James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 30

30. 

Ἡλίκην ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ἄνθρωπος μὴ ποιεῖν ἄλλο ἢ ὅπερ μέλλει ὁ θεὸς ἐπαινεῖν, καὶ δέχεσθαι πᾶν ὃν νέμῃ αὐτῷ ὁ θεός.

What a great power any man has not to do anything else than what God shall approve, and to receive contentedly whatsoever God sets apart for him. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.11 

30. 

To what endowment rich and eminent 

A man is born, what heraldic renown, 

And what estate, what wealthy brave descent, 

And in all measures what a meed and crown! 

What can compel or mould him from his course 

And place august, what power prevail to move 

His stationed foot, what strength against all force 

He hath to do but what God will approve! 

And it behoves me to remember well 

I lead not, but am led; wherefore for me 

To be a good led-man ’s my citadel, 

Obedient mind my joy and dignity. 

How blest our case, ne’er to be forced to wrong, 

With free feet marching, in our mouth a song! 

IMAGE: Luca Cambiaso, Benediction of God the Father (c. 1565) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 29

29. 

Οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι: ἕωθεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀφορᾶν, ἵν̓ ὑπομιμνῃσκώμεθα τῶν ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως τὸ ἑαυτῶν ἔργον διανυόντων καὶ τῆς τάξεως καὶ τῆς καθαρότητος καὶ τῆς γυμνότητος: οὐδὲν γὰρ προκάλυμμα ἄστρου. 

The Pythagoreans bid us look up into the sky in the morning, that we may keep ourselves mindful of those hosts that always are accomplishing their work by the same course and in the same way; and that so we may know their orderly ranks and their purity and their natural openness—for no star wears a veil.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.27 

29. 

Pythagoras’ disciples have a creed 

Of morning’s bounden duty unto joy. 

Look up, they say, and to the expanse give heed, 

And let three lustrous thoughts thy soul employ: 

Acclaim the order and the constancy 

Of heavenly beamy bodies, each in place. 

Laud the purgation and equality 

Of matter in those fulgencies of space. 

Relish the artlessness of all those lights, 

That open to our eyes and cry us hail, 

And naught have to conceal, no hidden plights, 

But unreserved; for no star wears a veil. 

If with this homage the daily dawn we meet, 

Our path is plain, and sparkles to our feet. 

IMAGE: Fyodor Bronnikov, Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise (1869) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 28

28. 

Καταφρονήσει μού τις; ὄψεται. ἐγὼ δὲ ὄψομαι ἵνα μή τι καταφρονήσεως ἄξιον πράσσων ἣ λέγωνεὑρίσκωμαι. μισήσει; ὄψεται. ἀλλὰ ἐγὼ εὐμενὴς καὶ εὔνους παντὶ καὶ τούτῳ αὐτῷ ἕτοιμος τὸ παρορώμενον δεῖξαι, οὐκ ὀνειδιστικῶς οὐδὲ ὡς κατεπιδεικνύμενος ὅτι ἀνέχομαι, ἀλλὰ γνησίως καὶ χρηστῶς. 

May it happen that some one disdains or looks down on me? That will be his own business; but J will see to it that I be not found doing or saying anything worthy of disdain. May some one haply hate me? That will be his own affair; but it is my business to show myself moved with kindness and good will toward every one, ready to show even to this very one who has ill used me his mistaken view, not rebukingly, nor as displaying to others that 1 put up with it, but genuinely and simply.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.13  

28. 

Doth any one contemn me, let him look to ’t! 

How recks it me to wrangle it at all? 

My part it is to rule me so withal, 

And live so, that no cynic mood can hoot. 

Hath any hated me, let him look to ’t, 

Have, if he will, a sole, ne’er double, brawl; 

My part is to hate not, and know ’twill fall 

That as the tree is trained so is the fruit. 

If one have stripes, fangs, claws and fur, 

As such there be among us human creatures 

In spiritual mark, why, then we see 

A tiger with the tiger manner stir, 

And tiger thrift go with the tiger features. 

But I, who am a man, must man-like be. 

IMAGE: Hu Zaobin, Victory or Defeat (c. 1930) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 27

27. 

