BOOK IX.

1. He who does injustice commits impiety. For since universal Nature

has formed the rational animals for one another; each to be useful to

the other according to his merit, and never hurtful; he who

transgresses this her will is clearly guilty of impiety against the

most ancient and venerable of the Gods.

He who lies sins against the same divinity. For the nature of the

whole is the nature of all things which exist; and things which exist

are akin to all that has come to be. Nature, indeed, is called truth,

and is the first cause of all truths. He, then, that lies willingly is

guilty of impiety, in so far as by deceiving he works injury: and he

also who lies unwillingly, in so far as he is out of tune with

universal Nature, and in so far as he works disorder in the Universe

by fighting against its design. He is at war with Nature who sets

himself against the truth. He has neglected the means with which

Nature furnished him, and cannot now distinguish false from true.

He, too, who pursues pleasure as good, and shuns pain as evil, is

guilty of impiety. Such a one must needs frequently blame the common

nature for unseemly awards of fortune to bad and to good men. For the

bad often enjoy pleasures and possess the means to attain them, and

the good often meet with pain and with what causes pain. Again, he who

dreads pain must sometimes dread a thing which will make part of the

world order, and this is impious. And he who pursues pleasure will not

abstain from injustice, and this is clear impiety. In those things to

which the common nature is indifferent (for she had not made both,

were she not indifferent to either), he who would follow Nature ought,

in this also, to be of like mind with her, and shew the like

indifference. And whoever is not indifferent to pain and pleasure,

life and death, glory and ignominy, all of which universal Nature uses

indifferently, is clearly impious. By Nature using them indifferently,

I mean that they befall indifferently all beings which exist, and

ensue upon others in the great chain of consequence which began in the

primal impulse of Providence. Providence, in pursuance of this

impulse, and starting from a definite beginning, set about this fair

structure of the universe when she had conceived the plan of all that

was to be, and appointed the distinct powers which were to produce the

several substances, changes, and successions.

2. It were the more desirable lot to depart from among men,

unacquainted with falsehood, hypocrisy, luxury, or vanity. The next

choice were to expire when cloyed with these vices. Have you then

chosen rather to abide in evil; or has experience not yet persuaded

you to fly from amidst the plague? For a corruption of the mind is far

more a plague than any pestilential distemper or change in the

surrounding air we breathe. The one is pestilence to animals as

animals: but the other to men as men.

3. Despise not death; but receive it well content, as one of the

things which Nature wills. For even as it is to be young, to be old,

to grow up, to be full grown; even as it is to breed teeth, and beard,

and to grow grey, to beget, to go with child, to be delivered; and to

undergo all the effects of nature which life's seasons bring; such is

it also to be dissolved in death. It becomes not therefore a man of

wisdom to be careless, or impatient, or ostentatiously contemptuous

about death; he should rather await its coming as one of the

operations of nature. Even as now you await the season when the child

of your wife's body shall issue into the light, await the hour when

your soul shall fall out of these its teguments. If you wish for the

common sort of comfort, here is a thought which goes to the heart. You

will be completely resigned to death if you consider the things you

are about to leave, and the morals of that confused crowd from which

your soul is to be disengaged. It is far from right to be offended

with them. It is even your duty to have a tender care for them, and to

bear with them mildly. Yet remember that the parting, when it comes,

will not be with men who think as you think. For the only thing which,

if it might be, could hold you back and detain you in life, would be

to live with those who had reached the same principles of life as

you. But, as it is, you, seeing how great is the fatigue and toil

arising from the jarring courses of those who live together, may cry:

"Haste, death! lest I, too, should forget myself."

4. The sinner sins against himself. The wrong-doer wrongs himself by

making himself evil.

5. Men are often unjust by omissions as well as by actions.

6. Be satisfied with your present opinion, if certain; with your

present course of action, if social; with your present mood, if well

pleased with all that comes upon you from without.

7. Wipe out impression; stay impulse; quench desire; and keep the

governing part master of itself.

8. The soul distributed among the irrational animals is one. Rational

beings, on the other hand, partake of one reasoning intelligence. Even

so, there is one earth to all things earthy; and, for all of us who

are endowed with sight and breath, there is one light by which to see,

one air to breathe.

