Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Marcus Aurelius — John Shaqi
Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Aurelius · en
The Ethical part of Antoninus' Philosophy follows from his general
principles. The end of all his philosophy is to live conformably to
Nature, both a man's own nature and the nature of the universe. Bishop
Butler has explained what the Greek philosophers meant when they spoke
of living according to Nature, and he says that when it is explained, as
he has explained it and as they understood it, it is "a manner of
speaking not loose and undeterminate, but clear and distinct, strictly
just and true." To live according to Nature is to live according to a
man's whole nature, not according to a part of it, and to reverence the
divinity within him as the governor of all his actions. "To the rational
animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason"[A]
(vii. 11). That which is done contrary to reason is also an act contrary
to nature, to the whole nature, though it is certainly conformable to
some part of man's nature, or it could not be done. Man is made for
action, not for idleness or pleasure. As plants and animals do the uses
of their nature, so man must do his (v. 1).
[A] This is what Juvenal means when he says (xiv. 321),--
"Nunquam aliud Natura aliud Sapientia dicit."
Man must also live conformably to the universal nature, conformably to
the nature of all things of which he is one; and as a citizen of a
political community he must direct his life and actions with reference
to those among whom, among other purposes, he lives.[A] A man must not
retire into solitude and cut himself off from his fellow-men. He must be
ever active to do his part in the great whole. All men are his kin, not
only in blood, but still more by participating in the same intelligence
and by being a portion of the same divinity. A man cannot really be
injured by his brethren, for no act of theirs can make him bad, and he
must not be angry with them nor hate them: "For we are made for
co-operation, 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; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn
away" (ii. 1).
[A] See viii. 52; and Persius iii. 66