DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Gilbert T. Rowe Collection 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS' ANTONINUS 
 
THE MEDITATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS 
 ANTONINUS. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY GEORGE LONG, M.A. 
 
 WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AND A VIEW OF THE 
 PHILOSOPHY OF ANTONINUS BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 NEW YORK; 
 
 A. L. BUKT, PUBLISHER. 
 
■? 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 ?V\'. •' 
 
 https://archive.org/details/meditationsofemp01marc 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page. 
 
 Biographical Sketch of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus 1 
 
 The Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus 31 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, from “Seekers After God.” ... 7B 
 
 The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus 131 
 
 Index 299 
 
I 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE TEANSLATOK. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 
 
 Marcus Antoninus was born at Eome a. d. 121, on 
 the 26th of April. His father, Annins Yerus, died 
 while he was prsetor. His mother was Domitia Cal- 
 villa, also named Liicilla. The Emperor Titus Antoninus 
 Pius married Annia Galeria Faustina, the sister of 
 Annius Yerus, and was consequently the uncle of Marcus 
 Antoninus. When Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius 
 and declared him his successor in the empire, Antoninus 
 Pius adopted both Lucius Ceionius Commodus, the son 
 of Aelius Cffisar, and Marcus Antoninus, whose original 
 name was Marcus Annius Yerus. Antoninus then took 
 the name of Marcus Aelius Aurelias Yerus, to which 
 was added the title of Caesar in a. d. 139 ; the name 
 Aelius belonged to Hadrian’s family, and Aurelius 
 was the name of Antoninus Pius. When Marcus An- 
 toninus became Augustus, he dropped the name of 
 Yerus and took the name of Antoninus. Accordingly 
 he is generally named Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, or 
 simply Marcus Antoninus. 
 
 The youth was most carefully brought up. He thanks 
 the gods (i. 17) that he had good grandfathers, good 
 parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, 
 good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good. 
 
2 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL 8HETCH OF 
 
 He had the happy fortune to witness the example of 
 his uncle and adoptive father Antoninus Pius, and he 
 has recorded in his work (i. 16; vi. 30) the virtues of 
 this excellent man and prudent ruler. Like many 
 young Romans he tried his hand at poetry and studied 
 rhetoric. Ilerodes Atticus and M. Cornelius Pronto 
 were his teachers in eloquence. There are extant let- 
 ters between Pronto and Marcus,* which show the 
 great affection of the pupil for the master, and the 
 master’s great hopes of his industrious pupil. Marcus 
 Antoninus mentions Pronto (i. 11) among those to 
 whom he was indebted for his education. 
 
 When he was eleven years old, he assumed the dress 
 of philosophers, something plain and coarse, became a 
 hard student, and lived a most laborious, abstemious 
 life, even so far as to injure his health. Pinally he 
 abandoned poetry and rhetoric for philosophy, and he 
 attached himself to the sect of the Stoics. But he did 
 not neglect the study of law, which was a useful prep- 
 aration for the high place which he was designed to 
 fill. His teacher was L. Volusianus Mmcianus, a dis- 
 tinguished jurist. We must suppose that he learned 
 the Roman discipline of arms, which was a necessary 
 part of the education of a man who afterward led his 
 troops to battle against a warlike race. 
 
 Antoninus has recorded in his first book the names 
 of his teachers and the obligations which he owed to 
 each of them. The way in which he speaks of what 
 he learned from them might seem to savor of vanity 
 or self-praise, if we look carelessly at the way in which 
 he has expressed himself; but if anyone draws this 
 
 * M. Cornelii Fronionis Reliqiiise, Berlin, 1816. Tliere are a few 
 letters between Fronto and Antoninus Pius. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 3 
 
 conclusion, he will be mistaken. Antoninus means to 
 commemorate the merits of his several teachers, what 
 they taught and what a pupil might learn from them. 
 Besides, this book like the eleven other books was for 
 his own use, and if we may trust the note at the end 
 of the first book, it was written during one of Marcus 
 Antoninus’ campaigns against the Quadi, at a time 
 when the commemoration of the virtues of his illustri- 
 ous teachers might remind him of their lessons and the 
 practical uses which he might derive from them. 
 
 Among his teachers of philosophy was Sextus of 
 CliEeroneia, a grandson of Plutarch. "What he learned 
 from this excellent man is told by himself (i. 9). His 
 favorite teacher was Q. Junius Rusticus (i. 7), a philos- 
 opher, and also a man of practical good sense in public 
 affairs. Rusticus was the adviser of Antoninus after 
 he became emperor. Young men who are destined 
 for high places are not often fortunate in those who 
 are about them, their companions and teachers ; and I 
 do not know any example of a young prince having 
 had an education which can be compared with that of 
 Marcus Antoninus. Such a body of teachers distin- 
 guished by their acquirements and their character will 
 hardly be collected again ; and as to the pupil, we have 
 not had one like him since. 
 
 Hadrian died in July a. d. 138, and was succeeded 
 by Antoninus Pius. Marcus Antoninus married 
 Faustina, his cousin, the daughter of Pius, probably 
 about A. D. 146, for he had a daughter born in 147. 
 He received from his adoptive father the title of Cmsar 
 and was associated with him in the administration of 
 the state. The father and the adopted son lived 
 together in perfect friendship and confidence. Anto- 
 
i 
 
 BIOGBAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ninus was a dutiful son, and the emperor Pius loved 
 and esteemed him, 
 
 Antoninus Pius died in March a. d. 161. The Senate, 
 it is said, urged Marcus Antoninus to take the sole 
 administration of the empire, but he associated with 
 himself the other adopted son of Pius, L. Ceionius 
 Commodus, who is generally called L. Yerus. Thus 
 Pome for the first time had two emperors. Yerus was 
 an indolent man of pleasure and unworthy of his 
 station. Antoninus, however, bore with him, and it is 
 said that Yerus had sense enough to pay to his col- 
 league the respect due to his character. A virtuous 
 emperor and a loose partner lived together in peace, 
 and their alliance was strengthened by Antoninus 
 giving to Yerus for wife his daughter Lucilla. 
 
 The reign of Antoninus was first troubled by a 
 Parthian war, in which Yerus was sent to command, 
 but he did nothing, and the success that was obtained 
 by the Romans in Armenia and on the Euphrates and 
 Tigris was due to his generals. This Parthian war 
 ended in a. d. 165. Aurelius and Yerus had a triumph 
 (a. d. 166) for the victories in the east. A pestilence 
 followed which carried off great numbers in Rome and 
 Italy, and spread to the west of Europe. 
 
 The north of Italy was also threatened by the rude 
 people beyond the Alps from the borders of Gallia to 
 the eastern side of the Hadriatic, These barbarians 
 attempted to break into Italy, as the Germanic nations 
 had attempted near three hundred years before ; and 
 the rest of the life of Antoninus, with some intervals, 
 Avas employed in driving back the invaders. In 169 
 Yerus suddenly died, and Antoninus administered the 
 state alone, 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 5 
 
 During the German wars Antoninus resided for three 
 years on the Danube at Carnuntum. The Marcomanni 
 were driven out of Pannonia and almost destroyed in 
 their retreat across the Danube; and in a. d. 17d the 
 emperor gained a great victory over the Quadi. 
 
 In A. D. 175 Avidius Cassius, a brave and skillful 
 Eoman commander who was at the head of the troops 
 in Asia, revolted and declared himself Augustus. But 
 Cassius was assassinated by some of his officers, and so 
 the rebellion came to an end. Antoninus showed his 
 humanity by his treatment of the family and the par- 
 tisans of Cassius, and his letter to the Senate in which 
 he recommends mercy is extant. (Yulcatius, Avidius 
 Cassius, c. 12.) 
 
 Antoninus set out for the east on hearing of Cassius’ 
 revolt. Though he appears to have returned to Rome 
 in A. D. 171, he went back to prosecute the war against 
 the Germans, and it is probable that he marched 
 direct to the east from the German war. His wife 
 Faustina, who accompanied him into Asia, died sud- 
 denly at the foot of the Taurus, to the^ great grief of 
 her husband. Capitolinus, who has written the life of 
 Antoninus, and also Dion Cassius accuse the empress 
 of scandalous infidelity to her husband and of abom- 
 inable lewdness. But Capitolinus says that Antoninus 
 either knew it not or pretended not to know it. Noth- 
 ing is so common as such malicious reports in all ages, 
 and the history of imperial Rome is full of them. 
 Antoninus loved his wife, and he says that she was 
 “ obedient, affectionate and simple.” The same scan- 
 dal had been spread about Faustina’s mother, the wife 
 of Antoninus Pius, and yet he too was perfectly satis- 
 fied with his wife. Antoninus Pius says, after her 
 
c 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 death, in a letter to Fronto, that he would rather have 
 lived in exile with his wife than in his palace at Rome 
 Avithout her. There are not many men who would 
 give their wives a better character than these two 
 emperors. Capitolinus wrote in the time of Diocletian. 
 He may have intended to tell the truth, but he is a 
 jioor, feeble biographer. Don Cassius, the most malig- 
 nant of historians, always reports, and perhaps he 
 believed, any scandal against anybody. 
 
 Antoninus continued his journey to Syria and Egypt, 
 and on his return to Italy through Athens he Avas 
 initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. It was the 
 practice of the emperor to conform to the established 
 rites of the age and to perform religious ceremonies 
 AAdth due solemnity. We cannot conclude from this 
 that he Avas a superstitious man, though Ave might per- 
 haps do so, if his book did not shoAV that he Avas not. 
 But this is only one among many instances that a 
 ruler’s public acts do not always prove his real 
 opinions. A prudent governor Avill not roughly oppose 
 even the superstitions of his people, and though he may 
 Avish that they were Aviser, he Avill knoAV that he can- 
 not make them so by offending their prejudices. 
 
 Antoninus and his son Commodus entered Rome in 
 triumph, perhaps for some German victories, on the 
 23d of December, a. d. 176. In the folloAving year 
 Commodus Avas associated Avith his father in the 
 empire and took the name of Augustus. This year 
 A. D. 177 is memorable in ecclesiastical history. Attains 
 and others Avere put to death at Lyon for their adher- 
 ence to the Christian religion. The evidence of this 
 persecution is a letter preserved by Eusebius (E. H. v. 1; 
 printed in Routh’s Rehquiae Sacrse, vol. i. Avith notes.) 
 
MARCUS A URBLIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 1 
 
 The letter is from the Christians of Vienna and 
 Lugdunum in Gallia (Vienne and Lyon) to their Chris- 
 tian brethren in Asia and Phrygia ; and it is preserved 
 perhaps nearly entire. It contains a Very particular 
 description of the tortures inflicted on the Christians 
 in Gallia, and it states that while the persecution was 
 going on, Attains a Christian and a Poinan citizen 
 was loudly demanded by the populace and brought 
 into the amjDhitheater, but the governor ordered him 
 to be reserved with the rest who were in prison, until 
 he had received instructions from the emperor. Many 
 had been tortured before the governor thought of 
 applying to Antoninus. The imperial rescript, says 
 the letter, was that the Christians should be punished, 
 but if they would deny their faith, they must be re- 
 leased. On this the work began again. The Christians 
 who were Roman citizens were beheaded : the rest 
 were exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheater. 
 Some modern writers on ecclesiastical history, when 
 they use this letter, say nothing of the wonderful 
 stories of the martyrs’ sufferings. Sanctus, as the 
 letter says, was burned with plates of hot iron till his 
 body was one sore and had lost all human form, but 
 on being put to the rack he recovered his former 
 appearance under the torture, which was thus a cure 
 instead of a punishment. He 'was afterward torn by 
 beasts, and placed on an iron chair and roasted. He 
 died at last. 
 
 The letter is one piece of evidence. The writer, who- 
 ever he was that wrote in the name of the Gallic 
 Christians, is our evidence both for the ordinary and 
 the extraordinary circumstances of the story, and we 
 cannot accept his evidence for one part and reject the 
 
8 
 
 biographical sketch ok 
 
 other. We often receive small evidence as a proof of 
 a thing which we believe to be within the limits of 
 probability or possibility, and we reject exactly the 
 same evidence, when the thing to which it refers, 
 appears very improbable or impossible. But this is a 
 false method of inquiry, though it is followed by some 
 modern writers, who select what they like from a 
 story and reject the rest of the evidence ; or if they do 
 not reject it, they dishonestly suppress it. A man can 
 only act consistently by accepting all this letter or re- 
 jecting it all, and we cannot blame him for either. 
 But he who rejects it may still admit that such a letter 
 may be founded on real facts ; and he would make this 
 admission as the most probable way of accounting for 
 the existence of the letter : but if, as he would sup- 
 pose, the writer has stated some things falsely, he can- 
 not tell what part of his story is worthy of credit. 
 