9. All things that share a common quality are strongly drawn to that

which is of their own kind. The earthy tends towards the earth; fluids

flow together, aerial bodies likewise; and naught but force prevents

their confluence. Fire rises upward on account of the elemental fire;

and it is so ready to join in kindling with all the fire that is here

that any matter pretty dry is easily set on fire, because that which

hinders its kindling is the weaker element in its composition. Thus

also, then, whatever partakes of the common intellectual nature

hastens in like manner, or even more markedly, towards that which is

akin to it. For the more it excels other natures, the stronger is its

tendency to mix with and adhere to its kind. Accordingly, among

irrational creatures we find swarms of bees, herds of cattle, nurture

of the young, and love, of a sort. For even in animals there is a

soul; and in the more noble natures a mutual attraction is found to be

at work, such as does not exist in plants, or stones, or wood. Among

the rational animals, again, there are societies and friendships,

families and assemblies; and, in war, treaties and truces. Among

beings still more excellent, there subsists, though they be placed far

asunder, a certain kind of union, as among the stars. Thus ascent in

the scale can produce a sympathy even in things that are widely

distant. But mark what happens among us. It is only intellectual

beings who forget the social concern for one another, and the mutual

tendency to union. Here alone the social confluence is not seen. Yet

are they environed and held by it, though they strive to escape; and

nature always prevails. Observe and you will see my meaning: for

sooner may one find some earthy thing which joins with nothing earthy,

than a man severed and separate from all men.

10. Man, God, and the Universe, all bear fruit; and each in their own

season. Custom indeed has appropriated the expression to vines and the

like; but that is nothing. Reason has its fruit both for all men and

for itself, and produces just such other things as reason itself is.

11. If you can, teach men better. If not, remember that the virtue of

charity was given you to be used in such a case. Nay, the Gods are

patient with them, and even aid them in their pursuit of some things

such as health, wealth, and glory, so gracious are they! You may be so

too. Who hinders you?

12. Bear toil and pain, not as if wretched under it, nor as courting

pity or admiration. Wish for one thing only; always to act or to

refrain as social wisdom requires.

13. To-day I have escaped from all trouble; or rather I have cast out

all trouble from me. For it was not without but within, in my own

opinions.

14. All things are, in our experience, common; in their continuance

but for a day; and in their matter sordid. All things now are as they

were in the times of those we have buried.

15. Things stand without, by themselves, neither knowing or declaring

aught to us concerning themselves. What is it then that pronounces

upon them? The ruling part.

16. It is not in passive feeling, but in action, that the good and

evil of the rational animal formed for society consists. Similarly his

virtue or his vice lies not in feeling but in action.

17. To the stone thrown up it is no evil to fall; no good to rise.

18. Penetrate the souls of men, and you will see what judges you fear,

and how they sit in judgment on themselves.

19. All things are in change. You yourself are under continual

transmutation, and, in some sort, corruption. So is the whole

universe.

20. Another's sin you must leave with himself.

21. The ceasing of any action, the extinction of any keen desire, or

of any opinion, is as it were a death to them. This is no evil. Think

again of the ages of your life; childhood, youth, manhood, old

age. Each change of these was a death. Is there anything to dread

here? Think now of your life as it was, first under your grandfather,

then under your mother, then under your father; and, as you find there

many other alterations, changes, and endings, ask yourself: Is there

anything to dread here? Thus neither is there anything to dread in the

cessation, ending, and change of your whole life.

22. Make swift appeal to your own ruling part, to that of the

Universe, and to his who has offended you. To your own, that you may

make it a mind disposed to justice; to that of the Universe, that you

may remember of what you are a part; and to his, that you may know

whether he has acted in ignorance or by design, and that you may also

reflect that he is your kinsman.

23. You yourself are a part of a social system necessary to complete

the whole. Accordingly, let your every action be a similar part of the

social life. And if any action has not its reference, either immediate

or distant, to the common good as its end, this action disorders your

life and frustrates its unity. It is sedition like that of the man

who, in a commonwealth, does all in his power to sever himself from

the general harmony and concord.

24. Children's quarrels! Child's play! Poor spirits carrying about

dead corpses! Such is our life. The 'Masque of the Dead' is

intelligible by comparison.

25. Go to the quality of the cause; abstract it from the material, and

contemplate it by itself. Determine then the time: how long, at

furthest, this thing, of this peculiar quality, can naturally subsist.

