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Read/Book IX/9.10
MED. 9.10Discipline of action
George Long · 1862EN · Long

Both man and God and the universe produce fruit; at the proper seasons each produces it. But if usage has especially fixed these terms to the vine and like things, this is nothing. TERMReason produces fruit both DOGMAfor all and for itself, and there are produced from it other things of the same kind as TERMreason itself.

Original · ancient Greek

Φέρει καρπὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπος καὶ θεὸς καὶ ὁ κόσμος· ἐν ταῖς οἰκείαις ὥραις ἕκαστα φέρει. εἰ δὲ ἡ συνήθεια κυρίως τέτριφεν ἐπὶ ἀμπέλου καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων, οὐδὲν τοῦτο. ὁ λόγος δὲ καὶ κοινὸν καὶ ἴδιον καρπὸν ἔχει καὶ γίνεται ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα, ὁποῖόν τι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Commentary

Fruit-bearing as a universal law. Marcus widens the ordinary "to bear fruit" (φέρειν καρπόν) far beyond the vine: fruit is borne by man, by god, and by the whole TERMcosmos — each "in its own season" (ἐν ταῖς οἰκείαις ὥραις). That habit (συνήθεια) has fixed the word to the grape is mere narrowness of usage, "nothing to the point" (οὐδὲν τοῦτο). The move is the same as in the image MOTIF"everything that exists is a seed" (4.36): to count only the literal as fruit is "very vulgar"; in truth every nature is productive.

The fruit of reason is the rational. The climax: TERMλόγος has a "twofold" fruit — DOGMAcommon (κοινόν) and its own (ἴδιον) — and from it are produced "other things of the same kind as it is itself" (τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα, ὁποῖον αὐτός). Reason reproduces the rational: right judgements, right acts, the very cast of a rational soul. Hence the double reference — to DOGMAsociability (the fruit of reason is not only "mine" but for all) and to the productivity of nature. The governing discipline is action (the fruit of reason is a deed), the sustaining one desire (to accept one's "own season" as the vine does).

DisciplineDiscipline of action
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished
Read·Book IX
Discipline of action

George Long · 1862· EN · Long

Both man and God and the universe produce fruit; at the proper seasons each produces it. But if usage has especially fixed these terms to the vine and like things, this is nothing. TERMReason produces fruit both DOGMAfor all and for itself, and there are produced from it other things of the same kind as TERMreason itself.

Original · ancient Greek

Φέρει καρπὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπος καὶ θεὸς καὶ ὁ κόσμος· ἐν ταῖς οἰκείαις ὥραις ἕκαστα φέρει. εἰ δὲ ἡ συνήθεια κυρίως τέτριφεν ἐπὶ ἀμπέλου καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων, οὐδὲν τοῦτο. ὁ λόγος δὲ καὶ κοινὸν καὶ ἴδιον καρπὸν ἔχει καὶ γίνεται ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα, ὁποῖόν τι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Related3
TERMλόγοςreason, word, the cosmic LogosDOGMAOikeiōsis — appropriation expanding from the self to the rational communityMOTIFEverything that exists is the seed of what will come from it
Commentary

Fruit-bearing as a universal law. Marcus widens the ordinary "to bear fruit" (φέρειν καρπόν) far beyond the vine: fruit is borne by man, by god, and by the whole TERMcosmos — each "in its own season" (ἐν ταῖς οἰκείαις ὥραις). That habit (συνήθεια) has fixed the word to the grape is mere narrowness of usage, "nothing to the point" (οὐδὲν τοῦτο). The move is the same as in the image MOTIF"everything that exists is a seed" (4.36): to count only the literal as fruit is "very vulgar"; in truth every nature is productive.

The fruit of reason is the rational. The climax: TERMλόγος has a "twofold" fruit — DOGMAcommon (κοινόν) and its own (ἴδιον) — and from it are produced "other things of the same kind as it is itself" (τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα, ὁποῖον αὐτός). Reason reproduces the rational: right judgements, right acts, the very cast of a rational soul. Hence the double reference — to DOGMAsociability (the fruit of reason is not only "mine" but for all) and to the productivity of nature. The governing discipline is action (the fruit of reason is a deed), the sustaining one desire (to accept one's "own season" as the vine does).

DisciplineDiscipline of action
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished