Meditations VIII.5

Firstly, fret not thyself, for all things are as the Nature of the Universe would have them, and within a little thou shalt be non-existent, and nowhere, like Hadrianus and Augustus. Secondly, look steadfastly at the thing, and see it as it is and, remembering withal that thou must be a good man, and what the Nature of man calls for, do this without swerving, and speak as seemeth to thee most just, only be it graciously, modestly, and without feigning.⁴

• 4.The word here used by Marcus occurs only in Christian writings.

  Marcus’s word is anypokritōs, “without feigning”; the related adjective anypokritos occurs in the New Testament, as in Romans 12:9, “Let love be without dissimulation” (King James).