Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/210

 30 forc'd at last to March off themselves : Heraclitus who argued so much about the Worlds being set on Fire, perish'd himself by a Counter-Element, and was Drown'd in a Dropsy. Democritus was eaten up with Lice, and Socrates was dispatched by another sort of Vermin, And what are these Instances for? Why, to shew what we must all come to. Look you; You are got Abroad, you have made your Voyage and your Port; Debark then without any more ado; if you happen to Land upon another World, there will be Gods enough to take care of you : But if it be your Fortune to drop into nothing; why then your Virtue will be no more solicited with Pleasure and Pain; then you'll have done drudging for your Carcass : whereas as Matters go now, the best Moyety of you has sometimes the worst Office : For if I mistake not, the one is all Soul, and Spirit, whereas the other, is but Dirt, and Putrefaction.

IV. For the Future, don't spend your Thoughts upon other People, unless you are put upon it by Common Interest. For the prying into foreign Business, that is musing upon the Talk, Fancies, and Contrivances of another, and guessing at the what and why, of his Actions; All this does but make a Man forget himself, and Rh