James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 4

4. 

᾿Αναχωρήσεις αὑτοῖς ζητοῦσιν, ἀγροικίας καὶ αἰγιαλυὺς καὶ ὄρη" εἴωθας δὲ καὶ σὺ τὰ τοιαῦτα μάλιστα ποθεῖν. ὅλον δὲ τοῦτο ἰδιωτικώτατόν ἐστιν, ἐξὸν ἧς ἂν ὥρας ἐθελήσῃς εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀνα- χωρεῖν. οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ οὔτε ἡσυχιώτερον οὔτε ᾿ἀπραγμονέστερον ἄνθρωπος ἀναχωρεῖ ἢ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἦν: μάλισθ᾽ ὅστις ἔχει ἔνδον τοιαῦτα, εἰς ἃ ἐγκύψας ἐν πάσῃ εὐμαρείᾳ εὐθὺς γίνεται' τὴν δὲ εὐμάρειαν οὐδὲν ἄλλο λέγω ἢ εὐκοσμίαν. συνεχῶς οὖν δίδου σεαυτῷ ταύτην τὴν ἀναχώρησιν, καὶ ἀνανέου σεαυτόν: βραχέα δὲ ἔστω καὶ στοιχειώδη, ἃ εὐθὺς ἀπαντήσαντα ἀρκέσει εἰς τὸ πᾶσαν ἀνίαν ἀποκλύσαε, καὶ ἀποπέμψαι σε μὴ δυσχεραίνοντα ἐκείνοις, ἐφ᾽ ἃ ἐπανέρχῃ. 

 Men seek out refuges for themselves, in country dwellings, sea shores, mountains; and the wishes for these retreats are very lively desires. But this belongs altogether to the most common rate of men. For any one may retire into himself at any moment when he wishes that privacy, and nowhere in the world does a man find a seclusion more full of quietness or empty of common affairs, than in his own soul; especially whoever has within him such things that by a look at them he is straightway at utmost ease; and this ease I call nothing but good order. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.3 

4. 

Meseems it is a monstrous whimsey quite 

To hunt retirement by a run or race 

Away from cares that cark the day and night, 

To alien prospects in a foreign place. 

Now tell, ye hurrying, flurrying, scurrying all, 

What is ’t ye fly but your o’ermastered selves? 

And think ye to avoid the noisy brawl, 

Who shoulder with you your own imps and elves? 

Hark ye, and understand, ye froward fools: 

No bird will pipe nor zephyr whisper you, 

Nor dells bechamber you by ferny pools, 

Till you yourselves be room where none pursue. 

Myself portals myself; I pass ‘inside, 

And noisy crowds renounce that quiet wide.