may assign to him.

7. The parts of the whole, everything, I mean, which is naturally
comprehended in the universe, must of necessity perish; but let this be
understood in this sense, that they must undergo change. But if this is
naturally both an evil and a necessity for the parts, the whole would
not continue to exist in a good condition, the parts being subject to
change and constituted so as to perish in various ways. For whether did
Nature herself design to do evil to the things which are parts of
herself, and to make them subject to evil and of necessity fall into
evil, or have such results happened without her knowing it? Both these
suppositions, indeed, are incredible. But if a man should even drop the
term Nature [as an efficient power], and should speak of these things as
natural, even then it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time
that the parts of the whole are in their nature subject to change, and
at the same time to be surprised or vexed as if something were happening
contrary to nature, particularly as the dissolution of things is into
those things of which each thing is composed. For there is either a
dispersion of the elements out of which everything has been compounded,
or a change from the solid to the earthy and from the airy to the
aerial, so that these parts are taken back into the universal reason,
whether this at certain periods is consumed by fire or renewed by
eternal changes. And do not imagine that the solid and the airy part
belong to thee from the time of generation. For all this received its
accretion only yesterday and the day before, as one may say, from the
food and the air which is inspired. This, then, which has received [the
accretion], changes, not that which thy mother brought forth. But
suppose that this [which thy mother brought forth] implicates thee very
much with that other part, which has the peculiar quality [of change],
this is nothing in fact in the way of objection to what is said.[A]

[A] The end of this section is perhaps corrupt. The meaning is
very obscure. I have given that meaning which appears to be
consistent with the whole argument. The emperor here maintains
that the essential part of man is unchangeable, and that the
other parts, if they change or perish, do not affect that which
really constitutes the man. See the Philosophy of Antoninus, p.
56, note 2. Schultz supposed "thy mother" to mean nature,
[Greek: he physis].