Written during military campaigns at the edges of the empire, the *Meditations* represent a private dialogue between a ruler and his conscience. Marcus Aurelius does not seek to teach a system, but to fortify his own mind against the corruption of power and the fear of death. The work moves from a catalog of gratitude to his teachers to a rigorous metaphysical examination of change, duty, and the rational soul, ultimately concluding that the good life consists in acting justly and accepting fate as a necessary part of the cosmic whole.
Marcus breaks down the human constitution into three parts: the body, life, and the mind. The first two are his only insofar as he is bound to take care of them, but the third alone is properly his. Therefore, to achieve freedom, one must separate from the mind whatever other men do or say, whatever one has done or said in the past, and all troublesome thoughts concerning the future. One must also separate whatever belongs to the body or life but is outside the jurisdiction of the will, as well as whatever happens in the ordinary course of human chances. By keeping the mind loose and free from all outward coincidental entanglements, always ready to depart, the mind can live by itself and to itself. It can do that which is just, accept whatever happens, and speak the truth always. If one can separate from the mind whatever might adhere to it by sympathy, and all time both past and future, making oneself like Empedocles’ allegorical sphere—“all round and circular”—and thinking of no longer life than that which is now present, then one can pass the remainder of one’s days without troubles and distractions. One becomes nobly and generously disposed, in good correspondence with the spirit within.
Marcus then turns to address common objections to the Stoic way of life, beginning with the psychological paradox of self-love and public opinion. He expresses wonder that every man, loving himself best, should nevertheless regard other men’s opinions concerning him more than his own. He argues that if any God or grave master standing by should command any of us to think nothing by himself but what he should presently speak out, no man would be able to endure it for even a day. This reveals the absurdity of fearing public judgment more than self-judgment; we fear more what our neighbours will think of us than what we ourselves think.
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