MED. 12.3Discipline of assent
George Long · 1862EN · Long

EXERCISEThe things are three of which thou art composed, a little body, TERMa little breath (life), TERMintelligence. DOGMAOf these the first two are thine, so far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but DOGMAthe third alone is properly thine. Therefore if thou shalt separate from thyself, that is, from thy understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever thou hast done or said thyself, and whatever future things trouble thee because they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops thee or in the breath (life), which is by nature associated with the body, is TERMattached to thee independent of thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power TERMexempt from the things of fate EXERCISEcan live pure and free by itself, TERMdoing what is just and DOGMAaccepting what happens and saying the truth: if thou wilt separate, I say, from this TERMruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles' sphere,1

MOTIFAll round, and in its joyous rest reposing;

and EXERCISEif thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy life, that is, TERMthe present- then thou wilt be able to pass EXERCISEthat portion of life which remains for thee up to the time of thy death, free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to thy own TERMdaemon (to the god that is within thee).

Original · ancient Greek

Τρία ἐστὶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκας· σωμάτιον, πνευμάτιον, νοῦς. τούτων τἄλλα μέχρι τοῦ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι δεῖν σά ἐστι, τὸ δὲ τρίτον μόνον κυρίως σόν. ὃ ἐὰν χωρίσῃς ἀπὸ σεαυτοῦ, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τῆς σῆς διανοίας, ὅσα ἄλλοι ποιοῦσιν ἢ λέγουσιν ἢ ὅσα αὐτὸς ἐποίησας ἢ εἶπας καὶ ὅσα ὡς μέλλοντα ταράσσει σε καὶ ὅσα τοῦ περικειμένου σοι σωματίου ἢ τοῦ συμφύτου πνευματίου ἀπροαίρετα πρόσεστιν καὶ ὅσα ἡ ἔξωθεν περιρρέουσα δίνη ἑλίσσει, ὥστε τῶν συνειμαρμένων ἐξῃρημένην καὶ καθαρὰν τὴν νοερὰν δύναμιν ἀπόλυτον ἐφ’ ἑαυτῆς ζῆν, ποιοῦσαν τὰ δίκαια καὶ θέλουσαν τὰ συμβαίνοντα καὶ λέγουσαν τἀληθῆ·

ἐὰν χωρίσῃς, φημί, τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τούτου τὰ προσηρτημένα ἐκ προσπαθείας καὶ τοῦ χρόνου τὰ ἐπέκεινα ἢ τὰ παρῳχηκότα, ποιήσῃς τε σεαυτόν, οἷος ὁ Ἐμπεδόκλειος1

σφαῖρος κυκλοτερὴς μονίῃ περιηγέι γαίων,

μόνον τε ζῆν ἐκμελετήσῃς ὃ ζῇς, τουτέστι τὸ παρόν· δυνήσῃ τό γε μέχρι τοῦ ἀποθανεῖν ὑπολειπόμενον ἀταράκτως καὶ εὐμενῶς καὶ ἵλεως τῷ σαυτοῦ δαίμονι διαβιῶναι.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Commentary

Three parts — and a proviso easily missed. σωμάτιον, TERMπνευμάτιον, TERMνοῦς: two belittling diminutives and one full word. The triad is familiar — cf. 2.2 (σαρκία / πνευμάτιον / ἡγεμονικόν) and 6.32. But here the third member is called νοῦς, not ἡγεμονικόν, and the substitution is not idle: ἡγεμονικόν arrives further down, where the work of purification begins. The proviso runs: the first two are yours μέχρι τοῦ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι δεῖν — "so far as they must be cared for." Not "not yours": ownership is measured out by the duty of upkeep, which is more exact than the usual Stoic disdain of the body; cf. 7.16 and 8.56.

A sentence begun twice. The syntax here breaks, and not through a copyist: the period ὃ ἐὰν χωρίσῃς… runs off into a list of six members, loses its government — and Marcus starts again: ἐὰν χωρίσῃς, φημί, "if you separate, I say." This is the trace of live writing: the writer lost his way inside his own list and picked the thread up aloud. Such recoveries are rare in the Meditations, and they are the best proof that what we have is a notebook and not a treatise.

