The puppeteer, not the puppet. MOTIFτὸ MOTIFνευροσπαστοῦν is an active participle: "that which pulls the strings." This inverts Marcus's habitual image: 2.2 has the passive infinitive (νευροσπαστηθῆναι — "that it be twitched no longer"), 3.16 and 6.16 have νευροσπαστεῖσθαι, 7.3 the passive participle νευροσπαστούμενα, 6.28 and 7.29 the verbal noun νευροσπαστία ("the pulling of strings"). In the formatted part of the corpus this is the only active form: what is within is named not the marionette but the puppeteer. See MOTIFthe image of the puppet on strings — there the anti-norm, here the norm.
A refusal of terms. Marcus says neither ἡγεμονικόν nor νοῦς nor ψυχή, but describes by location: τὸ ἔνδον ἐγκεκρυμμένον — "the thing hidden away within." The prefixes press together: ἐν-κεκρυμμένον ("shut in") inside ἔνδον ("within"). Then three identifications in ascending order — DOGMAἐκεῖνο ῥητορεία, ἐκεῖνο ζωή, ἐκεῖνο … ἄνθρωπος — the last one shielded by the proviso εἰ δεῖ εἰπεῖν ("if one must say it"): Marcus himself marks the boldness of the step by which "the man" ceases to be an organism and becomes this interior thing. The same proviso stands at 10.33.
The ban on picturing-along-with. μηδέποτε συμπεριφαντάζου — "never picture it together with and around": a double prefix συμ-περι- on φαντασία. What is forbidden is not thinking about the body but its inclusion in the image of oneself. The body is called τὸ περικείμενον ἀγγειῶδες — "the vessel-like thing lying around," and ὀργάνια περιπεπλασμένα — "little organs moulded around": the whole lexical field is of what has been plastered on from outside.
An axe grown onto the hand. ὅμοια γάρ ἐστι σκεπάρνῳ, μόνον διαφέροντα, καθότι προσφυῆ ἐστιν — "for they are like an adze, differing only in having grown on." The argument is unexpectedly severe: between a hand and a carpenter's axe there is no difference in kind, only in mode of attachment. Cf. 10.8, where the same operation is performed on the body as a whole.
Three artisan pairs. The close enumerates: κερκίς — ὑφάντρια (shuttle — weaver-woman), κάλαμος — γράφων (reed-pen — writer), μαστίγιον — ἡνίοχος (whip — charioteer). The instrument is useless "apart from the cause that moves and checks them" (κινούσης καὶ ἰσχούσης): the cause not only sets in motion but also holds back — the same pair as at 10.12, of moving and checking as reason requires. The governing discipline is assent, the sustaining one desire.
Textual note. ῥητορεία ("the power of speech") is printed here — the vulgate reading, followed by both translations (Rogovin, «дар слова»; Long, "the power of persuasion"). el.wikisource gives ἐνέργεια ("activity") at this point. The variant matters: with ῥητορεία the series runs "speech → life → man" (an ascent from a faculty to an essence); with ἐνέργεια, "activity → life → man."