is no Providence which governs the world, man has at least the power of governing himself according to the constitution of his nature; and so he may be tranquil if he does the best that he can.

If there is no error in the passage, it is worth the labor to discover the writer’s exact meaning—­for I think that he had a meaning, though people may not agree what it was. (Compare ix. 28.) If I have rightly explained the emperor’s meaning in this and other passages, he has touched the solution of a great question.

VIII.

This reflection also tends to the removal of the desire of empty fame, that it is no longer in thy power to have lived the whole of thy life, or at least thy life from thy youth upwards, like a philosopher; but both to many others and to thyself it is plain that thou art far from philosophy.  Thou hast fallen into disorder then, so that it is no longer easy for thee to get the reputation of a philosopher; and thy plan of life also opposes it.  If then thou hast truly seen where the matter lies, throw away the thought, How thou shall seem [to others], and be content if thou shalt live the rest of thy life in such wise as thy nature wills.  Observe then what it wills, and let nothing else distract thee; for thou hast had experience of many wanderings without having found happiness anywhere,—­not in syllogisms, nor in wealth, nor in reputation, nor in enjoyment, nor anywhere.  Where is it then?  In doing what man’s nature requires.  How then shall a man do this?  If he has principles from which come his affects and his acts.  What principles?  Those which relate to good and bad:  the belief that there is nothing good for man which does not make him just, temperate, manly, free; and that there is nothing bad which does not do the contrary to what has been mentioned.

2.  On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me?  Shall I repent of it?  A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.  What more do I seek, if what I am now doing is the work of an intelligent living being, and a social being, and one who is under the same law with God?

3.  Alexander and Caius[A] and Pompeius, what are they in comparison with Diogenes and Heraclitus and Socrates?  For they were acquainted with things, and their causes [forms], and their matter, and the ruling principles of these men were the same [or conformable to their pursuits].  But as to the others, how many things had they to care for, and to how many things were they slaves!

    [A] Caius is C. Julius Caesar, the dictator; and Pompeius is
    Cn.  Pompeius, named Magnus.

4. [Consider] that men will do the same things nevertheless, even though thou shouldst burst.

5.  This is the chief thing:  Be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal; and in a little time thou wilt be nobody and nowhere, like Hadrianus and Augustus.  In the next place, having fixed thy eyes steadily on thy business, look at it, and at the same time remembering that it is thy duty to be a good man, and what man’s nature demands, do that without turning aside; and speak as it seems to thee most just, only let it be with a good disposition and with modesty and without hypocrisy.