Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/418

238 worth your while; and that is to be govern'd by Reason and the Deity. And yet you can't be said to value these last mention'd Privileges rightly neither, if you are disturb'd because Death must take them from you.

XXXII. What a small part of unmeasurable Time, falls to the share of a single Mortal, and how soon is every one swallow'd up in Eternity? what a handful of the Universal Matter goes to the making a Humane Body, and what a very little of the Universal Soul too, to raise it into an Animal? And on what a narrow Clod with respect to the whole Earth, do you crawl upon? Consider all this, and reckon nothing Great, unless it be to Act in Conformity to your own Reason, and to suffer as the Almighty shall appoint you.

XXXIII. The great Business of a Man, is to improve his Mind, and govern his Manners; this is minding the main Chance. As for all other Projects, and Pursuits, whether in our Power to compass or not, they are no better than Trifling, and Amusement.

XXXIV. We can't have a more lively and promising Notion, to set us above the fear of Death; than to consider that it has been dispis'd even by that Sect, who