 The war on the northern frontier appears to have 
 been uninterrupted during the visit of Antoninus to 
 the East, and on his return the emperor again left 
 Rome to oppose the barbarians. The Germanic people 
 were defeated in a great battle a. d. 179. During this 
 ca mpaign the emperor was seized with some contagious 
 malady, of which he died in the camp at Sirmium 
 (Mitrovitz) on the Save in Lower Pannonia, but at 
 Vindebona (Vienna) according to other authorities, on 
 the 17th of March a. d. 180, in the fifty -ninth year of 
 his age. His son Commodus was with him. The body 
 or the ashes probably of the emperor were carried to 
 Rome, and 'the received the honor of deification. 
 Those who c pld afford it had his statue or bust, and 
 when Capitc/inus wrote, many people still had statues 
 of Antoninus among the Dei Penates or household 
 
MARGTTS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 9 
 
 deities. He was in a manner made a saint. Com' 
 modus erected to the memory of his father the An- 
 tonine column which is now in the Piazza Colonna at 
 Home. The bassi rilievi which are placed in a spiral 
 line round the shaft commemorate the victories of 
 Antoninus over the IVIarcomanni and the Quadi, and 
 the miraculous shower of rain which refreshed the 
 Eoman soldiers and discomfited their enemies. The 
 statue of Antoninus was placed on the capital of the 
 column, but it was removed at some time unknown, 
 and a bronze statue of St. Paul was put in the place by 
 Pope Sixtus the fifth. 
 
 The historical evidence for the times of Antoninus 
 is very defective, and some of that which remains is 
 not credible. The most curious is the story about the 
 miracle which happened in a. d. 174 during the war 
 with the Quadi. The Roman army was in danger of 
 perishing by thirst, but a sudden storm drenched them 
 with rain, while it discharged fire and hail on their 
 enemies, and the Romans gained a great victory. All 
 the authorities which speak of the battle speak also of 
 the miracle. The Gentile writers assign it to their 
 gods, and the Christians to the intercession of the 
 Christian legion in the emperor’s army. To confirm 
 the Christian statement it is added that the emperor 
 gave the title of Thundering to this legion ; but Dacier 
 and others, who maintain the Christian report of the 
 miracle, admit that this title of Thundering or Light- 
 ning was not given to this legion because the Quadi 
 were struck with lightning, but because there was a 
 figure of lightning on their shields, and that this title of 
 the legion existed in the time of Augustus. 
 
 Scaliger also had observed that the legion was called 
 
10 
 
 BIOORAPBIGAL SKETCH OP 
 
 Thundering before the reign of Antoninus. We learn 
 this from Dion Cassius (Lib. 55, c. 23, and the note of 
 Reimarus) who enumerates all the legions of Augustus’ 
 time. The name Thundering or Lightning also occurs 
 on an inscription of the reign of Trajan, which was 
 found at Trieste. Eusebius (v. 5) when he relates the 
 miracle, quotes Apolinarius, bishop of ILierapolis, as 
 authority for this name being given to the legion Meli- 
 tene by the emperor in consequence of the success 
 which he obtained through their prayers ; from which 
 we may estimate the value of Apolinarius’ testimony. 
 Eusebius does not say in what book of Apolinarius the 
 statement occurs. Dion says that the Thundeiing 
 legion was stationed in Cappadocia in the time of 
 Augustus. Yalesius also observes that in the Notitia 
 of the Imperium Romanum there is mentioned under 
 the commander of Armenia the Praefectura of the 
 twelfth legion named “Thundering Melitene;” and this 
 position in Armenia will agree with what Dion says 
 of its position in Cappadocia. Accordingly Yalesius 
 concludes that Melitene was not the name of the legion, 
 but of the town in which it was stationed. Melitene 
 was also the name of the district in which this town was 
 situated. The legions did not, he says, take their name 
 from tlie place where they were on duty, but from 
 the country in which they were raised, and therefore, 
 what Eusebius says about the Melitene does not seem 
 probable to him. Yet Yalesius, on the authority of 
 Apolinarius and Tertullian, believed that the miracle 
 was worked through the prayers of the Christian sol- 
 diers in the emperor’s army. Rufinus does not give the 
 name of Melitene to this legion, says Yalesius, and 
 probably he purposely omitted it, because he knew 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 11 
 
 that Melitene was the name of a town in Armenia 
 Minor, where the legion was stationed in his time. 
 
 The emperor, it is said, made a report of his victory 
 to the Senate, which we may believe, for such was the 
 practice; but we do not know what he said in his 
 letter, for it is not extant. Dacier assumes that the 
 emperor’s letter was purposely destroyed by the Senate, 
 or the enemies of Christianity, that so honorable a tes- 
 timony to the Christians and their religion might not 
 be perpetuated. The critic has, however, not seen 
 that he contradicts himself when he tells us the 
 purport of the letter, for he says that it was 
 destroyed, and even Eusebius could not find it. But 
 there does exist a letter in Greek addressed by 
 Antoninus to the Roman people and the sacred Senate 
 after this memorable victory. It is sometimes printed 
 after Justin’s first Apology, but it is totally unconnected 
 with the apologies. This letter is one of the most 
 stupid forgeries of the many which exist, and it can- 
 not be possibly founded even on the genuine report of 
 Antoninus to the Senate. If it were genuine it would 
 free the emperor from the chai’ge of persecuting men 
 because they were Christians, tor he says in this false 
 letter that if a man accuse another only of being a 
 Christian and the accused confess and there is nothing 
 else against him, he must be set free ; with this mon- 
 strous addition, made by a man inconceivably igno- 
 rant, that the informer must be burned alive.* 
 
 * Eusebius (v. 5) quotes Tertullian’s Apology to tbe Roman 
 Senate in confirmation of the story. Tertuilian, he says, writes that 
 letters of the emperor were extant, in which he declares that his 
 army was saved by the prayers of the Christians ; and that he 
 “threatened to punish with death those who ventured to accuse us.” 
 
12 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 During the time of Antoninus Pius and Marcus 
 Antoninus there appeared tlie first Apology of Jus- 
 tinus, and under Antoninus the Oration of Tatian 
 against the Greeks, which was a fierce attack on the 
 established religions ; the address of Athenagoras to 
 Marcus Antoninus on behalf of the Christians, and the 
 Apology of Melito, bishop of Sardes, also addressed to 
 the enij^eror, and that of Apolinarius. The first 
 Apology of Justinus is addressed to Titus Antoninus 
 Pius and his two adopted sons Marcus Antoninus and 
 L. Yerus; but we do not know whether they read it.* * 
 The second Apology of Justinus is entitled “to the 
 Poman Senate but this superscription is from some 
 cop 3 ’ist. In the first chapter Justinus addresses the 
 Romans. In the second chapter he speaks of an affair 
 that had recently happened in the time of Marcus 
 Antoninus and L. Yerus, as it seems; and he also 
 directl}'' addresses the emperor, saying of a certain 
 woman, “ she addressed a petition to thee the emperor, 
 and thou didst grant the petitition.” In other passages 
 the writer addresses the two emperors, from which we 
 must conclude that the Apology was directed to them. 
 Eusebius (E. II. iv. 18) states that the second Apology 
 was addressed to the successor of Antoninus Pius, and 
 he names him Antoninus Yerus, meaning Marcus 
 Antoninus. In one passage of this second Apology 
 
 It is possible that tbe forged letter which is now extant may he one 
 of those which Tertullian had seen, for he uses the plural number 
 “letters.” A great deal has been written about this miracle of the 
 Thundering Legion, and more than is worth reading. There is a 
 dissertation on this supposed miracle in Moyle’s Works, London, 1726. 
 
 * Orosius (vii. 14) says that Justinus the philosopher pre.sented 
 to Antoninus Pius his work in defence of the Christian religion, and 
 made him merciful to the Christians. 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS AMTOMINUS. 
 
 13 
 
 (c. 8), Justinus, or the writer, whoever he may be, says 
 that even men who followed the Stoic doctrines, when 
 they ordered their lives according to ethical reason, 
 were hated and murdered, such as Heraclitus, Muso- 
 nius in his own times and others ; for all those who in 
 any way labored to live according to reason and 
 avoided wickedness were always hated ; and this was 
 the effect of the work of demons. 
 
 Justinus himself is said to have been put to death at 
 Home, because he refused to sacrifice to the gods. It 
 cannot have been in the reign of Hadrian, as one 
 authority states ; nor in the time of Antoninus Pius, if 
 the second Apology was written in the time of Marcus 
 Antoninus ; and there is evidence that this event took 
 iJace under Marcus Antoninus and L. Yerus, when 
 Rusticus was prefect of the city.* 
 
 * See the Martyrium Sanctorum Justini, etc., in the works of 
 Justinus, ed. Otto, vol. ii. 559. “Junius Rusticus Prefectus Urbi 
 erat sub imperatoribus M. Aurelio et L. Vero, id quod liquet ex 
 Themistii Orat. xxxiv. Dindorf. p. 451, et ex quodam illorum re- 
 scripto. Dig. 49. 1. 1, § 2.” (Otto.) The rescript contains the words 
 “Junium Rusticum amicum nostrum Prefectum Urbi.” The Mar- 
 tyrium of Justinus and others is written in Greek. It begins: “In 
 the time of the wicked defenders of idolatry impious edicts were pub- 
 lished against the pious Christians, both in cities and country places, 
 for the purpose of compelling them to make offerings to vain idols. 
 Accordingly the holy men (Justinus, Chariton, a woman Charito, 
 Paeon, Liberianus and others) were brought before Rusticus, the pre- 
 fect of Rome.” 
 
 The Martyrium gives the examination of the accused by Rusticus. 
 All of them professed to be Christians. Justinus was asked if he ex- 
 pected to ascend into heaven and to receive a reward for his suffer- 
 ings if he was condemned to death. He answered that he did not 
 expect: he was certain of it. Finally, the test of obedience was pro- 
 posed to the prisoners: they were required to sacrifice to the gods. 
 All refused, and Rusticus pronounced the sentence, which was that 
 
14 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OK 
 
 The persecution in which Polycarp suffered at 
 Smyrna belongs to the time of Marcus Antoninus. 
 The evidence for it is the letter of the church of 
 Smyrna to the churches of Philomelium and the other 
 Christian churches, and it is preserved by Eusebius (E. 
 II. iv. 15). But the critics do not agree about the time 
 of Polycarp’s death, differing in the two extremes to 
 the amount of twelve years. The circumstances of 
 Polycarp’s martyrdom were accompanied by miracles, 
 one of which Eusebius (iv. 15) has omitted, but it ap- 
 pears in the oldest Latin version of the letter, which 
 Usher published, and it is supposed that this version 
 was made not long after the time of Eusebius. The 
 notice at the end of the letter states that it was tran- 
 scribed by Caius from the copy of Ireneeus, the disciple 
 of Poly carp, then transcribed by Socrates at Corinth ; 
 “after which I Pionius again wrote it out from the 
 copy above mentioned, having searched it out by the 
 revelation of Polycarp, Avho directed me to it, etc.” 
 The story of Polycai'p’s martyrdom is embellished 
 with miraculous circumstances which some modern 
 Avriters on ecclesiastical history take the liberty of 
 omitting.* * 
 
 those who refused to sacrifice to the gods and obey the emperor’s 
 order should be whipped and beheaded according to the law. The 
 martyrs were then led to the usual place of execution and beheaded. 
 Some of the faithful secretly carried ofE the bodies and deposited 
 them in a fit place. 
 
