Who Is Bad?
April 06, 2020![]() |
Marcus Aurelius |
Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus. (121–180). The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Vol. 2, pp. 243-253 of
The Harvard Classics
Badness has many
interpretations, a different definition has been the dictate of each
new generation. The solution of the eternal riddle was earnestly
sought by Marcus Aurelius.
(Marcus Aurelius
born April 6, 121 A. D.)
VII
1. WHAT is badness? It is
that which thou hast often seen. And on the occasion of everything
which happens keep this in mind, that it is that which thou hast
often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find the same things,
with which the old histories are filled, those of the middle ages and
those of our own day; with which cities and houses are filled now.
There is nothing new; all things are both familiar and short-lived.
2. How can our principles become dead,
unless the impressions [thoughts] which correspond to them are
extinguished? But it is in thy power continuously to fan these
thoughts into a flame. I can have that opinion about anything, which
I ought to have. If I can, why am I disturbed? The things which are
external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind. Let this be
the state of thy affects, and thou standest erect. To recover thy
life is in thy power. Look at things again as thou didst use to look
at them; for in this consists the recovery of thy life.
3. The idle business of show, plays on
the stage, flocks of sheep, herds, exercises with spears, a bone to
cast to little dogs, a bit of bread into fish-ponds, labourings of
ants and burden-carrying, runnings about of frightened little mice,
puppets pulled by strings—[all alike]. It is thy duty then in the
midst of such things to show good humour and not a proud air; to
understand, however, that every man is worth just so much as the
things are worth about which he busies himself.
4. In discourse thou must attend to
what is said, and in every movement thou must observe what is doing.
And in the one thou shouldst see immediately to what end it refers,
but in the other watch carefully what is the thing signified.
5. Is my understanding sufficient for
this or not? If it is sufficient I use it for the work as an
instrument given by the universal nature. But if it is not
sufficient, then either I retire from the work and give way to him
who is able to do it better, unless there be some reason why I ought
not to do so; or I do it as well as I can, taking to help me the man
who with the aid of my ruling principle can do what is now fit and
useful for the general good. For whatsoever either by myself or with
another I can do, ought to be directed to this only, to that which is
useful and well suited to society.
6. How many after being celebrated by
fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated
the fame of others have long been dead.
7. Be not ashamed to be helped; for it
is thy business to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a
town. How then, if being lame thou canst not mount up on the
battlements alone, but with the help of another it is possible?
8. Let not future things disturb thee,
for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with
thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.
9. All things are implicated with one
another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything
unconnected with any other thing. For things have been co-ordinated,
and they combine to form the same universe [order]. For there is one
universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things,
and one substance, and one law, [one] common reason in all
intelligent animals, and one truth; if indeed there is also one
perfection for all animals which are of the same stock and
participate in the same reason.
10. Everything material soon
disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal
[causal] is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the
memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
11. To the rational animal the same
act is according to nature and according to reason.
12. Be thou erect, or be made erect
(iii. 5).
13. Just as it is with the members in
those bodies which are united in one, so it is with rational beings
which exist separate, for they have been constituted for one
co-operation. And the perception of this will be more apparent to
thee, if thou often sayest to thyself that I am a member [Greek] of
the system of rational beings. But if [using the letter r]
thou sayest that thou art a part [Greek], thou dost not yet love men
from thy heart; beneficence does not yet delight thee for its own
sake; thou still doest it barely as a thing of propriety, and not yet
as doing good to thyself.
14. Let there fall externally what
will on the parts which can feel the effects of this fall. For those
parts which have felt will complain, if they choose. But I, unless I
think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured. And it is in
my power not to think so.
15. Whatever any one does or says, I
must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were
always saying this: Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald
and keep my colour.
16. The ruling faculty does not
disturb itself; I mean, does not frighten itself or cause itself
pain. But if any one else can frighten or pain it, let him do so. For
the faculty itself will not by its own opinion turn into such ways.
