ENGLISH COMMENTARY
The last words refer to a poetic fragment of Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher and pupil of Zeno:[1]
Lead me, O Zeus, and lead me, Destiny,
Whatway soe'er ye have appointed me.
I follow unafraid: yea, though the will
Turn recreant, I needs must follow still.
Chaucer thus puts the truth in the Knight's Tale:[2]
And whoso gruccheth ought, he dooth folye,
And rebel is to him that al may gye.
Marcus succeeds here in securing remarkable literary effect by his favourite device of condensed thought and parsimony of expression.
Chs. 29–30. The first reflection is to be interpreted in the light of xii. 31. To set our affections upon material things, things of little worth, inspires that fear of death which will take them all away. This is accordingly a hindrance to following in the train of Reason and of God.
The thought is continued in ch. 30. Evil conduct springs from wrong ends. If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that conflict with others originates in our own esteem of money or pleasure or reputation, which is the same as theirs. This thought is an antidote to anger; at the same time, if our ends are less mistaken, we must endeavour to correct theirs.
Chs. 31–2. The present is illuminated by the past. The conduct, perhaps the failure, of a Caesar may well be an encouragement or a warning to Marcus himself.
The other examples are obscured by our ignorance of some of the names and probably by a corruption of the text. They illustrate the sameness of human life and its transience.
From these thoughts Marcus turns to the reflection that life is a training school and a discipline for the reasonable will, and to an injunction (ch. 32), by way of corollary, to simplicity and goodness.
Ch. 33. The object of this chapter is to illustrate the freedom of the reasonable being, in comparison with the hindrances to which the inorganic parts of the world are exposed. The clue to
