the universal sovereign Reason

"In the universe Asia and Europe are but two small corners, all ocean’s waters a drop. Athos a puny lump of earth, the vastness of time a pin’s point in eternity. All is petty, inconstant, and perishable. All proceeds from the one source, springing either directly or derivatively from the universal sovereign Reason. Even the lion’s open jaws, the deadly poison, and all other things that do hurt, down to the bramble bush and the slough, are byproducts of something else that is itself noble and beautiful. Do not think of them, then, as alien to that which you reverence, but remember the one origin that is common to them all." (MAurelius, Meditations 6.36)

A modern English-speaking Christian who has read the prologue to the Gospel according to John might reasonably wonder if the one source, Reason, the universally common origin, is the Word, thinking "Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος," and that Marcus may have used the word Logos for Reason; and indeed although we prefer Word, Logos can be rendered “Reason” https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=mac_bm&ei=aKgpWpXcB8mymwHI25TYCQ&q=translate+english+to+greek&oq=translate+english+to+greek&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i67k1j0l9.30027.30510.0.34252.2.2.0.0.0.0.114.220.0j2.2.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.2.220...0i10k1.0.WqZMipFt8T4 and Reason can be rendered “Logos,” meaning the primordial creative will that brought all that is into being; but Logos is not what Marcus writes. In fact, with my overwhelming incompetence in Greek, I spent overly much time this morning finding his Meditations in the original Greek that while he was a Roman whose first tongue may have been Latin, Marcus was learned in Greek and apparently wrote in Greek and, me, lacking a working knowledge of Greek although Marcus probably used a literary Greek not koine, my working through his 6.36 wasn’t as easy as I’d anticipated. So the relevant sentence of his 6.36, ”Πάντα ἐκεῖθεν ἔρχεται, ἀπ̓ ἐκείνου τοῦ κοινοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ ὁρμήσαντα ἣ κατ̓ ἐπακολούθησιν” came out, "All thence comes from That One the common dominant they urged on to insatiate cognizance,” which sounds like something my brain tries to work out from what Linda says to me when I’m not wearing my hearing aids. So, all to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all. Meantime, here’s Aurelius’ Greek 6.36 for some expert to work through word by word without using a Greek -English translator as I did, or interlinear:   

Ἡ Ἀσία, ἡ Εὐρώπη γωνίαι τοῦ κόσμου: πᾶν πέλαγος σταγὼν τοῦ κόσμου: Ἄθως βωλάριον τοῦ κόσμου: πᾶν τὸ ἐνεστὼς τοῦ χρόνου στιγμὴ τοῦ αἰῶνος. πάντα μικρά, εὔτρεπτα, ἐναφανιζόμενα. Πάντα ἐκεῖθεν ἔρχεται, ἀπ̓ ἐκείνου τοῦ κοινοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ ὁρμήσαντα ἣ κατ̓ ἐπακολούθησιν. καὶ τὸ χάσμα οὖν τοῦ λέοντος καὶ τὸ δηλητήριον καὶ πᾶσα κακουργία ὡς ἄκανθα, ὡς βόρβορος, ἐκείνων ἐπιγεννήματα τῶν σεμνῶν καὶ καλῶν. μὴ οὖν αὐτὰ ἀλλότρια τούτου οὗ σέβεις φαντάζου, ἀλλὰ τὴν πάντων πηγὴν ἐπιλογίζου.

Breakfast; prosciutto sandwich, cut ham sandwich thickness, black coffee. Lunch: lamb sausage with mustard, bowl of homemade soup, remainder of the pasta salad Linda made for last night’s supper at church before Lessons & Carols, which whoever missed, my sympathies, has only Self to blame.

Plan for today had been drive to Apalachicola to scatter ashes of Jean Purdy but, weather interferring, we'll reschedule for late next week.

DThos+