Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — John Shaqi
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
Justinus (ad Diognetum, c. vii.) says that the omnipotent,
all-creating, and invisible God has fixed truth and the holy,
incomprehensible Logos in men's hearts; and this Logos is the
architect and creator of the Universe. In the first Apology (c.
xxxii.), he says that the seed ([Greek: sperma]) from God is
the Logos, which dwells in those who believe in God. So it
appears that according to Justinus the Logos is only in such
believers. In the second Apology (c. viii.) he speaks of the
seed of the Logos being implanted in all mankind; but those who
order their lives according to Logos, such as the Stoics, have
only a portion of the Logos ([Greek: kata spermatikou logou
meros]), and have not the knowledge and contemplation of the
entire Logos, which is Christ. Swedenborg's remarks (Angelic
Wisdom, 240) are worth comparing with Justinus. The modern
philosopher in substance agrees with the ancient; but he is
more precise.
God exists then, but what do we know of his nature? Antoninus says that
the soul of man is an efflux from the divinity. We have bodies like
animals, but we have reason, intelligence, as the gods. Animals have
life ([Greek: psychê]) and what we call instincts or natural principles
of action: but the rational animal man alone has a rational, intelligent
soul ([Greek: psychê logikê noera]). Antoninus insists on this
continually: God is in man,[A] and so we must constantly attend to the
divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can have any
knowledge of the nature of God. The human soul is in a sense a portion
of the divinity, and the soul alone has any communication with the
Deity; for as he says (xii. 2): "With his intellectual part alone God
touches the intelligence only which has flowed and been derived from
himself into these bodies." In fact he says that which is hidden within
a man is life, that is, the man himself. All the rest is vesture,
covering, organs, instrument, which the living man, the real[B] man,
uses for the purpose of his present existence. The air is universally
diffused for him who is able to respire; and so for him who is willing
to partake of it the intelligent power, which holds within it all
things, is diffused as wide and free as the air (viii. 54). It is by
living a divine life that man approaches to a knowledge of the
divinity.[C] It is by following the divinity within [Greek: daimôn] or
[Greek: theos], as Antonius calls it, that man comes nearest to the
Deity, the supreme good; for man can never attain to perfect agreement
with his internal guide ([Greek: to hêgemonikon]). "Live with the gods.
And he does live with the gods who constantly shows to them that his own
soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does
all the daemon ([Greek: daimôn]) wishes, which Zeus hath given to every
man for his guardian and guide, a portion of himself. And this daemon is
every man's understanding and reason" (v. 27).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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