37.  Accustom thyself as much as possible on the occasion of anything being done by any person to inquire with thyself, For what object is this man doing this?  But begin with thyself, and examine thyself first.

38.  Remember that this which pulls the strings is the thing which is hidden within:  this is the power of persuasion, this is life, this, if one may so say, is man.  In contemplating thyself never include the vessel which surrounds thee and these instruments which are attached about it.  For they are like to an axe, differing only in this, that they grow to the body.  For indeed there is no more use in these parts without the cause which moves and checks them than in the weaver’s shuttle, and the writer’s pen, and the driver’s whip.[A]

    [A] See the Philosophy of Antoninus, p. 72, note.

XI.

These are the properties of the rational soul:  it sees itself, analyzes itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it bears itself enjoys—­for the fruits of plants and that in animals which corresponds to fruits others enjoy—­it obtains its own end, wherever the limit of life may be fixed.  Not as in a dance and in a play and in such like things, where the whole action is incomplete if anything cuts it short; but in every part, and wherever it may be stopped, it makes what has been set before it full and complete, so that it can say, I have what is my own.  And further it traverses the whole universe, and the surrounding vacuum, and surveys its form, and it extends itself into the infinity of time, and embraces and comprehends the[A] periodical renovation of all things, and it comprehends that those who come after us will see nothing new, nor have those before us seen anything more, but in a manner he who is forty years old, if he has any understanding at all, has seen by virtue of the uniformity that prevails all things which have been and all that will be.  This too is a property of the rational soul, love of one’s neighbor, and truth and modesty, and to value nothing more than itself, which is also the property of Law.[B] Thus the right reason differs not at all from the reason of justice.

    [A] [Greek:  Ten periodiken palingenesian].  See v. 13, 32; x.
    7.

    [B] Law is the order by which all things are governed.

2.  Thou wilt set little value on pleasing song and dancing and the pancratium, if thou wilt distribute the melody of the voice into its several sounds, and ask thyself as to each, if thou art mastered by this; for thou wilt be prevented by shame from confessing it:  and in the matter of dancing, if at each movement and attitude thou wilt do the same; and the like also in the matter of the pancratium.  In all things, then, except virtue and the acts of virtue, remember to apply thyself to their several parts, and by this division to come to value them little:  and apply this rule also to thy whole life.