Fire and Breath

Derren Brown opens Book Four of the Meditations on the word logos, and argues it has nothing to do with the Christian idea most listeners inherited. He traces it from Genesis through Schopenhauer's will to the Stoics' own fiery, rational force, then turns to what happens when a culture loses the felt sense of being part of nature rather than standing over it. Along the way he tells a story about an offering left out each morning that turns out not to be for the gods it looks like. He ends on the shortest piece of advice in the whole book, and on why Marcus never quite explains it.