2. All that I am is either flesh, breath, or the ruling part. Cast your books from you; distract yourself no more; for you have not the right to do so. Like one at the point of death despise this flesh, this corruptible13 bone and blood, this network texture14 of nerves, veins15, and arteries16. Consider, too, what breath is—mere air, and that always changing, expelled and inhaled17 again every moment. The third is the ruling part. As to this, take heed18, now that you are old, that it remain no longer in servitude; that it be no more dragged hither and thither19 like a puppet by every selfish impulse. Repine no more at what fate now sends, nor dread20 what may befall you hereafter.
3. Whatever the Gods ordain21 is full of wise forethought. The workings of chance are not apart from nature, and not without connexion and intertexture with the designs of Providence22. Providence is the source of all things; and, besides, there is necessity, and the utility of the Universe, of which you are a part. For, to every part of a being, that is good which springs from the nature of the whole and tends to its preservation23. Now, the order of Nature is preserved in the changes of elements, just as it is in the changes of things that are compound. Let this suffice you, and be your creed24 unchangeable. Put from you the thirst of books, that you may not die murmuring, but meekly25, and with true and heartfelt gratitude26 to the Gods.
4. Think of your long procrastination27, and of the many opportunities given you by the Gods, but left unused. Surely it is high time to understand the Universe of which you are a part, and the Ruler of that Universe, of whom you are an emanation; that a limit is set to your days, which, if you use them not for your enlightenment, will depart, as you yourself will, and return no more.
5. Hourly and earnestly strive, as a Roman and a man, to do what falls to your hand with perfect unaffected dignity, with kindliness28, freedom and justice, and free your soul from every other imagination. This you will accomplish if you perform each action as if it were your last, without wilfulness29, or any passionate30 aversion to what reason approves; without hypocrisy31 or selfishness, or discontent with the decrees of Providence. You see how few things it is necessary to master in order that a man may live a smooth-flowing, God-fearing life. For of him that holds to these principles the Gods require no more.
6. Go on, go on, O my soul, to affront32 and dishonour33 thyself! The time that remains34 to honour thyself will not be long. Short is the life of every man; and thine is almost spent; spent, not honouring thyself, but seeking thy happiness in the souls of other men.
7. Cares from without distract you: take leisure, then, to add some good thing to your knowledge; have done with vacillation36, and avoid the other error. For triflers, too, are they who, by their activities, weary themselves in life, and have no settled aim to which they may direct, once and for all, their every desire and project.
8. Seldom are any found unhappy from not observing what is in the minds of others. But such as observe not well the stirrings of their own souls must of necessity be unhappy.
9. Remember always what the nature of the Universe is, what your own nature is, and how these are related—the one to the other. Remember what part your qualities are of the qualities of the whole, and that no man can prevent you from speaking and acting37 always in accordance with that nature of which you are a part.
10. In comparing crimes together, as, according to the common idea, they may be compared, Theophrastus makes the true philosophical38 distinction, that those committed from motives39 of pleasure are more heinous40 than those which are due to passion. For he who is a prey41 to passion is clearly turned away from reason by some spasm42 and convulsion that takes him unawares. But he who sins from desire is conquered by pleasure, and so seems more incontinent and more effeminate in his vice4. Justly then, and in a truly philosophical spirit, he says that sin, for pleasure's sake, is more wicked than sin which is due to pain. For the latter sinner was sinned against, and so driven to passion by his wrongs, while the former set out to sin of his own motion, and was led into ill-doing by his own lust43.
11. Do every deed, speak every word, think every thought in the knowledge that you may end your days any moment. To depart from men, if there be really Gods, is nothing terrible. The Gods could bring no evil thing upon you. And if there be no Gods, or if they have no regard to human affairs, why should I desire to live in a world void of Gods and without Providence? But Gods there are, and assuredly they regard human affairs; and they have put it wholly in man's power that he should not fall into what is truly evil. And of other things, had any been bad, they would have made provision also that man should have the power to avoid them altogether. For how can that make a man's life worse which does not corrupt12 the man himself? Presiding Nature could not in ignorance, or in knowledge impotent, have omitted to prevent or rectify44 these things. She could not fail us so completely that, either from want of power or want of skill, good and evil should happen promiscuously45 to good men and to bad alike. Now death and life, glory and reproach, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty—all these happen equally to the good and to the bad. But, as they are neither honourable46 nor shameful47, they are therefore neither good nor evil.
12. It is the office of our rational power to apprehend48 how swiftly all things vanish; how the corporeal49 forms are swallowed up in the material world, and the memory of them in the tide of ages. Such are all the things of sense, especially those which ensnare us with pleasure or terrify us with pain, or those things which vanity trumpets50 in our ears. How mean, how despicable, how sordid51, how perishable52, how dead are they! What are they whose opinions and whose voices bestow53 renown54? What is it to die? Your mind can tell you that, did a man think of it alone, and, by close consideration, strip it of its ghastly trappings, he would no longer deem it anything but a work of Nature. To dread a work of Nature is a childish thing, and this is, indeed, not only Nature's work, but beneficial to her. Your reason tells you how man reaches God, and through what part, and what is the state of that part, when he has attained55 unto him.
