Meditations — passage 213

NOTES 167 in his austere view of pleasure and its heightened categorization as 'passion of the flesh': see further note on 8.10. 6.35 See note on 5.8.Z for Marcus' fondness for analogy or contrast with trades and crafts. It is clear that Marcus respected and admired the professionalism and dedication of the skilled craftsman. 6.36 Familiar themes of global insignificance and evanescence in the context of the infinite: compare especially 3.10 and note. Mount Athos is the easternmost promontory of the triple- pronged peninsula of Chalcidice in northern Greece, rising to a peak of 1,935 metres. So even the lion's gaping jaws . . . mischief: See 3.1 for similar thoughts and examples of the 'incidental effects of the processes of Nature', which 'have their own charm and attraction'. Com- pare 8.50. 6.37 For the eternal sameness of things (a frequent theme) see note on 2.14.z. 6.38 The conception of a unitary and unified universe is a central tenet of Marcus' philosophy and cosmology, presented both as abstract theory (sometimes tinged with an almost devotional wonder - e.g. 4.13) and as the source and argument for human imperatives - those flowing from the kinship of men (see note on z.i), and the individual's obligation to accept his lot as part of and contributory to a universal scheme (see note on 5.8). Marcus speaks of the interrelation of all things sometimes in objective terms ('the very web and mesh of it all', 4.40: cf. 7.9 and 10.5 for 'mesh'), but more often with an admiring warmth suggestive of a quasi-religious conviction: 'collective embrace' (z.i6), 'the universe is a kind of community' (4.4), 'harmony' (4.Z3 and 5.8), 'all things are meshed together, and a sacred bond unites them' (7.9). See in particular 4.40, 4.45, 5.8, 7.9: also z.3, z.16, 3.11.Z, 4.4, 4.Z3, 4.Z7 ('all things, distinct as they are, nevertheless permeate and respond to each other'), 6.Z5, 6.37 ('all things are related and the same'), 7.19, 7.75, 8.Z3, 9.39, 10.6, iz.30. 6.39 but your love must be genuine: Marcus was intellectually con- vinced of the imperative to love his fellow men: but this caveat is perhaps his own recognition of the difficulty he had in giving practical expression to this conviction. See note on 5.10.1, and compare 7.13 ('... you do not yet love your fellow men from your heart: doing good does not yet delight you as an end in