Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §2.1.1

Morning Preparation: Facing Flawed Men and Cooperation

Passage 18 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author advises preparing every morning for encounters with difficult people, understanding their flaws stem from ignorance, recognizing their shared divine intellect, and striving for cooperation as natural parts of a whole.

§2.1.1Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ· συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ·
Say to yourself in the morning: I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the envious, the unsocial.
πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.
All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
ἐγὼ δὲ τεθεωρηκὼς τὴν φύσιν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ὅτι καλόν, καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ ὅτι αἰσχρόν, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντος φύσιν ὅτι μοι συγγενής, οὐχὶ αἵματος ἢ σπέρματος τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ νοῦ καὶ θείας ἀπομοίρας μέτοχος, οὔτε βλαβῆναι ὑπό τινος αὐτῶν δύναμαι· αἰσχρῷ γάρ με οὐδεὶς περιβαλεῖ· οὔτε ὀργίζεσθαι τῷ συγγενεῖ δύναμαι οὔτε ἀπέχθεσθαι αὐτῷ.
But I, who have observed the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and of the wrongdoer himself that his nature is akin to me, not as sharing the same blood or seed, but participating in the same intellect and a portion of the divinity, can neither be injured by any of them—for no one can wrap me in what is ugly—nor can I be angry with my kinsman, or hate him.
γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὀδόντων.
For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.
τὸ οὖν ἀντιπράσσειν ἀλλήλοις παρὰ φύσιν· ἀντιπρακτικὸν δὲ τὸ ἀγανακτεῖν καὶ ἀποστρέφεσθαι.
To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and to be vexed and to turn away is to act against one another.

Notes

  1. §2.1.1προλέγειν — An independent infinitive (imperative infinitive), expressing a command: 'tell yourself' or 'say to yourself'. It functions as a second-person imperative directed at the reader or the self.
  2. §2.1.1τὴν φύσιν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ὅτι καλόν — An instance of prolepsis (anticipation). Literally 'having observed the nature of the good, that it is beautiful', which syntactically moves 'the nature of the good' (which logically should be the subject of the ὅτι clause) forward as the direct object of the participle τεθεωρηκώς.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §2.1.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:2.1.1

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