James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 24

24. 

Ὅταν τινὸς ἀναισχυντίᾳ προσκόπτῃς, εὐθὺς πυνθάνου σεαυτοῦ: δύνανται οὖν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἀναίσχυντοι μὴ εἶναι; οὐ δύνανται: μὴ οὖν ἀπαίτει τὸ ἀδύνατον: εἷς γὰρ καὶ οὗτός ἐστιν ἐκείνων τῶν ἀναισχύντων, οὓς ἀνάγκη ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ εἶναι. τὸ δ̓ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ πανούργου καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀπίστου καὶπαντὸς τοῦ ὁτιοῦν ἁμαρτάνοντος ἔστω σοι πρόχειρον: ἅμα γὰρ τῷ ὑπομνησθῆναι ὅτι τὸ γένος τῶντοιούτων ἀδύνατόν ἐστι μὴ ὑπάρχειν, εὐμενέστερος ἔσῃ πρὸς τοὺς καθ̓ ἕνα. εὔχρηστον δὲ κἀκεῖνο εὐθὺς ἐννοεῖν, τίνα ἔδωκεν ἡ φύσις τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἀρετὴν πρὸς τοῦτο τὸ ἁμάρτημα: ἔδωκε γὰρ ὡς ἀντιφάρμακον πρὸς μὲν τὸν ἀγνώμονα τὴν πρᾳότητα, πρὸς δὲ ἄλλον ἄλλην τινὰ δύναμιν. 

ὅλως δὲ ἔξεστί σοι μεταδιδάσκειν τὸν πεπλανημένον: πᾶς γὰρ ὁ ἁμαρτάνων ἀφαμαρτάνει τοῦ προκειμένου καὶ πεπλάνηται. τί δὲ καὶ βέβλαψαι; εὑρήσεις γὰρ μηδένα τούτων, πρὸς οὓς παροξύνῃ, πεποιηκότα τι τοιοῦτον, ἐξ οὗ ἡ διάνοιά σου χείρων ἔμελλε γενήσεσθαι: τὸ δὲ κακόν σου καὶ  τὸ βλαβερὸν ἐνταῦθα πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει.

Whenever you are offended by some shameless inpudence in some one, straightway ask yourself: Is it possible that the world should be utterly clear of shameless persons? This can not be. Ask not, then, the impossible. For this particular man who has transgressed is one of those shameless persons who perforce must be found in the world. Let this same thought be at hand for you against the knave and the deceiver and all other kinds whatever of wrong-doers. For by recollecting that the breed of such men can not but spring up, you will be more kindly affected toward them one by one. 

Very useful also it is to give mind to this: What virtue has Nature given to man against the behavior of the ill-minded? For Nature has given us meekness for this very thing, as an antidote to the rude and unfeeling man; and other powers against other kinds of ill behavior. Anyway, you have power to teach the man who has gone astray. I say “gone astray”, for every wrong-doer simply misses his mark and has wandered astray. But what harm have you received? For you will find that not one of those persons against whom you are inflamed has done anything such that your own mind can be made worse by it. But what is evil or harmful for you has its whole existence just there, in your own mind.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.42 

24. 

Offences come, for not all can be good, 

And tangled forests grow some gnarled sticks; 

Yet who therefor hath railed upon the wood 

But strikes with naked heels against the pricks. 

If thus we know them sad necessities, 

Yet not how they collect or whither run, 

We shall be humbler ’fore their destinies, 

And eke be kinder to them one by one— 

Yea, and no peril face of being too kind; 

For what man hath done harm, or can, to me, 

Or threatened the invulnerable mind 

Where is my hold invisible and free. 

Then come, come one, come all; each hath his place 

By what he is, but makes nor mars my case. 

IMAGE: Arnold Böcklin, Silence in the Forest (1885)