Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/372

 192 Decrees of Fate; and therefore say I to the World, your Inclinations and mine shall always be the same.

XXII. Either you will take the Benefit of Custom, and keep to your old Course of Life, or you'l step farther into the World, as your Fancy shall lead you, or else Death will give you your Quietus est, one of these Cases must happen, therefore be not discouraged.

XXIII. Take it for a Rule, that Philosophy is every where Practicable; And that there's no such great Matter in Retirement. A Man may be Wise and Sedate in a crowd, as well as in a Desart, and keep the Noise of the World from getting within him: In this Case as Plato observes, the Walls of a Town, and the Inclosure of a Sheep-fold, may be made the same thing.

XXIV. How does my Mind stand affected? What Condition is my Understanding in, and to what Uses do I put it? Does not Thought and Reason run low with me? Am I not grown selfish, and broken loose from the General Interest? Is not my Soul as it were melted into my Senses, and perfectly governed by them?

XXV. He that runs away from his Master is a Fugitive; now the Law is every Man's Master, and therefore he that Rh