26. You have endured innumerable sufferings by not being satisfied

with your own ruling part when it does the things which it was formed

to do. Enough then of that.

27. When another reproaches or hates you, or utters anything to that

purpose; go to his soul; enter in there; and look what manner of man

he is. You will see that you need not trouble yourself to make him

think well or ill of you. Yet you should be kindly towards such men,

for they are by nature your friends: and the Gods, too, aid them in

all ways; by dreams, by oracles, and even in the things about which

they are most eager.

28. The course of things in the world is ever the same; a continual

rotation; up and down, from age to age. Either the Universal Mind

exerts itself in every particular event, in which case you must accept

what comes immediately from it: or it has exerted itself once and for

all, and, as a result, all things go on for ever, in a necessary chain

of consequence: or again atoms and indivisible particles are the

origin of all things. In fine, if there be a God, all is well; and if

there be only chance, you at least need not act by chance.

The earth will presently cover us all; and then this earth will itself

be changed into other forms, and these again into others, and so on

without end. And, if any one considers how swiftly those changes and

transmutations roll on, like one wave upon another, he will despise

all things mortal.

29. The universal cause is like a winter torrent. It sweeps all along

with it. How very little worth are those poor creatures who pretend to

understand affairs of state, and imagine they unite in themselves the

statesman and the philosopher! The frothy fools! Do you, O man! that

which Nature now requires of you. Set about it if you have the means;

and look not around you to see if any be taking notice, neither hope

to realize Plato's Republic. Be satisfied if the smallest thing go

well. Consider even such an event as no small matter. For who can

change the opinions of men? And without change of opinion what is

their state but a slavery, under which they groan, while they pretend

to obey? Come now; speak of Alexander, Philip, and Demetrius of

Phalerum. They know best whether they understood what the common

nature required of them, and whether they trained themselves

accordingly. But, if they designed only to play the tragic hero, no

one has condemned me to do the like. The work of philosophy is simple

and modest. Lead me not astray in pursuit of a vainglorious

stateliness.

30. Look down, as from some eminence, upon the innumerable herds, the

countless solemn festivals, the voyaging of every sort, in tempests

and in calms; the different states of those who come into life, enter

upon life's associations, and leave it in the end. Consider, too, the

life which others have lived formerly, the life they will live after

you, and the life that barbarous peoples are now living. How many of

these know not even your name; how many will quickly forget it; how

many are there who perhaps praise you now, but will shortly blame

you. Reflect, then, that neither is surviving fame a thing of value;

nor present glory; nor anything at all.

31. Let nothing due to a cause outside yourself disturb your calm. In

the workings of the active principle within you let there be justice:

that is a bent of will and a course of action which have social good

as their one end, and so are suited to your nature.

32. You can suppress many of the superfluous troubles which beset you,

for they lie wholly in your own opinion. By this you will give ample

room and ease to your life. You may compass this end by comprehending

the whole Universe in your judgment; by contemplating eternity; and by

reflecting on the swift changes of individual things, thinking how

short is the time from their birth to their dissolution, how immense

the space of ages before that birth, how equally infinite the eternity

which shall succeed that dissolution.

33. All things that you see will quickly perish; and those who behold

them perishing are very soon themselves to die. And he who dies oldest

will be in like case with him who dies before his time.

34. What manner of souls have these men? What is the end of their

striving; and on what accounts do they love and honour? Imagine their

souls naked before you. When they fancy that their censures hurt, or

their praises profit us, how great is their self-conceit!

35. Loss is naught but change; in change is the joy of universal

Nature, and by her all things are ordered well. From the beginning of

ages they have been shaped alike, and to all eternity they will be the

same. How then can you say that all things have been, and ever will be

evil; that among so many Gods there has been found no power to

rectify; but that the Universe is condemned to endure the burden of

never-ending ill?

36. How corrupt is the material substance of every thing, water, dust,

bones, and foulness! Again; marble is but the concrete humour of the

earth, gold and silver its heavy dregs. Our garments are but hair, the

purple dye blood. All else is of a like nature. Breath, too, is just

the same, ever changing from this to that.

37. Enough of this wretched life: enough of repining and apish

trifling. Why are you disturbed? Are any of these troubles new? What

excites you so? Is it the cause?

