《沉思录·卷二·写于格拉努阿河畔》第12条
How quickly all things disappear,--in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them. What is the nature of all sensible things, and particularly those which attract with the bait of pleasure or terrify by pain, or are noised abroad by vapory fame; how worthless, and contemptible, and sordid, and perishable, and dead they are,--all this it is the part of the intellectual faculty to observe. To observe too who these are whose opinions and voices give reputation; what death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things which present themselves to the imagination in it, he will then consider it to be nothing else than an operation of nature; and if any one is afraid of an operation of nature, he is a child. This, however, is not only an operation of nature, but it is also a thing which conduces to the purposes of nature. To observe too how man comes near to the Deity, and by what part of him, and when this part of man is so disposed+ (vi. 28).
注释摘要
这段话是典型的斯多葛式的观看训练。奥勒留在军营里对自己说：看看事物消失得有多快。他用两个层次来讲这个消失：宇宙里那些物体本身会消亡，而时间里对它们的记忆也会消亡。这不是在发感慨，而是在铺设一个前提，然后立刻转入理性的工作。他要你注意所有感官所及之物的本性，特别是那三类最容易把人抓住的东西：用快乐的诱饵吸引你的，用痛苦来恐吓你的，以及被虚浮的名声四处传扬的。…