What exactly is separated off. The list is not casual; it covers every entrance for disturbance: what others do and say; one's own past deeds and words; the future, troubling one "as about to be"; the TERMnon-volitional (ἀπροαίρετα) in the body and in the breath grown together with it; and the "external circumfluent vortex" — δίνη, a word of Presocratic cosmology, in the atomists the very whirl out of which worlds are put together. The most unexpected item is the second: one's own past is separated off on the same terms as another's.

Three disciplines in three participles. TERMποιοῦσαν τὰ δίκαια καὶ DOGMAθέλουσαν τὰ συμβαίνοντα καὶ λέγουσαν τἀληθῆ — "doing what is just, willing what happens, speaking what is true." These are the disciplines of action, desire and assent, named in a row and without terminology; cf. 8.7, 9.6 and 11.37, where the same three are set out as school doctrine on Epictetus's authority. It is worth noting that the third member is put in terms of speech: assent is tested by what a man is prepared to say aloud — the very move Marcus unfolds in the next passage, 12.4.

The sphere. The quotation is introduced by οἷος ὁ Ἐμπεδόκλειος — "such as the Empedoclean [sphere]": the source is named while the word "sphere" itself is withheld, arriving only with the verse. In Empedocles the Σφαῖρος is a state of the cosmos; in Marcus it is a state of the mind, and the transfer is made in silence. He copied the same line at 8.41, and at 11.12 developed it without quoting, setting out the spoiling of the sphere as four distinct deformations; the card is MOTIFmind-as-sphere.

The close is not impassivity. The three adverbs of the ending rise in warmth: ἀταράκτως (untroubled), εὐμενῶς (kindly) and ἵλεως — a word of cultic language, "graciously," as one speaks of a god well disposed toward you. And it is referred to one's own TERMdaemon: to live out the remainder "graciously toward one's own genius." The end, then, is not numbness but being on good terms with the divine in oneself; cf. 5.27. The governing discipline is assent (the whole labour of the passage is χωρίζειν, separation), the sustaining one desire.

DisciplineDiscipline of assent
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished
Discipline of assent

George Long · 1862· EN · Long

EXERCISEThe things are three of which thou art composed, a little body, TERMa little breath (life), TERMintelligence. DOGMAOf these the first two are thine, so far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but DOGMAthe third alone is properly thine. Therefore if thou shalt separate from thyself, that is, from thy understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever thou hast done or said thyself, and whatever future things trouble thee because they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops thee or in the breath (life), which is by nature associated with the body, is TERMattached to thee independent of thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power TERMexempt from the things of fate EXERCISEcan live pure and free by itself, TERMdoing what is just and DOGMAaccepting what happens and saying the truth: if thou wilt separate, I say, from this TERMruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles' sphere,1

MOTIFAll round, and in its joyous rest reposing;

and EXERCISEif thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy life, that is, TERMthe present- then thou wilt be able to pass EXERCISEthat portion of life which remains for thee up to the time of thy death, free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to thy own TERMdaemon (to the god that is within thee).

Original · ancient Greek

Τρία ἐστὶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκας· σωμάτιον, πνευμάτιον, νοῦς. τούτων τἄλλα μέχρι τοῦ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι δεῖν σά ἐστι, τὸ δὲ τρίτον μόνον κυρίως σόν. ὃ ἐὰν χωρίσῃς ἀπὸ σεαυτοῦ, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τῆς σῆς διανοίας, ὅσα ἄλλοι ποιοῦσιν ἢ λέγουσιν ἢ ὅσα αὐτὸς ἐποίησας ἢ εἶπας καὶ ὅσα ὡς μέλλοντα ταράσσει σε καὶ ὅσα τοῦ περικειμένου σοι σωματίου ἢ τοῦ συμφύτου πνευματίου ἀπροαίρετα πρόσεστιν καὶ ὅσα ἡ ἔξωθεν περιρρέουσα δίνη ἑλίσσει, ὥστε τῶν συνειμαρμένων ἐξῃρημένην καὶ καθαρὰν τὴν νοερὰν δύναμιν ἀπόλυτον ἐφ’ ἑαυτῆς ζῆν, ποιοῦσαν τὰ δίκαια καὶ θέλουσαν τὰ συμβαίνοντα καὶ λέγουσαν τἀληθῆ·