 * Conyers Middleton, An Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers, 
 etc., p. 126 Middleton says that Eusebius omitted to mention the 
 dove, which flew out of Polycarp’s body, and Dodwell and Archbishop 
 Wake have done the same. Wake says, “ I am so little a friend to 
 such miracles that I thought it better with Eusebius to omit that cir- 
 cumstance than to mention it from Bp. Usher’s Manuscript,” which 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 15 
 
 In order to form a proper notion of the condition of 
 the Christians under Marcus Antoninus we must go 
 back to Trajan’s time. When the younger Pliny was 
 governor of Bithynia, the Christians were numerous in 
 those parts, and the worshipers of the old religion 
 were falling off. The temples were deserted, the fes- 
 tivals neglected, and there were no purchasers of vic- 
 tims for sacrifice. Those who were interested in the 
 maintenance of the old religion thus found that their 
 profits were in danger. Christians of both sexes and 
 of all ages were brought before the governor, who did 
 not know what to do with them. He could come to 
 no other conclusion than this, that those who confessed 
 to be Christians and persevered in their religion ought 
 to be punished ; if for nothing else, for their invincible 
 obstinac}'^. He found no crimes proved against the 
 Christians, and he could only characterize their religion 
 as a depraved and extravagant superstition, which 
 might be stopped, if the people were allovred the op- 
 portunity of recanting. Pliny wrote this in a letter to 
 Trajan (Plinius, Ep. x. 97). He asked for the emperor’s 
 directions, because he did not know what to do: He 
 
 remarks that he had never been engaged in judicial 
 inquiries about the Christians, and that accordingly he 
 did not know what to inquire about or how far to in- 
 quire and punish. This proves that it was not a new 
 thing to examine into a man’s profession of Christianity 
 and to punish him for it.* * Trajan’s Rescript is extant. 
 
 manuscript, however, says Middleton, he afterward declares to be so 
 well attested that we need not any further assurance of the truth 
 of it. 
 
 *Orosius(vii. 12) speaks of Trajan’s persecution of the Christians, 
 and of Pliny’s application to him having led the emperor to mitigate 
 
16 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 lie approved of the governor’s judgment in the mat- 
 ter; hut he said that no search must be made after the 
 Christians; if a man was charged with the new religion 
 and convicted, he must not he punished if he affirmed 
 that he was not a Christian and confirmed his denial 
 by showing his reverence to the heathen gods. He 
 added that no notice must be taken of anonymous in- 
 formations, for such things were of bad example. Tra- 
 jan was a mild and sensible man, and both motives of 
 mercy and policy probably also induced him to take as 
 little notice of the Christians as he could ; to let them 
 live in quiet, if it were possible. Trajan’s Rescript is 
 the first legislative act of the head of the Roman state 
 Avith reference to Christianity which is known to us. 
 It does not appear that the Christians were further 
 disturbed under his reign. The martyrdom of Igna- 
 tius by the order of Trajan himself is not universally 
 admitted to be an historical fact.* * 
 
 In the time of Hadrian it was no longer possible for 
 the Roman government to overlook the great increase 
 of the Christians and the hostility of the common sort 
 to them. If the governors in the provinces were will- 
 ing to let them alone, they could not resist the fanati- 
 cism of the heathen communit}^ who looked on the 
 Christians as atheists. The Jews too who were settled 
 all over the Roman Empire were as hostile to the 
 
 liis severity. The punishment by the Mosaic law for those who at- 
 tempted to seduce the Jews to follow new gods was death. If a man 
 was secretly enticed to such new worship he must kill the seducer, 
 even if the seducer were brother, son, daughter, wife or friend. 
 (Deut. xiii.) 
 
 * The Martyrium Ignatii, first published in Latin by Archbishop 
 Usher, is the chief evidence for the circumstances of Ignatius’ death. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 17 
 
 Christians as the Gentiles were.* With the time of 
 Hadrian begin the Christian Apologies, which show 
 plainly what the popular feeling toward the Christians 
 then was. A rescript of Hadrian to JVIinucius Fundanus, 
 the Proconsul of Asia, which stands at the end of Jus- 
 tin’s first Apology,:}; instructs the governor that inno- 
 cent people must not be troubled and false accusers must 
 not be allowed to extort money from them ; the charges 
 against the Christians must be made in due form and 
 no attention must be paid to popular clamors ; when 
 Christians were regularly prosecuted and convicted of 
 illegal acts, they must be punished according to their 
 deserts; and false accusers also must be punished. 
 Antoninus Pius is said to have published Eescripts to 
 the same effect. The terms of Hadrian’s Rescript seem 
 very favorable to the Christians ; but if we understand 
 it in this sense, that they were only to be punished like 
 other people for illegal acts, it would have had no 
 meaning, for that could have been done without asking 
 the emperor’s advice. The real purpose of the Rescript 
 is that Christians must be punished if they persisted 
 in their belief, and would not prove their renunciation 
 
 *We have the evidence of Jnstinus (ad Diognetum, c. 5) to this 
 effect: “The Christians are attacked by the Jews as if they were 
 men of a different race and are persecuted by the Greeks; and those 
 who hate them cannot give the reason of their enmity.” 
 
 t And in Eusebius, E. H. iv. 8, 9. Orosius (vii. 13) says that 
 Hadrian sent this rescript to Minucius Fundanus, Proconsul of Asia, 
 after being instructed in books written on the Christian religion by 
 Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, and Aristides, an Athenian, an 
 honest and wise man, and Serenus Granins. In the Greek text of 
 Hadrian’s rescript there is mentioned Serenius Granianus, the pre- 
 decessor of Minucius Fundanus in the government of Asia. This 
 rescript of Hadrian has clearly been added to the Apology by some 
 editor. 
 
18 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 of it by acknowledging the heathen religion. This 
 was Trajan’s rule, and we have no reason for suppos- 
 ing that Hadrian granted more to the Christians than 
 Trajan did. There is also printed at the end of 
 Justin’s first Apology a rescript of Antoninus Pius to 
 the commune of Asia, and it is also in Eusebius (E. H. 
 iv. 13). The date of the Pescript is the third consul- 
 ship of Antoninus Pius.* The Eescript declares that 
 the Christians, for they are meant, though the name 
 Christians does not occur in the Rescript, were not to 
 be disturbed, uidess they were attemj)ting something 
 against the Roman rule, and no man was to be pun- 
 ished simply for being a Christian. But this Rescript 
 is spurious. Any man moderately acquainted with 
 Roman history will see by the style and tenor that it 
 is a clumsy forgery. 
 
 * Eusebius (E. H. iv. 12) after giving the beginning of Justinus’ 
 First Apology, which contains the address to T. Antoninus and his 
 two adopted sons, adds ‘ ‘ the same emperor being addressed by other 
 brethren in Asia honored the Commune of Asia with the following 
 Rescript.” This Rescript, which is in the next chapter of Eusebius 
 (E. H. iv. 13), is in the sole name of Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus 
 Augustus Armenius, though Eusebius had just before said that he 
 was going to give us a Rescript of Antoninus Pius. There are some 
 material variations between the two copies of the Rescript besides the 
 difference in the title, which difference makes it impossible to say 
 whether the forger intended to assign this Rescript to Pius or to 
 Marcus Antoninus. 
 
 The author of the Alexandrine Chronicum says that Marcus 
 being moved by the entreaties of 'Melito and other heads of the 
 church wrote an Epistle to the Commune of Asia in which he forbade 
 the Christians to be troubled on account of their religion. Valesius 
 sup)poses this to be the letter or Rescript which is contained in Euse- 
 bius (iv. 13), and to be the answer to the Apology of Melito, of which 
 1 shall soon give the substance. But Marcus certainly did not write 
 this letter which is in Eusebius, and wo know not what answer he 
 made to Melito, 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 19 
 
 In the time of Marcus Antoninus the opposition be- 
 tween the old and the new belief was still stronger, and 
 the adherents of the heathen religion urged those in 
 authority to a more regular resistance to the invasion? 
 of the Christian faith. Melito, in his apology to Mar- 
 cus Antoninus, represents the Christians of Asia as 
 persecuted under new imperial orders. Shameless 
 informers, he says, men who were greedy after the 
 property of others, used these orders as a means of 
 robbing those who were doing no harm. He doubts if 
 a just emperor could have ordered anything so unjust ; 
 and if the last order was really not from the emperor, 
 the Christians entreat him not to give them up to their 
 enemies.* We conclude from this that there were at 
 
 * Eusebius, iv. 26 ; and Routb’s Reliquiae Sacrae, vol. i. and the 
 notes. The interpretation of this fragment is not easy. Mosheim 
 misunderstood one passage so far as to affirm that Marcus promised 
 rewards to those who denounced the Christians ; an interpretation 
 which is entirely false. Melito calls the Christian religion “ our 
 philosophy,” which began among barbarians (the Jews), and flour- 
 ished among the Roman subjects in t(ie time of Augustus, to the 
 great advantage of the empire, for from that time the power of the 
 Romans grew great and glorious. He says that the emperor has and 
 will have as the successor to Augustus’ power the good wishes of 
 men, if he will protect that philosophy which grew up with the 
 empire and began with Augustus, which philosophy the predeces- 
 sors of Antoninus honored in addition to the other religions. He 
 further says that the Christian religion had suffered no harm since 
 the time of Augustus, but on the contrary had enjoyed all honor and 
 respect that any man could desire. Nero and Domitian, he says, 
 were alone persuaded by some malicious men to calumniate the 
 Christian religion, and this was the origin of the false charges 
 against the Christians. But this was corrected by the emperors who 
 immediately preceded Antoninus, who often by their Rescripts 
 reproved those w'ho attempted to trouble the Christians. Hadrian, 
 Antoninus’ grandfather, wrote to many, and among them to Fun- 
 danus, the governor of Asia. Antoninus Pius, when Marcus was 
 
20 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 least Imperial Rescripts or Constitutions of Marcus 
 Antoninus, which were made the foundation of these 
 persecutions. The fact of being a Christian was now 
 a crime and punished, unless the accused denied their 
 religion. Then come the persecutions at Smyrna, which 
 some modern critics place in a. d. 167, ten years before 
 the persecution of Lyon. The governors of the prov- 
 inces under Marcus Antoninus might have found 
 enough even in Trajan’s Rescript to warrant them in 
 punishing Christians, and the fanaticism of the people 
 would drive them to persecution, even if they were 
 unwilling. But besides the fact of the Christians 
 rejecting all the heathen ceremonies, we must not for- 
 get that they plainly maintained that all the heathen 
 religions were false. The Christians thus declared war 
 against the heathen rites, and it is hardly necessary to 
 observe that this was a declaration of hostility against 
 the Roman government, which tolerated all the various 
 forms of superstition that existed in the empire, and 
 could not consistently tolerate another religion, which 
 
 associated with him in the empire, wrote to the cities, that they must 
 not trouble the Christians ; among others to the people of Larissa, 
 Thessalonica, the Athenians and all the Greeks. Melito concluded 
 thus: We are persuaded that thou who hast about these things the 
 same mind that they had, nay, rather one much more humane and phi- 
 losophical, wilt do all that we ask thee. This apology was written 
 after A. d. 169, the year in which Verus died, for it .speaks of Marcus 
 only and his son Commodus. According to Melito’s testimony, 
 Christians had only been punished for their religion in the time of 
 Nero and Domitian, and the persecutions began again in the time of 
 Marcus Antoninus, and were founded on his orders, which were 
 abused, as he seems to mean. He distinctly affirms “ that the race 
 of the godly is now persecuted and harassed by fresh imperial orders 
 in Asia, a thing which had never happened before.” But we know 
 that all this is not true, and that Christians had been punished in 
 Trajan’s time. 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 21 
 
 declared that all the rest were false, and all the splen- 
 did ceremonies of the empire only a worship of devils. 
 
