All things work together. Marcus Aurelius 6.43
Marcus'
view of nature: the entire universe is a rhythmic expression of
purposeful motion that repeats itself in the manner of a dance, with
periods punctuated by final events (such as birth & death, in the
animal life familiar to us). All the things we see around us—sun,
rain, stars, subtle processes of healing & conceiving that
require us to shrink & to grow, to die & to be reborn—are
significant parts of this great dance. Even when these parts appear
at odds, as the bright sun drying & the dark water drenching,
still in the end they are working together, in perfect natural
harmony. Our place is to move with them, making our own entrance &
exit on the divine dance-floor as skillfully as we can.
Μήτι
ὁ ἥλιος τὰ τοῦ ὑετίου ἀξιοῖ ποιεῖν;
μήτι ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς τὰ τῆς Καρποφόρου
(†); τί δὲ τῶν ἄστρων ἕκαστον; οὐχὶ
διάφορα μέν, συνεργὰ δὲ πρὸς ταὐτόν;
Would
the sun ever deign to achieve what the rain does? Would Asclepius do the work
of fertile Demeter? What about each of the stars? Though they are
different, don't they all work together toward the same end?
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(†)
Pausanias (8.53.7) attests a shrine to Demeter and her daughter (the
Maiden, Kore) in Tegea whose cult gives them the epithet that Marcus uses here
(ἃς ἐπονομάζουσι Καρποφόρους).