Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.

Meditations. ir. 20.

All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.

23.

"Let thine occupations be few," saith the sage,1 "if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life."

24.

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.

31.

Remember this, that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

All is ephemeral, fame and the famous as well.

32.

35.

Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.

36.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

38.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

43.

All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer.

44.

That which comes after ever conforms to that which gone before.

has

45.

1 DEMOCRITUS apud SENECAM: De Ira, iii. 6; De Animi Tranquillitate, 13.

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man, yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair's-breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it. Meditations. iv. 48.

Deem not life a thing of consequence.

For look at

the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.

50.

Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.

51.

In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; "I am rising to a man's work."

v. 1.

A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.

6.

Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achiev ing of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.

9.

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.

18.

Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.

Live with the gods.

21.

27.

Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.

vi. 3.

The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.

5.

Do not think that what is hard for thee to master is impossible for man; but if a thing is possible and proper to man, deem it attainable by thee.

19.

If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance. Meditations. vi. 21.

Death, a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

Suit thyself to the estate in which thy lot is cast.

28.

39.

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

54.

How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!

vii. 6.

One Universe made up of all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of Being, and one Law, the Reason, shared by all thinking creatures, and one Truth. 9.

To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.

11.

Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou hast already.

27.

Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.

34.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.

61. little is needed to make a 67.

Remember that to change thy mind and to follow him that sets thee right, is to be none the less the free agent that thou wast before.

viii. 16.

Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.

Meditations. viii. 22.

A man's happiness, to do the things proper to man.

26.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

51.

He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.

52.

The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true. ix. 1.

He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.

2.

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favour; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

3.

A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.

5.

Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.

7.

Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.

9.

All things are the same, familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.

14.

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

16.

Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.

Forward, as occasion offers.

whether

any

Meditations. ix. 19.

Never look round to see shall note it. .. Be satisfied with success

in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

29.

He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state with him that is cut down untimely.

33.

Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.

x. 5.

"The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what love is." 1 The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.

21.

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life, there, if one must speak out, the real man. 38.

No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.

xi. 10.

If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it

not.

xii. 17.

TERTULLIAN. 160-240 A. d.

See how these Christians love one another.

Apologeticus. c. 39.

Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

It is certain because it is impossible.2

He who flees will fight again.

8

c. 50.

De Carne Christi. c. 5.

De Fuga in Persecutione. c. 10.

1 Fragmenta Euripidis, apud Aristotelem, N. A. viii. 1, 6.

2 Certum est, quia impossibile est. This is usually misquoted, "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible).

8 See Butler, pages 215, 216.