The Complete Guide to Reading Meditations

Meditations XI.3

What a soul is that which is ready to be released from the body at any requisite moment, and be quenched11 or dissipated or hold together! But the readiness must spring from a man’s inner judgment, and not be the result of mere opposition [as is the case with the Christians].12 It must be associated with deliberation and dignity and, if others too are to be convinced, with nothing like stage-heroics.

  • 11.See v. 33; vii. 32.
  • 12.See p. 382.

    Haines prints the words in square brackets because many editors regard them as a marginal gloss later taken into the text. His “p. 382” refers to his appended note on Marcus and the Christians.