The ocean and the promontory
So is the perfect one! to his soul's oceanThe world of sense pours streams of witchery;They leave him as they find, without commotion,Taking their tribute, but remaining sea.
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a misfortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in all cases call that a man's misfortune which is not a deviation from man's nature? And does a thing seem to thee to be a deviation from man's nature, when it is not contrary to the will of man's nature? Well, thou knowest the will of nature. Will then this which has happened prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and falsehood; will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and everything else, by the presence of which man's nature obtains all that is its own? Remember too on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle; not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.
The Editors’ note
Both find the image of the steady mind at the edge of the sea. In the Gītā, as Arnold renders it, the world of sense pours its streams into the ocean of the perfect one’s soul, and they leave him as they find him, “Taking their tribute, but remaining sea.” Marcus Aurelius would be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, while it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
The images face opposite ways. The Gītā’s sage receives everything and is not changed; the ocean is full because it holds the rivers, not because it resists them. Marcus’s rock stands against what comes, and his steadiness is a judgement: that what has happened is no misfortune, because it does not stop him from being just and free.