 If we had a true ecclesiastical history, we should 
 know how the Roman emperors attempted to check 
 the new religion, how they enforced their principle of 
 finally punishing Christians, simply as Christians, 
 which Justin in his Apology affirms that they did, and 
 I have no doubt that he tells the truth ; how far 
 popular clamor and riots went in this matter, and how 
 far many fanatical and ignorant Christians, for there 
 were many such, contributed to excite the fanaticism 
 on the other side, and to embitter the quarrel between 
 the Roman government and the new religion. Our 
 extant ecclesiastical histories are manifestly falsified, 
 and what truth they contain is grossly exaggerated ; 
 but the fact is certain that in the time of Marcus 
 Antoninus the heathen populations were in open 
 hostility to the Christians, and that under Antoninus’ 
 rule men were put to death because they were 
 Christians. Eusebius, in the preface to his fifth book, 
 remarks that in the seventeenth year of Antoninus’ 
 reign, in some parts of the world the persecution of 
 the Christians became more violent, and that it pro- 
 ceeded from the populace in the cities ; and he adds in 
 his usual style of exaggeration, that we may infer 
 from what took place in a single nation that myriads 
 of martjws were made in the habitable earth. The 
 nation which he alludes to is Gallia ; and he then pro- 
 ceeds to give the letter of the churches of Vienna and 
 Lugdunum. It is probable that he has assigned the 
 true cause of the persecutions, the fanaticism of the 
 populace, and that both governors and emperor had a 
 great deal of trouble with these disturbances, How 
 
22 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 far Marcus was cognizant of these cruel proceedings 
 we tlo not know, for the historical records of his reign 
 are very defective. He did not make the rule against 
 the Christians, for Trajan did that ; and if we admit 
 that he would have been willing to let the Christians 
 alone, we cannot affirm that it was in his power, for it 
 would be a great mistake to suppose that Antoninus 
 had the unlimited authority, which some modern 
 sovereigns have had. Ilis power was limited by certain 
 constitutional forms, by the Senate, and by the prece- 
 dents of his predecessors. We cannot admit that such 
 a man was an active persecutor, for there is no evidence 
 that he was,* though it is certain that he had no good 
 opinion of the Christians, as appears from his own 
 words. j; But he knew nothing of them except their 
 
 * Except tliat of Orosius (vii. 15), wLo says tLat during tlie 
 PartLian war there were grievous persecutions of the Christians in 
 Asia and Gallia under the orders of Marcus (praecepto ejus), and 
 “many were crowned with the martyrdom of saints.” 
 
 t See xi. 3. The emperor probably speaks of such fanatics as 
 Clemens (quoted by Gataker on this passage) mentions. The rational 
 Christians admitted no fellowship with them. “Some of these 
 heretics,” says Clemens, “ show their impiety and cowardice by loving 
 their lives, saying that the knowledge of the really existing God is true 
 testimony (martyrdom), but that a 7nan is a self-murderer who bears 
 witness by his death. We also blame those who rush to death, for 
 there are some, not of us, but only bearing the same name, who give 
 themselves up. We say of them that they die without being 
 martyrs, even if they are publicly punished ; and they give them- 
 selves up to a death which avails nothing, as the Indian Gymnoso- 
 phists give themselves up foolishly to fire.” Cave, in his Primitive 
 Christianity (ii. c. 7), says of the Christians : “ They did flock to the 
 
 place of torment faster than droves of beasts that are driven to the 
 shambles. They even longed to be in the arms of suffering. 
 Ignatius, though then in his journey to Rome in order to his execu- 
 tion, yet by the way as he went could not but vent his passionate 
 
maugus aurelws ANTomims. 
 
 S3 
 
 hostility to the Eoman religion, and he probably 
 thought that they were dangerous to the state, not- 
 withstanding the professions false or true of some of 
 the Apologists. So much I have said, because it would 
 be unfair not to state all that can be urged against a 
 man whom his contemporaries and subsequent ages 
 venerated as a model of virtue and benevolence. If I 
 admitted the genuineness of some documents, he would 
 be altogether clear from the charge of even allowing 
 any persecutions ; but as I seek the truth and am sure 
 that they are false, I leave him to bear whatever blame 
 is his due.* * I add that it is quite certain that Anto- 
 ninus did not derivm any of his Ethical principles fi’om 
 a religion of which he knew nothing.;}; 
 
 There is no doubt that the Emperor’s Eeflections, or 
 his Meditations, as they are generally named, is a 
 genuine work. In the first book he speaks of himself, 
 
 desire of it : “0 that I might come to those wild beasts, that are pre- 
 pared for me ; I heartily wish that I may presently meet with them ; 
 I would invite and encourage them speedily to devour me, and not be 
 afraid to set upon me as they have been to others ; nay, should they 
 refuse it, I would even force them to it and more to the same pur- 
 pose from Eusebius. Cave, an honest and good man, says all this in 
 praise of the Christians ; but I think that he mistook the matter. 
 We admire a man who holds to his principles even to death ; but 
 these fanatical Christians are the Gymnosophists whom Clemens 
 treats with disdain. 
 
 * Dr. F. C. Baur in his work entitled Das Christenthum und die 
 Christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, etc., has examined 
 this question with great good sense and fairness, and I believe he has 
 stated the truth as near as our authorities enable us to reach it. 
 
 I In the Digest, 48, 19, 30, there is the following excerpt from 
 Modestinus : “Si quis aliquid fecerit, quo leves hominum animi 
 superstitione numinis terrerentur, divus Marcus hujusmodi homines 
 in insulam relegari rescripsit.” 
 
24 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 his family, and his teachers ; and in other books he 
 mentions himself. Suidas notices a work of Antoninus 
 in twelve books, which he names the “conduct of his 
 own life;” and he cites the book under several words 
 in his Dictionary, giving the emperor’s name, but not 
 tlie title of the work. There are also passages cited by 
 Suidas from Antoninus without mention of the 
 emperor’s name. The true title of the work is un- 
 known. Xylander, who published the first edition of 
 this book (Zurich, 1558, 8vo., with a Latin version), 
 used a manuscrijit, which contained the twelve books, 
 but it is not known where the manuscript is now. 
 The only other complete manuscrijA which is known 
 to exist is in the Vatican library, but it has no title 
 and no inscriptions of the several books : the eleventh 
 only has the inscription MdpKoiavToxpdropo'; marked with 
 an asterisk. The other Vatican manuscripts and the 
 three Florentine contain only excerpts from the em- 
 peror’s book. All the titles of the excerpts nearly 
 agree with that which Xylander prefixed to his edition, 
 
 Mdpxov ’Ayroovi'vov Auroxpdropo? tc3v eii kavrov ftiftXia ifi. 
 
 This title has been used by all subsequent editors. We 
 cannot tell whether Antoninus divided his work into 
 books or somebody else did it. If the inscriptions at 
 the end of the first and second books are genuine, he 
 may have made the division himself. 
 
 It is plain that the emperor wrote down his thoughts 
 or reflections as the occasions arose ; and since they 
 were intended for his own use, it is no improbable con- 
 jecture that he left a complete copy behind him writ- 
 ten with his own hand ; for it is not likel^'^ that so 
 diligent a man would use the labor of a transcriber for 
 such a purpose, and expose his most secret thoughts to 
 
MARGTT8 A TTRELITTS ANTONINUS. 
 
 25 
 
 any other eye. He may have also intended the book 
 for his son Conimodus, who, however, had no taste for 
 his father’s philosophy. Some careful hand preserved 
 the precious volume ; and a work by Antoninus is 
 mentioned by other late writers besides Suidas. 
 
 Many critics have labored on the text of Antoninus. 
 The most complete edition is that by Thomas Gataker, 
 1652, 4to. The second edition of Gataker was superin- 
 tended by George Stanhope, 1697, dto. There is also 
 an edition of 1704. Gataker made and suggested many 
 good corrections, and he also made a new Latin version, 
 which is not a very good specimen of Latin, but it 
 generally expresses the sense of the original and often 
 better than some of the more recent translations. He 
 added, in the margin opposite to each paragraph, refer- 
 ences to the other parallel passages ; and he wrote a 
 commentary, one of the most complete that has been 
 written on any ancient author. This commentary con- 
 tains the editor’s exposition of the more difficult pas- 
 sages, and quotations from all the Greek and Roman 
 writers for the illustration of the text. It is a won- 
 derful monument of learning and labor, and certainly 
 no Englishman has yet done an 3 dhing like it. At the 
 end of his preface the editor says that he wrote it at 
 Rotherhithe, near London, in a severe winter, when he 
 was in the seventy-eighth year of his age, 1651, a time 
 when Milton, Selden and other great men of the Com- 
 monwealth time were living; and the great French 
 scholar Saumaise (Salmasius), with whom Gataker cor- 
 responded and received help from him for his edition 
 of Antoninus. The Greek text has also been edited by 
 J. M. Schultz, Leipzig, 1802, 8vo.; and by the learned 
 Greek Adamantinus Corais, Paris, 1816, 8vo. The text 
 of Schultz was republished by Tauchnitz, 1821, 
 
20 
 
 MOOnAPmCAL SKETCH OE 
 
 There are Englisli, German; French, Italian and 
 Spanish translations of Marcus Antoninus, and there 
 may be others. I have not seen all the English trans- 
 lations. There is one by Jeremy Collier, 1702, 8vo., a 
 most coarse and vulgar copy of the original. The 
 latest French translation by Alexis Pierron in the col- 
 lection of Charpentier is better than Dacier’s, which 
 has been honored with an Italian version (Udine, 1772). 
 There is an Italian version (1675) which I have not 
 seen. It is by a cardinal. “ A man illustrious in the 
 church, the Cardinal Francis Barberini the elder, 
 nephew of Pope Urban VIII, occupied the last years 
 of his life in translating into his native language the 
 thoughts of the Roman emperor, in order to diffuse 
 among the faithful the fertilizing and vivifying seeds. 
 Tie dedicated this translation to his soul, to make it, as 
 he says in his energetic style, redder than his purple at 
 the sight of the virtues of this Gentile ” (Pierron, Pre- 
 face). 
 
 I have made this translation at intervals after having 
 used the book for many years. Is is made from the 
 Greek, but I have not always followed one text ; and 
 I have occasionally compared other versions with my 
 own. I made this translation for my own use, because 
 I found that it was worth the labor ; but it may be 
 useful to others also, and therefore I determined to 
 print it. As the original is sometimes very difficult to 
 understand and still more difficult to translate, it is not 
 possible that I have always avoided error. But I 
 believe that I have not often missed the meaning, and 
 those who will take the trouble to compare the trans- 
 lation with the original should not hastily conclude 
 that I am wrong, if they do not agree with me. Some 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 27 
 
 passages do give the meaning, though at first sight 
 they may not appear to do so ; and when I differ from 
 the translators, I think that in some places they are 
 wrong, and in other places I am sure that they are. I 
 have placed in some passages a f, which indicates 
 corruption in the text or great uncertainty in the 
 meaning. I could have made the language more easy 
 and flowing, but I have preferred a ruder style as 
 being better suited to express the character of the 
 original ; and sometimes the obscurity which may 
 appear in the version is a fair copy of the obscurity of 
 the Greek. If I should ever revise this version, I 
 would gladly make use of any corrections which may 
 be suggested. If I have not given the best words for 
 the Greek, I have done the best that I could ; and in 
 the text I have always given the same translation of 
 the same word. 
 
 The last reflection of the Stoic philosophy that I 
 have observed is in Simplicius’ Commentary on the 
 Encheiridion of Epictetus. Simphcius was not a 
 Christian, and such a man was not likely to be con- 
 verted at a time when Christianity was grossly cor- 
 rupted. But he was a really religious man, and he 
 concludes his commentary with a prayer to the Deity 
 which no Christian could improve. From the time of 
 Zeno to Simplicius, a period of about nine hundred 
 years, the Stoic philosophy formed the characters of 
 some of the best and greatest men. Finally it became 
 extinct, and we hear no more of it till the revival of 
 letters in Italy. Angelo Poliziano met with two very 
 inaccurate and incomplete manuscripts of Epictetus’ 
 Encheiridion, which he translated into Latin and dedi- 
 cated to his great patron Lorenzo de’ Medici, in whose 
 
28 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 collection he had found the book. Poliziano’s version 
 was printed in the first Bfile edition of the Encheiridion, 
 A. D. 1531 (apud And. Cratandruin). Poliziano recom- 
 mends the Encheiridion to Lorenzo as a work well 
 suited to his temper, and useful in the difficulties by 
 which he Avas surrounded. 
 
