Book VII

1. What is wickedness? What you have often seen. When you are in danger of being shocked, consider that the sight is nothing but what you have frequently seen already. Everywhere up and down, ages and histories, towns and families, are full of the same stories. There is nothing new to be met with; but all things are common, and quickly over.

2. Opinions, whether right or wrong, can never be pulled out of your head, unless the impressions on which they rest are first removed. It is in your power to kindle them afresh, or to form a right judgment upon the present emergency. And why, then, should I be disturbed at it? For nothing that does not enter my mind, and get within me, can hurt me. Hold to this, and you are safe. Come, I will tell you a way how you may live your time over again. Do but recollect, and review what you have seen already, and the work is done.

3. Gazing after shows, the diversions of the stage, farms well stocked with flocks and herds, contests for victory in the field are all much the same. So, too, a bone thrown to puppies, fishes scrambling for a bait, ants laboriously carrying a grain of wheat, mice frightened out of their wits and running away, puppets danced upon a wire. And in the midst of them a wise man must be good-humoured, and not grow haughty in the contemplation. Remembering, notwithstanding, that the true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.

4. Do not let either discourse or action pass unobserved; attend to the sense and signifieation of the one, and to the tendency and design of the other.

5. Is my intellect sufficient for this business or not? If it is, I will make use of my talent as given me by heaven for that purpose. If not, I will either let it alone, and resign it to a better capacity, unless that be contrary to my duty, or else I will do what I can. I will give my advice, and put the executing part into an abler hand, and thus the right moment and the general interest may be secured. For whatsoever I act, either by myself, or in conjunction with another, I am always to aim at the advantage of the community.

6. How many famous men are dropped out of history and forgotten? And how many, that promised to keep up other people's names, have lost their own?

7. Never be ashamed of assistance. Like a soldier at the storming of a town, your business is to maintain your post, and execute your orders. Now suppose you happen to be lame at an assault, and cannot mount the breach upon your own feet, will you not suffer your comrade to help you?

8. Be not disturbed about the future, for if ever you come to it, you will have the same reason for your guide, which preserves you at present.

9. All parts of the universe are interwoven and tied together with a sacred bond. And no one thing is foreign or unrelated to another. This general connection gives unity and ornament to the world. For the world, take it altogether, is but one. There is but one sort of matter to make it of; one God that pervades it; and one law to guide it, the common reason of all rational beings; and one truth; if, indeed, beings of the same kind, and endued with the same reason, have one and the same perfection.

10. Everything material quickly disappears into the universal matter. And everything causal is quickly absorbed into the universal reason. And the memory of everything is quickly overwhelmed by time.

11. With rational beings action in accordance with nature and reason is the same thing.

12. Either stand upright upon your own legs, or upon your crutches.

13. Just as connection creates sympathy in the members of the body, so relation of nature does the same thing among rational beings. For though separate in space, they seem all made to co-operate with each other. This thought will be more intelligible and affecting, if you frequently consider yourself as a member of the rational system. But if you reckon yourself only a part, you do not yet love mankind with all your heart. A generous action does not yet delight you from conviction; you do a good office merely for fashion and decency, but not as if it were really a kindness to yourself.

14. Let accidents happen to such as are liable to the impression, and those that feel misfortune may complain of it, if they please. As for me, let what will come, I can receive no damage by it, unless I think it a calamity; and it is in my power to think it none, if I have a mind to it.

15. Let people's tongues and actions be what they will, my business is to be good. And make the same speech to myself, that a piece of gold, or an emerald, or purple should. Let people talk and act as they please; I must be an emerald, and I must keep my colour.

16. Does the mind ever cause herself disturbance? Does she bring fears and passions upon herself? Let any other body try to frighten or trouble her if they can, for of her own conviction she will not turn to such impressions. And as for this small carcass, let it take care not to feel, and if it does, say so. But the soul, the seat of passion and pain, which forms an opinion on these things, need suffer nothing, unless she throws herself into these fancies and fears. For the mind is in her own nature self-sufficient, and must create her wants before she can feel them. This privilege makes her undisturbed and above restraint, unless she teases and puts fetters upon herself.

17. Happiness is the possession of a good genius or goodness. Why then does fancy break in and disturb the scene? Begone! by the gods, as you came; I do not want you! However, since you have custom to plead in your excuse, withdraw, and I will forgive you.

18. Is anyone afraid of change? I would gladly know what can be done without it? and what is dearer and more suitable to the universal nature? Pray, must not your wood be transformed before your bath can be ready for you? Must not your meat be changed to make it fit to nourish you? Indeed, what part of life or convenience can go forward without alteration? Now, in all likelihood a change in your condition may be as serviceable to the world in general, as those alterations above mentioned are to you.