Κλάδος τοῦ προσεχοῦς κλάδου ἀποκοπεὶς οὐ δύναται μὴ καὶ τοῦ ὅλου φυτοῦ ἀποκεκόφθαι. οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἀποσχισθεὶς ὅλης τῆς κοινωνίας ἀποπέπτωκε. κλάδον μὲν οὖν ἄλλος ἀποκόπτει: ἄνθρωπος δὲ αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν τοῦ πλησίον χωρίζει μισήσας καὶ ἀποστραφείς, ἀγνοεῖ δὲ ὅτι καὶ τοῦ ὅλου πολιτεύματος ἅμα ἀποτέτμηκεν ἑαυτόν. 

A branch cut off from the adjoining branch can not but be lopped from the entire plant. In like manner also a man severed from any one man has fallen off from the whole commonalty of men. Now a branch suffers the ill without doing it, because an alien hand severs it, while it is a man’s own doing if he parts himself from his neighbor by hating him and turning away from him; but he little understands that at the same time he has sundered himself from the whole body and citizenship of mankind.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.8 

27. 

“What a thought of God when he conceived a tree!” 

The trunk, behold, twice spreads, that one end grips 

The earth, the other playeth wild and free 

On lyric winds with countless finger-tips. 

Rend bough from bough, you part the rended end 

From the tree’s self, and leave it disbodied, void; 

So is a man, if he one man unfriend, 

Cut from mankind, unlodged, unkinned, destroyed. 

O if, I say, one breaks the natural band 

Of all to all, and doth his fellow hate, 

He little dreams nor can not understand 

How he from life is disincorporate. 

All ’s One, One ’s all—this is “the strength of laws” 

From which a tree or man his welfare draws. 

IMAGE by Peggy Marco 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 26

26. 

Τῇ πάντα διδούσῃ καὶ ἀπολαμβανούσῃ φύσει ὁ πεπαιδευμένος καὶ αἰδήμων λέγει: δὸς ὃ θέλεις: ἀπόλαβε ὃ θέλεις. λέγει δὲ τοῦτο οὐ καταθρασυνόμενος, ἀλλὰ πειθαρχῶν μόνον καὶ εὐνοῶν αὐτῇ. 

To Nature that gives all things we possess, and again takes them away and back to herself—to this Nature he who is schooled well and disciplined and reverential, speaks, and says: Give what you will, take back what you will. But this he says not in any boastful or emboldened way, but only in obedient spirit and good will to Nature. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.14 

26. 

Have thy soul reverent; then to Nature say: 

Out of thine ampleness give me what thou wilt. 

Certes ’tis large, replenishes the day, 

And wakes my soul to an unenvious lilt. 

Of all the pomps of stars, meteors and lights, 

Suns, moons and followers in th’ eternal span, 

Or here plains, meads, great waters, mountain heights, 

Partake I as all do—own them none can; 

And having given, take what thou wilt away, 

Be ’t health, or power, place, gold, or other pelf. 

Thy gifts’ be such the largest meeds must stay, 

Nor canst thou e’er withdraw from me thyself. 

I say not this, our Lord, defiantly, 

But with a glad content, obediently. 

IMAGE: El Greco, View of Toledo (c. 1600) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 25

25. 

τὸ δὲ κακόν σου καὶ τὸ βλαβερὸν ἐνταῦθα πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει. τί δὲ καινὸν ἢ ξένον γέγονεν, εἰ ὁ ἀπαίδευτος τὰ τοῦ ἀπαιδεύτου πράσσει; ὅρα μὴ σεαυτῷ μᾶλλον ἐγκαλεῖν ὀφείλῃς, ὅτι οὐ προσεδόκησας τοῦτον τοῦτο ἁμαρτήσεσθαι: σὺ γὰρ καὶ ἀφορμὰς ἐκ τοῦ λόγου εἶχες πρὸς τὸ ἐνθυμηθῆναι ὅτι εἰκός ἐστι τοῦτον τοῦτο ἁμαρτήσεσθαι, καὶ ὅμως ἐπιλαθόμενος θαυμάζεις εἰ ἡμάρτηκε.

μάλιστα δέ, ὅταν ὡς ἀπίστῳ ἢ ἀχαρίστῳ μέμφῃ, εἰς σεαυτὸν ἐπιστρέφου: προδήλως γὰρ σὸν τὸ ἁμάρτημα, εἴτε περὶ τοῦ τοιαύτην τὴν διάθεσιν ἔχοντος ἐπίστευσας ὅτι τὴν πίστιν φυλάξει, εἴτε τὴν χάριν διδοὺς μὴ καταληκτικῶς ἔδωκας μηδὲ ὥστε ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς πράξεως εὐθὺς ἀπειληφέναι πάντα τὸν καρπόν. 

