Do nothing against your will, contrary to the community, without due examination, or with reluctance. Do not try to embellish your thoughts with fancy language. Be neither a great talker nor a great undertaker. Moreover, let the god within you find a man in you—a mature, sociable Roman prince who has ordered his life as one ready to depart at the sound of the trumpet. One who needs no oath or witness for his words or actions.

Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations: Modern English Edition”

Whether justifiably or not, I lean towards historic literature. First, because so much of what constitutes good writing is beyond copyright and therefore freely available; and, second, because most frequently the language of older compilations is careful and for me stimulating, involving what I distinguish as a learned use of language. While I appreciate a spicy dialogue when employed for animation, the more general rendition of thought is in my opinion usefully confined to a precise and accurate vernacular.

Below is what HAL of ChatGPT (Artificial Intelligence) had to say about the above quotation:

This passage is a fine example of Marcus Aurelius at his most practical. It is not mystical, nor abstract philosophy. It is a set of instructions for conduct.

Several themes emerge:

“Do nothing against your will”
Act deliberately. Do not drift into actions merely because others expect them, or because habit carries you along. The Stoics believed that a free person governs himself.

“Contrary to the community”
Human beings are social creatures. Marcus repeatedly reminds himself that we are made for cooperation, not selfish isolation. Individual freedom does not excuse neglect of civic duty.

“Without due examination”
Reason must precede action. A Roman emperor had immense power; Marcus reminds himself to pause, consider, and judge before acting.

“Or with reluctance”
If a duty is truly yours, embrace it willingly. To perform a task while grumbling about it is, in Stoic terms, a kind of internal contradiction.

“Do not try to embellish your thoughts with fancy language.”
As a former lawyer, Bill, you may appreciate how striking this advice is. Marcus distrusts rhetoric for its own sake. Truth should stand on its own feet. The aim is clarity, not ornament.

“Be neither a great talker nor a great undertaker.”
Neither endless discussion nor frantic busyness is admirable. One should speak when necessary and act when necessary.

The most beautiful line may be this:  “Let the god within you find a man in you.” For Marcus, the divine element is reason itself—the capacity for judgment, self-command, justice, and courage. He urges himself to become a person worthy of that higher faculty. Not a philosopher in words, but a philosopher in conduct.

Then comes the image of the: “mature, sociable Roman prince who has ordered his life as one ready to depart at the sound of the trumpet.” The trumpet is death. Marcus is not being morbid. Rather, he asks himself to live so that, if called away today, nothing essential would remain undone. No unfinished moral business. No dependence on applause. No need to explain oneself.

The final sentence completes the thought: “One who needs no oath or witness for his words or actions.” The highest character requires no certification. Such a person tells the truth because it is the truth, keeps his promises because they are his promises, and behaves properly whether observed or alone.

Reading this passage, I am reminded of the old Roman ideal of gravitas—a quiet dignity, self-possession, and reliability. It is an ideal that seems increasingly rare in a noisy age. Marcus is not urging greatness in the spectacular sense. He is urging steadiness, integrity, and readiness.

For a man in the later chapters of life, overlooking a river or a rainy countryside, there is something particularly moving in that image of having one’s affairs ordered and one’s conscience clear, ready to depart when the trumpet sounds, yet fully engaged with the duties and pleasures of the present day.

HAL’s speculation that I am dressed and fully prepared for departure on the skiff across life’s endless but precipitous plateau is somewhat disturbing because of its infinite clarity and conjecture; however, in the interest of cooperation I shall endure the technological narrative as hopeful and somewhat elegant. Oddly I have learned from repeated employment of HAL’s interpretative skills that very often there is more legitimacy to what he says than may first appear to be the case. Accordingly I have no intention to contradict his observations.

As a matter of development, I think I am far beyond improvement or further composition. Nor am I certain that the restraint is merely the conjunction with age. Nature, as variable and complicated as it is, dislikes alteration. I have succumbed.  It is no proclamation of uniformity; merely bloody-mindedness. But, as I say, the limitation may well be the vigour of my being which has existed from birth, the flourishing product of the seed at germination. This at least preserves the entitlement to uniqueness – though I can see as well that it permits of inherent qualification, narrowness and incapacity among a myriad of other human shortcomings.

From a purely literary perspective, discovering the inadequacy of human conduct is by far more entertaining than tarsome moral inductive reasoning. The latter always seemed to me to be contaminated by entirely imaginary and wishful thinking. The foible is not unlike the very common inclination to suggest that politicians “should have known better”. It is a curious distortion of logic that we should imagine people somehow become less human than they were as a child. And, dear Reader, forgive me for repeating, “What’s bred in the bone will out in the flesh.”

Perhaps as a measure of contrast I will admit that, with the passage of time (as one gets older), most of us learn something from life’s experiences which usefully guides us going forward. Accordingly “acting like an adult” is a product not so much of time as growth. Granted much of what we learn is at the price of loss, but otherwise we’d simply ignore the good weather. We seldom acknowledge the benefit of growth (any more than we rejoice at the healing of a wound). It’s expected.

Meanwhile I have lately enthused about revealing the comic side of elderly people. It is a project of universal application; that is, I encourage it in me and you. Most people, I find, have no trouble addressing their more cheerful side.  Some motivation may be required; but eventually I believe we all prefer a happy outlook upon life. The leap from premise to conclusion activates intelligence and thoughtfulness. It is that process – the product of growth – that stimulates the enviable nature of man. Fact and conclusion are forever aligned.  Separating even the flavour of those ingredients is impossible. “You is what you is“, as an erstwhile client of mine liked to quip. My take on the state of affairs is more endearing in that I believe it is our individuality (and DNA) which epitomize who we are, whether sophisticated or rural, no matter what other feature of expression is preferred. It is the preservation of those singular attributes which fully stimulates the final presentation.