 Epictetus and Antoninus have had readers ever since 
 they were first printed. The little book of Antoninus 
 has been the companion of some great men. Machia- 
 velli’s Art of War and Marcus Antoninus Avere the turn 
 books Avhich Avere used Avhen he Avas a young man by 
 Captain John Smith, and he could not haAm found tAvo 
 AAWiters better fitted to form the character of a soldier 
 and a man. Smith is almost unknoAvn and forgotten 
 in England, his nature country, but not in America 
 Avhei-e he saved the young colony of Virginia. He 
 Avas great in his heroic mind and his deeds in arms, but 
 greater still m the nobleness of his character. For a 
 man’s greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the 
 Audgar believe, nor yet in his intellectual capacity, 
 Avhich is often associated with the meanest moral 
 character, the most abject servility to those in high 
 places and arrogance to the poor and loAAdy ; but a 
 man’s true greatness lies in the consciousness of an 
 honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of 
 himself and everAdhing else, on frequent self-examina- 
 tion, and a steady obedience to the rule Avhich he 
 knoAA^s to be right, Avithout troubling himself, as the 
 emperor says he should not, about Avhat others may 
 think or say, or Avhether they do or do not do that 
 Avhich he thinks and says and does. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OP 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus 
 
 BY 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
The Philosophy of 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 
 
 It has been said that the Stoic philosophy first 
 showed its real value when it passed from Greece to 
 Rome. The doctrines of Zeno and his successors wmre 
 well suited to the gravity and practical good sense of 
 the Romans ; and even in the Republican period we 
 have an example of a man, M. Cato Uticensis, who 
 lived the life of a Stoic and died consistently wiLii the 
 opinions which he professed. He was a man, says 
 Cicero, who embraced the Stoic philosophy froni con- 
 viction ; not for the purpose of vain discussion, as most 
 did, but in order to make his life conformable to the 
 Stoic precepts. In the wretched times from the death 
 of Augustus to the murder of Domitian, there was 
 nothing but the Stoic philosophy which could console 
 and support the followers of the old religion under 
 imperial tyranny and amid universal corruption. 
 There were even then noble minds that could dare and 
 endure, sustained by a good conscience and an elevated 
 idea of the purposes of man’s existence. Such were 
 Paetus Thrasea, Helvidius Priscus, Cornutus, C. Muso- 
 nius Rufus,* and the poets Persius and Juvenal, wdiose 
 
 *I have omitted Seneca, Nero’s preceptor. He was in a sense a 
 Stoic, and he has said many good things in a very fine way. There is 
 
32 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 enero'etic language and manly thoughts may be as 
 instructive to us now as they might have been to their 
 contemporaries. Persius died under Nero’s blood}'" 
 reign, but Juvenal had the good fortune to survive the 
 tyrant Domitian and to see the better times of Nerva, 
 Trajan and Hadrian.'’'" His best precepts are derived 
 from the Stoic school, and they are enforced in his 
 finest verses by the unrivaled vigor of the Latin 
 language. 
 
 The two best expounders of the later Stoical philos- 
 ophy were a Greek slave and a Roman emperor. 
 Epictetus, a Phrygian Greek, was brought to Rome, we 
 know not how, but he was there the slave and after- 
 ward the freedman of an unworthy master, Epaphro- 
 ditus by name, himself a freedman and a favorite of 
 Nero. Epictetus may have been a hearer of 0. Muso- 
 nius Rufus, while he was still a slave, but he could 
 hardly have been a teacher before he was made free. 
 He was one of the philosophers whom Domitian’s 
 order banished from Rome. He retired to Nicopolis 
 in Epirus, and he may have died there. Like other 
 great teachers he wrote nothing, and we are indebted 
 to his grateful pupil Arrian for what we have of 
 Epictetus’ discourses. Arrian wrote eight books of 
 the discourses of Epictetus, of which only four remain 
 
 a judgment of Gellius (xii. 2) on Seneca, or rather a statement of what 
 some people thought of his philosophy, and it is not favorable. His 
 writings and his life must be taken together, and I have nothing 
 more to say of him here. The reader will find a notice of Seneca and 
 his philofsophy in “ Seekers after God,” by the Eev. F. W. Farrar. 
 
 * Ribbeck has labored to prove that those Satires, which contain 
 philosophical precejits, are not the work of the real, but of a false 
 Juvenal, a Declamator. Still the verses exist, and were written by 
 somebody who was acquainted with the Stoic doctrines. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 33 
 
 and some fragments. We have also from Arrian’s 
 hand the small Encheiridion or Manual of the chief 
 precepts of Epictetus. There is a a valuable commen- 
 tary on the Encheiridion by Simplicius, who lived in 
 the time of the Emperor Justinian.'^ 
 
 Antoninus in his first book (i. 7), in which he grate- 
 fully commemorates his obligations to his teachers, 
 says that he was made acquainted by Junius Rusticus 
 with the discourses of Epictetus, whom he mentions 
 also in other passages (iv. 41 ; xi. 34, 36). Indeed, the 
 doctrines of Epictetus and Antoninus are the same, 
 and Epictetus is the best authority for the explanation 
 of the philosophical language of Antoninus and the 
 exposition of his opinions. But the method of the 
 two philosophers is entirely different. Epictetus 
 addressed himself to his hearers in a continuous dis- 
 course and in a familiar and simple manner. Anton- 
 inus wrote down his reflections for his own use only, 
 in short, unconnected paragraphs, which are often 
 obscure. 
 
 The Stoics made three divisions of philosophy. 
 Physic, Ethic and Logic (viii. 13). This division, we are 
 told by Diogenes, was made by Zeno of Citium, the 
 founder of the Stoic sect, and by Chrysippus ; but 
 these philosophers placed the three divisions in the 
 following order. Logic, Physic, Ethic. It appears, 
 however, that this division was made before Zeno’s 
 time and acknowledged by Plato, as Cicero remarks 
 (Acad. Post. i. 5). Logic is not synonymous with our 
 term Logic in the narrower sense of that word. 
 
 * There is a complete edition of Arrian’s Epictetus, with the com- 
 mentary of Simplicius by J. Schweighaeuser, 6 vols. 8vo. 1799, 1800. 
 There is also an English translation of Epictetus by Prof. Long, pub- 
 lished in this series: Burt’s Library of the World’s Best Books. 
 
34 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Cleantlies, a Stoic, subdivided the three divisions, 
 and made six: Dialectic and Rhetoric, comprised in 
 Logic ; Ethic and Politic ; Physic and Theology. 
 This division was merely for practical use, for all 
 Idiilosopliy is one. Even among the earliest Stoics, 
 Logic or Dialectic does not occupy the same place as 
 in Plato : it is considered only as an instrument which 
 is to be used for the other divisions of Philosophy. 
 An exposition of the earlier Stoic doctrines and of 
 their modifications would require a volume. My object 
 is to explain only the opinions of Antoninus, so far as 
 they can be collected from his book. 
 
 According to the subdivision of Cleanthes, Physic 
 and Theology go together, or the stud}' of the nature 
 of Things and the study of the nature of the Deity, so 
 far as man can understand the Deity, and of his govern- 
 ment of the universe. This division or subdivision is 
 not formally adopted by Antoninus, for, as already 
 observed, there is no method in his book, but it is 
 virtually contained in it. 
 
 Cleanthes also connects Ethic and Politic, or the 
 study of the ])rinciples of morals and the study of the 
 constitution of civil society; and undoubtedly he did 
 well in subdividing Ethic into two parts. Ethic in the 
 narrower sense and Politic, for though the two are in- 
 timately connected they are also very distinct, and 
 many questions can only be properly discussed by 
 carefully observing the distinction. Antoninus does 
 not treat of Politic. Llis subject is Ethic, and Ethic 
 in its practical application to his own conduct in life 
 as a man and as a governor. His Ethic is founded on 
 his doctrines about man’s nature, the Universal ISlature, 
 and the relation of every man to everything else. It 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 35 
 
 is therefore intimately and inseparably connected with 
 Physic or the nature of Things, and with Theology or 
 the nature of the Deity. He advises us to examine 
 well all the impressions on our minds {<pavTa6iai) and 
 to form a right judgment of them, to make just con- 
 clusions, and to inquire into the meanings of words, 
 and so far to apply Dialectic, but he has no attempt at 
 any exposition of Dialectic, and his philosophy is in 
 substance purely moral and practical. He says (viii. 
 13), “ Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion 
 of every impression on the soul,* apply to it the prin- 
 ciples of Physic, of Ethic and of Dialectic which is 
 only another way of telling us to examine the impres- 
 sion in every possible way. In another passage (iii. 11) 
 he says, “ To the aids which have been mentioned let 
 this one still be added : make for thyself a definition 
 or description of the object (rd cpavraerSv) which is pre- 
 sented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a 
 thing it is in its substance, in its nudity, in its com- 
 plete entirety, and tell thyself its proper name, and the 
 names of the things of which it has been compounded 
 and into which it will be resolved.” Such an examina- 
 tion implies a use of Dialectic, which Antoninus accord- 
 ingly employed as a means toward establishing his 
 Physical, Theological and Ethical principles. 
 
 There are several expositions of the Physical, Theo- 
 logical and Ethical principles, which are contained in 
 
 * The original is evti 7td(3rfi qyavradiaS. We have no word which 
 expresses gjavradia, for it is not only the sensuous appearance which 
 comes from an external object, which object is called rd (pavradrov, 
 but it is also the thought or feeling or opinion which is produced 
 even when there is no corresponding external object before us. Ac- 
 cordingly everything which moves the soul is (pavradrov and pro- 
 duces a cpvaradia. 
 
36 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the work of Antoninus ; and more expositions than I 
 have read. Ritter (Geschichte der Philosophie, iv. 
 2dl), after explaining the doctrines of Epictetus, treats 
 very briefly and insufficiently those of Antoninus. But 
 he refers to a short essay, in which the work is done 
 better.* There is also an essay on the Philosophical 
 Principles of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by J. M. 
 Schultz, placed at the end of his German translation 
 of Antoninus (Schleswig, 1799). With the assistance 
 of these tAvo useful essays and his own diligent study a 
 man may form a sufficient notion of the principles of 
 Antoninus, but he Avill find it more difficult to expound 
 them to others. Besides the Avant of arrangement in 
 the original and of connection among the numerous 
 paragraphs, the corruption of the text, the obscurity of 
 the language and the style, and sometimes perhaps the 
 contusion in the Avriter’s OAvn ideas — besides all this 
 there is occasionally an apparent contradiction in the 
 emperor’s thoughts, as if his principles Avere sometimes 
 unsettled, as if doubt sometimes clouded his mind. A 
 man avIio leads a life of tranquillity and reflection, 
 Avho is not disturbed at home and meddles not Avith 
 the affairs of the Avorld, may keep his mind at ease and 
 his thoughts in one even course. But such a man has 
 not been tried. All his Ethical jihilosophy and his 
 passive virtue might turn out to be idle Avords if he 
 Avere once exposed to the rude realities of human exist- 
 ence. Fine thoughts and moral dissertations from men 
 Avho have not Avorked and suffered may be read, but 
 they will be forgotten. ISTo religion, no Ethical philoso- 
 phy is Avorth anything if the teacher has not lived the 
 
 *De Marco Aurelio Aiitonino, ex ipsius Commentariis. Scriptic 
 Pliilologica. Instituit Nicolaus Bacliius, Lipsise, 1826. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 37 
 
 “life of an apostle” and been ready to die “the death 
 of a martyr.” “ ISTot in passivity (the passive alfects), 
 but in activity, lie the evil and the good of the rational 
 social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie not in 
 passivity, but in activity” (ix. 16). The emperor An- 
 toninus was a practical moralist. From his youth he 
 followed a laborious discipline, and though his high 
 station placed him above all want or the fear of it, he 
 lived as frugally and temperately as the poorest philoso- 
 pher. Epictetus wanted little, and it seems that he 
 always had the little that he wanted, and he was con- 
 tent with it, as he had been with his servile station. 
 But Antoninus, after his accession to the empire, sat on 
 an uneasy seat. He had the administration of an em- 
 pire which extended from the Euphrates to the Atlan- 
 tic, from the cold mountains of Scotland to the hot 
 sands of Africa; and we may imagine, though we can- 
 not know it by experience, what must be the trials, the 
 troubles, the anxiety and the sorrows of him who has 
 the world’s business on his hands with the wish to do 
 the best that he can and the certain knowledge that 
 he can do very little of the good which he wishes. 
 
 In the midst of war, pestilence, conspiracy, general 
 corruption, and with the weight of so unwieldy an em- 
 pire upon him, we may easily comprehend that An- 
 toninus often had need of all his fortitude to support 
 him. The best and the bravest men have moments of 
 doubt and of weakness, but if they are the best and the 
 bravest they rise again from their depression by recur- 
 ring to first principles, as Antoninus does. The em- 
 peror says that life is smoke, a vapor, and St. James, in 
 his Epistle, is of the same mind ; that the world is full 
 of envious, jealous, malignant people, and a man might 
 
38 
 
 PEIL080PHT OF 
 
 be Aveil content to get out of it. He has doubts per- 
 haps sometimes even about that to which he holds 
 most firmly. There are only a few passages of this 
 kind, but they are evidence of the struggles which 
 even the noblest of the sons of men had to maintain 
 against the hard realities of his daily life. A j^oor 
 remark it is, which I have seen somewhere, and made 
 in a disparaging way, that the emperor’s reflections 
 show that he had need of consolation and comfort 
 in life, and even to prepare him to meet his death. 
 True that he did need comfort and support, and 
 we see how he found it. He constantly recurs to 
 his fundamental principle that the universe is wisely 
 ordered, that every man is a part of it and must 
 conform to that order which he cannot change, that 
 whatever the Deity has done is good, and that all 
 mankind are a man’s brethren, that he must love and 
 cherish them and try to make them better, even those 
 who would do him harm. This is his conclusion (ii. 
 17) : “What, then, is that which is able to conduct a 
 man? One thing, and only one — Philosophy. But 
 this consists in keeping the divinity within a man free 
 from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and 
 pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet 
 falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of an- 
 other man’s doing or not doing anything ; and besides, 
 accepting all that happens and all that is alloted, 
 as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence 
 he himself came ; and finally waiting for death with a 
 cheerful mind as being nothing else than a dissolution 
 of the elements, of which every living being is com- 
 pounded. But if there is no harm to the elements 
 themselves in each continually changing into another, 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 39 
 
 why should a man have any apprehension about the 
 change and dissolution of all the elements [himself] ? 
 for it is according to nature ; and nothing is evil that 
 is according to nature.” 
 