19. All particular bodies are hurried as through a swift torrent through the universal mass of which they are incorporate, like a sort of serviceable limbs to the world. How many a Chrysippus, Socrates, and Epictetus have sunk in the gulf of time? And the same reflection will hold good concerning any other person or thing whatsoever.

20. I am only solicitous about one thing, and that is, lest I should do something that the constitution of man does not permit, or in the way or time it does not permit.

21. It will not be long before you will have forgotten all the world, and in a little time all the world will forget you too.

22. It is the privilege of human nature to love those that disoblige us. To practise this, you must consider that the offending party is of kin to you, that ignorance is the cause of the misbehaviour, and the fault is involuntary, that you will both of you quickly be in your graves; but especially consider that you have received no harm by the injury, for your mind is never the worse for it.

23. The universal nature works the universal matter like wax. Now for the purpose, it is a horse; soon after you will have it melted down, and run into the figure of a tree, then a man, then something else. And it is but a little while that it is fixed in one species. Now a trunk feels no more pain by being knocked in pieces than when it was first put together.

24. A sour gruff look is very unnatural, and to put it on often will make it settle, and destroy the beauty and pleasantness of the aspect to that degree that it is never to be recovered: from whence you may conclude it is a foolish custom. It is high time for those people to die that have outlived the sense of their own misdemanours.

25. That being which governs nature will quickly change the present face of it. One thing will be made out of another by frequent revolutions. And thus the world will be always new.

26. When anyone misbehaves himself towards you, immediately bethink yourself what notions he has concerning advantage and disadvantage. When you have found out this, you will pity him, and neither be angry nor surprised at the matter. It may be upon enquiry you may find your opinions upon these points much the same, and then you ought to pardon him. But if your notions of good and evil are different, then you will more easily bear with his ignorance.

27. Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you would wish for them, were they not in your possession; but then you must take care to keep your satisfaction within compass, for fear it should carry you too far, make you over-value the object, and be disturbed at the loss of it.

28. Rely upon yourself, for it is the nature of the principle that rules within us, to be satisfied with honesty, and the inward quiet consequent to it.

29. Rub out the colours of imagination. Do not suffer your passions to make a puppet of you. Confine your care to the present. Look through that which happens either to yourself or another. Distinguish the parts of your subject, and divide them into the causal and material element. Think upon your last hour, and do not trouble yourself about other people's faults, but leave them with those that must answer for them.

30. When you hear a discourse, make your understanding keep pace with it, and reach as far as you can into events and their causes.

31. Would you set off your person, and recommend yourself? Let it be done by simplicity, by modesty of behaviour, and by indifference to things neither good nor bad. Love mankind and resign to providence. For as the poet observes, "All things are under law," not the elements only, but it suffices to remember that there are at the most but very few things in the world that are not under law.

32. Concerning death: It is a dispersion if there are atoms; but if the universe is a unity, it is either extinction or change.

33. As for pain, if it is intolerable it will quickly dispatch you. If it stays long it is bearable. Your mind in the meantime preserves herself calm by the strength of the opining faculty, and suffers nothing. And for your limbs that are hurt by the pain, if they can complain, let them do it.

34. As for fame, consider the intellect of the people that are to commend, how insignificant they are, and how little in their pursuits and aversions. Consider also that as one heap of sand thrown upon another covers the first, so it happens in life, a new glory soon eclipses an old one.

35. A saying of Plato, "He that has raised his mind to a due pitch of greatness, that has carried his view through the whole extent of matter and time, do you imagine such an one will think much of human life? Not at all (says the other man in the dialogue). What then? Will the fear of death afflict him? Far from it."

36. Antisthenes said, "It is a royal thing to be ill spoken of for good deeds."

37. It is a shame that a man should be master of his countenance, and compose or control it as the mind directs, while that mind is not controlled by itself.

38. "Ne'er fret at accidents, for things are sullen,
And don't regard your anger."

39. "To the immortal gods and us give joy."

40. "Fate mows down life like corn, this mortal falls; The other stands awhile."

41. "If I and mine are by the gods neglected,
There's reason for their rigour."

42. "For the good is with me and the just."

43. "No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion."

44. More of Plato's sentences:—"To such a one I should return this very reasonable answer, Hark ye, friend, you are mightily out if you think a man that is good for anything is either afraid of living or dying. No; his concern is only whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or a bad."

45. Plato again:—"In my opinion, when a man holds a post with his own choice, or has been put into it by his superior, his business is to remain there in the hour of danger, and fear nothing but disgrace and cowardice."

46. Plato once more:—"With your favour, sir, it is not always the part of virtue and bravery to preserve either your own life or your neighbour's. He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to whine for life, and grasp intemperately at old age: let him leave this point to Providence. The women can tell him that we must go when our time is come. His duty is to consider how he may make the most of his life, and spend what there is to the best advantage."

