Meditations IX.42
When thou art offended by shamelessness in any one, put this question at once to thyself: Can it be that shameless men should not exist in the world? It can not be. Then ask not for what can not be.61 For this man in question also is one of the shameless ones that must needs exist in the world. Have the same reflection ready for the rogue, the deceiver, or any other wrongdoer whatever. For the remembrance that this class of men cannot but exist will bring with it kindlier feelings towards individuals of the class. Right useful too is it to bethink thee at once of this: What virtue has Nature given man as a foil to the wrong-doing in question? For as an antidote against the unfeeling man she has given gentleness,62 and against another man some other resource.
In any case it is in thy power to teach the man that has gone astray the error of his ways. For every one that doth amiss misses his true mark and hath gone astray. But what harm hast thou suffered? Thou wilt find that not one of the persons against whom thou art exasperated has done anything capable of making thy mind worse; but it is in thy mind63 that the evil for thee and the harmful have their whole existence.
Where is the harm or the strangeness in the boor acting—like a boor? See whether thou art not thyself the more to blame in not expecting that he would act thus wrongly. For thy reason too could have given thee means for concluding that this would most likely be the case. Nevertheless all this is forgotten, and thou art surprised at his wrongdoing.
But above all, when thou findest fault with a man for faithlessness and ingratitude,64 turn thy thoughts to thyself. For evidently the fault is thine own, whether thou hadst faith that a man with such a character would keep faith with thee, or if in bestowing a kindness thou didst not bestow it absolutely and as from the very doing of it having at once received the full complete fruit.65
For when thou hast done a kindness, what more wouldst thou have? Is not this enough that thou hast done something in accordance with thy nature? Seekest thou a recompense for it? As though the eye should claim a guerdon for seeing, or the feet for walking! For just as these latter were made for their special work, and by carrying this out according to their individual constitution they come fully into their own, so also man, formed as he is by nature for benefiting others, when he has acted as benefactor or as co-factor in any other way for the general weal, has done what he was constituted for, and has what is his.66
- 61.v. 17. Compare Dio’s Roman History 71. 34, § 4.
- 62.Epictetus’s Manual 10; St. Paul, Titus iii. 2: πρᾳότητα πρὸς πάντας.
The tenth chapter of Epictetus’s Manual advises asking, of each thing that befalls one, what faculty one has to meet it: against insult, patience. Titus 3:2 has “shewing all meekness unto all men” (King James).
- 63.Literally there, that is, in thy mind.
- 64.Compare the striking parallel in Dio’s Roman History 71. 24, § 2: τὸ μηδὲν πιστὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις εἶναι; the same, 71. 26, § 2: πίστιν καταλύσαντι πιστὸν διαγενέσθαι, where Marcus is speaking to his soldiers on the revolt of Cassius; and 27. § 1, where, writing to the Senate, he calls Cassius ἀχάριστος. I cannot help thinking that this section of the Thoughts was written at the time of the rebellion in 175, and that Marcus is here taking himself to task.
The historian Dio’s Greek phrases, in translation: “that there is nothing trustworthy among men”; “to remain faithful to one who has broken faith”; and acharistos, “ungrateful.” The revolt is that of Avidius Cassius in 175.
- 65.See v. 6; vii. 73.
- 66.iv. 49; xi. 1. Compare St. Matthew vi. 2. Marcus was noted for εὐεργεσία, Dio’s Roman History 71. 34, § 3; Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum 2495, 4697c.
Matthew 6:2 has “when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee” (King James). Euergesia, “beneficence,” is the quality to which, according to the historian Dio, Marcus dedicated a temple on the Capitol.