BOOK VI.
as Antoninus, is Rome; as a man, the world. The things then that are of advantage to these com- munities, these, and no other, are good for me.
45. All that befalls the Individual is to the interest of the Whole also.[1] So far, so good. But further careful observation will shew thee that, as a general rule, what is to the interest of one man is also to the interest of other men. But in this case the word interest must be taken in a more general sense as it applies to intermediate[2] things.
46. As the shows in the amphitheatre and such places grate upon thee[3] as being an everlasting repetition of the same sight, and the similarity makes the spectacle pall, such must be the effect of the whole of life. For everything above and below is ever the same and the result of the same things. How long then?
47. Never lose sight of the fact that men of all kinds, of all sorts of vocations and of every race under heaven, are dead; and so carry thy thought down even to Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn to the other tribes of men. We must pass at last to the same bourne whither so many wonderful orators have gone, so many grave philosophers, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates: so many heroes of old time, and so many warriors, so many tyrants of later days: and besides them, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other acute natures, men of large minds, lovers of toil, men of versatile powers, men of strong will, mockers, like Menippus[4]
- ↑ v. 8; x. 6 etc.
- ↑ i.e. indifferent, neither good nor bad.
- ↑ A personal touch. See Fronto, ad Caes. iv. 12: theatro libros lectitabas; ii. 6, idem theatrum, idem odium (v.l. otium) cp. ii. 10; Naber, p. 34; cp. Capit. xv. § 1.
- ↑ A Cynic philosopher of Gadara. His Syrian compatriot, Lucian, the prince of mockers, was yet alive and mocking. cp. Luc. Pisc. 26, where the Scholiast (Arethas) refers to this passage. Diog. Laert. mentions a Meleager, the contemporary of Menippus, as a writer of similar character.
