Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
All things that share in something common press toward what is akin to them in kind. Everything earthy inclines toward earth; everything liquid flows together; everything airy does likewise, so much so that barriers and force are needed to keep them apart. Fire tends upward because of the elemental fire above, and every fire here below is so ready to kindle together with fire that any material a little drier than usual catches easily, because it has less in it to resist ignition. So too, everything that shares in the common intelligent nature presses toward its kin just as much, or even more; for the more superior a thing is compared to the rest, the readier it is to blend and merge with what is its own. So, right away, among irrational creatures we find swarms, herds, the rearing of young, and something like love; for souls were already present there, and the drawing-together force was found intensified in the superior kind, in a way that did not exist among plants or stones or wood. Among rational beings there are states, friendships, households, assemblies, and, even in wars, treaties and truces. And among beings still higher, a kind of unity arose even among things set apart from one another, as with the stars: so the ascent to a higher order was able to produce sympathy even among things standing apart. See, then, what happens now: only rational beings have now forgotten their eagerness for one another and their leaning together, and here alone the flowing-together is nowhere to be seen. And yet, even fleeing, they are overtaken all the same, for nature prevails. Watch closely and you will see what I mean: one could sooner find some earthy thing touching nothing earthy than find a man cut off from man.