Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And canst thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? And canst thou be nourished, unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou not see then that for thyself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature? Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. Book 7.
Image: Sarcophagus of M. Cornelius Statius, Hadrianic Period, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Dating from the first half of the 2nd century, CE, this Roman marble sarcophagus was an expensive funerary item created to commemorate the death of a young boy. The sarcophagus depicts a series of points in the life cycle of a child, from a newborn infant to a young child at play to an older child engaged in studies. The epitaph was dedicated by the boy's parents and the boy's name indicates that he was a freeborn Roman citizen.
"M. Cornelius Statius [Sarcophagus]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #50, https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/items/show/50 (accessed October 18, 2020). Annotated by Beryl Rawson.
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