The Continence of Scipio 4

Pompeo Batoni, The Continence of Scipio (c. 1772) 

Mercury Crowning Philosophy

Pompeo Batoni, Mercury Crowning Philosophy, the Mother of the Arts (1747) 

Peace and Justice

Pompeo Batoni, Peace and Justice (c. 1745) 

Time

Pompeo Batoni, Time Discovers the Truth (c. 1739) 

Pompeo Batoni, Time Unveiling Truth (c. 1745) 

Pompeo Batoni, Time Orders Old Age to Destroy Beauty (c. 1746) 

The Prodigal Son

Pompeo Batoni, The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) 

Maxims of Goethe 19

Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything. 

IMAGE: Pompeo Batoni, Truth and Mercy (c. 1745) 

Seneca, Moral Letters 41.1

Letter 41: On the God within us 

 
You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if, as you write me, you are persisting in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. 
 
We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. 
 
God is near you, he is with you, he is within you.
 
This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. 
 
As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise? He it is that gives noble and upright counsel. In each good man 
 
“A god doth dwell, but what god know we not." 

—fron Seneca, Moral Letters 41 
 
A colleague of mine, on fire with his own particular brand of religion, was once so desperate to save my soul that he pleaded with me to stop reading anything by the Stoics. He hurled this letter at me as proof that Seneca, and all of his kind, were enemies of God’s grace, and that I would join them in Hell if I didn’t quickly change my ways. 
 
“See?” he said, pointing to the opening sentence. “He’s saying we can become good by ourselves, and we don’t need to pray!” 
 
It’s funny how two people can look at the same thing and yet see it so differently. No, I don’t read this as a denial of the Divine, but rather as a reminder that the transcendent is also immanent, that we best follow the Absolute by attending to its presence within our own souls.
 
But isn’t God somewhere “up there”? As the fullness of all Being, God is everywhere, and so it is not necessary to wave my hands at the sky, or to pay a priest for special favors, or to search outside of myself for a gift I have already been granted. I am not rejecting the power of the Divine when I nurture my own intelligence as a reflection of the Ultimate Intelligence. 

My job is a part of a grander design.

 
Furthermore, as the higher works through the lower, what we may call the supernatural is for the sake of elevating the natural, not at its exclusion, and faith, however we may define it, must be in harmony with reason, not acting in opposition. There is great danger in committing my total trust with the absence of any understanding. 
 
I hope my friend and I are still struggling toward the same goal, though we might be approaching it from different angles. I only wish he wouldn’t start with the conclusion, and instead proceed from the premises. I suppose I prefer a zealotry about Providence, even if it is so narrow, to the relativism of the Hipster Stoic, who abandons Providence entirely. 
 
As I read on in this letter, it becomes clearer to me how Stoicism, classically understood, can never be separated from an unqualified reverence for the Divine. To focus on my self-reliance, I must also place that self within the context of the whole. To improve my own nature, I must act in union with the totality of Nature. To find meaning and purpose in my soul, I must turn to the very origin and measure of truth. 
 
A "holy spirit" inside me? I actually find it far more difficult to accept myself in the image and likeness of God than to wallow in cynicism, because loving myself demands the effort of knowing myself, and knowing myself requires a grueling return to the source. If reason tells me that everything is from the One, then nothing is ever possible without the One. 
 
The entire world is charged with grace, not remotely but immediately, and prayer is in seeking to cooperate with that grace, not in the winning of worldly profits. 
 
I will not, as some are prone to do, claim to know the mind of God. Yet I do grasp how everything I am, and everything I can ever be, are at His mercy. He has made me as I am for good cause, and by serving Him I liberate myself. 

—Reflection written in 1/2013 

IMAGE: Pompeo Batoni, God the Father and the Holy Spirit (c. 1740) 

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.47

That all troubles are to be endured for the sake of eternal life

1. "My Son, let not the labors which you have undertaken for Me break you down, nor let tribulations cast you down in any way, but let my promise strengthen and comfort you in every event. I am sufficient to reward you above all measure and extent. Not long shall you labour here, nor always be weighed down with sorrows. Wait yet a little while, and you shall see a speedy end of your evils. An hour shall come when all labor and confusion shall cease. Little and short is all that passes away with time. 

