Book Ten

1 Will you ever, my soul, be good and simple and one and naked, plainer to see than the body that surrounds you? Will you ever taste a loving and affectionate disposition? Will you ever be full and lacking nothing, longing for nothing and desiring nothing, living or lifeless, for the enjoyment of pleasures? Nor time, in which to enjoy them longer? Nor a place, or a country, or a mild climate? Nor agreeable company? But will you be content with your present state, and take pleasure in all that is present, and convince yourself that you have everything, that it all comes to you from the gods, that all is well with you and will be well, whatever pleases them and whatever they are going to give for the preservation of the perfect living being, the good and just and beautiful, which begets all things and holds them together and contains and embraces them as they are dissolved for the birth of others like them? Will you ever be such as to live as a fellow citizen with gods and men, so as neither to find any fault with them nor be condemned by them?

2 Watch what your nature requires, as one governed by nature alone. Then do it and accept it, unless your nature as a living being is going to be made worse by it. Next you must watch what your nature as a living being requires, and accept all of it, unless your nature as a rational living being is going to be made worse by it. And the rational is at once also the civic. Use these rules, then, and do not busy yourself with anything else.

3 Everything that happens either happens in such a way that you are born to bear it, or in such a way that you are not born to bear it. If it happens to you in a way you are born to bear, do not resent it, but bear it as you were born to. If it happens in a way you are not born to bear, do not resent it either; for it will perish when it has consumed you. But remember that you are born to bear everything that your own judgment can make bearable and endurable, by thinking that it is to your advantage or your duty to do so.

4 If he is mistaken, teach him kindly and show him what he has overlooked. If you cannot, blame yourself, or not even yourself.

5 Whatever happens to you was being prepared for you from eternity; and the weaving of causes was spinning together, from everlasting, your existence and this event.

6 Whether atoms or nature, let it be laid down first that I am a part of the whole that is governed by nature; second, that I am in some way akin to the parts that are of the same kind as myself. For remembering these things, in so far as I am a part I shall not be discontented with anything that is allotted from the whole. For nothing is harmful to the part that benefits the whole; for the whole contains nothing that does not benefit it. All natures have this in common, and the nature of the universe has this besides, that it cannot be compelled by any cause outside it to produce anything harmful to itself. By remembering, then, that I am a part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that comes about; and in so far as I am in some way akin to the parts of my own kind, I shall do nothing unsocial, but rather aim at the good of my kind, and direct every impulse of mine to the common benefit, and turn it away from the opposite. If these things are done so, life must flow well, as you would think the life of a citizen flows well who goes on through actions that profit his fellow citizens and welcomes whatever the city assigns to him.

7 The parts of the whole, all that the universe contains by nature, must perish; let this be said in the sense of “be changed.” But if this were by nature both bad and necessary for them, the whole would not be well managed, with its parts going toward change and made to perish in various ways. Did nature herself set out to do harm to her own parts, and make them liable to harm and bound to fall into harm, or did such things happen without her knowing? Both are incredible. And if someone even leaves nature out and explains these things by saying that it is just how they are, even so it is absurd to say at once that the parts of the whole are such as to change, and at the same time to be surprised or vexed as if it were something against nature, especially since the dissolution is into the very things each was made of. For it is either a scattering of the elements from which it was compounded, or a turning of the solid into the earthy and of the breath into the airy, so that these too are taken up into the reason of the whole, whether it is burned up in a cycle or renewed by everlasting exchanges. And do not imagine that the solid and the breath belong to you from your first coming into being. All of it came in as an influx, yesterday or the day before, from food and the air you breathe. So it is this that you took in that changes, not what your mother bore. And suppose that it binds you closely to your particular self; that, I think, is nothing against what is being said now.

8 When you have given yourself these names, good, modest, truthful, mindful, of one mind, high-minded,¹ take care that you are never renamed; and if you lose these names, come back to them quickly. And remember that “mindful” was meant to signify discerning attention to each thing and a mind that does not wander; “of one mind,” the willing acceptance of what the common nature assigns; “high-minded,” the raising of the thinking part above the smooth or rough motions of the flesh, above fame and death and all such things.

