Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §4.27.1

Cosmic Order and the Mutual Sympathy of All Things

Passage 77 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author ponders whether the universe is an ordered cosmos or a chaotic mixture, arguing that if order can exist within an individual, it must also exist in the whole, especially since all things are interconnected.

§4.27.1Ἤτοι κόσμος διατεταγμένος ἢ κυκεὼν συμπεφυρμένος.

Either an ordered universe or a chaotic mixture.

ἀλλὰ μὴν κόσμος·

But surely it is an ordered universe.

ἢ ἐν σοὶ μέν τις κόσμος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται, ἐν δὲ τῷ παντὶ ἀκοσμία;

Or can a certain order subsist in you, but disorder in the whole?

καὶ ταῦτα οὕτως πάντων διακεκριμένων καὶ διακεχυμένων καὶ συμπαθῶν.

And that too when all things are so separated and diffused, and yet sympathetic.

Notes

4.27.1καὶ ταῦτα — An idiomatic expression meaning "and that too," used to point out a contradiction or highlight an absurd circumstance. Here it is construed with the following genitive absolute (πάντων διακεκριμένων...), emphasizing the irony that disorder could exist in the universe while all things, despite being separated and scattered, maintain mutual sympathy.
4.27.1ἢ ἐν σοὶ μέν τις κόσμος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται, ἐν δὲ τῷ παντὶ ἀκοσμία; — In the second clause of the antithesis (en de tōi panti akosmia), the verb phrase "hyphistasthai dynatai" (can subsist) is omitted. This creates a rhetorical contrast between the micro-cosmos (the individual "you") where order can exist, and the macro-cosmos (the universe) where disorder is absurdly suggested to exist.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §4.27.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.27.1

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