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Saturday, December 17, 2016

As is the Water-dish, so is the Soul

Illustration designed by the Earl of Shaftesbury; frontispiece to volume 1,  The Characteristicks of Men, Manners, and Opinion (1737)

What view you take is everything, and your view is in your power. Remove it then when you choose, and then, as if you had rounded the cape, come calm serenity, a waveless bay.

- Marcus Aurelius

As is the water-dish, so is the soul; as is the ray which falls on the water, so are the appearances. When then the water is moved the ray too seems to be moved, yet is not. And when, accordingly, a man is giddy, it is not the arts and the virtues which are thrown into confusion, but the spirit to which they belong; and when he is recovered so are they.

- Epictetus