If, then, you keep yourself in these names, without longing to be called by them by others, you will be a different man and will enter on a different life. For to go on being such as you have been until now, and to be torn and defiled in such a life, is the mark of a man utterly insensible and clinging to life, like those half-eaten fighters with wild beasts who, covered with wounds and gore, still beg to be kept until tomorrow, to be thrown in that state to the same claws and teeth.

Put yourself aboard these few names, then. If you can stay in them, stay, as if you had moved to some Isles of the Blessed. But if you feel that you are falling out of them and not holding your ground, go boldly into some corner where you will hold it; or else leave life altogether, not in anger, but simply, freely, and modestly, having done this one thing at least in your life, to have left it so.

But to remember these names it will help you greatly to remember the gods, and that they do not want to be flattered, but want all rational beings to become like them; and want the fig tree to do the work of a fig tree, the dog of a dog, the bee of a bee, and man of a man.

9 Mime, war, fluster, torpor, slavery: day by day they will wipe out those holy principles of yours, all those you imagine and let pass without studying nature. You must see and do everything in such a way that the practical is accomplished and at the same time the contemplative is exercised, and the self-confidence that comes from knowledge of each thing is kept, unnoticed but not hidden. When will you enjoy simplicity? When dignity? When the knowledge of each thing: what it is in substance, what place it has in the universe, how long it is meant to last, what it is made of, to whom it can belong, and who can give it and take it away?

10 A spider is proud of catching a fly; one man of catching a hare, another a sprat in his net, another boars, another bears, another Sarmatians.² Are they not robbers, if you examine their principles?

11 Acquire a method of studying how all things change into one another, and attend to it constantly, and train yourself in this part. For nothing so enlarges the mind. Such a man has put off the body, and, thinking that he will very soon have to leave all these things and depart from among men, he has given himself wholly to justice in what he does himself, and to the nature of the whole in all else that happens. What anyone will say or think about him or do against him does not even enter his mind; he is content with these two things, that he acts justly in what he is doing now and loves what is now allotted to him. He has put away all busyness and all pursuits, and wants nothing but to go straight on by the law, and in going straight to follow god.

12 What need is there for guessing, when you can see what must be done? If you see it, go on that way kindly, without turning back. If you do not see it, hold back and take the best advice. And if other things oppose this, go on according to the means at hand, after careful thought, holding to what seems just. For it is best to achieve that, since failure is failure in that. The man who follows reason in everything is at once at leisure and ready to act, at once cheerful and composed.

13 Ask yourself as soon as you wake: Will it make any difference to you if another blames what is just and right? It will make no difference. Have you forgotten what those who puff themselves up in praising and blaming others are like in bed, what they are like at table, what they do, what they avoid and what they pursue, what they steal and what they snatch, not with hands and feet but with the most precious part of themselves, which, when it wills, becomes faith, modesty, truth, law, a good spirit?

14 To nature, who gives all things and takes them back, the educated and modest man says: “Give what you will; take back what you will.” And he says it not in defiance, but simply in obedience and goodwill to her.

15 Little is left of this. Live as on a mountain. It makes no difference whether there or here, if one lives everywhere in the universe as in a city. Let men see, let them observe, a true man living according to nature. If they cannot bear him, let them kill him; that is better than living as they do.

16 No more talking at all about what kind of man the good man should be, but be one.

17 Picture constantly the whole of time and the whole of substance, and that every particular thing, in substance, is a fig seed, and in time, a turn of the drill.

18 Attending to each thing that exists, think of it as already dissolving and changing, and as it were rotting or scattering, or however each is by nature meant to die.

19 What they are like when they eat, sleep, couple, go to stool, and the rest. Then what they are like when they play the man and give themselves airs, or are angry and rebuke others from on high. And a little while ago how many they were slaves to, and for what! And in a little while they will be in the same state.

20 What the nature of the whole brings to each is to the advantage of each, and to its advantage at the time when she brings it.

