THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

Begin thy morning with these thoughts:  I shall meet the meddler, the ingrate, the scorner, the hypocrite, the envious man, the cynic.  These men are such because they know not to discern the difference between good and evil.  But I know that Goodness is Beauty and that Evil is Loathsomeness:  I know that the real nature of the evil-doer is akin to mine, not only physically but in a unity of intelligence and in participation in the Divine Nature.  Therefore I know that I cannot be harmed by such persons, nor can they thrust upon me what is base.  I know, too, that I should not be angry with my kinsmen nor hate them, because we are all made to work together fitly like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the rows of the upper and the lower teeth.  To be at strife one with another is therefore contrary to our real nature; and to be angry with one another, to despise one another, is to be at strife one with another. (Book ii,Sec.  I.)

Fashion thyself to the circumstances of thy lot.  The men whom Fate hath made thy comrades here, love; and love them in sincerity and in truth.  (Book vi., Sec. 39.)

This is distinctive of men,—­to love those who do wrong.  And this thou shalt do if thou forget not that they are thy kinsmen, and that they do wrong through ignorance and not through design; that ere long thou and they will be dead; and more than all, that the evil-doer hath really done thee no evil, since he hath left thy conscience unharmed. (Book viii., Sec.22.)

THE SUPREME NOBILITY OF DUTY

As A Roman and as a man, strive steadfastly every moment to do thy duty, with dignity, sincerity, and loving-kindness, freely and justly, and freed from all disquieting thought concerning any other thing.  And from such thought thou wilt be free if every act be done as though it were thy last, putting away from thee slothfulness, all loathing to do what Reason bids thee, all dissimulation, selfishness, and discontent with thine appointed lot.  Behold, then, how few are the things needful for a life which will flow onward like a quiet stream, blessed even as the life of the gods.  For he who so lives, fulfills their will. (Book ii., Sec.5.)

So long as thou art doing thy duty, heed not warmth nor cold, drowsiness nor wakefulness, life, nor impending death; nay, even in the very act of death, which is indeed only one of the acts of life, it suffices to do well what then remains to be done. (Book vi., Sec. 2.)

I strive to do my duty; to all other considerations I am indifferent, whether they be material things or unreasoning and ignorant people.  (Book vi., Sec.22.)

THE FUTURE LIFE.  IMMORTALITY