Meditations VI.50

Try persuasion first, but even though men would say thee nay, act when the principles of justice so direct. Should any one however withstand thee by force, take refuge in being well-content and unhurt, and utilize the obstacle for the display of some other virtue. Recollect that the impulse thou hadst was conditioned⁶² by circumstances,⁶³ and thine aim was not to do impossibilities. What then was it? To feel some such impulse as thou didst. In that thou art successful. That which alone was in the sphere of our choice⁶⁴ is realized.

• 62.See iv. 1; v. 20.
• 63.Literally was with a reservation, that is, “should circumstances allow.” Compare iv. 1; viii. 41.
• 64.Casaubon translates “that for which we were brought into the world,” but can προάγω mean this?

  Meric Casaubon’s translation of 1634 was the first complete English translation of the Meditations. Proagō, “lead forward” or “bring forth.”