Place in the book. Two moves in one passage: the famous image of "the soul dyed by its thoughts" (the discipline of assent) and the teleological conclusion that the good of the rational being is fellowship (κοινωνία). The discipline of assent with a layer of action.

The soul dyed by impressions. "Such as your TERMimpressions, such will your mind (διάνοια) be; for TERMthe soul is dyed (βάπτεται) by its impressions." The famous MOTIFdyeing image: the soul takes the colour of what it habitually imagines. Hence the practical corollary — "dye it" (βάπτε) deliberately, with a continuous series (συνέχεια) of right impressions. This is the discipline of assent in its habitual dimension: the character of the mind is shaped by repetition.

What to dye it with. Marcus supplies two "ready" theses. (1) "Where one can live, one can also live well; and one can live at a court (ἐν αὐλῇ) — therefore one can live well at a court." Indifference to circumstance — and autobiographical: Marcus writes this as an emperor living precisely "at court." (2) the teleological argument about the good.

The good lies in the end. Each thing is borne toward that for which it was made; in that lies its TERMend (τέλος); and where the end is, there is the benefit and TERMgood (ἀγαθόν) of each. The upshot: the good of the rational being is TERMfellowship (κοινωνία). The proof — DOGMAwe are made for fellowship: the lower for the sake of the higher, and the higher (the rational) for one another. So ethics (the good = community) is derived from the teleology of nature.

Discipline and parallels. The principal discipline is assent (the forming of the mind through impressions); the secondary is action (the common good, κοινωνία). Parallel: "made for cooperation" — Med. 2.1 (02-01).