Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius AntoninusMarcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
Ethics; Life; Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 121-180; Stoics
[A] "Seen even with the eyes." It is supposed that this may be
explained by the Stoic doctrine, that the universe is a god or
living being (iv. 40), and that the celestial bodies are gods
(viii. 19). But the emperor may mean that we know that the gods
exist, as he afterwards states it, because we see what they do;
as we know that man has intellectual powers, because we see
what he does, and in no other way do we know it. This passage
then will agree with the passage in the Epistle to the Romans
(i. _v_. 20), and with the Epistle to the Colossians (i. _v_.
15), in which Jesus Christ is named "the image of the invisible
god;" and with the passage in the Gospel of St. John (xiv. _v_.
9).
Gataker, whose notes are a wonderful collection of learning,
and all of it sound and good, quotes a passage of Calvin which
is founded on St. Paul's language (Rom. i. _v_. 20): "God by
creating the universe [or world, mundum], being himself
invisible, has presented himself to our eyes conspicuously in a
certain visible form." He also quotes Seneca (De Benef. iv. c.
8): "Quocunque te flexeris, ibi illum videbis occurrentem tibi:
nihil ab illo vacat, opus suum ipse implet." Compare also
Cicero, De Senectute (c. 22), Xenophon's Cyropaedia (viii. 7),
and Mem. iv. 3; also Epictetus, i. 6, de Providentia. I think
that my interpretation of Antoninus is right.
29. The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what
it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy
soul to do justice and to say the truth. What remains, except to enjoy
life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the
smallest intervals between?
30. There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls,
mountains, and other things infinite. There is one common substance,[A]
though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several
qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among infinite
natures and individual circumscriptions [or individuals]. There is one
intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided. Now in the things which
have been mentioned, all the other parts, such as those which are air
and matter, are without sensation and have no fellowship: and yet even
these parts the intelligent principle holds together and the gravitation
towards the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which
is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion
is not interrupted.
[A] iv. 40.
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