Meditations V.8
We have all heard, Aesculapius has prescribed for so and so riding exercise, or cold baths,19 or walking barefoot. Precisely so it may be said that the Universal Nature has prescribed for so and so sickness or maim or loss or what not of the same kind. For, in the former case, prescribed has some such meaning as this: He ordained this for so and so as conducive to his health; while in the latter what befalls each man has been ordained in some way as conducive to his destiny. For we say that things fall to us, as the masons too say that the huge squared stones in walls and pyramids fall into their places, adjusting themselves harmoniously to one another in a sort of structural unity. For, in fine, there is one harmony of all things, and just as from all bodies the Universe is made up into such a body as it is, so from all causes is Destiny made up into such a Cause. This is recognized by the most unthinking, for they say: Fate brought this on him. So then this was brought on this man, and this prescribed for this man. Let us then accept our fate, as we accept the prescriptions of Aesculapius. And in fact in these, too, there are many “bitter pills,” but we welcome them in hope of health.
Take much the same view of the accomplishment and consummation of what Nature approves as of thy health, and so welcome whatever happens, should it even be somewhat distasteful, because it contributes to the health of the Universe and the well-faring and well-doing of Zeus himself. For he had not brought this on a man, unless it had brought welfare to the Whole. For take any nature thou wilt, it never brings upon that which is under its control anything that does not conduce to its interests.
For two reasons then it behoves thee to acquiesce in what befalls one, that it was for thee it took place, and was prescribed for thee, and had reference in some sort to thee, being a thread of destiny spun from the first20 for thee from the most ancient causes; the other, that even what befalls each individual is the cause of the well-faring, of the consummation21 and by heaven of the very permanence of that which controls the Universe. For the perfection of the Whole is impaired, if thou cuttest off ever so little of the coherence and continuance of the Causes no less than of the parts. And thou dost cut them off, as far as lies with thee, and bring them to an end, when thou murmurest.
- 19.See the amazing story of an icy bathe prescribed so to Aristides (Sacred Tales ii. 529, Jebb’s edition ff.).
Aesculapius is the Latin form of Asclepius, the god of healing. In his Sacred Tales, Aristides records the god prescribing him, in a dream, a bath in an icy river in winter.
- 20.Or, from above.
- 21.Compare Seneca’s Epistles 74.