33.  The words which were formerly familiar are now antiquated:  so also the names of those who were famed of old, are now in a manner antiquated, Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Leonnatus, and a little after also Scipio and Cato, then Augustus, then also Hadrianus and Antoninus.  For all things soon pass away and become a mere tale, and complete oblivion soon buries them.  And I say this of those who have shone in a wondrous way.  For the rest, as soon as they have breathed out their breath they are gone, and no man speaks of them.  And, to conclude the matter, what is even an eternal remembrance?  A mere nothing.  What then is that about which we ought to employ our serious pains?  This one thing, thoughts just, and acts social, and words which never lie, and a disposition which gladly accepts all that happens, as necessary, as usual, as flowing from a principle and source of the same kind.

34.  Willingly give thyself up to Clotho [one of the fates], allowing her to spin thy thread + into whatever things she pleases.

35.  Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.

36.  Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them.  For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.  But thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a womb:  but this is a very vulgar notion.

37.  Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, nor free from perturbations, nor without suspicion of being hurt by external things, nor kindly disposed towards all; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in acting justly.

38.  Examine men’s ruling principles, even those of the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what kind they pursue.

39.  What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering.  Where is it then?  It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils.  Let this power then not form [such] opinions, and all is well.  And if that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good.  For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.

40.  Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the co-operating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.