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21“The earth loves the shower;” and “the solemn aether loves:” and the universe loves to make whatever is about to be. I say then to the universe, that I love as thou lovest. And is not this too said, that “this or that loves [is wont] to be produced”?[59]
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Notes
[59] These words are from Euripides. They are cited by Aristotle, Ethic. Nicom. viii. 1. Athenaeus (xiii. 296.) and Stobaeus quote seven complete lines beginning ἐρά μὲν ὄμβρου γαῖα. There is a similar fragment of Aeschylus.
It was the fashion of the Stoics to work on the meanings of words. So Antoninus here takes the verb φιλεῖ, "loves," which has also the sense of "is wont," "uses," and the like. He finds in the common language of mankind a philosophical truth, and most great truths are expressed in the common language of life; some understand them, but most people express them without knowing how much they mean.