Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/277

 Rh XXXII. My Person consists of Soul and Body : To this latter all things are Morally indifferent ; the Body being in no condition to make a distinction of this kind. And as to my Mind there's nothing can affect her in the quality of Good or Evil, her own Actions excepted; Now these are all within her Power : And of all her Actions she is only concern'd with the present ; For what's past or to come, signifies as much as nothing, and falls under no Moral Character.

XXXIII. As long as the Hands and Feet do the work they were made for, they move naturally, and with ease : Thus while a Man performs the Functions of his Species, and keeps true to his Condition, he feels no more weight than what Nature lays upon him. Now that which is not beside the Intentions of Nature, can never be a real misfortune.

XXXIV. What abundance of sensual satisfaction have Thieves, Catamites, Parricides, and Usurpers been possessed of? We may guess at the quality of Pleasure, by its falling to the share of such Wretches as these.

XXXV. Don't you observe among your Artificers, tho' they bear the Contradiction and Impertinence of the Unskilful, yet they won't comply so far as to be talked Rh