τί γὰρ πλέον θέλεις εὖ ποιήσας ἄνθρωπον; οὐκ ἀρκεῖ τοῦτο, ὅτι κατὰ φύσιν τὴν σήν τι ἔπραξας, ἀλλὰ τούτου μισθὸν ζητεῖς;

What harm is it, or how is it strange, if the boorish man acts like a boor? Consider whether you ought not to blame yourself rather, because you have not expected such a man to do ill. For from your reason you might have a start for concluding it to be likely that this man would do this ill. Yet still forgetting all, you wonder at his doing the evil. 

Therefore first and foremost, when you complain of any one as faithless and ungrateful, turn about your attention to yourself. For plainly enough the fault is your own, if you trusted any one of such a character, thinking he would keep faith; or if in doing a kindness, you did it not absolutely and as having received straight away the full fruit of the deed in the deed itself. For having done well by a man, what more would you have? Is not this enough, that you have behaved according to your nature, but you must seek a kind of wages for this? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.42 

25. 

Thus have I thought when some man thankless proved: 

He promised false? Worse you, being self-deceived. 

That such a man had differently moved  

'Twas you that with a muzzy head conceived. 

Since the pied world must random rascals hold, 

Have patience with what you nor none can miss; 

Ask not th’ impossible, and plain behold 

That meekness was conferred on thee for this. 

Now sooth you are rebuked by all the flowers, 

Forests, or streams, or air, or anything; 

For what! Forthputting God-imparted powers, 

Wilt groan that these no other guerdon bring? 

Sad man, contented not with first and best, 

Moaning for second, tenth, or foolishest. 

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) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 23

23. 

Ὁ ἀδικῶν ἀσεβεῖ: τῆς γὰρ τῶν ὅλων φύσεως κατεσκευακυίας τὰ λογικὰ ζῷα ἕνεκεν ἀλλήλων, ὥστε ὠφελεῖν μὲν ἄλληλα κατ̓ ἀξίαν βλάπτειν δὲ μηδαμῶς, ὁ τὸ βούλημα ταύτης παραβαίνων ἀσεβεῖ δηλονότι εἰς τὴν πρεσβυτάτην τῶν θεῶν.

The unjust man is an impious man, and sins against the gods. For as the Nature of the Universe has constituted reasoning creatures for the sake of one another, that they may be useful and do good to each other in a due manner, but by no means ever to harm any one, so whoever goes aside from this purpose and will of Nature, plainly is impious, and sins against the eldest of all deities.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.1 

23. 

To act unjustly is a traitorous deed,  

Treasonable against the King of Kings, 

Fluent from whom the ancient heavens proceed,  

And marvelous multiplicity of things. 

Compacted all in oneness forth they go, 

And in their way a lovely order sings—  

Peasants, kings, commoners, friend and foe, 

And all assembled to the King of Kings! 

Nature is music’s vast conventicle, 

Wherein each life plays precious melodies 

That congregate in parts majestical, 

And justice is the solemn harmonies. 

Justice is many in One; uncivil to be 

Profaneth the most ancient Deity. 

IMAGE: Titian, Cain and Abel (c. 1544) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 22

22. 

Ἆρόν με καὶ βάλε, ὅπου θέλεις. κἀκεῖ γὰρ ἕξω τὸν ἐμὸν δαίμονα ἵλεων, τουτέστιν, ἀρκούμενον, εἰ ἔχοι καὶ ἐνεργοίη κατὰ τὸ ἑξῆς τῇ ἰδίᾳ κατασκευῇ. 

Ἆρα τοῦτο ἄξιον, ἵνα δἰ αὐτὸ κακῶς μοι ἔχῃ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ χείρων ἑαυτῆς ᾖ, ταπεινουμένη, ὀρεγομένη, συνδυομένη, πτυρομένη; καὶ τί εὑρήσεις τούτου ἄξιον; 

Pick me up and toss me anywhither, wherever you will. For there I shall still keep my divine part tranquil, that is to say, contented if it exist and act suitably to its own constitution. Is there any mishap worth my soul’s being in sorry plight on account of it, or falling below itself, abased, craving, hindered, frightened? What indeed will you find confirming such abasement? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.45 

22. 