 The Physic of Antoninus is the knowledge of the 
 Nature of the Universe, of its government, and of the 
 relation of man’s nature to both. He names the uni 
 verse “the universal substance,” and he adds that 
 “ reason ” governs the universe. He also (vi. 9) uses 
 the terms “ universal nature ” or “ nature of the 
 universe.” He (vi. 25) calls the universe “ the one and 
 all, which we name Cosmos or Order.” If he ever 
 seems to use these general terms as significant of the 
 All, of all that man can in any way conceive to exist, 
 he still on other occasions plainly distinguishes between 
 Matter, Material things and Cause, Origin, Eeason.* 
 
 * I remark, in order to anticipate any misapprehension, that all 
 these general terms involve a contradiction. The “ one and all,” and 
 the like, and “the whole” imply limitation. “One” is limited; 
 “all” is limited; the “whole” is limited. We cannot help it. We 
 cannot find words to express that which we cannot fully conceive. 
 The addition of “absolute,” or any other such word, does not mend 
 the matter. Even the word God is used by most people, often uncon- 
 sciously, in such a way that limitation is implied, and yet at the same 
 time words are added which are intended to deny limitation. A 
 Christian martyr, when he was asked what God was, is said to have 
 answered that God has no name like a man; and Justin says the same 
 (Apol. ii. 6), “the names Father, God, Creator, Lord and Master are 
 not names, but appellations derived from benefactions and acts.” 
 (Compare Seneca, De Benef. iv. 8.) We can conceive the existence of 
 a thing, or rather we may have the idea of an existence, without an 
 adequate notion of it, “adequate” meaning coextensive and coequal 
 with the thing. We have a notion of limited space derived from the 
 dimensions of what we call a material thing, though of space absolute, 
 if I may use the term, we have no notion at all ; and of infinite space 
 the notion is the same, no notion at all; and yet we conceive it in a 
 sense, though I know not how, and we believe that space is infinite, 
 and we cannst conceive it to finite. . 
 
40 
 
 PHILO SOPHY OF 
 
 This is conformable to Zeno’s doctrine that there are 
 two original principles of all things, that which acts 
 and that which is acted upon. That which is acted on 
 is the formless matter, that which acts is the reason, 
 God, who is eternal and operates through all matter, 
 and produces all things. So Antoninus (v. 32) speaks of 
 the reason which pervades all substance and through 
 all time by fixed periods (revolutions), administers the 
 universe. God is eternal, and Matter is eternal. It is 
 God who gives form to matter, but he is not said to 
 have created matter. According to this view, which 
 is as old as Anaxagoras, God and matter exist inde- 
 pendently, but God governs matter. This doctrine is 
 simply the expression of the fact of the existence both 
 of matter and of God. The Stoics did not perplex 
 themselves with the insoluble question of the origin 
 and nature of matter.* Antoninus also assumes a 
 
 * The notions of matter and of space are inseparable. We derive 
 the notion of space from matter and form. But we have no adequate 
 conception either of matter or of space. Matter in its ultimate reso- 
 lution is as unintelligible as what men call mind, spirit, or by what- 
 ever other name they may express the power which makes itself 
 known by acts. Anaxagoras laid down the distinction between in- 
 telligence (vovi) and matter, and he said that intelligence impressed 
 motion on matter, and so separated the elements of matter and gave 
 them order; but he probably only assumed a beginning, as Simplicius 
 says, as a foundation of his philosophical teaching. Empedocles 
 said “The universe always existed.” He had no idea of what is 
 called creation. Ocellus Lucanus (1, § 2) maintained that the Universe 
 was imperishable and uncreated. Consequently it is eternal. He 
 admitted the existence of God; hut his Theology would require some 
 discussion. On the contrary, the Brachmans, according to Strabo (p. 
 713, ed. Cas.), taught that the universe was created and perishable; 
 and the creator and administrator of it pervades the whole. The 
 author of the book of Solomon’s Wisdom says (xi. 17): “ Thy Almighty 
 hand made the world of matter without form,” which may mean 
 that matter existed already. The common Greek word which we 
 translate “matter ” is It is the stuff that things are made of. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 41 
 
 beginning of things, as we now know them ; but his 
 language is sometimes very obscure. I have endeav- 
 ored to explain the meaning of one difficult passage 
 (vii. 75, and the note). 
 
 Matter consists of elemental parts of which all 
 material objects are made. But nothing is permanent 
 in form. The nature of the universe, according to 
 Antoninus’ expression (iv. 36), “ loves nothing so much 
 as to change the things which are, and to make new 
 things like them. For everything that exists is in a 
 manner the seed of that which will be. But thou art 
 thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or 
 into a womb ; but this is a very vulgar notion.” All 
 things then are in a constant flux and change ; some 
 things are dissolved into the elements, others come in 
 their places ; and so the “ whole universe continues 
 ever young and perfect.” (xii. 23.) 
 
 Antoninus has some obscure expressions about what 
 he calls “ seminal principles.” He opposes them to the 
 Epicurean atoms (vi. 24), and consequently his “ seminal 
 principles” are not material atoms which wander 
 about at hazard, and combine nobody knows how. In 
 one passage (iv. 21) he speaks of living principles, souls 
 after the dissolution of their bodies being received into 
 the “ seminal principle of the universe.” Schultz 
 thinks that by “ seminal principles Antoninus means 
 the relations of the various elemental principles, which 
 relations are determined by the deity and by which 
 alone the production of organized beings is possible.” 
 This may be the meaning, but if it is, nothing of any 
 value can be derived from it.* Antoninus often uses 
 
 * The early Christian writers were familiar with the Stoic terms, 
 and their writings show that the contest was begun between the 
 Christian expositors and the Greek philosophy. 
 
42 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the word “Nature” and we must attempt to fix its 
 meaning. The simple etymological sense of the Greek 
 word is “production,” the birth of what we call 
 Things. The Romans used Natura, which also means 
 “ birth ” originally. But neither the Greeks nor the 
 Romans stuck to this simple meaning, nor do we. 
 Antoninus says (x. 6) : “ Whether the universe is [a 
 concourse of] atoms or Nature [is a system], let this 
 first be established that I am a part of the whole which 
 is governed by nature.” Here it might seem as if 
 nature were personified and viewed as an active, 
 efficient power, as something which, if not independent 
 of the Deity, acts by a power which is given to it by 
 the Deity. Such, if I understand the expression right, 
 is the way in which the word Nature is often used 
 now, though it is plain that many writers use the 
 word Avithout fixing any exact meaning to it. It is 
 the same Avith the expression Laws of Nature, Avhich 
 some Avriters may use in an intelligible sense, but 
 others as clearly use in no definite sense at all. There 
 is no meaning in this Avord Nature, except that Avhich 
 Bishop Butler assigns to it, Avhen he says, “ The only 
 distinct meaning of that Avord Natural is Stated, Fixed 
 or Settled ; since what is natural as much requires and 
 presupposes an intelligent agent ta render it so, viz., to 
 effect it continually or at stated times, as Avhat is super- 
 natural or miraculous does to effect it at once.” This 
 is Plato’s meaning (De Leg. iv. 715), Avhen he says, 
 that God holds the beginning and end and middle of 
 all that exists, and proceeds straight on his course, 
 making his circuit according to nature (that is, by a 
 fixed order) ; and he is continually accompanied by 
 justice Avho punishes those who deviate from the divine 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 43 
 
 law, that is, from the order or course which God 
 observes. 
 
 When we look at the motions of the planets, the 
 action of what we call gravitation, the elemental com- 
 bination of unorganized bodies and their resolution, the 
 production of plants and of living bodies, their genera- 
 tion, growth, and their dissolution, which we call their 
 death, we observe a regular sequence of phenomena, 
 which within the limits of experience, present and past, 
 so far as we know the past, is fixed and invariable. 
 But if this is not so, if the order and sequence of 
 phenomena, as known to us, are subject to change in 
 the course of an infinite progression — and such change 
 is conceivable — we have not discovered, nor shall we 
 ever discover, the whole of the order and sequence of 
 phenomena, in which sequence there may be involved 
 according to its very nature, that is, according to its 
 fixed order, some variation of what we now call the 
 Order or Nature of Things. It is also conceivable that 
 such changes have taken place, changes in the order of 
 things, as we are compelled by the imperfection of 
 language to call them, but which are no changes ; and 
 further, it is certain that our knowledge of the true 
 sequence of all actual phenomena, as for instance, the 
 phenomena of generation, growth, and dissolution is, 
 and ever must be, imperfect. 
 
 We do not fare much better when we speak of 
 Causes and Effects than when we speak of Nature. 
 For the practical purposes of life we may use the 
 terms cause and effect conveniently, and we may fix a 
 distinct meaning to them, distinct enough at least to 
 prevent all misunderstanding. But the case is differ- 
 ent when we speak of causes and effects as of Things. 
 
44 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 All that we know is phenomena, as the Greeks called 
 them, or appearances which follow one another in a 
 regular order, as we conceive it, so that if some one 
 phenomenon should fail in the series, we conceive that 
 there must either be an interruption of the series, or 
 that something else will appear after the phenomenon 
 which has failed to appear, and will occupy the vacant 
 place; and so the series in its progression may be 
 modified or totally changed. Cause and effect then 
 mean nothing in the sequence of natural phenomena 
 beyond what I have said ; and the real cause, or the 
 transcendant cause, as some would call it, of each suc- 
 cessive phenomena is in that which is the cause of all 
 things which are, which have been, and which will be 
 forever. Thus the word Creation may have a real 
 sense if we consider it as the first, if we can conceive a 
 first, in the present order of natural phenomena ; but 
 in the vulgar sense a creation of all things at a certain 
 time, followed by a quiescence of the first cause and 
 an abandonment of all sequences of Phenomena to the 
 laws of Nature, or to the other words that people may 
 use, is absolutely absurd.* 
 
 * Time and space are the conditions of our thought; but time 
 infinite and space infinite cannot be objects of thought, except in a 
 very imperfect way. Time and space must not in any way be thought 
 of, when we think of the Deity. Swedenborg says, “The natural 
 man may believe that he would have no thought, if the ideas of time, 
 of space, and of things material were taken awc"; for upon those is 
 founded all the thought that man has. But let him know that the 
 thoughts are limited and confined in proportion as they do not partake 
 of time, of space, and of what is material; and that they are not 
 limited and are extended, in proportion as they do not partake of those 
 things; since the mind is so far elevated above the things corporeal 
 and worldly.” (Concerning Heaven and Hell, 169.) 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 45 
 
 Now, though there is great difficulty in understand- 
 ing all the passages of Antoninus, in which he speaks 
 of Nature, of the changes of things and of the economy 
 of the universe, I am convinced that his sense of 
 Nature and Natural is the same as that which I have 
 stated ; and as he was a man who knew how to use 
 Avords in a clear way and with strict consistency, we 
 ought to assume, even if his meaning in some passages 
 is doubtful, that his view of Nature was in harmony 
 Avith his fixed belief in the all-perA’^ading, ever present, 
 and ever active energy of God (ii. 4; 40 ; x. 1 ; a4. 
 
 40. ; and other passages. Compare Seneca, De Benef. 
 iv. 7. Swedenborg, Angelic Wisdom, 349-357). 
 