21 “Earth loves the rain, and the solemn air loves”;³ and the universe loves to make whatever is going to be. So I say to the universe: “I love along with you.” And is this not what is meant by the saying that this or that “loves to happen”?⁴

22 Either you live here, and are already used to it; or you go away, and that was your wish; or you die, and have finished your service. Besides these there is nothing. So be of good cheer.

23 Let it always be clear that the country is just like this, and how everything here is the same as on the top of a mountain, or by the sea, or wherever you like. For you will find exactly what Plato says: “fencing a fold on the mountain,” he says, “and milking the bleating flocks.”⁵

24 What is my ruling center to me? What am I making of it now, and for what am I using it now? Is it empty of mind? Is it cut loose and torn away from fellowship? Is it so melted into the poor flesh and blended with it that it turns as the flesh turns?

25 He who runs away from his master is a runaway. And the law is a master, so he who breaks the law is a runaway. But he too who grieves or is angry or afraid does not want something to have happened, or to be happening, or to happen, of what has been ordained by the one who governs all things, who is law, allotting to each what falls to him.⁶ So he who is afraid or grieves or is angry is a runaway.

26 A man has deposited seed in a womb and gone away, and then another cause takes it over and works on it and completes a child. From such a thing, such a result! Again, he has sent food down his throat, and then another cause takes it over and makes sensation and impulse, and in short life and strength and other things (how many, and what!). Look, then, at these things that come about in such concealment, and see the power, as we see the power that weighs things down and the power that carries them up, not with our eyes, but no less clearly.

27 Think constantly how all things such as happen now happened before too, and think of them as happening again. And set before your eyes whole dramas and scenes of the same kind, all you have known from your own experience or from older history: the whole court of Hadrian, the whole court of Antoninus, the whole court of Philip, of Alexander, of Croesus. For all those were just like these, only with other actors.

28 Picture everyone who grieves or is discontented at anything as like the little pig at the sacrifice, kicking and squealing. Like it too is the man who groans in silence, alone on his little bed. Think of our bondage, and that only to the rational being is it given to follow willingly what happens; mere following is necessary for all.

29 Pausing over each single thing you do, ask yourself whether death is terrible because it deprives you of this.

30 When you take offense at someone’s wrongdoing, turn at once to yourself and reflect what similar wrong you do yourself: for instance, thinking money a good thing, or pleasure, or a little fame, and so on. For by attending to this you will quickly forget your anger, when this thought comes to you as well: that he is under compulsion. What else can he do? Or, if you can, take away from him what compels him.

31 When you see Satyrion, think of Socraticus or Eutyches or Hymen; when you see Euphrates, think of Eutychion or Silvanus; when you see Alciphron, think of Tropaeophorus; when you see Severus, think of Crito or Xenophon;⁷ and when you look at yourself, think of one of the Caesars; and in every case, the counterpart. Then let this thought come to you as well: Where are they now? Nowhere, or wherever. For in this way you will see human things constantly as smoke and nothing, especially if you remember too that what has once changed will never again exist in all infinite time. Why then do you strain? Why is it not enough for you to pass through this brief time in good order? What material and subject for work you are running away from! For what are all these things but exercises for a reason that has seen what is in life accurately and with an understanding of nature? Stay, then, until you have made these things too your own, as a strong stomach makes everything its own, as a blazing fire makes flame and light of whatever you throw into it.

32 Let no one be able to say truly of you that you are not simple, or that you are not good; but let anyone who thinks any such thing of you be a liar. And all this is in your power. For who prevents you from being good and simple? Only resolve to live no longer if you will not be such a man; for reason does not choose that you should live if you are not.

33 With this material, what is the soundest thing that can be done or said? Whatever it is, it is in your power to do it or say it; and do not make excuses as if you were prevented. You will not stop groaning until you feel that what luxury is to pleasure-lovers, that is what doing what is proper to man’s constitution is to you, in whatever material is put before you and comes your way. For you must regard as an enjoyment everything that you can do according to your own nature.

And you can do it everywhere. A roller is not given everywhere to move with its own motion, nor water, nor fire, nor any of the other things governed by a nature or a soul without reason; for many things block them and stand in their way. But mind and reason can go through every obstacle, as they are made by nature and as they will.