Let the body itself take care, if it can, that it suffer nothing, and
let it speak, if it suffers. But the soul itself, that which is
subject to fear, to pain, which has completely the power of forming
an opinion about these things, will suffer nothing, for it will never
deviate into such a judgment. The leading principle in itself wants
nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both
free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and
impede itself.
17. Eudæmonia [happiness] is a good
daemon, or a good thing. What then art thou doing here, O
imagination? go away, I entreat thee by the gods, as thou didst come,
for I want thee not. But thou art come according to thy old fashion.
I am not angry with thee: only go away.
18. Is any man afraid of change? Why,
what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or
more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath
unless the wood undergoes a change? And canst thou be nourished
unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is
useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou not see then that
for thyself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary
for the universal nature?
19. Through the universal substance as
through a furious torrent all bodies are carried, being by their
nature united with and cooperating with the whole, as the parts of
our body with one another. How many a Chrysippus, how many a
Socrates, how many an Epictetus has time already swallowed up? And
let the same thought occur to thee with reference to every man and
thing (v. 23; vi. 15).
20. One thing only troubles me, lest I
should do something which the constitution of man does not allow, or
in the way which it does not allow, or what it does not allow now.
21. Near is thy forgetfulness of all
things; and near the forgetfulness of thee by all.
22. It is peculiar to man to love even
those who do wrong. And this happens, if when they do wrong it occurs
to thee that they are kinsmen, and that they do wrong through
ignorance and unintentionally, and that soon both of you will die;
and above all, that the wrong-doer has done thee no harm, for he has
not made thy ruling faculty worse than it was before.
23. The universal nature out of the
universal substance, as if it were wax, now moulds a horse, and when
it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a
man, then for something else; and each of these things subsists for a
very short time. But it is no hardship for the vessel to be broken
up, just as there was none in its being fastened together (viii. 50).
24. A scowling look is altogether
unnatural; when it is often assumed, the result is that all
comeliness dies away, and at last is so completely extinguished that
it cannot be again lighted up at all. Try to conclude from this very
fact that it is contrary to reason. For if even the perception of
doing wrong shall depart, what reason is there for living any longer?
25. Nature which governs the whole
will soon change all things which thou seest, and out of their
substance will make other things, and again other things from the
substance of them, in order that the world may be ever new (xii. 23).
26. When a man has done thee any
wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he
has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and
wilt neither wonder nor be angry. For either thou thyself thinkest
the same thing to be good that he does, or another thing of the same
kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But if thou dost not think
such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more readily be
well-disposed to him who is in error.
27. Think not so much of what thou
hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast
select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been
sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care
that thou dost not through being so pleased with them accustom
thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou
shouldst not have them.
28. Retire into thyself. The rational
principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself
when it does what is just, and so secures tranquillity.
29. Wipe out the imagination. Stop the
pulling of the strings. Confine thyself to the present. Understand
well what happens either to thee or to another. Divide and distribute
every object into the causal [formal] and the material. Think of thy
last hour. Let the wrong which is done by a man stay there where the
wrong was done (viii. 29).
30. Direct thy attention to what is
said. Let thy understanding enter into the things that are doing and
the things which do them (vii. 4).
31. Adorn thyself with simplicity and
modesty and with indifference towards the things which lie between
virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The poet says that Law
rules all. And it is enough to remember that law rules all. 1
32. About death: whether it is a
dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either
extinction or change.
33. About pain: the pain which is
intolerable carries us off; but that which lasts a long time is
tolerable; and the mind maintains its own tranquillity by retiring
into itself, and the ruling faculty is not made worse. But the parts
which are harmed by pain, let them, if they can, give their opinion
about it.
34. About fame: look at the minds [of
those who seek fame], observe what they are, and what kind of things
they avoid, and what kind of things they pursue. And consider that as
the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the former sands, so in
life the events which go before are soon covered by those which come
after.
35. From Plato: the man who has an
elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost
thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything
great? It is not possible, he said. Such a man then will think that
death also is no evil. Certainly not.
