Meditations X.15

Thou has but a short time left to live. Live as on a mountain²⁷; for whether it be here or there, matters not provided that, wherever a man live, he live as a citizen of the World-City.²⁸ Let men look upon thee, cite thee, as a man in very deed that lives according to Nature. If they cannot bear with thee, let them slay thee. For it were better so than to live their life.

• 27.x. 23. This striking phrase seems from a comparison of § 23 to mean: Count your life here in the city and Court, or, maybe, camp, as no whit worse than life in the free and health-giving air of a mountain-top with all its serenity and leisure for study and contemplation. It rests with you to make your “little plot within you” what you please. But, taken alone, “Live as on a mountain” might mean “Live in the open light of day under the eyes of God and men in a purer atmosphere above the pettinesses of the world.”
• 28.See iv. 3, § 2.