Then view it well. Is it the matter? View it also well. Besides these

there is nothing. Wherefore at last act with more simplicity and

goodness towards the Gods. Whether you look on this spectacle for a

hundred years or for three it is the same.

38. If he has done wrong, the evil is with him: and perhaps, too, he

has not done wrong.

39. Either all things proceed from one source of intelligence and come

together in one body, in which case the part must not complain of what

comes about for the benefit of the whole; or all is atoms, and there

is nothing else but confused mixture and dissipation. Why then are you

disturbed? Say to your soul: "Thou art dead: thou art rotten: thou

hast turned beast, joined the herd, and dost feed along with them."

40. Either the Gods have power or they have none. If they have no

power, why do you pray? If they have power, why do you not choose to

pray to them for power neither to fear, nor to desire, nor to be

grieved over any of these external things, rather than for their

presence or their absence? Surely, if the Gods can aid man at all,

they can aid him in this. But perhaps you will say "the Gods have put

this in my own power." Then is it not better to use that which is in

your own power and preserve your liberty, than to set your heart on

what is beyond your power and become an abject slave? And who has told

you that the Gods aid us not in these things also which are in our

power? Begin to pray about them and you will see. One man prays: "May

I possess that woman!" Do you pray: "May I have no wish to possess

her!" Another prays: "May I be delivered from so and so!" Pray you:

"May I not need to be delivered from him!" A third cries: "May I not

lose my child!" Let your prayer be: "May I not fear to lose him!" In

fine, turn your prayers this way, and observe what comes of it.

41. Epicurus says: "In my sickness my conversations were not about the

diseases of this poor body; nor did I speak of any such things to

those who came to me. I continued to discourse as before on the

principles of natural Philosophy, and was chiefly intent on the

problem of how the mind, though it partakes in the violent commotions

of the flesh, might remain undisturbed and keep guard on its own

proper excellence. I permitted not the physicians," he continues, "to

magnify their office, and vaunt themselves as if they were

doing-something of great moment, but my life continued pleasant and

happy." What he did then, in sickness, do you also if ye fall ill, or

suffer any other misfortune. Never to depart from your philosophy

whatever befalls you, never to join in the folly of the vulgar and the

ignorant, is a maxim common to all the schools. Give your mind only to

the business now in hand and to the means whereby it is to be

accomplished.

42. When you are offended by the shamelessness of any man, straightway

ask yourself: Can the world exist without shameless men? It

cannot. Therefore do not demand what is impossible. Your enemy also is

one of these shameless people who must needs be in the universe. Have

the same question also at hand when you are shocked at craft, or

perfidy, or any other sin. For while you remember that it is

impossible that the class should not exist, you will be more

charitable to each particular individual. It is useful also to have

this reflection ready: What virtue has nature given to man wherewith

to combat this fault? Against unreason she has given meekness as an

antidote; against another weakness another power. You are also at full

liberty to set right one who has wandered; now every wrong-doer is

missing his proper aim and has gone astray. And then, in what are you

injured? You will find that none of those at whom you are exasperated

have done anything whereby your intellectual part was like to be the

worse. Now anything which can really harm or hurt you has its

subsistence there, and there alone. And wherein is it strange or evil

that the man untaught acts after his kind? Look if you ought not

rather to blame yourself for not having laid your account with his

being guilty of such faults. Your reason gave you the means to

conclude that it was probable that he would do this wrong; you forgot,

and yet wonder that he has done it. But above all, when you are

blaming any one for faithlessness or ingratitude, turn to

yourself. The fault lies manifestly with you, if you trusted that a

man of such a disposition could keep faith; or if, when you granted

the favour, you did not grant it without ulterior views, and on the

principle that the complete and immediate reward of your action lay in

the doing of it. What would you more, when you have done a man a

kindness? Is it not enough for you that you have acted in this

according to your nature? Do you ask a reward for it? It is as if the

eye were to ask a reward for seeing, or the feet for walking. For just

as these parts are formed for a certain purpose, which when they

fulfil according to their proper structure, they attain their proper

end; so man, formed by nature to do kindness to his fellows, whenever

he acts kindly, or in any other way works for the common good, has

fulfilled the purpose of his creation, and has possession of what is

his own.

END OF THE NINTH BOOK.