2. "Do earnestly what you do; labor faithfully in My vineyard; I will be your reward. Write, read, sing, weep, be silent, pray, endure adversities manfully; eternal life is worthy of all these conflicts, yea, and of greater. Peace shall come in one day which is known to the Lord; which shall be neither day nor night, but light eternal, infinite clearness, steadfast peace, and undisturbed rest. You shall not say then, 'Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' nor cry out, 'Woe is me, for my sojourning is prolonged,' because death will be utterly destroyed, and there shall be salvation which can never fail, no more anxiety, happy delight, sweet and noble society. 

3. "Oh, if you saw the unfading crowns of the Saints in heaven, and with what great glory they now rejoice, who aforetime were reckoned by this world contemptibly and as it were unworthy of life, truly you would immediately humble yourself even to the earth, and would desire rather to be in subjection to all, than to have authority over one; nor would you long for pleasant days of this life, but would more rejoice to be afflicted for God's sake, and would esteem it gain to be counted for nought amongst men. 

4. "Oh, if these things were sweet to your taste, and moved you to the bottom of your heart, how should you dare even once to complain? Are not all laborious things to be endured for the sake of eternal life? It is no small thing, the losing or gaining the Kingdom of God. Lift up therefore your face to heaven. Behold, I and all My Saints with Me, who in this world had a hard conflict, now rejoice, are now comforted, are now secure, are now at peace, and shall remain with Me evermore in the Kingdom of My Father." 

IMAGE: Pompeo Batoni, Meekness (1752)

The Choice of Hercules 7

Pompeo Batoni, Hercules at the Crossroads (1753)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.9.2

. . . But in the things that are still superior, even though they are separated from one another, unity in a manner exists, as in the stars. Thus the ascent to the higher degree is able to produce a sympathy even in things that are separated.

See, then, what now takes place: for only intelligent animals have now forgotten this mutual desire and inclination, and in them alone the property of flowing together is not seen.

But still, though men strive to avoid this union, they are caught and held by it, for their nature is too strong for them; and you will see what I say, if you only observe.

Sooner, then, will one find anything earthy that comes in contact with no earthy thing, than a man altogether separated from other men.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 9.9 (tr Long)

All things are made for one another, and within this, things that are made according to the same nature share in the same particular purpose within the whole. Beings that are like one another are drawn together, as water gathers in a pool, as birds travel in flocks, as people build relationships of cooperation.

And as the nature of the creature is more complete and self-sufficient, the nature of this unity is more perfect. The water flows without awareness, the bird flies with instinct, but the man chooses by deliberate reason. The bonds between elements are great, the bonds between beasts even greater, but the bonds between men greater still.

The richer the nature, the deeper the union is between the things that share in that nature. The deeper the union between them, the harder it will be to separate them. Force them apart, and they are still tied to the same end.

Then why is it that everything else in Nature seems to work in harmony, but men so often seem to be in conflict? They cast aside, they fight, and they destroy. Where there should be friendship, we find hatred, deceit, and violence. The unity that should be most present of all seems to be most lacking.

Marcus Aurelius offer two insights about this puzzling fact.

First, this happens with rational animals precisely because they are rational, because they act not by determination, but by judgments and choices. If they are free to act according to the good, they are also free to act contrary to the good. In this sense, man’s greatest strength, the power to move himself of his own accord, is also his greatest weakness.

The water does not forget that it is water, and the bird does not forget that it is a bird, but a man can certainly forget that he is a man, since he alone is able to turn his attention where he wills, both for his benefit and his harm.

Second, do not be deceived by the outward appearance that a man has somehow “lost” his nature. He has not lost it, but has overlooked or ignored it. He may turn from it, curse himself and others, confuse what is right with what is wrong, and deny his place within the order of things. Yet as much as he does so, he still remains himself, and he is still drawn to the good, however confused he may become. Notice that when people pursue what is false, they still do so under the illusion that it is truth.

Whether I know it or not, and whether I choose to cooperate with it or struggle against it, I am going to play my part within the whole. Let me work to embrace it so I may be happy, instead of running away and being miserable. Let me help others to see what they are, so that we can find contentment together.

We are made to love one another. Underneath the hatred you will still find the desperate need to love. Denying it does not make it go away. 

Written in 8/2008

IMAGE: Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Allegory of Peace and War (1776)