Meditations V.9

Do not feel qualms²² or despondency or discomfiture if thou dost not invariably succeed in acting from right principles; but when thou art foiled,²³ come back again to them, and rejoice if on the whole thy conduct is worthy of a man, and love the course to which thou returnest. Come not back to Philosophy as to a schoolmaster, but as the sore-eyed to their sponges and their white of egg, as this patient to his plaster and that to his fomentations. Thus wilt thou rest satisfied with Reason, yet make no parade of obeying her. And forget not that Philosophy wishes but what thy nature wishes, whereas thy wish was for something else that accords not with Nature. Yes, for it would have been the acme of delight. Ah, is not that the very reason why pleasure trips us up? Nay, see if these be not more delightful still: high-mindedness, independence, simplicity, tenderness of heart,²⁴ sanctity of life. Why what is more delightful than wisdom herself, when thou thinkest how sure and smooth in all its workings is the faculty of understanding and knowledge?

• 22.Literally be nauseated (compare viii. 24).
• 23.See v. 36.
• 24.Galen, Kühn’s edition, volume 12 page 17, calls Marcus εὐγνώμων, μέτριος, ἥμερος, πρᾶος.

  Galen’s Greek words, in translation: “considerate, moderate, gentle, mild.”