Set before your eyes this ease with which reason will be carried through all things, as fire upward, as a stone downward, as a roller down a slope, and ask for nothing more. For the other obstacles either concern only the poor body, a corpse, or else, without our judgment and the surrender of reason itself, they do not crush us or do any harm at all.

Otherwise the one who suffers them would at once become bad. In all other made things, whatever bad happens to any of them, the thing that suffers it becomes worse for it; but here, if one may say so, a man becomes even better and more praiseworthy by making right use of what befalls him. In short, remember that nothing harms one who is by nature a citizen that does not harm the city, and nothing harms the city that does not harm the law; and none of these so-called misfortunes harms the law. And what does not harm the law does not harm the city or the citizen.

34 For one who has been bitten by true principles even the briefest and most commonplace saying is enough to remind him to be free of grief and fear; such as: “Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground: / so are the generations of men.”⁸ Leaves too are your children; leaves too these people who cry out so convincingly and praise you, or on the other side curse you, or quietly blame and mock you; leaves likewise those who will pass on your fame after you. For all these “come into being in the season of spring”; then the wind throws them down; then the forest puts out others in their place. To be short-lived is common to them all; but you flee and pursue everything as if it would last forever. A little while and you will close your eyes; and soon someone else will be mourning the man who carried you to your grave.

35 The healthy eye should see everything visible, and not say, “I want green things”; for that is the mark of a sore eye. The healthy hearing and sense of smell should be ready for everything that can be heard and smelled; and the healthy stomach should be the same toward all food, as a mill toward everything it was made to grind. So too the healthy mind should be ready for everything that happens. The mind that says, “Let my children be safe,” and “Let everyone praise whatever I do,” is an eye that wants green things, or teeth that want soft things.

36 No one is so fortunate that there will not be some standing by when he dies who welcome the evil that is happening. Was he earnest and wise? Will there not be someone at the very end saying to himself, “Now at last we can breathe again, free of this schoolmaster. He was not hard on any of us, but I felt that he silently condemned us”? So much for the earnest man; but in our case, how many other things there are for which many would like to be rid of us! You will think of this, then, when you are dying, and you will go more easily, reasoning: I am leaving a life in which my very companions, for whom I struggled so much, prayed so much, took so much thought, these very people want me gone, hoping perhaps for some relief from it. Why, then, should anyone cling to a longer stay here? Do not for this reason go away less kindly toward them, but keep your own way, friendly and well-disposed and gracious; and not as one torn away; but as, when a man dies a good death, his little soul slips easily out of the body, so should your departure from them be. For nature bound you and joined you to them, but now she is loosing you. I am loosed as from my own people, yet not dragged away, but without force; for this too is one of the things according to nature.

37 Make it a habit, as far as you can, whenever anyone does anything, to ask yourself: What is his reference in doing this? But begin with yourself, and examine yourself first.

38 Remember that what pulls the strings is that which is hidden within: that is speech, that is life, that, if one must say it, is the man. Never picture along with it the vessel that surrounds it, and these little organs molded around it. They are like an axe, differing only in that they grow on the body. For without the cause that moves them and holds them back, these parts are of no more use than the shuttle to the weaver, the pen to the writer, or the whip to the driver.

Notes

1. 1. The three Greek words (emphrōn, symphrōn, hyperphrōn) are all formed from phrēn, “mind,” with prefixes meaning “in,” “with,” and “above.”

2. 2. A nomadic people beyond the Danube, against whom Marcus fought in the 170s.

3. 3. Euripides, a fragment, also quoted by Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 8.1.

4. 4. The Greek verb philei, “loves,” is also used for “tends to”: what “tends to happen” is taken literally as what “loves to happen.”

5. 5. Plato, Theaetetus 174d–e, where a king shut up in his walled city is compared to a herdsman in a mountain fold.

6. 6. A play on nomos, “law,” and nemein, “to allot.”

7. 7. Euphrates was a Stoic philosopher of the late first and early second century; Severus may be the Severus of 1.14. Most of the others cannot be identified.

8. 8. Homer, Iliad 6.147–149, the source also of “come into being in the season of spring” below.