36. From Antisthenes: It is royal to
do good and to be abused.
37. It is a base thing for the
countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose itself as the
mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and composed by
itself.
38. It is not right to vex ourselves
at things,
For they care nought about it.
39. To the immortal gods and us give
joy.
40. Life must be reaped like the ripe
ears of corn:
One man is born;
another dies.
41. If gods care not for me and for my
children,
There is a reason for it.
42. For the good is with me, and the
just.
43. No joining others in their
wailing, no violent emotion.
44. From Plato: But I would make this
man a sufficient answer, which is this: Thou sayest not well, if thou
thinkest that a man who is good for anything at all ought to compute
the hazard of life or death, and should not rather look to this only
in all that he does, whether he is doing what is just or unjust, and
the works of a good or a bad man.
45. For thus it is, men of Athens, in
truth: wherever a man has placed himself thinking it the best place
for him, or has been placed by a commander, there in my opinion he
ought to stay and to abide the hazard, taking nothing into the
reckoning, either death or anything else, before the baseness [of
deserting his post].
46. But, my good friend, reflect
whether that which is noble and good is not something different from
saving and being saved; for as to a man living such or such a time,
at least one who is really a man, consider if this is not a thing to
be dismissed from the thoughts: and there must be no love of life:
but as to these matters a man must intrust them to the deity and
believe what the women say, that no man can escape his destiny, the
next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.
47. Look round at the courses of the
stars, as if thou wert going along with them; and constantly consider
the changes of the elements into one another; for such thoughts purge
away the filth of the terrene life.
48. This is a fine saying of Plato:
That he who is discoursing about men should look also at earthly
things as if he viewed them from some higher place; should look at
them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural labours, marriages,
treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts of justice, desert
places, various nations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations, markets,
a mixture of all things and an orderly combination of contraries.
49. Consider the past; such great
changes of political supremacies. Thou mayest foresee also the things
which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not
possible that they should deviate from the order of the things which
take place now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty
years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.
For what more wilt thou see?
50.
That which has grown
from the earth to the earth,
But that which has
sprung from heavenly seed,
Back to the heavenly
realms returns.
This is either a dissolution of the
mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the
insentient 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 complaining.
52. Another may be more expert in
casting his opponent; but he is not more social, nor more modest, nor
better disciplined to meet all that happens, nor more considerate
with respect to the faults of his neighbours.
53. Where any work can be done
conformably to the reason which is common to gods and men, there we
have nothing to fear; for where we are able to get profit by means of
the activity which is successful and proceeds according to our
constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.
54. Everywhere and at all times it is
in thy power piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to
behave justly to those who are about thee, and to exert thy skill
upon thy present thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without
being well examined.
55. Do not look around thee to
discover other men’s ruling principles, but look straight to this,
to what nature leads thee, both the universal nature through the
things which happen to thee, and thy own nature through the acts
which must be done by thee. But every being ought to do that which is
according to its constitution; and all other things have been
constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among irrational
things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the rational
for the sake of one another.
The prime principle then in man’s
constitution is the social. And the second is not to yield to the
persuasions of the body, for it is the peculiar office of the
rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, and never to
be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or of the
appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims
superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the
others. And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all
of them. The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from
error and from deception. Let then the ruling principle holding fast
to these things go straight on, and it has what is its own.
56. Consider thyself to be dead, and
to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according
to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.
57. Love that only which happens to
thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is more
suitable?
58. In everything which happens keep
before thy eyes those to whom the same things happened, and how they
were vexed, and treated them as strange things, and found fault with
them: and now where are they? Nowhere. Why then dost thou too choose
to act in the same way? and why dost thou not leave these agitations
which are foreign to nature, to those who cause them and those who
are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent upon the
right way of making use of the things which happen to thee? for then
thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for thee [to
work on]. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in
every act which thou doest; and remember…
59. Look within. Within is the
fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
60. The body ought to be compact, and
to show no irregularity either in motion or attitude. For what the
mind shows in the face by maintaining in it the expression of
intelligence and propriety, that ought to be required also in the
whole body. But all these things should be observed without
affectation.
