Stoic Snippets 219

Either the gods have no power or they have power. 

If, then, they have no power, why do you pray to them? 

But if they have power, why do you not pray for them to give you the faculty of not fearing any of the things which you fear, or of not desiring any of the things which you desire, or of not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen? 

For certainly if they can cooperate with men, they can cooperate for these purposes. 

But perhaps you will say the gods have placed them in your power. Well, then, is it not better to use what is in your power like a free man than to desire in a slavish and abject way what is not in your power? 

And who has told you that the gods do not aid us, even in the things which are in our power? Begin, then, to pray for such things, and you will see. 

One man prays thus: How shall I be able to lie with that woman? Do you pray thus: How shall I not desire to lie with her? 

Another prays thus: How shall I be released from this? Pray you: How shall I not desire to be released? 

Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? You thus: How shall I not be afraid to lose him? 

In fine, turn your prayers this way, and see what comes. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.40 

IMAGE: Rembrandt, An Elderly Man in Prayer (c. 1660)