47. Consider the course of the stars as if you were driving through the sky with them. Let the transmutation of the elements be frequently the subject of your meditation. Such contemplations as these scour off the rust contracted by dwelling here below.

48. It is a fine saying that of Plato's:—"That when we consider the state and condition of mankind, we should place our imagination upon some lofty pyramid, and from thence take a prospect of the world, and look it over as it were at one view. Here we may see flocks, armies, husbandry, marriages and separations, births and deaths, clamours of the law courts, desert places, variety of barbarous people, feasts, lamentations, and markets. Take it altogether, it is a strange medley. And yet you will find the diversity of the parts contributes to the harmony of the whole."

49. By looking back into history, and considering the fate and revolutions of government, you will be able to draw a guess, and almost prophesy upon the future; for they will certainly be of the same nature, and cannot but be cast in the same mould. So that forty years of human life may serve for a sample of ten thousand. For what more will you see?

50. "What's sprung from earth dissolves to earth again,
And heaven-born things fly to their native seat."
That is, there is a loosing of the entanglements of the atoms, and a scattering abroad of the insensible elements.

51. "With food, and drinks, and cunning magic arts,
Turning the channel's course to 'scape from death."
"The breeze which heaven has sent
We must endure, and toil without complaint."

52. Can another man ride or fence better than you? It may be so. Let nobody outdo you in social and modest behaviour. Let nobody be more resigned to fate and forgiving to his neighbours.

53. As long as a man can make use of that reason which he shares with the gods and man, he need not question the event. There can be no grounds to suspect misfortune, provided you stick close to nature and act in accordance with your condition.

54. It is always and everywhere in your power to resign to the gods, to be just to mankind, and to examine every impression with such care that nothing may enter that is not well examined.

55. Never make any rambling enquiries after other people's thoughts, but look directly at the mark which nature has set you. Nature, I say, either that of the universe or your own; the first leads you to submission to Providence, the latter to act as becomes you. Now that which is suitable to the frame and constitution of things is what becomes them. To be more particular, the rest of the world is designed for the service of rational beings in consequence of this general appointment, by which the lower order of things are made for the use of the more noble. And rational creatures are designed for the advantage of each other. Now a social temper is that which human nature was principally intended for; the next thing designed in our being is to be proof against corporeal impressions, it being the peculiar privilege of reason to move within herself, and not suffer sensation or passion to break in upon her; for these are both of animal and inferior quality. But the understanding part claims a right to govern, and will not bend to matter and appetite; and good reason for it, since she was born to command and make use of them. The third main requisite in a rational being is to secure the assent from rashness and mistake. Let your mind but compass these points, and stick to them, and then she is mistress of everything which belongs to her.

56. We ought to spend the remainder of our life according to nature, as if we were already dead, and had come to the end of our term.

57. Let your fate be your only inclination, for there is nothing more reasonable.

58. When any accident happens, call to mind those who have formerly been under the same circumstances, how full of surprise, complaint, and trouble they were about the matter. And where are they now? They are gone, their murmuring could not make them immortal. To what purpose should you imitate their behaviour? Cannot you leave these foreign emotions to those who cause them, and those who are moved by them? Your business is only to consider how you may give a turn of advantage to the emergency. Now you can make good use of them, and they will supply excellent material, if you will but take care, and do nothing but what is warrantable. Always remembering, that whether you use it ill or well, the thing wherewith action is concerned, is in both cases indifferent.

59. Look inwards, for you have a lasting fountain of happiness at home that will always bubble up if you will but dig for it.

60. Take care that your motions and gestures may be grave and composed, for the same air of sense and decency which the mind can put into the face ought to be visible through the whole body, but then all this must be done without the least affectation.

61. The art of living resembles wrestling more than dancing, for here a man does not know his movement and his measures beforehand. No, he is obliged to stand strong against chance, and secure himself as occasion shall offer.

62. Consider what sort of people are they that must commend you, and how are their understandings furnished. Truly, if you do but consider the source of their opinions and passions, you will pity their ignorant misbehaviour, and not care a rush for their approbation.

63. It is a saying of Plato's, that no soul misses truth of her own good-will. The same may be said with reference to justice, sobriety, good-nature, and the like. Be particularly careful to remember this, for it will help to sweeten your temper towards all men.

64. When you lie under any corporeal affliction, let this thought be at hand to relieve you: that there is no disgrace in pain, that the sovereign part of your mind is never the worse for it. For how can she suffer unless her material or her social nature be impaired? Besides, Epicurus's maxim will help to support you under most pains; for as he observes, they will neither be intolerable nor everlasting. But then you must keep in mind the limits set to them, and not run into the common opinion about you. And here you must remember that there are many more sensations than we are aware of, which belong to the nature of pain, such as drowsiness, excessive heat, want of appetite. Now, when you find yourself fret and grow disturbed at these things, take notice that pain has got the better of you.

