The Emperor Marcus Antoninus His Conversation with Himself: Together with the Preliminary Discourse of the Learned Gataker ; as Also the Emperor's Life

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Richard Sare, 1708 - Stoicism - 420 pages
 

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Page 213 - ... Aurelius ! Philosopher as he was, he would have us learn from plants the lesson of cause and effect, the continuity of life. He says : The destruction of one thing is the making of another; and that which subsists at present is, as it were, the seed of succession, which springs from it. But if you take seed in the common notion, and confine it to the field or the garden, you have a dull fancy. It is with a sense of relief that we turn from the thoughts which a garden suggests to this stoic, to...
Page 229 - ... to work in such maxims as these. Wherever a man lives, he may live well; by consequence, a life of virtue and that of a courtier are not inconsistent. Again, that which a thing is made for, is that towards which it is carried, and in that which it is naturally carried to, lies the end of the act.
Page 274 - By looking back into history, and considering the fate and revolutions of government, you will be able to draw a guess, and almost prophesy upon the future. For things...
Page 295 - Consider, then, the particular bounty of God to man in this privilege. He has set him above the necessity of breaking off from nature and Providence at all ; but supposing...
Page 287 - It is in your power not only to forbear being angry with people for their folly and ingratitude, but over and above to cherish their interest and take care of them. IX. Never censure a court life, nor seem dissatisfied with your own.
Page 206 - If human souls have a being after death, which way has the air made room for them from all eternity ? Pray, how has the earth been capacious enough to receive all the bodies buried in it ? The resolution of this latter question will satisfy the former.
Page 182 - World in 5 for things are Repeated, and come over again apace: Nature Treads in a Circle, and has much the fame Face through the whole Courfe of Eternity. And therefore it fignifies not a Farthing, whether a Man ftands gazing here an Hundred, or a Hundred...
Page 328 - ... likely has happen'd, you feem furpriz'd at it. Farther, when you complain of a Notorious Knave, you are ftill more to blame. For tho...
Page 325 - ... your desires, and rather keep you from grieving for any of these things, than keep away one thing and grant another? For if the gods can help us, no doubt they can help us to be wiser. But it may be you will say, they have put this in my power. Why, then, do you not make use of your talent, and act like a man of spirit, and not run cringing and creeping after that which is out of your reach ? But then who told you that the gods do not assist us in things which we might possibly compass by ourselves?...
Page 321 - O Philosophy, thou guide of life, and discoverer of virtue ! " — CICERO. " Philosophy is a modest profession, it is all reality and plain dealing ; I hate solemnity and pretence, with nothing but pride at the bottom." — PLINY. The destiny of man — of the most brutal, animal-like, as well as of the most saintly — being immortality, according to theological teaching ; what is the future destiny of the countless hosts of the animal kingdom? We are told by various Roman Catholic writers — Cardinal...

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