BOOK IV
and the void of infinite time on this side of us and on that, and the empty echo of acclamation, and the fickleness and uncritical judgment of those who claim to speak well of us, and the narrowness of the arena to which all this is confined. For the whole earth is but a point, and how tiny a corner[1] of it is this the place of our sojourning! and how many therein and of what sort are the men who shall praise thee!
From now therefore bethink thee of the retreat into this little plot that is thyself. Above all distract not thyself, be not too eager, but be thine own master, and look upon life as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature. But among the principles readiest to thine hand, upon which thou shalt pore, let there be these two. One, that objective things do not lay hold of the soul, but stand quiescent without; while disturbances are but the outcome of that opinion which is within us. A second, that all this visible world changes in a moment, and will be no more; and continually be- think thee to the changes of how many things thou hast already been a witness. 'The Universe—mutation: Life—opinion.'[2]
4. If the intellectual capacity is common to us all, common too is the reason, which makes us rational creatures. If so, that reason also is common which tells us to do or not to do. If so, law[3] also is common. If so, we are citizens. If so, we are fellow-members of an organised community. If so, the Universe is as it were a state[4]—for of what
- ↑ iii. 10; viii. 21.
- ↑ ii. 15; iv. 7; xii. 22. A maxim of Democrates, a Pythagorean; cp. Shak. Hamlet ii. 2. 256, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"; Tennyson: "All things are, as they seem, to all." Some have been found to say that even matter has no objective existence.
- ↑ vii. 9. cp. Aur. Vict. Epit. xvi. 4, Mundi lex seu Natura.
- ↑ iv. 3, § 2.
