Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (best self help books to read .txt) 📕

    Body,  That Is,  The Interior Man,  Who By The Body Acts In The

    World And From Whom The Body Itself Lives" (Quoted By Clissold,

    P. 456 Of "The Practical Nature Of The Theological Writings Of

    Emanuel Swedenborg,  In A Letter To The Archbishop Of Dublin

    (Whately)," Second Edition,  1859; A Book Which Theologians

    Might Read With Profit). This Is An Old Doctrine Of The Soul,

    Which Has Been Often Proclaimed,  But Never Better Expressed

    Than By The "Auctor De Mundo," C. 6,  Quoted By Gataker In His

    "Antoninus," P. 436. "The Soul By Which We Live And Have Cities

    And Houses Is Invisible,  But It Is Seen By Its Works; For The

    Whole Method Of Life Has Been Devised By It And Ordered,  And By

    It Is Held Together. In Like Manner We Must Think Also About

    The Deity,  Who In Power Is Most Mighty,  In Beauty Most Comely,

    In Life Immortal,  And In Virtue Supreme: Wherefore Though He Is

    Invisible To Human Nature,  He Is Seen By His Very Works." Other

    Passages To The Same Purpose Are Quoted By Gataker (P. 382).

    Bishop Butler Has The Same As To The Soul: "Upon The Whole,

    Then,  Our Organs Of Sense And Our Limbs Are Certainly

    Instruments,  Which The Living Persons,  Ourselves,  Make Use Of

    To Perceive And Move With." If This Is Not Plain Enough,  Be

    Also Says: "It Follows That Our Organized Bodies Are No More

    Ourselves,  Or Part Of Ourselves,  Than Any Other Matter Around

    Us." (Compare Anton,  X. 38).

    [C] The Reader May Consult Discourse V.,  "Of The Existence And

    Nature Of God," In John Smith's "Select Discourses." He Has

    Prefixed As A Text To This Discourse,  The Striking Passage Of

    Agapetus,  Paraenes. § 3: "He Who Knows Himself Will Know God;

    And He Who Knows God Will Be Made Like To God; And He Will Be

    Made Like To God,  Who Has Become Worthy Of God; And He Becomes

    Worthy Of God,  Who Does Nothing Unworthy Of God,  But Thinks The

    Things That Are His,  And Speaks What He Thinks,  And Does What

    He Speaks." I Suppose That The Old Saying,  "Know Thyself,"

    Which Is Attributed To Socrates And Others,  Had A Larger

    Meaning Than The Narrow Sense Which Is Generally Given To It.

    (Agapetus,  Ed. Stephan. Schoning,  Franeker,  1608. This Volume

    Contains Also The Paraeneses Of Nilus.)

There Is In Man,  That Is In The Reason,  The Intelligence,  A Superior

Faculty Which If It Is Exercised Rules All The Rest. This Is The Ruling

Faculty ([Greek: To Hêgemonikon]),  Which Cicero (De Natura Deorum,  Ii.

11) Renders By The Latin Word Principatus,  "To Which Nothing Can Or

Ought To Be Superior." Antoninus Often Uses This Term And Others Which

Are Equivalent. He Names It (Vii. 64) "The Governing Intelligence." The

Governing Faculty Is The Master Of The Soul (V. 26). A Man Must

Reverence Only His Ruling Faculty And The Divinity Within Him. As We

Must Reverence That Which Is Supreme In The Universe,  So We Must

Reverence That Which Is Supreme In Ourselves; And This Is That Which Is

Of Like Kind With That Which Is Supreme In The Universe (V. 21). So,  As

Plotinus Says,  The Soul Of Man Can Only Know The Divine So Far As It

Knows Itself. In One Passage (Xi. 19) Antoninus Speaks Of A Man's

Condemnation Of Himself When The Diviner Part Within Him Has Been

Overpowered And Yields To The Less Honorable And To The Perishable Part,

The Body,  And Its Gross Pleasures. In A Word,  The Views Of Antoninus On

This Matter,  However His Expressions May Vary,  Are Exactly What Bishop

Butler Expresses When He Speaks Of "The Natural Supremacy Of Reflection

Or Conscience," Of The Faculty "Which Surveys,  Approves,  Or Disapproves

The Several Affections Of Our Mind And Actions Of Our Lives."

Much Matter Might Be Collected From Antoninus On The Notion Of The

Universe Being One Animated Being. But All That He Says Amounts To No

More,  As Schultz Remarks,  Than This: The Soul Of Man Is Most Intimately

United To His Body,  And Together They Make One Animal,  Which We Call

Man; So The Deity Is Most Intimately United To The World,  Or The

Material Universe,  And Together They Form One Whole. But Antoninus Did

Not View God And The Material Universe As The Same,  Any More Than He

Viewed The Body And Soul Of Man As One. Antoninus Has 110 Speculations

On The Absolute Nature Of The Deity. It Was Not His Fashion To Waste His

Time On What Man Cannot Understand.[A] He Was Satisfied That God Exists,

That He Governs All Things,  That Man Can Only Have An Imperfect

Knowledge Of His Nature,  And He Must Attain This Imperfect Knowledge By

Reverencing The Divinity Which Is Within Him,  And Keeping It Pure.

