Marcus Aurelius - the philosopher-emperor
Everything
harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is
too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.
The Roman
emperor Marcus Aurelius was perhaps the only true philosopher- king in the
history of the world. He was not an original nor a systematic philosopher, but
in his meditations, a series of notes to himself, he formulated his pantheist
Stoic beliefs with a passionate religious conviction.
He
shared the basic Stoic belief in the divinity of the cosmos as an intelligent
being with a soul, and stressed (perhaps too fatalistically) the harmony of all
things and the importance of resigning oneself to whatever happened.
Marcus Aurelius reigned from 161
AD to 180 AD. He seems to have been a good and conscientious ruler who was
magnanimous towards his enemies. He banned informers, stamped down hard on
corruption, and freed slaves at every opportunity. Although he tolerated the
circus, he ordered gladiators to fight with blunted points. Needing extra funds
for his wars in Eastern Europe, he
refused
to raise taxes but instead held a public auction of his own golden tableware
and of his wife's silk and gold embroidered dresses.
The
Meditations were written day by day, in every situation including war.
They
often appear to be responses to the stress of supreme power, from the imminent
fear of death in battle, to the trials of everyday life. With hindsight Marcus'
greatest omission was that he did not impose Stoicism as the imperial religion,
with as much rigor as Theodosius later imposed Christianity. Had he done so,
the history of the world might have turned out
very
differently. But the fact that he was more tolerant might be regarded as another
of his virtues.
The Meditations: extracts.
Unity of the universe:
There is
one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite
other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among
countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though
it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is
one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
Constantly
regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and
observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this
one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things
are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the
continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.
All
things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly
anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been coordinated,
and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made
up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and
one law, and one reason.
Change:
The
universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now molds a
horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then
for a man, then for something else. . . .
Nature
which governs the whole will soon change all things which you see, and out of
their substance will make other things. and again other things . . . in order
that the world may be ever new.
The
nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things that are
and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the
seed of that which will be.
The social animal:
We are
made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the
upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to Nature.
Belonging to the whole:
You must
now at last perceive of what universe you are a part, and of what administrator
of the universe our existence is an afflux, and that a limit of time is fixed
for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds from your mind,
it will go and you will go, and it will never return.
The soul
of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it becomes an abscess and,
as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as it can. For to be vexed at
anything which happens is a separation of ourselves from nature, in some part
of which the natures of all other things are contained.
You will
give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were the last,
laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of
reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which
has been given to you.
Harmonizing with the universe:
This you
must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my
nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of what
kind of a whole; and that there is no-one who hinders you from always doing and
saying the things which are according to the nature of which you are a part.
Everything
harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is
too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me
which thy seasons bring, o nature; from thee are all things, in thee are all
things, to thee all things return.
A contented life:
If you
work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously,
calmly without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine
part pure, as if you might be bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to
this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with your present
activity according to nature . . . you will be happy. And there is no man who
is able to prevent this.
Take
away the complaint "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.
Facing death.
You have
embarked, you have made the voyage, you have come to the shore: get out.
You have
existed as a part. You shall disappear in that which produced you; or rather,
you shall be received back into its seminal principle by transmutation.
Pass
then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end your
journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature
who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
Every
part of me will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that
again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever.
And by
consequence of such a change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on
forever in the other direction.
Keith and Marnie
Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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