James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 15

15. 

μᾶλλον δέ σοι ἡ τούτου νόησις προσπεσεῖται, ἐὰν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν πολλάκις λέγῃς, ὅτι μέλος εἰμὶ τοῦ ἐκ τῶν λογικῶν συστήματος. ἐὰν δὲ διὰ τοῦ ῥῶ στοιχείου μέρος εἶναι ἑαυτὸν λέγῃς, οὔπω ἀπὸ καρδίας φιλεῖς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους: οὔπω σε καταληκτικῶς εὐφραίνει τὸ εὐεργετεῖν: ἔτι ὡς πρέπον αὐτὸ ψιλὸν ποιεῖς, οὔπω ὡς ἑαυτὸν εὖ ποιῶν. 

All rational beings are meant to work together. But knowledge of this will come over you better if often you say to yourself: I am a vital part, like a limb, of the body of reasoning creatures. But if you call yourself no more than a thing among things, you not yet love mankind from the heart, nor yet does well-doing delight you for its own sake, as not looking beyond itself. You are practicing good conduct still as a bare suitableness, not yet as conferring a boon on yourself. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.13 

15. 

Of all secrets methinks the secret is this, 

That I behold me membered with the all; 

No separate shred, whereunto is no bliss, 

But one with One, whereby all joys befall. 

If I seem but an atom, a bit, a mote, 

A flick o’ tonguey flames of circumstance, 

Can atoms love one another, or take note 

Of the one bond in th’ various expanse? 

Have up thy heart to the lighted style of space, 

Where hang the lamps that wink no partial eye 

For prince or peasant. Else thy goodly grace 

Will be no more than fashion passing by. 

This above all: Say, at thy charities, 

I now befriend myself with companies.