    [A] "God,  Who Is Infinitely Beyond The Reach Of Our Narrow

    Capacities" (Locke,  Essay Concerning The Human Understanding,

    Ii. Chap. 17).

From All That Has Been Said,  It Follows That The Universe Is

Administered By The Providence Of God ([Greek: Pronoia]),  And That All

Things Are Wisely Ordered. There Are Passages In Which Antoninus

Expresses Doubts,  Or States Different Possible Theories Of The

Constitution And Government Of The Universe; But He Always Recurs To His

Fundamental Principle,  That If We Admit The Existence Of A Deity,  We

Must Also Admit That He Orders All Things Wisely And Well (Iv. 27; Vi.

1; Ix. 28; Xii. 5; And Many Other Passages). Epictetus Says (I. 6) That

We Can Discern The Providence Which Rules The World,  If We Possess Two

Things,--The Power Of Seeing All That Happens With Respect To Each

Thing,  And A Grateful Disposition.

But If All Things Are Wisely Ordered,  How Is The World So Full Of What

We Call Evil,  Physical And Moral? If Instead Of Saying That There Is

Evil In The World,  We Use The Expression Which I Have Used,  "What We

Call Evil," We Have Partly Anticipated The Emperor's Answer. We See And

Feel And Know Imperfectly Very Few Things In The Few Years That We Live,

And All The Knowledge And All The Experience Of All The Human Race Is

Positive Ignorance Of The Whole,  Which Is Infinite. Now,  As Our Reason

Teaches Us That Everything Is In Some Way Related To And Connected With

Every Other Thing,  All Notion Of Evil As Being In The Universe Of Things

Is A Contradiction; For If The Whole Comes From And Is Governed By An

Intelligent Being,  It Is Impossible To Conceive Anything In It Which

Tends To The Evil Or Destruction Of The Whole (Viii. 55; X. 6).

Everything Is In Constant Mutation,  And Yet The Whole Subsists; We Might

Imagine The Solar System Resolved Into Its Elemental Parts,  And Yet The

Whole Would Still Subsist "Ever Young And Perfect."

All Things,  All Forms,  Are Dissolved,  And New Forms Appear. All Living

Things Undergo The Change Which We Call Death. If We Call Death An Evil,

Then All Change Is An Evil. Living Beings Also Suffer Pain,  And Man

Suffers Most Of All,  For He Suffers Both In And By His Body And By His

Intelligent Part. Men Suffer Also From One Another,  And Perhaps The

Largest Part Of Human Suffering Comes To Man From Those Whom He Calls

His Brothers. Antoninus Says (Viii. 55),  "Generally,  Wickedness Does No

Harm At All To The Universe; And Particularly,  The Wickedness [Of One

Man] Does No Harm To Another. It Is Only Harmful To Him Who Has It In

His Power To Be Released From It As Soon As He Shall Choose." The First

Part Of This Is Perfectly Consistent With The Doctrine That The Whole

Can Sustain No Evil Or Harm. The Second Part Must Be Explained By The

Stoic Principle That There Is No Evil In Anything Which Is Not In Our

Power. What Wrong We Suffer From Another Is His Evil,  Not Ours. But This

Is An Admission That There Is Evil In A Sort,  For He Who Does Wrong Does

Evil,  And If Others Can Endure The Wrong,  Still There Is Evil In The

Wrong-Doer. Antoninus (Xi. 18) Gives Many Excellent Precepts With

Respect To Wrongs And Injuries,  And His Precepts Are Practical. He

Teaches Us To Bear What We Cannot Avoid,  And His Lessons May Be Just As

Useful To Him Who Denies The Being And The Government Of God As To Him

Who Believes In Both. There Is No Direct Answer In Antoninus To The

Objections Which May Be Made To The Existence And Providence Of God

Because Of The Moral Disorder And Suffering Which Are In The World,

Except This Answer Which He Makes In Reply To The Supposition That Even

The Best Men May Be Extinguished By Death. He Says If It Is So,  We May

Be Sure That If It Ought To Have Been Otherwise,  The Gods Would Have

Ordered It Otherwise (Xii. 5). His Conviction Of The Wisdom Which We May

Observe In The Government Of The World Is Too Strong To Be Disturbed By

Any Apparent Irregularities In The Order Of Things. That These Disorders

Exist Is A Fact,  And Those Who Would Conclude From Them Against The

Being And Government Of God Conclude Too Hastily. We All Admit That

There Is An Order In The Material World,  A Nature,  In The Sense In Which

That Word Has Been Explained,  A Constitution ([Greek: Kataskeuê]),  What We

Call A System,  A Relation Of Parts To One Another And A Fitness Of The

Whole For Something. So In The Constitution Of Plants And Of Animals

There Is An Order,  A Fitness For Some End. Sometimes The Order,  As We

Conceive It,  Is Interrupted,  And The End,  As We Conceive It,  Is Not

Attained. The Seed,  The Plant,  Or The Animal Sometimes Perishes Before

It Has Passed Through All Its Changes And Done All Its Uses. It Is

According To Nature,  That Is A Fixed Order,  For Some To Perish Early And

For Others To Do All Their Uses And Leave Successors To Take Their

Place. So Man Has A Corporeal And Intellectual And Moral Constitution

Fit