13. Nothing, says the poet, is more miserable56 than to range over all things, to spy into the depths of the earth, and search, by conjecture57, into the souls of those around us, yet not to perceive that it is enough for a man to devote himself to that divinity which is within him, and to pay it genuine worship. And this worship consists in keeping it pure from every passion and folly58, and from repining at anything done by Gods or men. The work of the Gods is to be reverenced59 for its excellence60. The works of men should be dear for the sake of the bond of kinship, or pitied, as we must pity them sometimes, for their lack of the knowledge of good and evil. And men are not less maimed by this defect than by their want of power to know white from black.
14. Though you should live three thousand ears or as many myriads61, yet remember that no man loses any other life than that which now lives, nor lives any other than that which he is now losing. The longest and the shortest lives come to one effect. The present moment is the same for all men, and their loss, therefore, is equal, for it is clear that what they lose in death is but a fleeting62 instant of time. No man can lose either the past or the future, for how can a man be deprived of what he has not? These two things then are to be remembered: First, that all things recur63 in cycles, and are the same from everlasting64, and that, therefore, it matters nothing whether a man shall contemplate65 these same things for one hundred years, or for two hundred, or for an infinite stretch of time: and, secondly66, that he who lives longest and he who dies soonest have an equal loss in death. The present moment is all of which either is deprived, since that is all he has. No man can be robbed of that which he has not.
15. Beyond opinion there is nothing. The objections to this saying of Monimus the Cynic are obvious. But obvious also is the utility of what he said, if one accept his pleasantry as far as truth will warrant it.
16. Man's soul dishonours67 itself, firstly and chiefly when it does all it can to become an excrescence, and as it were an abscess on the Universe. To fret68 against any particular event is to revolt against the general law of Nature, which comprehends the order of all events whatsoever69. Again it is dishonour for the soul when it has aversion to any man, and opposes him with intention to hurt him, as wrathful men do. Thirdly, it affronts70 itself when conquered by pleasure or pain; fourthly, when it does or says anything hypocritically, feignedly or falsely; fifthly, when it does not direct to some proper end all its desires and actions, but exerts them inconsiderately and without understanding. For, even the smallest things should be referred to the end, and the end of rational beings is to follow the order and law of the venerable state and polity which comprehends them all.
17. The duration of man's life is but an instant; his substance is fleeting, his senses dull; the structure of his body corruptible; the soul but a vortex. We cannot reckon with fortune, or lay our account with fame. In fine, the life of the body is but a river, and the life of the soul a misty71 dream. Existence is a warfare72, and a journey in a strange land; and the end of fame is to be forgotten. What then avails to guide us? One thing, and one alone—Philosophy. And this consists in keeping the divinity within inviolate73 and intact; victorious74 over pain and pleasure; free from temerity75, free from falsehood, free from hypocrisy; independent of what others do or fail to do; submissive to hap35 and lot, which come from the same source as we; and, above all, with equanimity76 awaiting death, as nothing else than a resolution of the elements of which every being compounded. And, if in their successive interchanges no harm befall the elements, why should one suspect any in the change and dissolution of the whole? It is natural, and nothing natural can be evil.
at carnuntum.
END OF THE SECOND BOOK.
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1
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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envious
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| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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sever
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| v.切开，割开；断绝，中断 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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corruptible
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| 易腐败的，可以贿赂的 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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arteries
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| n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道 | |
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inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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ordain
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| vi.颁发命令；vt.命令，授以圣职，注定，任命 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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procrastination
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| n.拖延，耽搁 | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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wilfulness
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| 任性；倔强 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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hap
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| n.运气；v.偶然发生 | |
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vacillation
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| n.动摇；忧柔寡断 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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heinous
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| adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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rectify
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| v.订正，矫正，改正 | |
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promiscuously
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| adv.杂乱地，混杂地 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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corporeal
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| adj.肉体的，身体的；物质的 | |
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trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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51
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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perishable
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| adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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56
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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58
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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59
reverenced
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| v.尊敬，崇敬( reverence的过去式和过去分词 )；敬礼 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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65
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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66
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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67
dishonours
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| 不名誉( dishonour的名词复数 )； 耻辱； 丢脸； 丢脸的人或事 | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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69
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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70
affronts
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| n.（当众）侮辱，（故意）冒犯( affront的名词复数 )v.勇敢地面对( affront的第三人称单数 )；相遇 | |
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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inviolate
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| adj.未亵渎的，未受侵犯的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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