—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.1
Oft have I seen a flame convert to fuel
3.
Things heaped and hustled on to stifle it,
Whereby the blaze, prevailing in that duel,
Doth on his fiery throne victorious sit.
For flickers faint, feeble to put to act,
Are haply smothered and from purpose bent;
But a strong fire, with Nature making pact,
Converts all matters to his nutriment ;
To his own substance doth digest his foes,
Transmuting to become his own estate
And painting to be ruddier than the rose
What ’s hurled upon to pale him or abate.
And so the soul is, or in truth should be,
That, kindled well, obstruction setteth free.
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