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.For it is not lawful,that anything that is of another and inferior kind and nature, be it what it will, aseither popular applause, or honour, or riches, or pleasures; should be suffered toconfront and contest as it were, with that which is rational, and operatively good.Forall these things, if once though but for a while, they begin to please, they presentlyprevail, and pervert a man s mind, or turn a man from the right way.Do thou there-fore I say absolutely and freely make choice of that which is best, and stick unto it.Now, that they say is best, which is most profitable.If they mean profitable to manas he is a rational man, stand thou to it, and maintain it; but if they mean profitable,as he is a creature, only reject it; and from this thy tenet and conclusion keep offcarefully all plausible shows and colours of external appearance, that thou mayestbe able to discern things rightly.Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - tr.Casaubon v.8.16, uploaded to www.philaletheians.co.uk, 14 July 2013Page 25 of 128MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUSTHIRD BOOKVIII.Never esteem of anything as profitable, which shall ever constrain thee either tobreak thy faith, or to lose thy modesty; to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to dis-semble, to lust after anything, that requireth the secret of walls or veils.But he thatpreferreth before all things his rational part and spirit, and the sacred mysteries ofvirtue which issueth from it, he shall never lament and exclaim, never sigh; he shallnever want either solitude or company: and which is chiefest of all, he shall livewithout either desire or fear.And as for life, whether for a long or short time he shallenjoy his soul thus compassed about with a body, he is altogether indifferent.For ifeven now he were to depart, he is as ready for it, as for any other action, which maybe performed with modesty and decency.For all his life long, this is his only care,that his mind may always be occupied in such intentions and objects, as are properto a rational sociable creature.IX.In the mind that is once truly disciplined and purged, thou canst not find any-thing, either foul or impure, or as it were festered: nothing that is either servile, oraffected: no partial tie; no malicious averseness; nothing obnoxious; nothing con-cealed.The life of such an one, death can never surprise as imperfect; as of an actor,that should die before he had ended, or the play itself were at an end, a man mightspeak.X.Use thine opinative faculty with all honour and respect, for in her indeed is all:that thy opinion do not beget in thy understanding anything contrary to either na-ture, or the proper constitution of a rational creature.The end and object of a ration-al constitution is, to do nothing rashly, to be kindly affected towards men, and in allthings willingly to submit unto the gods.Casting therefore all other things aside,keep thyself to these few, and remember withal that no man properly can be said tolive more than that which is now present, which is but a moment of time.Whatsoev-er is besides either is already past, or uncertain.The time therefore that any mandoth live, is but a little, and the place where he liveth, is but a very little corner of theearth, and the greatest fame that can remain of a man after his death, even that isbut little, and that too, such as it is whilst it is, is by the succession of silly mortalmen preserved, who likewise shall shortly die, and even whiles they live know notwhat in very deed they themselves are: and much less can know one, who long beforeis dead and gone.XI.To these ever-present helps and mementoes, let one more be added, ever to makea particular description and delineation as it were of every object that presents itselfto thy mind, that thou mayest wholly and throughly contemplate it, in its own propernature, bare and naked; wholly, and severally; divided into its several parts andquarters: and then by thyself in thy mind, to call both it, and those things of which itdoth consist, and in which it shall be resolved, by their own proper true names, andappellations.For there is nothing so effectual to beget true magnanimity, as to beable truly and methodically to examine and consider all things that happen in thislife, and so to penetrate into their natures, that at the same time, this also may con-cur in our apprehensions: what is the true use of it? and what is the true nature ofthis universe, to which it is useful? how much in regard of the universe may it be es-teemed? how much in regard of man, a citizen of the supreme city, of which all othercities in the world are as it were but houses and families?Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - tr.Casaubon v.8.16, uploaded to www.philaletheians.co.uk, 14 July 2013Page 26 of 128MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUSTHIRD BOOKXII.What is this, that now my fancy is set upon? of what things doth it consist? howlong can it last? which of all the virtues is the proper virtue for this present use? aswhether meekness, fortitude, truth, faith, sincerity, contentation, or any of the rest?Of everything therefore thou must use thyself to say, This immediately comes fromGod, this by that fatal connection, and concatenation of things, or (which almostcomes to one) by some coincidental casualty
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