Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

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Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

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"the universal substance," and he adds that "reason " (λόγος) governs the universe. He also (vi. 9) uses the terms "universal nature" or "nature of the universe." He (vi. 25) calls the universe "the one and all, which we name Cosmos or Order" κόσμος). If he ever seems to use these general terms as significant of the All, of all that man can in any way conceive to exist, he still on other occasions plainly distinguishes between Matter, Material things (ὕλη, ὑλίκόν), and Cause, Origin, Reason (αἰτία, αἰτίῶδες, λόγος).[B] This is conformable to Zeno's doctrine that there are two original principles (ἀρχαί) of all things, that which acts (τὸ ποίοῦν) and that which is acted upon (τὸ πάσχον). That which is acted on is the formless matter (ὕλη): that which acts is the reason (λόγος), God, who is eternal and operates through all matter, and produces all things. So Antoninus (v. 32) speaks of the reason (λόγος) which pervades all substance (οὐσία), and through all time by fixed periods (revolutions) administers the universe (τὸ πᾶν). God is eternal, and Matter is eternal. It is God who gives form to matter, but he is not said to have created matter. According to this view, which is as old as Anaxagoras, God and matter exist independently, but God governs matter. This doctrine is simply the expression of the fact of the existence both of matter and of God. The Stoics did not perplex themselves with the in-soluble question of the origin and nature of matter.[C] Antoninus also assumes a beginning of things, as we now know them; but his language is sometimes very obscure. I have endeavored to explain the meaning of one difficult passage (vii. 75, and the note).

      The common Greek word which we translate "matter" is ϋλη. It is the stuff that things are made of.

      Matter consists of elemental parts (στοίχεῖα) of which all material objects are made. But nothing is permanent in form. The nature of the universe, according to Antoninus' expression (iv. 36), "loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a womb: but this is a very vulgar notion." All things then are in a constant flux and change; some things are dissolved into the elements, others come in their places; and so the "whole universe continues ever young and perfect" (xii. 23).

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