Meditations VI.10

Either a medley and a tangled web¹⁰ and a dispersion abroad, or a unity and a plan and a Providence. If the former, why should I even wish to abide in such a random welter and chaos? Why care for anything else than to turn again to the dust at last.¹¹ Why be disquieted? For, do what I will, the dispersion must overtake me. But if the latter, I bow in reverence, my feet are on the rock, and I put my trust in the Power that rules.

• 10.See iv. 27; vii. 50.
• 11.Homer’s Iliad vii. 99; compare below, vii. 50.

  In Iliad vii. 99 Menelaus, rebuking the Greeks for hesitating to face Hector in single combat, wishes they might all turn to earth and water.