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119 u b o o k x u 1. Wilt thou, ever, O my soul! be good, and simple, and one, and naked, more apparent than the body that surrounds thee? Wilt thou ever taste of the loving and affectionate temper? wilt thou ever be full, and without wants; without longings after any thing, without desires after any thing, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasure? Or time, for lengthening the enjoyment? Or of place, or country, or fine climate? Or of the * social concord of men? But † satisfied with thy present state, and well-pleased with every present circumstance? persuade ‡ thyself thou hast all things: all is § right and well with thee: and comes to thee from the Gods. And all shall be right and well for thee which they please to give, and which they are about to give for the safety of ** the perfect animal; the good; the just; the fair; the parent of all things; the supporter, the container, the surrounder of all things; which are [all] dissolving for the birth of such others as themselves. Wilt thou ever be able, so to live * His leisure was perpetually broke by wars. † Philippians, IV. 11. “I have learned,in whatever stateIam,therewithtobecontent.”1 Epictetus, in the Enchirid. 15.2 “Remember, you ought to behave yourself in life, as if at an entertainment. Does any thing come, in course, to you? stretch out your hand, and take it gracefully. Does it go by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not come yet? Don’t long after it; but wait till it come to you. Do thus in the case of your children, of your wife, of power, of riches; and you shall be at length a worthy companion of the Gods. And if, even when set before you, you don’t take, but overlook them; you shall then be not only a companion of the Gods, but a fellow-governor with them. ‡ II. Corinth. VI. 10. “Having nothing, yet possessing all things.” But the whole passage from verse 3 to 11, is of the same kind, and extremely beautiful.3§ Rom. VIII. 28. “All things work together for good to them who love God.” ** The universe: See, IV. 23. 120 meditations a fellow-citizen of * Gods and men, as, neither, in any respect, † to complain of them, nor be disapproved by them. 2. ‡ Observe what your nature demands as far as you are under the government of mere vegetative nature. Then do that, and approve it, if your nature, as an animal, won’t be thence rendered the worse. Next you must observe what your nature, as an animal, demands. And take to yourself every thing of this kind, if your nature, as a rational-animal, won’t be thence rendered the worse. Now ’tis plain the rational nature is also social. So, use these rules, and trouble yourself for none further. 3. Whatever happens, happens such as you are either formed by nature able to bear it, or not able to bear it. If such as you are by nature form’d able to bear, bear it and fret not: But if such as you are not naturally able to bear, don’t fret; for when it has consum’d you, itself will perish. Remember , however, you are by nature form’d able to bear whatever it is in the power of your own opinion to makesupportableortolerable,according as you conceive it advantageous, or your duty, to do so. 4. If he is going wrong, teach him humanely, and show him his mistake. If this be impossible for you, blame yourself; or not even yourself. 5. Whatever happens to you, it was before preparing for you from eternity ; and the concatenation of causes had, from eternity,interwoven your subsistence with this contingency. 6. Whether all be atoms, or there be [presiding] natures, let this be laid down as indisputable; that I am a part of the whole; and the whole must be conducted by its own nature, be that what it will: and that I am in some manner socially connected with the parts which are of the same kind with myself. For while I remember this, I shall, as I am a part, be dissatisfied with nothing appointed me by the whole. For nothing advantageous to the whole is hurtful to the part. For the whole has nothing in it but what is advantageous to itself; that being common to all natures; and...

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