 There is much in Antoninus that is hard to under- 
 stand, and it might be said that he did not fully com- 
 prehend all that he Avrote ; which would, hoAA^ever, be 
 in no way remarkable, for it happens now that a man 
 may Avrite what neither he nor anybody can under- 
 stand. Antoninus tells us (xii. 10) to look at things 
 and see Avhat they are, resolving them into the 
 material, the casual, and the relation, or the purpose, by 
 Avhich he seems to mean something in the nature of 
 Avhat AA"e call effect, or end. The Avord Cause is 
 the difficulty. There is the same Avord in the Sanscrit ; 
 and the subtle philosophers of India and Greece, 
 and the less subtle philosophers of modern times 
 have all used this Avord, or an equivalent Avord, in 
 a vague way. Yet the confusion sometimes may be 
 in the ineAutable ambiguity of language rather than in 
 the mind of the AAwiter, for I cannot think that some of 
 the Avisest of men did not know Avhat theA^ intended to 
 say. When Antoninus says (iv. 36), “that eAmry thing 
 that exists is in a manner the seed of that Avhich aaoU be,” 
 
46 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 he might be supposed to say what some of the Indian 
 philosophers hav^e said, and thus a profound truth might 
 be converted into a gross absurdity. But he says, “ in 
 a manner,” and in a manner he said true ; and in another 
 manner, if you mistake his meaning, he said false. 
 When Plato said, “Nothing ever is, but is alwa^'s be- 
 coming,” he delivered a text, out of which we may 
 derive something; for he destroys by it not all prac 
 tical, but all speculative notions of cause and effect. 
 The whole series of things, as they appear to us, must 
 be contemplated in time, that is in succession, and we 
 conceive or suppose intervals between one state of 
 things and another state of things, so that there is 
 priority and sequence, and interval, and Being, and a 
 ceasing to Be, and beginning and ending. But there 
 is nothing of the kind in the Nature of Things. It is 
 an everlasting continuity (iv. 45; vii. 75). When 
 Antoninus speaks of generation (x. 26), he speaks of 
 one cause acting, and then another cause taking up the 
 work, which the former left in a certain state and so 
 on; and we might perhaps conceive that he had some 
 notion like what has been called “the self-evolving 
 power of nature ;” a fine phrase indeed, the full import 
 of which I believe that the writer of it did not see, and 
 thus he laid himself open to the imputation of being a 
 follower of one of the Hindoo sects, which makes all 
 things come by evolution out of nature or matter, or 
 out of something which takes the place of deity, but is 
 not deity. I would have all men think as they please, 
 or as they can, and I only claim the same freedom which 
 I give. When a man writes anything, we may fairl}'- 
 try to find out all that his words must mean, even if 
 the result is that they mean what he did not mean ; 
 
MABCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 47 
 
 and if we find this contradiction, it is not our fault, but 
 his misfortune. Noav Antoninus is perhaps somewhat 
 in this condition in what he says (x. 26), though he 
 speaks at the end of the paragraph of the power which 
 acts, unseen by the eyes, but still no less clearly. But 
 whether in this passage (x. 26) he means that the power 
 is conceived to be in the different successive causes, or 
 in something else, nobody can tell. From other pas- 
 sages, however, I do collect that his notion of the phe- 
 nomena of the universe is what I have stated. The 
 deity works unseen, if we may use such language, and 
 perhaps I may, as Job did, or he who wrote the book 
 of Job. “In him we live and move and are,” said St. 
 Paul to the Athenians, and to show his hearers that 
 this was no new doctrine, he quoted the Greek poets. 
 One of these poets was the Stoic Cleanthes, whose 
 noble hymn to Zeus or God is an elevated expression of 
 devotion and philosophy. It deprives Nature of her 
 power and puts her under the immediate government of 
 the deity. 
 
 “ Thee all this heaven, which whirls around the earth, 
 
 Obeys and willing follows v.'here thou leadest — 
 
 Without thee, God, nothing is done on earth. 
 
 Nor in the ethereal realms, nor in the sea. 
 
 Save what the wicked through their folly do.” 
 
 Antoninus’ conviction of the existence of a divine 
 power and government was founded on his perception 
 of the order of the universe. Like Socrates (Xen. Mem. 
 iv. 3, 13, etc.), he says that though we cannot see the 
 forms of divine powers, we know that they exist, be- 
 cause we see their works. 
 
 “ To those who ask, Where hast thou seen the gods, 
 
48 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 or how dost thou comprehend that they exist and so 
 worshipest them? I answer, in the first place, that 
 they may be seen even with the eyes ; in the second 
 place, neither have I seen my own soul and yet I honor 
 it. Thus, then, Avith respect to the gods, from what I 
 constantly experience of their poAver, from this I com- 
 prehend that they exist and I venerate them ” (xii. 28, 
 and the note. Comp. Aristotle de Mundo, c. 6 ; Xen. 
 Mem. i. 4, 9 ; Cicero, Tuscul. i. 28, 29 ; St. Paul’s 
 Epistle to the Eomans, i. 19, 20 ; and Montaigne’s 
 Apology for Raimond de Sebonde, ii. c. 12). This is a 
 very old argument Avhich has ahvays had great Aveight 
 with most people and has appeared sufficient. It does 
 not acquire the least additional strength by being 
 developed in a learned treatise. It is as intelligible in 
 its simple enunciation as it can be made. If it is 
 rejected, there is no arguing Avith him Avho rejects it : 
 and if it is Avorked out into innumerable particulars, 
 the value of the evidence runs the risk of being buried 
 under a mass of Avords. 
 
 Man being conscious that he is a spiritual power, or 
 an intellectual poAver, or that he has such a power, in 
 whatever Avay he conceives that he has it — for I Avish 
 simply to state a fact — from this poAver which he has 
 in himself, he is led, as Antoninus says, to believe that 
 there is a greater poAver, Avhich as the old Stoics tell 
 us, pervades the whole universe as the intellect* per- 
 vades man. (Compare Epictetus’ Discourses, i. 14 ; 
 and Voltaire a Mad®. Xecker, vol. Ixvii. p. 278, ed. 
 Lequien.) 
 
 *I have always translated the word vovi, “intelligence” or 
 “intellect.” It appears to be the word used by the oldest Greek 
 philosophers to express the notion of “ intelligence ” as opposed to 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 49 
 
 God exists then, but what do we know of his N’ature ? 
 Antoninus says that the soul of man is an efflux from 
 the divinity. We have bodies like animals, but we have 
 reason, intelligence as the gods. Animals have life and 
 what we call instincts or natural principles of action, 
 l)ut the rational animal man alone has a rational, intel- 
 ligent soul, Antoninus insists on this continually: God 
 is in man,* and so we must constantly attend to the 
 the notion of “matter.” I have always translated the word Ad^o? 
 by “reason,” and XoyiHoi by the word “ rational,” or perhaps some- 
 times “reasonable,” as I have translated roepoi by the word “intel- 
 lectual.” Every man who has thought and who has read any philo- 
 sophical writings knows the difficulty of finding words to express 
 certain notions, how imperfectly words express these notions, and how 
 carelessly the words are often used. The various senses of the word 
 Aoyoi are enough to perplex any man. Our translators of the New 
 Testament (St. John, c. i.) have simply translated d Ad,ro5 by “the 
 word,” as the Germans translated it by “das Wort;” but in their 
 theological writings they sometimes retain the original term Logos. 
 The Germans have a term Vernuuft, which seems to come nearest to 
 our word Reason, or the necessary and absolute truths, which we 
 cannot conceive as being other than what they are. Such are what 
 some people have called the laws-of thought, the conceptions of space 
 and of time, and axioms or first principles, which need no proof and 
 cannot be proved or denied. Accordingly the Germans can say, 
 “ Got ist die hochste Vernunft,” the Supreme Reason. The Germans 
 have also a word Verstand, which seems to represent our word 
 “ understanding,” “intelligence,” “ intellect,” not as a thing absolute 
 which exists by itself, but as a thing connected with an individual 
 being, as a man. Accordingly it is the capacity of receiving impres- 
 sions (Vorstellungen, q>avra6iai). and forming from them distinct 
 ideas (Begriiie), and perceiyiug differences. I do not think that these 
 remarks will help the reader to the understanding of Antoninus, or 
 his use of the words j'ouSand A6yo%. The Emperor’s meaning must 
 be got from his own words, and if it does not agree altogether with 
 modern notions, it is not our business to farce it into agreement, but 
 simply to find out what his meaning is, if we can. 
 
 * Comp. Ep. to the Corinthians, i. 3, 17, and James iv. 8, “ Draw 
 nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.” 
 
50 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 divinity within us, for it is only in this way that we can 
 have any knowledge of the nature of God. The human 
 soul is in a sense a portion of the divinity, and the soul 
 alone has any communication with the Deity, for as he 
 says (xii. 2): “With his intellectual part alone God 
 touches the intelligence only which has flowed and 
 been derived from himself into these bodies.” In fact, 
 he says that which is hidden within a man is life — that 
 is the man himself. All the rest is vesture, covering, 
 organs, instrument, which the living man, the real* 
 man, uses for the purpose of his present existence. 
 The air is universally diffused for him who is able to 
 respire, and so for him who is willing to partake of it 
 
 * This is also Swedenborg’s doctrine of the soul. “As to what 
 concerns the soul, of which it is said that it shall live after death, it 
 is nothing else but the man himself, who lives in the body, that is, 
 the interior man, who by the body acts in the world and from whom 
 the body itself lives” (quoted by Clissold, p. 456 of “The Practical 
 Nature of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, in a 
 Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin (Whately),” second edition, 1859; 
 a book which theologians might read with profit). This is an old 
 doctrine of the soul, which has been often proclaimed, but never 
 better expressed than by the “ Auctor de Muiido,” c. 6, quoted by 
 Gataker in his “Antoninus,” p. 436. “The soul by which we live 
 and have cities and houses is invisible, but it is seen by its works; for 
 the whole method of life has been devised by it and ordered, and by 
 it is held together. In like manner we must think also about the 
 deity, who in power is most mighty, in beauty most comely, in life 
 immortal, and in virtue supreme; wherefore though he is invisible to 
 human nature, he is seen by his very works.” Other passages to the 
 same purpose are quoted by Gataker (p. 382). Bishop Butler has the 
 same as to the soul; “ Upon the whole then our organs of sense and 
 our limbs are certainly instruments, which the living persons, our- 
 selves, make use of to perceive and move with.” If this is not 
 plain enough, he also says; “ It follows that our organized bodies 
 are no more ourselves, or part of ourselves, than any other matter 
 around us.” (Compare Anton, x. 38.) 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS AMTONINUS. 
 
 51 
 
 the intelligent power, which holds within it all things, 
 is ditfused as wide and free as the air (viii. 64). It is 
 by living a divine life that man approaches to a knowl- 
 edge of the divinity.* It is by following the divinity 
 within, as Antoninus calls it, that man comes nearest 
 to the Deity, the supreme good, for man can never 
 attain to perfect agreement with his internal guide. 
 “ Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods 
 who constantly shows to them that his own soul is 
 satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that 
 it does all the demon Avishes, which Zeus hath given to 
 every man for his guardian and guide, a portion of 
 himself. And this demon is evei’y man’s understanding 
 and reason” (v. 27). 
 
 There is in man, that is in the reason, the intelli- 
 gence, a superior faculty Avhich if it is exercised rules 
 all the rest. This is the ruling faculty which Cicero 
 (De Natura Deorum, ii. 11) renders by the Latin word 
 Principatus, “ to Avhich nothing can or ought to be 
 superior.” Antoninus often uses this term, and others 
 which are equivalent. He names it (vii. 64) “ the 
 governing intelligence.” The governing faculty is the 
 master of the soul (v. 26). A man must reverence 
 
 *Tlie reader may consult Discourse V. ‘Of tlie existence and 
 nature of God,” in John Smith’s “ Select Discourses.” He has prefixed 
 as a text to this Discourse, the striking passage of Agapetus, Paraenes, 
 §3: “ He who knows himself will know God; and he who knows 
 God will be made like to God; and he will be made like to God, who 
 has become worthy of God; and he becomes worthy of God, who does 
 nothing unworthy of God, but thinks the things that are his, and 
 speaks what he thinks, and does what he speaks.” I suppose that 
 the old saying, “ Know thyself,” which is attributed to Socrates and 
 others, had a larger meaning than the narrow sense which is gener- 
 ally given to it. (Agapetus, ed. Stephan. Schoning, Franeker, 1608. 
 This volume contains also the Parseneses of Nilus.) 
 
