"We ought to remember not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but also that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether his mind will stay strong enough to understand things, and retain the power of contemplation to strive after knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he begins to sink into dotage, he still may perspire and take food and keep his imagination and appetite, and other powers of the kind; but the power of making himself useful, and filling up the measure of his duty, and clearly distinguishing appearances, knowing whether he should retire from life, and whatever else of the kind requires a disciplined reason, all this is already dead to him. We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because our perception of things and understanding of them cease first.
We ought to observe also that even the small characteristics of things produced according to nature have something in them pleasing and attractive. For instance, when a loaf of bread is baked there are cracks in the surface, and these breaks, which are contrary to the purpose of the baker, are beautiful in their way, and stimulate the appetite. Again, figs when they are quite ripe gape open; and ripe olives when they are near to rotting are particularly good to look at. And the ears of corn bending down, and a lion's eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the mouth of a wild boar, and many other things-though they are far from beautiful, if one examines them separately-still, because they are characteristics of things formed by nature, help to adorn them, and please the eye. Thus if a man has a feeling for and deep insight into the things produced in the universe, there is hardly one of their characteristics that will not seem to him of a sort to give him pleasure. So he will look on the gaping jaws of living wild beasts with as much pleasure as on those which painters and sculptors depict in imitation; and in an old woman and an old man he will perceive a certain ripeness and comeliness; and will look on the attractive loveliness of young persons with chaste eyes. many such beauties will show themselves, not pleasing to every man, but to him who has become truly at home with nature and her works.
Hippocrates, who cured many diseases, himself fell sick and died. The Chaldeans foretold the deaths of people, and then fate caught them too. Alexander, Pompey, and Julius Caesar, who had destroyed so many whole cities, and in battle cut to pieces so many thousand horsemen and foot soldiers, themselves too at last departed this life. Heraclitus, who speculated so much on the conflagration of the universe, was swollen with dropsy and died in a plaster of dung. Vermin destroyed Democritus and another kind of vermin killed Socrates. What does all this mean? You have taken ship, you have made the voyage, you have come to port; disembark. If you come to another life, there are gods enough even there; but if to a state without sensation, you will no more be gripped by pains and pleasures, or be slave to the vessel, which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior; for the latter is all intelligence and deity; the former earth and corruption" - Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
Posted to Flyleaf - All around me.
Swing dancing in the bagel shop after the bars closed tonight. Never say no to a woman who wants a dance.
We ought to observe also that even the small characteristics of things produced according to nature have something in them pleasing and attractive. For instance, when a loaf of bread is baked there are cracks in the surface, and these breaks, which are contrary to the purpose of the baker, are beautiful in their way, and stimulate the appetite. Again, figs when they are quite ripe gape open; and ripe olives when they are near to rotting are particularly good to look at. And the ears of corn bending down, and a lion's eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the mouth of a wild boar, and many other things-though they are far from beautiful, if one examines them separately-still, because they are characteristics of things formed by nature, help to adorn them, and please the eye. Thus if a man has a feeling for and deep insight into the things produced in the universe, there is hardly one of their characteristics that will not seem to him of a sort to give him pleasure. So he will look on the gaping jaws of living wild beasts with as much pleasure as on those which painters and sculptors depict in imitation; and in an old woman and an old man he will perceive a certain ripeness and comeliness; and will look on the attractive loveliness of young persons with chaste eyes. many such beauties will show themselves, not pleasing to every man, but to him who has become truly at home with nature and her works.
Hippocrates, who cured many diseases, himself fell sick and died. The Chaldeans foretold the deaths of people, and then fate caught them too. Alexander, Pompey, and Julius Caesar, who had destroyed so many whole cities, and in battle cut to pieces so many thousand horsemen and foot soldiers, themselves too at last departed this life. Heraclitus, who speculated so much on the conflagration of the universe, was swollen with dropsy and died in a plaster of dung. Vermin destroyed Democritus and another kind of vermin killed Socrates. What does all this mean? You have taken ship, you have made the voyage, you have come to port; disembark. If you come to another life, there are gods enough even there; but if to a state without sensation, you will no more be gripped by pains and pleasures, or be slave to the vessel, which is as much inferior as that which serves it is superior; for the latter is all intelligence and deity; the former earth and corruption" - Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
Posted to Flyleaf - All around me.
Swing dancing in the bagel shop after the bars closed tonight. Never say no to a woman who wants a dance.