65. Do not return the temper of ill-natured people upon themselves, nor treat them as they do the rest of mankind.

66. Which way are we to conclude that Socrates was a better man in virtue and temper than Telauges? To make out this, it is not enough to say that he disputed better with the sophists, and died more bravely; that he passed the night in the cold with more endurance, and that when he was bidden to arrest Leon of Salamis, he held it nobler to refuse; that he walked with a swaggering air in the streets, though the truth of this last particular may be questioned. To prove the point, we must examine what sort of soul Socrates carried about with him. Could he be contented with the conscience of an honest and a pious man? Did he abstain from fretting and fuming to no purpose at the knavery and wickedness of the age? Was he governed by nobody's ignorance? Did he never question the equity of Providence, grow surprised at his hard fortune, and sink under the weight of it, and not dip his soul too deep in his senses?

67. Nature has not wrought your composition so close that you cannot withdraw within your own limits, and do your own business yourself; for a man may be first-rate in virtue and true value, and yet be very obscure at the same time. You may likewise observe that happiness has very few wants. Granting your talent will not reach very far into logic, this cannot hinder the freedom of your mind, nor deprive you of the blessings of sobriety, beneficence, and resignation.

68. You may live with all the freedom and satisfaction imaginable, though the whole world should cry you down; nay, though wild beasts should tear this flesh with which you are enveloped. For pray, how can anything of this reach up to your mind and ruffle her serenity? How can it prevent your passing a right judgment upon your circumstances, and making the best use of them? And thus your reason may address the object of terror: "Look you! nature has made you one thing, and common mistake another." And use may address what befalls, "It is you I was seeking." For it is my way to make everything serve as an opportunity for rational or social virtue in a performance of some duty either to God or man. For since all that happens is related to God or man, there is nothing new in it or difficult to deal with, but all is familiar and easy.

69. He that is come to the top of wisdom and practice, spends every day as if it were his last, and is never guilty of over-excitement, sluggishness, or insincerity.

70. Though the gods are immortal, and have their patience tried through so many ages, yet they are not angry, because for so long a time they will have to put up with such base and wretched mortals, but even provide liberally for them. And are you, that are just going off the stage, sick of the company? are you tired with evil men already, and yet one of those unhappy mortals yourself?

71. It is great folly not to part with your own faults which is possible, but to try instead to escape from other people's faults, which is impossible.

72. Whatever business tends neither to the improvement of your reason, nor the benefit of society, the rational and social faculty thinks beneath it.

73. When you have done a kindness, and your neighbour is the better for it, why need you be so foolish as to look any farther, and gape for reputation and requital?

74. Nobody is ever tired of advantages. Now to act in conformity to the laws of nature is certainly an advantage. Do not you therefore grow weary of doing good offices, whereby you receive the advantage.

75. There was a time when the universal nature moved towards making the world. So that now all events must either be consequences of the first creation, or else even the chief things at which the universal ruling principle aims are without design. Now this thought will go a great way towards making a man easy.

Notes

35. From Plato's "Republic," Book vi. p. 486.
38. From Euripides' "Bellerophon."
40. From Euripides' "Hypsipyle."
42. Aristophanes, "Acharnians," l. 661.
44-45. From Plato's "Apology," p. 28.
46. From Plato's "Gorgias," p. 512.
48. This does not appear to be in any of Plato's extant writings. It has been suggested that it should rather be referred to Pythagoras.
50. From Euripides' "Chrysippus."
51. The first two lines are from Euripides' "Supplices," 1110 1111.
66. "Leon of Salamis." In the year 404 B.C., during the terrible tyranny of "the Thirty" at Athens, Socrates was ordered to assist in unjustly arresting a rich citizen of Salamis, and bringing him to Athens for a trial that was only a mockery of justice. Socrates refused to do this; and he alludes to this in the "Apology." "But when the oligarchy of 'the Thirty' was in power, they sent for me and four others into the rotunda, and bade us bring Leon the Salaminarian from Salamis, as they wanted to execute him. That was a specimen of the sort of commands they were always giving with a view to implicating as many as possible in their crimes; and then I showed, not in word only, but in deed, that, if I may be allowed to use such an expression, I cared not a straw for death, and that my sole fear was the fear of doing an unrighteous or unholy thing. For the strong arm of the oppressive power did not frighten me into doing wrong, and when we came out of the rotunda, the other four went to Salamis and fetched Leon, but I went quietly home." (Plato, "Apology," p. 32, trs. by Jowett.) "That he walked in a swaggering way." This is asserted by Aristophanes in his comedy, the "Clouds," where he ridicules Socrates.