Mortal man, you have lived as a citizen in this great city. What matter if that life is five or fifty ears? The laws of the city apply equally to all. So what is there to fear in your dismissal from the city? This is no tyrant or corrupt judge who dismisses you, but the very same nature that brought you in. It is like the officer who engaged a comic actor dismissing him from the stage. 'But I have not played my five acts, only three.' 'True, but in life three acts can be the whole play.' Completion is determined by that being who caused first your composition and now your dissolution. You have no part in either causation. Go then in peace: the god who lets you go is at peace with you.
This is my final entry on my commentary on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It took me just under one full year to complete this small project (the first entry was Book 1 Chapters 1-4). His ending chapter does not disappoint and is quite an appropriate topic on which to end: birth and death.
We had no control over our birth; and we will equally have no control over our death.
Therefore, have no worries over death. Go about life, living in peace, content with your lot in life and focused on living a life according to Nature and virtue (temperance, courage, justice and wisdom).
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