Marcus Aurelius - the philosopher-emperor

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was perhaps the only true philosopher- king in the history of the world. He was not an original nor a systematic

philosopher, but in his meditations, a series of notes to himself, he

formulated his pantheist Stoic beliefs with a passionate religious conviction.

He shared the basic Stoic belief in the divinity of the cosmos as an

intelligent being with a soul, and stressed (perhaps too fatalistically) the

harmony of all things and the importance of resigning oneself to whatever

happened.

Marcus Aurelius reigned from 161 AD to 180 AD. He seems to have been a good and conscientious ruler who was magnanimous towards his enemies. He banned informers, stamped down hard on corruption, and freed slaves at every

opportunity. Although he tolerated the circus, he ordered gladiators to fight

with blunted points. Needing extra funds for his wars in Eastern Europe, he

refused to raise taxes but instead held a public auction of his own golden

tableware and of his wife's silk and gold embroidered dresses.

The Meditations were written day by day, in every situation including war.

They often appear to be responses to the stress of supreme power, from the

imminent fear of death in battle, to the trials of everyday life.

With hindsight Marcus' greatest omission was that he did not impose Stoicism

as the imperial religion, with as much rigor as Theodosius later imposed

Christianity. Had he done so, the history of the world might have turned out

very differently. But the fact that he was more tolerant might be regarded as

another of his virtues.

The Meditations: extracts.

Unity of the universe:

There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and

infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed

among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul,

though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.

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 cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.

All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is

hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been

coordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one

universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one

substance, and one law, and one reason.

Change:

The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now

molds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree,

then for a man, then for something else. . . . Nature which governs the whole

will soon change all things which you see, and out of their substance will make other things. and again other things . . . in order that the world may be ever new.

The nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things that

are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.

The social animal:

We are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows

of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to

Nature.

Belonging to the whole:

You must now at last perceive of what universe you are a part, and of what

administrator of the universe our existence is an afflux, and that a limit of

time is fixed for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds from

your mind, it will go and you will go, and it will never return.

The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it becomes an

abscess and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as it can. For to be

vexed at anything which happens is a separation of ourselves from nature, in

some part of which the natures of all other things are contained.

You will give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were

the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the

commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the

portion which has been given to you.

Harmonizing with the universe:

This you must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of

what kind of a whole; and that there is no-one who hinders you from always doing and saying the things which are according to the nature of which you are a part.

Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, o nature; from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things return.

A contented life:

If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously,

vigorously, calmly without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping

your divine part pure, as if you might be bound to give it back immediately; if

you hold to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with your

present activity according to nature . . . you will be happy. And there is no

man who is able to prevent this.

Take away the complaint "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.

Facing death.

You have embarked, you have made the voyage, you have come to the shore: get out.

You have existed as a part. You shall disappear in that which produced you; or

rather, you shall be received back into its seminal principle by transmutation.

Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end your journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

Every part of me will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and

that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on for ever.

And by consequence of such a change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever in the other direction.

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