ἐὰν χωρίσῃς, φημί, τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τούτου τὰ προσηρτημένα ἐκ προσπαθείας καὶ τοῦ χρόνου τὰ ἐπέκεινα ἢ τὰ παρῳχηκότα, ποιήσῃς τε σεαυτόν, οἷος ὁ Ἐμπεδόκλειος1

σφαῖρος κυκλοτερὴς μονίῃ περιηγέι γαίων,

μόνον τε ζῆν ἐκμελετήσῃς ὃ ζῇς, τουτέστι τὸ παρόν· δυνήσῃ τό γε μέχρι τοῦ ἀποθανεῖν ὑπολειπόμενον ἀταράκτως καὶ εὐμενῶς καὶ ἵλεως τῷ σαυτοῦ δαίμονι διαβιῶναι.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Marginalia1
Related16
Commentary

Three parts — and a proviso easily missed. σωμάτιον, TERMπνευμάτιον, TERMνοῦς: two belittling diminutives and one full word. The triad is familiar — cf. 2.2 (σαρκία / πνευμάτιον / ἡγεμονικόν) and 6.32. But here the third member is called νοῦς, not ἡγεμονικόν, and the substitution is not idle: ἡγεμονικόν arrives further down, where the work of purification begins. The proviso runs: the first two are yours μέχρι τοῦ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι δεῖν — "so far as they must be cared for." Not "not yours": ownership is measured out by the duty of upkeep, which is more exact than the usual Stoic disdain of the body; cf. 7.16 and 8.56.

A sentence begun twice. The syntax here breaks, and not through a copyist: the period ὃ ἐὰν χωρίσῃς… runs off into a list of six members, loses its government — and Marcus starts again: ἐὰν χωρίσῃς, φημί, "if you separate, I say." This is the trace of live writing: the writer lost his way inside his own list and picked the thread up aloud. Such recoveries are rare in the Meditations, and they are the best proof that what we have is a notebook and not a treatise.

What exactly is separated off. The list is not casual; it covers every entrance for disturbance: what others do and say; one's own past deeds and words; the future, troubling one "as about to be"; the TERMnon-volitional (ἀπροαίρετα) in the body and in the breath grown together with it; and the "external circumfluent vortex" — δίνη, a word of Presocratic cosmology, in the atomists the very whirl out of which worlds are put together. The most unexpected item is the second: one's own past is separated off on the same terms as another's.

Three disciplines in three participles. TERMποιοῦσαν τὰ δίκαια καὶ DOGMAθέλουσαν τὰ συμβαίνοντα καὶ λέγουσαν τἀληθῆ — "doing what is just, willing what happens, speaking what is true." These are the disciplines of action, desire and assent, named in a row and without terminology; cf. 8.7, 9.6 and 11.37, where the same three are set out as school doctrine on Epictetus's authority. It is worth noting that the third member is put in terms of speech: assent is tested by what a man is prepared to say aloud — the very move Marcus unfolds in the next passage, 12.4.

The sphere. The quotation is introduced by οἷος ὁ Ἐμπεδόκλειος — "such as the Empedoclean [sphere]": the source is named while the word "sphere" itself is withheld, arriving only with the verse. In Empedocles the Σφαῖρος is a state of the cosmos; in Marcus it is a state of the mind, and the transfer is made in silence. He copied the same line at 8.41, and at 11.12 developed it without quoting, setting out the spoiling of the sphere as four distinct deformations; the card is MOTIFmind-as-sphere.

The close is not impassivity. The three adverbs of the ending rise in warmth: ἀταράκτως (untroubled), εὐμενῶς (kindly) and ἵλεως — a word of cultic language, "graciously," as one speaks of a god well disposed toward you. And it is referred to one's own TERMdaemon: to live out the remainder "graciously toward one's own genius." The end, then, is not numbness but being on good terms with the divine in oneself; cf. 5.27. The governing discipline is assent (the whole labour of the passage is χωρίζειν, separation), the sustaining one desire.

DisciplineDiscipline of assent
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished