Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/298

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

118
Marcus Antoninus's

XXXIII. Let Death make Atomes, or Vacuum of me, or what you please, 'twill come to this upshot at last; 'Twill either extinguish my Being, or Translate me to another State.

XXXIV. As for Pain, if 'tis intolerable the extremity will destroy it self , and quickly dispatch you: If it stays long, you'l be big enough to grapple with it. Your Mind in the meantime will save her self by the strength of Thought, keep undisturb'd, and suffer nothing. [1] And for your Limbs that lye under the Execution, if they can complain; and make out any thing, let them do it.

XXXV. To moderate your Ambition about Fame, consider the Generality of the People that are to commend, and take notice of you ; How Insignificant they are ; and how little in their Pursuits, and Aversions? Consider also that as one Heap of Sand thrown upon another covers the First, so it happens in the business of Fame, A new Glory eclipses an old one ; and the later Age is a sort of an Extinguisher to the former.

XXXVI. A saying of Plato. [2] " He that has raised his Mind to a due pitch of Greatness, that has look'd through the World from one end to the other, and carried his View through the whole extent of

" Matter
  1. The old Paradox.
  2. Plat. De Repub. Lib. 6.