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Think of the Universe of matter!—­an atom thou!  Think of the eternity of Time—­thy predestined time but a moment!  Reflect upon the great plan of Fate—­how trivial this destiny of thine! (Book v., Sec. 24.)

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All things are enveloped in such darkness that they have seemed utterly incomprehensible to those who have led the philosophic life—­and those too not a few in number, nor of ill-repute.  Nay, even to the Stoics the course of affairs seems an enigma.  Indeed, every conclusion reached seems tentative; for where is the man to be found who does not change his conclusions?  Think too of the things men most desire,—­riches, reputation, and the like,—­and consider how ephemeral they are, how vain!  A vile wretch, a common strumpet, or a thief, may possess them.  Then think of the habits and manners of those about thee—­how difficult it is to endure the least offensive of such people—­nay how difficult, most of all, it is to endure one’s self!

Amidst such darkness, then, and such unworthiness, amidst this eternal change, with all temporal things and even Time itself passing away, with all things moving in eternal motion, I cannot imagine what, in all this, is worthy of a man’s esteem or serious effort. (Book v., Sec. 10.)

DEATH

To cease from bodily activity, to end all efforts of will and of thought, to stop all these forever, is no evil.  For do but contemplate thine own life as a child, a growing lad, a youth, an old man:  the change to each of these periods was the death of the period which preceded it.  Why then fear the death of all these—­the death of thyself?  Think too of thy life under the care of thy grandfather, then of thy life under the care of thy mother, then under the care of thy father, and so on with every change that hath occurred in thy life, and then ask thyself concerning any change that hath yet to be, Is there anything to fear?  And then shall all fear, even of the great change,—­the change of death itself,—­vanish and flee away. (Book ix., Sec.21.)

FAME

Contemplate men as from some lofty height.  How innumerable seem the swarms of men!  How infinite their pomps and ceremonies!  How they wander to and fro upon the deep in fair weather and in storm!  How varied their fate in their births, in their lives, in their deaths!  Think of the lives of those who lived long ago, of those who shall follow thee, of those who now live in uncivilized lands who have not even heard of thy name, and, of those who have heard it, how many will soon forget it; of how many there are who now praise thee who will soon malign thee,—­and thence conclude the vanity of fame, glory, reputation. (Book ix., Sec.30.)

PRAYER