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Meditation (n.) means ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠keeping your thoughts at hand day and night, so that when misfortune comes the first relief is that it was not unexpected.

Meditation (n.) was, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for the Greeks, not thought idly playing on itself but real labour — like the orator's drill that readies him to improvise.

Meditation (n.) meant, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠in the ancient sense, rehearsing in thought — "suppose this happens; how would I react?" — to test oneself against imagined events.

Meditation (n.) as ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the Stoics practised it tests what you think and tests you as the one who really thinks it, so as to make you an ethical subject of the truth.

Meditation (n.) was, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for the Greeks and Romans, not thinking hard about something but exercise: taking a truth in so thoroughly that it is ready to hand and turns into a principle of action.

Meditation (n.) on ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠death is not thinking that you will die, but placing yourself, in thought, in the situation of someone dying — a game thought plays on the subject, not one the subject plays with his thoughts.