{"id": "card_n_c4edd5c2c00e", "kind": "note", "title": "Aurelius, Meditations 11.30: 'As often as a father kisseth his child, he should say secretly with himself'...", "body": "'As often as a father kisseth his child, he should say secretly with himself' (said Epictetus,) 'tomorrow perchance shall he die.' But these words be ominous. No words ominous (said he) that signify anything that is natural: in very truth and deed not more ominous than this, 'to cut down grapes when they are ripe.' Green grapes, ripe grapes, dried grapes, or raisins: so many changes and mutations of one thing, not into that which was not absolutely, but rather so many several changes and mutations, not into that which hath no being at all, but into that which is not yet in being.", "source": {"label": "Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. AD 170)", "url": "", "ref": "aur_11_xxx", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "classics", "box": "aurelius_meditations", "bands": ["aurelius", "meditations", "stoic", "pre_christian"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_c534c2f37a9a", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_c4a699d0dc23", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_spine_classics", "relationship": "member_of", "evidence": "a member of the classics shelf in the keeping"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.532995+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T19:57:55.816726+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 4, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "1a37e1759bd92621a89b40d36dcd300e817a2579f1a6939562957ade0f1e6e9a", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "Vaticanus Graecus 1950 — earliest complete Greek MS", "ref": "Vat-Gr-1950"}, {"class": "critical_edition", "label": "Dalfen, Marci Aurelii Antonini Ad Se Ipsum Libri XII (Teubner 1987)", "ref": "Dalfen-Teubner"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "George Long translation (1862) — public domain English", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2680", "ref": "Long-1862"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "Hays translation (Modern Library, 2002)", "ref": "Hays-2002"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — Meditations Long translation", "url": "https://archive.org/details/meditations00auregoog", "ref": "IA-Meditations"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "5 witnesses across 4 independence classes: ['critical_edition', 'manuscript_tradition', 'republication', 'translation']", "surface": "secular", "call": "classics.aurelius.meditations", "facets": {"concept": ["pre_christian"]}, "presentation": {"glyph": "•", "kind_label": "aurelius meditations", "by": "Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. AD 170)", "authority": "external_aligned", "posted": "", "standing": ""}, "neighbors": [{"id": "card_n_c534c2f37a9a", "title": "Aurelius, Meditations 12.5: Use thyself even unto those things that thou doest at first despair of.", "relationship": "same section", "why": "", "href": "/card/card_n_c534c2f37a9a", "resolved": true}, {"id": "card_n_c4a699d0dc23", "title": "Aurelius, Meditations 4.22: Either this world is a κόσμος or comely piece, because all disposed and gover...", "relationship": "same section", "why": "", "href": "/card/card_n_c4a699d0dc23", "resolved": true}, {"id": "card_spine_classics", "title": "The classics — the great books, kept whole", "relationship": "on the shelf of", "why": "a member of the classics shelf in the keeping", "href": "/card/card_spine_classics", "resolved": true}]}