Of
human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and
the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to
putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and
fame a thing devoid of judgement. And, to say all in a word,
everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to
the soul is a dream and vapour, and life is a warfare and a
stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion. What then is that
which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy.
But this consists in keeping the daemon within a man free from
violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing
without purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the
need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and besides,
accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from
thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally,
waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a
dissolution of the elements of which every living being is
compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in
each continually changing into another, why should a man have any
apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements?
For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according
to nature.
This
in Carnuntum.
(podcast episode) (original Greek part 1; part 2)
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