Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/333

 Rh LIV. Let your Soul receive the Deity as your Blood does the Air, for the Influences of the one, are no less Vital than the other. This Correspondence is very Practicable : For there's an Ambient Omnipresent Spirit, which lies as open, and pervious to your Mind, as the Air you breath does to your Lungs : But then you must remember to be dispos'd to draw it.

LV. Wickedness is no Substance,or Separate Being, and therefore one would think it should be no Necessary Nusance. It subsists only in particular Subjects, and here it does no harm to any thing that is Foreign. 'Tis only a Plague to the Breast it lies in ; and does no body any mischief, but him that may be rid of it whenever he pleases.

LVI. My Thoughts and my Will, are as much my own, as my Constitution ; and no more concerned in the Conduct of another Man, than my Blood is in the beating of another Body's Pulse : For tho' we are born for the Service of each other; Yet our Liberty is Independent, and our Souls all left to our selves: Otherwise my Neighbours Miscarriage might be my Misfortune. But God has prevented this Consequence, least it should be in anothers power to make me Unhappy. Rh