61. The art of life is more like the
wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it
should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and
unexpected.
62. Constantly observe who those are
whose approbation thou wishest to have, and what ruling principles
they possess. For then thou wilt neither blame those who offend
involuntarily, nor wilt thou want their approbation, if thou lookest
to the sources of their opinions and appetites.
63. Every soul, the philosopher says,
is involuntarily deprived of truth; consequently in the same way it
is deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence and everything
of the kind. It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind,
for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all.
64. In every pain let this thought be
present, that there is no dishonour in it, nor does it make the
governing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence
either so far as the intelligence is rational or so far as it is
social. Indeed in the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus
aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou
bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to
it in imagination: and remember this too, that we do not perceive
that many things which are disagreeable to us are the same as pain,
such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched by heat, and the
having no appetite. When then thou art discontented about any of
these things, say to thyself that thou art yielding to pain.
65. Take care not to feel towards the
inhuman as they feel towards men.
66. How do we know if Telauges was not
superior in character to Socrates? for it is not enough that Socrates
dies a more noble death, and disputed more skilfully with the
sophists, and passed the night in the cold with more endurance, and
that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamis, he considered it more
noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering way in the
streets-though as to this fact one may have great doubts if it was
true. But we ought to inquire, what kind of a soul it was that
Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just
towards men and pious towards the gods, neither idly vexed on account
of men’s villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to any man’s
ignorance, nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share
out of the universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing
his understanding to sympathize with the affects of the miserable
flesh.
67. Nature has not so mingled [the
intelligence] with the composition of the body, as not to have
allowed thee the power of circumscribing thyself and of bringing
under subjection to thyself all that is thy own; for it is very
possible to be a divine man and to be recognized as such by no one.
Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little
indeed is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast
despaired of becoming a dialectician and skilled in the knowledge of
nature, do not for this reason renounce the hope of being both free
and modest and social and obedient to God.
68. It is in thy power to live free
from all compulsion in the greatest tranquillity of mind, even if all
the world cry out against thee as much as they choose, and even if
wild beasts tear in pieces the members of this kneaded matter which
has grown around thee. For what hinders the mind in the midst of all
this from maintaining itself in tranquillity, and in a just judgment
of all surrounding things, and in a ready use of the objects which
are presented to it, so that the judgment may say to the thing which
falls under its observation: This thou art in substance [reality],
though in men’s opinion thou mayest appear to be of a different
kind; and the use shall say to that which falls under the hand: Thou
art the thing that I was seeking; for to me that which presents
itself is always a material for virtue, both rational and political,
and, in a word, for the exercise of art, which belongs to man or God.
For everything which happens has a relationship either to God or man,
and is neither new nor difficult to handle, but usual and apt matter
to work on.
69. The perfection of moral character
consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being
neither violently excited, nor torpid, nor playing the hypocrite.
70. The gods who are immortal are not
vexed because during so long a time they must tolerate continually
men such as they are and so many of them bad; and besides this, they
also take care of them in all ways. But thou, who art destined to end
so soon, art thou wearied of enduring the bad, and this too when thou
art one of them?
71. It is a ridiculous thing for a man
not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly
from other men’s badness, which is impossible.
72. Whatever the rational and
political [social] faculty finds to be neither intelligent nor
social, it properly judges to be inferior to itself.
73. When thou hast done a good act and
another has received it, why dost thou still look for a third thing
besides these, as fools do, either to have the reputation of having
done a good act or to obtain a return?
74. No man is tired of receiving what
is useful. But it is useful to act according to nature. Do not then
be tired of receiving what is useful by doing it to others.
75. The nature of the All moved to
make the universe. But now either everything that takes place comes
by way of consequence or [continuity]; or even the chief things
towards which the ruling power of the universe directs its own
movement are governed by no rational principle. If this is remembered
it will make thee more tranquil in many things (vi. 44; ix. 28).
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