A Private History of Happiness Read Online Free
Author: George Myerson
cloud dissolved in a smart and long continued rain.”
Soon Patrick Kenny was back to the everyday troubles of his long workweek: “Called yesterday evening by Mrs. John Fox of Wilmington to visit her; this day she is taken ill with pleurisy. A most inconvenient call, in my most inconvenient week. Last Sunday’s journey to Brandywine, this day’s to Wilmington, next Friday’s to Wilmington again, and Friday afternoon’s to Newcastle, and Saturday’s to Wilmington for church on Sunday, and Monday’s to Philadelphia, and on my return, my journey to West Chester and home. If I shall be able to hobble thro’, God alone can give.” But that hour at dawn must have remained as a weeklong beacon of inspiration to him.
The Urge to Linger in a Warm Bed
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, writing in his book of reflections
WITH THE ROMAN LEGIONS IN CENTRAL EUROPE • BETWEEN 170 AND 180 CE
When you are drowsy in a morning, and find a reluctance to getting out of your bed, make this reflection with yourself: “I must rise to discharge the duties incumbent on me as a man. And shall I do with reluctance what I was born to do, and what I came into the world to do? What! Was I formed for no other purpose than to lie sunk in down, and indulge myself in a warm bed?” —“But a warm bed is comfortable and pleasant,” you will say.—Were you born then only to please yourself; and not for action, and the exertion of your faculties? Do not you see the very shrubs, the sparrows, the ants, the spiders, and the bees, all busied, and in their several stations co-operating to adorn the system of the universe?
And do you alone refuse to discharge the duties of man, instead of performing with alacrity the part allotted you by nature? “But some rest and relaxation,” you will urge, “is necessary.” —Very true; yet nature has prescribed bounds to this indulgence, as she also has to our eating and drinking. But you exceed the bounds of moderation, and what is sufficient, in this instance. Though I must confess, where business is concerned, you consult your ease, and keep within moderate limits.
Marcus Aurelius became the Roman emperor in 161 CE, when he was forty years old. By the time he wrote these thoughts—in Greek—in his book of philosophical reflections, he had been one of the most powerful men on earth for over a decade. His empire stretched from North Africa to England and from Syria to Spain. For a while, he had shared responsibility with his brother—now he ruled alone. During the decade before his death in 180 CE, he spent much time on military campaigns in Central Europe. Everywhere he went, he took his writing.
Now, eighteen hundred years later, the empire is long gone. Highways and train tracks run where straight roads took his legions. But the words that he wrote down, presumably morning and night, live on.
Marcus Aurelius is famous as a stoic philosopher, a thinker whose ideas are stern and morally demanding. As human beings, we have a duty, whether emperor or citizen, to give our best.
Nothing was too small for the emperor to offer advice on it. Here he imagined he was talking to somebody who was just waking up in the morning. As befitted both a stoic and a commander, his advice was to rise and greet the day. There was work to be done. He must have had that thought on many days as the sun rose over the war-torn land. Yet as we listen to this stern and serious voice, we can hear something all too human within it: here is a man who knows that there is nothing more pleasurable “than to lie sunk in down, and indulge myself in a warm bed.” There is such a strong sensation of the comfort and warmth inside the bed, a refuge from all the difficulties that await. He is said to have had trouble going to sleep, and if so, this drowsy time in the morning would have been even more restful, bringing the long-awaited ease.
He knew, like us, that he had to get up; and he felt all the more the pleasure of lingering in
Soon Patrick Kenny was back to the everyday troubles of his long workweek: “Called yesterday evening by Mrs. John Fox of Wilmington to visit her; this day she is taken ill with pleurisy. A most inconvenient call, in my most inconvenient week. Last Sunday’s journey to Brandywine, this day’s to Wilmington, next Friday’s to Wilmington again, and Friday afternoon’s to Newcastle, and Saturday’s to Wilmington for church on Sunday, and Monday’s to Philadelphia, and on my return, my journey to West Chester and home. If I shall be able to hobble thro’, God alone can give.” But that hour at dawn must have remained as a weeklong beacon of inspiration to him.
The Urge to Linger in a Warm Bed
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, writing in his book of reflections
WITH THE ROMAN LEGIONS IN CENTRAL EUROPE • BETWEEN 170 AND 180 CE
When you are drowsy in a morning, and find a reluctance to getting out of your bed, make this reflection with yourself: “I must rise to discharge the duties incumbent on me as a man. And shall I do with reluctance what I was born to do, and what I came into the world to do? What! Was I formed for no other purpose than to lie sunk in down, and indulge myself in a warm bed?” —“But a warm bed is comfortable and pleasant,” you will say.—Were you born then only to please yourself; and not for action, and the exertion of your faculties? Do not you see the very shrubs, the sparrows, the ants, the spiders, and the bees, all busied, and in their several stations co-operating to adorn the system of the universe?
And do you alone refuse to discharge the duties of man, instead of performing with alacrity the part allotted you by nature? “But some rest and relaxation,” you will urge, “is necessary.” —Very true; yet nature has prescribed bounds to this indulgence, as she also has to our eating and drinking. But you exceed the bounds of moderation, and what is sufficient, in this instance. Though I must confess, where business is concerned, you consult your ease, and keep within moderate limits.
Marcus Aurelius became the Roman emperor in 161 CE, when he was forty years old. By the time he wrote these thoughts—in Greek—in his book of philosophical reflections, he had been one of the most powerful men on earth for over a decade. His empire stretched from North Africa to England and from Syria to Spain. For a while, he had shared responsibility with his brother—now he ruled alone. During the decade before his death in 180 CE, he spent much time on military campaigns in Central Europe. Everywhere he went, he took his writing.
Now, eighteen hundred years later, the empire is long gone. Highways and train tracks run where straight roads took his legions. But the words that he wrote down, presumably morning and night, live on.
Marcus Aurelius is famous as a stoic philosopher, a thinker whose ideas are stern and morally demanding. As human beings, we have a duty, whether emperor or citizen, to give our best.
Nothing was too small for the emperor to offer advice on it. Here he imagined he was talking to somebody who was just waking up in the morning. As befitted both a stoic and a commander, his advice was to rise and greet the day. There was work to be done. He must have had that thought on many days as the sun rose over the war-torn land. Yet as we listen to this stern and serious voice, we can hear something all too human within it: here is a man who knows that there is nothing more pleasurable “than to lie sunk in down, and indulge myself in a warm bed.” There is such a strong sensation of the comfort and warmth inside the bed, a refuge from all the difficulties that await. He is said to have had trouble going to sleep, and if so, this drowsy time in the morning would have been even more restful, bringing the long-awaited ease.
He knew, like us, that he had to get up; and he felt all the more the pleasure of lingering in
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