The world is wide! Well, so ’s my will and choice. 

Pack me whither ye may, it is good scope— 

Be it a wild, it shall have all my voice; 

Or thick with haunts of men, there visions ope. 

And there, be it wild, or thick with haunts of men, 

What matter, since my ruling part divine 

Shall be content, and have it in my ken 

To live my nature as Nature doth design! 

For what! Some misadventure shall be able 

To ruffle up my mind or trip me down? 

That I were weak, servile, frightened, unstable, 

Who could defend these flutters of a clown? 

When, where or whither I, this much I see: 

I am my master, what to do or be. 

IMAGE: Hans Holbein the Younger, Wild Man (c. 1528) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 21

21. 

Οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος ἐμαυτὸν λυπεῖν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄλλον πώποτε ἑκὼν ἐλύπησα. 

Far be it from me to allow disquiet in my own soul—I who never wittingly or willingly have put another to allowing vexation of spirit. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.42 

21. 

 'Twere strange with others to be reasonable, 

But with myself tempestuous and sore; 

I ought to be like fountains, estimable 

To him who quaffs, but to themselves much more. 

The fountain giveth drink to all athirst, 

And for that office is sought out and singled; 

But as it sparkles up, each drop ’s a-burst 

With image of blue sky and green earth mingled. 

So have I been, will be, to every one— 

If hurtful, unwilling so, but willingly befriending; 

Then what disquiet shall to me be done 

By me, a spray from earth, and thither tending! 

As willingly ne’er did I others vex, 

Say why shall I myself myself perplex? 

IMAGE: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, At the Fountain (1897) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 20

20.  

Ὧι ἂν ἐντυγχάνῃς, εὐθὺς σαυτῷ πρόλεγε: οὖτος τίνα δόγματα ἔχει περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν; εἰ γὰρ περὶ ἡδονῆς καὶ πόνου καὶ τῶν ποιητικῶν ἑκατέρου καὶ περὶ δόξης, ἀδοξίας, θανάτου, ζωῆς, τοιάδε τινὰ δόγματα ἔχει, οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν: ἢ ξένον μοι δόξει, ἐὰν τάδε τινὰ ποιῇ, καὶ μεμνήσομαι ὅτι ἀναγκάζεται οὕτως ποιεῖν. 

Μέμνησο ὅτι, ὥσπερ αἰσχρόν ἐστι ξενίζεσθαι, εἰ ἡ συκῆ σῦκα φέρει, οὕτως, εἰ ὁ κόσμος τάδε τινὰ φέρει ὧν ἐστι φορός. 

When you meet anyone, ask yourself forthwith: What views has this man in his head about good and evil? For if about pleasure and pain and what produces them, about what is honorable or unhonorable, about death, about life, his views be of a certain kind, it will seem to me nothing surprising or strange that his deeds should be of the same kind, and I shall consider that he must perforce act out what he is. 

 Remember that as it is monstrously stupid to be surprised if a fig-tree bears figs, so is it downright addle-pated to be taken aback if the world around us produces the things that accord with its kind.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.14-15 

20. 

'Twere rustic simpleness to gaze agog 

Upon a fig-tree that a fig it bore, 

Or rate a fen that there one finds a frog, 

Or cry down fire that’s florid, snow that’s frore. 

And sooth, if all according to its kind 

Puts forth, will not man do it, body and soul? 

Thus always ask thyself, and have in mind 

Briefly: What manner of man is this in whole? 

What thinks he good? What bad? What pain, or pleasure? 

What ignominious or what reputable? 

And answering this, expect in that same measure, 

Nor let thy heart be vainly vulnerable. 

Stare not, I say, at fig-trees growing figs, 

Nor swinish thoughts a-building little pigs. 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 19

19. 

Περισκοπεῖν ἄστρων δρόμους ὥσπερ συμπεριθέοντα καὶ τὰς τῶν στοιχείων εἰς ἄλληλα μεταβολὰς συνεχῶς ἐννοεῖν: ἀποκαθαίρουσι γὰρ αἱ τούτων φαντασίαι τὸν ῥύπον τοῦ χαμαὶ βίου. 

