On the Elegance of Reason
Reason > Ignorance
The Logos acts not only in the stars and the winds, but also in our judgments. — Epictetus, Discourses 1.14
When a man comes to understand that the world is governed by Reason, he ceases to be a slave to fortune. He sees that what appears to be chance is not chance at all, but the unfolding of a design far wiser than his own.
The ignorant man, seeing only the surface of things, imagines disorder, and is frightened. He laments that life is unfair, that events befall him without meaning. But the student of philosophy knows otherwise: that all things proceed according to the nature of the Whole, and that the Whole is Reason itself.
Consider the tree that grows without tutor, the river that finds its course, the stars that maintain their silent dance across millennia. Who has taught them? What governor do they obey? It is not by whim, but by law; not by force, but by nature. The same Reason that orders them orders us.
Therefore, let no man accuse the world of injustice. The world has no malice; it acts by necessity and design. If it rains upon the just and the unjust alike, it is because rain falls according to causes reaching far beyond any man’s merits. Would you rebuke the sun for shining on rogues? Would you denounce the ocean for raising waves upon the wicked as well as the good? Nature obeys higher ordinances than human judgment.
Let us then endure and welcome whatever happens, for we are woven into the pattern of the Whole. — Seneca, Letter 107
Thus we ought to live: not petitioning the gods to alter the course of events for our sake, but petitioning ourselves to conform our minds to the course of events. The wise man wills what the Logos wills. He says to himself: “This is not happening to me, but for me—for my understanding, for my exercise, for my strength.”
Some may ask: “But what guides this Reason? Who commands it?” Foolish question. Nothing commands the Commander. The Reason which governs all things is itself the first principle, needing no guide beyond itself. Would you demand a lantern for the sun, or a chain to bind the unshakable? The Logos is self-ruled, self-directed, self-sufficient. It needs no justification from us, nor does it waver to please our wishes.
Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling. — Cleanthes (quoted by Seneca)
And here is the source of great peace: when a man accepts that the order of things is good—not by our petty standards of comfort, but by the deeper standard of wisdom—he finds himself no longer at war with the world, but reconciled to it. He becomes a citizen of the cosmos.
Therefore, study the order of nature. See that it is not chaos but chorus; not madness but music. Strengthen yourself to walk in step with it, as a disciplined soldier marches with the army’s advance. Do not stumble over what you cannot move; do not curse what you cannot control. Rather, shape your soul to the pattern of Reason, as a craftsman shapes iron to a mold.
Thus you will be free—not by mastering the world, but by mastering yourself in it.