly what comes before, because this series is not like a simple enumeration of unrelated things, only a necessary order, but a reasonable connection : Just as all existing things are harmoniously arranged together, new things that appear not only show a continuation, but also show some kind of wonderful connection. 46. ​​Always remember what Heraclitus said: Earth becomes water when it dies, water becomes air when it dies, air dies and becomes fire, and then the other way around.Think also of those who forget whither their way, think of their quarrels with those with whom they most often come in contact, think of the reason which governs the universe, and the daily occurrences which seem strange to them; consider that we should not Act and speak as if we were asleep (for we speak and act even in sleep); we should not act and speak like children who learn from their parents, merely because we have been taught. 47. If God told you that you would die tomorrow, or definitely the day after tomorrow, you would not care too much about whether it was tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, unless you were really poor in spirit, because the difference is so small!So don't make it a big deal to die in as many years as you can come up with instead of tomorrow. 48. Keep thinking about these things: how many doctors died after frequently frowning at their patients; how many astrologers died after foretelling the death of others long in advance; Immortality followed by death; how many heroes died after killing thousands; how many tyrants, as if they were immortal, died after using their power over the lives of men with terrible insolence; Lys, Pompeii, Herculeinion, and countless other cities were completely destroyed.Add to this one after another all the people you know, one who died after burying someone else, and another who buried him: all this within a short period of time.In short, always be mindful of how ephemeral and worthless human things are, that what was yesterday a speck of slime will be tomorrow a mummy or dust.Then go through this little time naturally, and end your journey with satisfaction, like an olive dropped when ripe, grateful for the nature that produced it, and grateful for the tree it grew from. 49. Be like a rock standing before the ever-beating waves, which stands still and tames the fury of the waves around it. I'm unlucky because this happened to me. —Do not be so, but think that I am happy, though this has happened, because I have always remained free from pain, and not overwhelmed by present or future fears.For such a thing may happen to everyone, but not everyone always saves himself from suffering on such occasions.So why is it not a blessing but a misfortune that happened to me?Do you call in all cases a man's misfortune that which does not depart from his nature?When a thing does not violate the will of human nature, would you regard it as a deviation from human nature?Well, you know the will of nature, and will this happening prevent you from being just, noble, temperate, wise, and immune to rash opinions and errors?Will it prevent you from temperance, liberty, and all other good qualities?It is in these qualities that human nature derives all that is its own.Remember to apply this principle to every occasion that may trouble you: that it is not a misfortune, but a fortune to bear it nobly. 50. A popular but still useful aid to the contempt of death by revisiting those who cling to life.Did they gain more than those who died earlier?They must still end up lying in a grave somewhere.Chedtisalus, Fabius, Julian Luce, Lepidus, or anyone like them buried many people and then themselves.In short, the distance between life and death is very short. Think about it carefully, how much trouble is in life, what kind of person it is accompanied by, and what kind of weak body resides in it to walk this distance with difficulty, then Don't think of life as a valuable thing. Look at the infinite time after you, and then at the infinite time before you. Before this infinity, there is a difference between living three years and living three generations. What's the difference? 51. Always take the straight road, the straight road is natural, and say and do everything that is consistent with sound reason.For such a one frees a man from troubles, wars, and all trickery and ostentation.