Look all around on the courses of the stars, as if running around their races with them; and give mind unceasingly to the mutations of the elements with one another. For the impressions of these things cleanse away the sordidness of the earthly life. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.47 

19. 

Confirm thyself in meditation oft 

O’ the elements—as fire, and how it burns, 

And water the extinguisher, and soft 

Billow of air that to a tempest turns. 

Reckon their casual conflicts, when they rage 

In civil strife, or banded ’gainst the earth 

In ireful havoc, but soon their wrath assuage 

To bake the meats and green the plain for mirth. 

Then up, beyond these elements surmise, 

Pondering what may be the circling stars, 

Yet as if riding with them through the skies, 

Driving the coursers of those fiery cars. 

This fellow converse scours away the rust 

Gendered of earthy days mid noise and dust. 

IMAGE: Jan Bruegel the Elder, Abundance and the Four Elements (c. 1606) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 18

18. 

Ἐμὲ ἓν μόνον περισπᾷ, μή τι αὐτὸς ποιήσω, ὃ ἡ κατασκευὴ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐ θέλει ἢ ὡς οὐ θέλει ἢ ὃ νῦν οὐ θέλει. 

There is but one thing that moves me solicitously, namely, that I myself shall not do anything disallowed by the constitution of man, or in a way disallowed, or disallowed at this present moment.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.20 

18. 

Two clans or companies wide Nature hath: 

What I can wield, eke what ’s beyond my power; 

With these let me go on my sunny path, 

Nor mire the breast or wings o’ the present hour. 

Now do I moan no more, whimper nor pine; 

The evils I can rule I straightway cure; 

For things not in my power ’twere base to whine 

Or groan while manful reason bids endure. 

So in the moving mass and sum of things 

I can and can not, one mark looms sublime: 

My sole care is that naught me draws or stings 

’Gainst my true self, or ill in way or time. 

How all-benign the universe to me, 

That I amid these massy things am free! 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 17

17. 

Φοβεῖταί τις μεταβολήν; τί γὰρ δύναται χωρὶς μεταβολῆς γενέσθαι, τί δὲ φίλτερον ἢ οἰκειότερον τῇ τῶν ὅλων φύσει; σὺ δὲ αὐτὸς λούσασθαι δύνασαι, ἐὰν μὴ τὰ ξύλα μεταβάλῃ; τραφῆναι δὲ δύνασαι, ἐὰν μὴ τὰ ἐδώδιμα μεταβάλῃ; ἄλλο δέ τι τῶν χρησίμων δύναται συντελεσθῆναι χωρὶς μεταβολῆς; οὐχ ὁρᾷς οὖν ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ σὲ μεταβαλεῖν ὅμοιόν ἐστι καὶ ὁμοίως ἀναγκαῖον τῇ τῶν ὅλων φύσει; 

Is any one afraid of change? But what can come to pass or exist except by change? And what can be more after the heart of the Nature of the Universe, or more proper and familiar to it? Can you take a bath till the wood be transformed in heating your bath? Can you be fed unless the edible things be transmuted? Or what other useful thing can be attained apart from change? Do not you see, then, that alteration in your very self is a like matter, and similarly essential to the Nature of All Things? 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.18 

17. 

Consider the delicious fluency 

Of your warm marble pool. The seed, the sprout, 

The bud and flower, the foliage, the fuel tree, 

These change to bear your soft lavation out. 

First leaf and blossom wane to form the wood, 

Which then must burn to heat the temperate bath— 

Fellows in timbered aisles that stalwart stood, 

But bent in lumberman’s victorious path. 

Who feareth changes, feareth what befall 

With sweet necessitous kind service still; 

And the Lord Life in the kingdom of the All 

Questions not with you—change you shall and will. 

But each one’s haps a fervent good may do, 

As the tree burneth prosperously for you. 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 16

16. 

Ὅ τι ἄν τις ποιῇ ἢ λέγῃ, ἐμὲ δεῖ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, ὡς ἂν εἰ ὁ χρυσὸς ἢ ὁ σμάραγδος ἢ ἡ πορφύρα τοῦτο ἀεὶ ἔλεγεν: ὅ τι ἄν τις ποιῇ ἢ λέγῃ, ἐμὲ δεῖ σμάραγδον εἶναι καὶ τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ χρῶμα ἔχειν.

Whatever any one may say or do, it is my business to be good; just as an emerald might always say: Let any one do or say whatever he will, it is my part to be an emerald, and preserve my hue. And in like manner might speak gold or purple.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.15 

16. 

’Tis said the ass cried down fine Philomel, 

The note of that sweet singer of the night 

Not being a bray. So might gross soil expel 

Emeralds, or gold, or royal purple’s light. 

But what saith gold, when so the soggy earth 

Disputes its yellow blaze, what th’ royal hue 

Or verdant gems, though everything i’ the girth 

Of ireful exhalations sulphurs the view? 

Unto the noisome mist of the gross chatter 

The gold saith naught, but shines as ’tis the more; 

The princely purple never heeds to flatter, 

And emeralds color like a small sea-shore. 

Like purple, gems and gold is my one art; 

Men cog and jog; my right self is my part. 

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. 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 14

14. 

λοιπὸν οὖν σύνες εἰς τίνας σεαυτὸν κατατάσσεις: ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ πάντως σοι καλῶς χρήσεται ὁ τὰ ὅλα διοικῶν καὶ παραδέξεταί σε ὡς μέρος τι τῶν συνεργῶν καὶ συνεργητικῶν, ἀλλὰ σὺ μὴ τοιοῦτο μέρος γένῃ, οἷος ὁ εὐτελὴς καὶ γελοῖος στίχος ἐν τῷ δράματι, οὗ Χρύσιππος μέμνηται. 

Every one is worked into the Universal Purpose in some manner. Therefore in fine consider well with whom you join and range yourself. For the Ruler of all things assuredly and in every case will make use of you to the full, and assign you a part among those who work under his rule and help it on. But become no such part as is expressed in the paltry and ridiculous line in the play which Crysippus mentions. For, says he, as comedies include ridiculous epigrams which in themselves are bad, yet contribute a certain grace to the whole work, so you may reproach wickedness in itself, but it is not useless to other things.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.42 

14. 

Ay, go you shall, and that full swift enough! 

Your sole will but affects what way you keep 

Your place in ranks that throng unto the bluff 

Where every one shall take the hardy leap. 

This all-hail host, the army of the Lord, 

Marshals in order so immense and wide 

It doth amaze me as some monstrous horde, 

Because the whole is not by me descried. 

Bethink you then how you will pass along, 

Whether under the high commandery of the day 

Advisedly, obedient and strong, 

Or skulk in vain to be a run-a-way. 

For you straight up like men shall march your lot, 

Or dragged at chariot wheels go where you ’d not. 

IMAGE: Ludovico Carracci, Allegory of Providence (1604) 

James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 13

13. 

Τοῖς μὲν ἀλόγοις ζῴοις καὶ καθόλου πράγμασι καὶ ὑποκειμένοις, ὡς λόγον ἔχων λόγον μὴ ἔχουσι, χρῶ μεγαλοφρόνως καὶ ἐλευθέρως: τοῖς δὲ ἀνθρώποις, ὡς λόγον ἔχουσι, χρῶ κοινωνικῶς: ἐφ̓ ἅπασι δὲ θεοὺς ἐπικαλοῦ. καὶ μὴ διαφέρου πρὸς τὸ πόσῳ χρόνῳ ταῦτα πράξεις: ἀρκοῦσι γὰρ καὶ τρεῖς ὧραι τοιαῦται. 

As to the unreasoning creatures, and current affairs and present conditions around you, treat them generously and gently, because you have reason and they are void of reason. But as to men, since they are endowed with reason, use them as your fellows and comrades. And in all things call on the Divine Powers. And have no concern as to how long a time you are to do these things; for if one live but three hours in such a way and to such purpose, it is enough. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.23 

13. 

My soul, treat all things, prythee, as what they are, 

My mute or unbrogued fellows, as speechless so, 

And thus but little reasoned; and let this bar 

Incline me to reason for them, high for low. 

We talk with reasons to reasons, being men; 

But Nature’s birds and brooks, tree-fingering breeze, 

Gaunt roars, compound my voice. Be it my ken 

To hold in reasoning love fellows like these. 

For this seek help. Is any wise alone? 

Let each give aid, and then all seek to God, 

Commingled in petitionary tone 

That moves to one what ’s near or far abroad. 

For time, each hath enough to do his part. 

Moments but few are mighty, flamed with heart. 

IMAGE: Giovanni Bellini, The Feast of the Gods (1514)