52 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OP 
 
 only his ruling facultj^ and the divinity within him. 
 As we must reverence that which is supreme in the 
 universe, so we must reverence that which is supreme 
 in ourselves, and this is that which is of like kind with 
 tliat which is supreme in the universe (v. 21). So, as 
 riotinus says, the soul of man can only know the 
 divine, so far as it knows itself. In one passage (xi. 19) 
 Antoninus speaks of a man’s condemnation of himself, 
 Avhen the diviner part Avithin him has been over- 
 poAvered and yields to the less honorable and to the 
 perishable part, the body, and its gross pleasures. In 
 a Avord, the views of Antoninus on this matter, hoAV- 
 ever his expressions may vary, are exactly Avhat Bishop 
 Butler expresses, Avhen he speaks of “ the natural 
 supremacy of reflection or conscience,” of the faculty 
 “Avhich surveys, approves or disapproves the several 
 affections of our mind and actions of our lives.” 
 
 Much matter might be collected from Antoninus on 
 the notion of the Universe being one animated Being. 
 But all that he says amounts to no more, as Schultz re- 
 marks, than this : the soul of man is most intimately 
 united to his body, and together they make one animal, 
 Avhiclr we call man ; so the Deity is most intimately 
 united to the Avorld or the material universe, and 
 together they form one Avhole. But Antoninus did not 
 vicAv God and the material universe as the same, any 
 more than he vicAved the body and soul of man as one. 
 Antoninus has no speculations on the absolute nature 
 of the deity. It Avas not his fashion to Avaste his time 
 on Avhat man cannot understand.* He was satisfied 
 that God exists, that he governs all things, that man 
 
 ^ “ God is infinitely beyond the reach of our narrow capacities.” 
 Locke : Essay concerning the Human Understanding, ii. chap. 17. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 53 
 
 can only have an imperfect knowledge of his nature, 
 and he must attain this imperfect knowledge by 
 reverencing the divinity which is within him, and 
 keeping it pure. 
 
 From all that has been said it follows that the uni- 
 verse is administered by the Providence of God, and 
 that all things are wisely ordered. There are passages 
 in which Antoninus expresses doubts, or states different 
 possible theories of the constitution and government of 
 the Universe, but he always recurs to his fundamental 
 principle, that if Ave admit the existence of a deity, Ave 
 must also admit that he orders all things Avisely and 
 well (iv. 27 ; vi. 1 ; ix. 28 ; xii. 5, and many other pas- 
 sages). Epictetus saA"S (1. 6) that Ave can discern the 
 providence Avhich rules the AAmrld, if we possess two 
 things, the poAver of seeing all that happens with 
 respect to each thing, and a grateful disposition. 
 
 But if all things are Avisely ordered, Iioav is the 
 world so full of Avhat Ave call evil, ph3^sical and moral? 
 If, instead of saying that there is evil in the Avorld, Ave 
 use the expression Avhich I have used, “ Avhat Ave call 
 evil,” we have partl}”^ anticipated the emperor’s ansAA^er. 
 We see and feel and know imperfectly very feAV things 
 in the feAv years that we live, and all the knoAvledge 
 and all the experience of all the human race is positive 
 ignorance of the Avhole, which is infinite. How as our 
 reason teaches us that everything is in some way 
 related to and connected Avith every other thing, all 
 notion of oauI as being in the universe of things is a 
 contradiction, tor if the Avhole comes from and is 
 gOA^erned by an intelligent being, it is impossible to 
 conceive anything in it Avhich tends to the evil or 
 destruction of the Avhole (viii. 55 ; x. 6). Everything 
 
54 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 is in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists. 
 We might imagine the solar system resolved into its 
 elemental parts, and yet the whole would still subsist 
 “ ever young and perfect.” 
 
 All things, all forms, are dissolved and new forms 
 appear. All living things undergo the change which 
 we call death. If we call death an evil, then all 
 change is an evil. Living beings also suffer pain, and 
 man suffers most of all, for he suffers both in and by 
 his body and by his intelligent part. Men suffer also 
 from one another, and ])erhaps the largest part of 
 human suffering comes to man from those whom he 
 calls his brothers. Antoninus says (viii. 55), “Gen- 
 erally, wickedness does no harm at all to the universe ; 
 and particularly, the wickedness [of one man] does 
 no harm to another. It is only harmful to him who 
 has it in his power to be released from it as soon as 
 he shall choose.” The first part of this is perfectly 
 consistent with the doctrine that the whole can sus- 
 tain no evil or harm. The second part must be 
 explained by the Stoic principle that there is no evil 
 in anything which is not in our power. What wrong 
 we suffer from another is his evil, not ours. But this 
 is an admission that there is evil in a sort, for he who 
 does wrong does evil, and if others can endure the 
 wrong, still there is evil in the wrong doer. Anton- 
 inus (xi. 18) gives many excellent precepts with 
 respect to wrongs and injuries, and his precepts are 
 practical. He teaches us to bear what we cannot 
 avoid, and his lessons may be just as useful to him 
 who denies the being and the government of God as 
 to him who believes in both. There is no direct 
 answer in Antoninus to the objections which may be 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 55 
 
 made to the existence and providence of God because 
 of the moral disorder and suffering which are in the 
 world, except this answer which he makes in reply to 
 the supposition that even the best men may be extin- 
 guished by death. He says if it is so, we may be sure 
 that if it ought to have been otherwise, the gods 
 would have ordered it otherwise (xii. 5). His convic- 
 tion of the wisdom which we may observe in the gov- 
 ernment of the world is too strong to be disturbed by 
 any apparent irregularities in the order of things. 
 That these disorders exist is a fact, and those who 
 would conclude from them against the being and gov- 
 ernment of God conclude too hastily. We all admit 
 that there is an order in the material world, a Hature, 
 in the sense in which that word has been explained, a 
 constitution, what we call a system, a relation of parts 
 to one another and a fitness of the whole for some- 
 thing. So in the constitution of plants and of animals 
 there is an order, a fitness for some end. Sometimes 
 the order, as we conceive it, is interrupted, and the 
 end, as we conceive it, is not attained. The seed, the 
 plant or the animal sometimes perishes before it has 
 passed through all its changes and done all its uses. 
 It is according to Hature, that is a fixed order, for 
 some to perish earl}^ and for others to do all their uses 
 and leave successors to take their place. So man 
 has a corporeal and intellectual and moral consti- 
 tution fit for certain uses, and, on the whole, man 
 performs these uses, dies and leaves other men 
 in his place. So society exists, and a social state 
 is manifestly the Hatural State of man, the State 
 for which his Hature fits him ; and society amid 
 innumerable irregularities and disorders still sub- 
 sists ; and perhaps we may say that the history of 
 
56 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the past and our present knowledge give us a reason- 
 able hope that its disorders will diminish, and that 
 order, its governing principle, may be more firmly 
 established. As order then, a fixed order, we may 
 say, subject to deviations, real or apparent, must be 
 admitted to exist in the whole IS'ature of things, that 
 which we call disorder or evil as it seems to us, does 
 not in any wmy alter the fact of the general constitu- 
 tion of things having a Nature or fixed order. No- 
 body will conclude from the existence of disorder that 
 order is not the rule, for the existence of order both 
 physical and moral is proved by daily experience and 
 all past experience. We cannot conceive how the 
 order of the universe is maintained ; we cannot even 
 conceive how our own life from day to day is con- 
 tinued, nor how we perform the simplest movements 
 of the body, nor how we grow and think and act, 
 though we know many of the conditions which are 
 necessary for all these functions. Knowing nothing, 
 then, of the unseen power which acts in ourselves 
 except by what is done, we know nothing of the 
 power which acts through what we call all time and 
 all space ; but seeing that there is a nature or fixed 
 order in all things known to us, it is conformable 
 to the nature of our minds to believe that this uni- 
 versal Nature has a cause which operates continually, 
 and that we are totally unalfie to speculate on the 
 reason of any of those disorders or evils w^hich we 
 perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be 
 collected from all that Antoninus has said.* 
 
 * Clean tiles says in his hymn: 
 
 “ For all things good and bad to One thou fonnest, 
 
 So that One everlasting reason governs all.” 
 
 See Bishop Butler’s Sermons. Sermon XV. “ Upon the Ignorance 
 ol Man.” 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 57 
 
 The origin of evil is an old question. Achilles tells 
 Priam (Ihad, 24, 527) that Zeus has two casks, one 
 filled with good things and the other with bad, and 
 that he gives to men out of each according to his 
 pleasure; and so we must be content, for we cannot 
 alter the will of Zeus. One of the Greek commenta- 
 tors asks how must we reconcile this doctrine with 
 what we find in the first book of the Odyssey, where 
 the king of the gods says, Men say that evil comes to 
 them from us, but they bring it on themselves through 
 their own folly. The answer is plain enough, even to 
 the Greek commentator. The poets make both Achilles 
 and Zeus speak appropriately to their several charac- 
 ters. Indeed, Zeus says plainly that men do attribute 
 their sufferings to the gods, but they do it falsely, for 
 they are the cause of their own sorrows. 
 
 Epictetus, in his Encheiridion (c. 27), makes short work 
 of the question of evil. He sa}^s; “As a mark is not 
 set up for the purpose of missing it, so neither does the 
 nature of evil exist in the Universe.” This will appear 
 obscure enough to those who are not acquainted with 
 Epictetus, but he ahvays knoAvs Avhat he is talking 
 about. We do not set up a mark in order to miss it, 
 though we may miss it. God, whose existence Epic- 
 tetus assumes, has not ordered all things so that his 
 purpose shall fail. Whatever there may be of Avhat 
 we call evil, the Hature of evdl, as he expresses it, does 
 not exist — that is, evil is not a part of the constitution 
 or nature of Things. If there were a principle of eA^il 
 in the constitution of things, evil would no longer be 
 evil, as Simplicius argues, but evil would be good. 
 Simplicius (c. 34, [27]) has a long and curious dis- 
 course on this text of Epictetus, and it is amusing 
 and instructive. 
 
58 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 One passage more will conclude this matter. It 
 contains all that the emperor could say (ii. 11): “To 
 go from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing 
 to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in 
 evil ; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no 
 concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in 
 a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? 
 Hut in truth they do exist, and they do care for human 
 things, and they have put all the means in man’s power 
 to enable him not to fall into real evils. And as to the 
 rest, if there was anything evil they would have pro- 
 vided for this also, that it should be altogether in a 
 man’s power not to fall into it. But that which does 
 not make a man worse, how can it make a man’s life 
 worse ? But neither through ignorance, nor having 
 the knowledge, but not the power to guai’d against or 
 correct these things, is it possible that the nature of 
 the Universe has overlooked them ; nor is it possible 
 that it has made so great a mistake, either through 
 want of power or want of skill, that good and evil 
 should happen indiscriminately to the good and the 
 bad. But death certainly and life, honor and dishonor, 
 pain and pleasure — all these things equally happen to 
 good and bad men, being things which make us neither 
 better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor 
 evil.” 
 
 The Ethical part of Antoninus’ Philosophy follows 
 from his general principles. The end of all his philosophy 
 is to live comformably to Nature, both a man’s OAvn 
 nature and the nature of the UnNerse. Bishop Butler 
 has explained Avhat the Greek philosophers meant when 
 they spoke of living according to Nature, and he says 
 that when it is explained, as he has explained it and as 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 59 
 
 they understood it, it is “a manner of speaking not 
 loose and undeterminate, but clear and distinct, strictly 
 just and true.” To live according to Nature is to live 
 according to a man’s whole nature, not according to a 
 part of it) and to reverence the divinity within him as 
 the governor of all his actions. “To the rational 
 animal the same act is according to nature and accord- 
 ing to reason”* (vii. 11). That which is done contrary 
 to reason is also an act contrary to nature, to the whole 
 nature, though it is certainly comformable to some part 
 of man’s nature, or it could not be done. Man is made 
 for action, not for idleness or pleasure. As plants and 
 animals do the uses of their nature, so man must do his 
 (v. 1). 
 
 Man must also live comformably to the universal 
 nature, comformably to the nature of all things of which 
 he is one; and as a citizen of a political community he 
 must direct his life and actions with reference to those 
 among whom, and for whom, among other purposes, 
 he lives.f A man must not retire into solitude and 
 cut himself off from his fellow men. He must be 
 ever active to do his part in the great whole. All 
 men are his kin, not only in blood but still more by 
 participating in the same intelligence and by being a 
 portion of the same divinity. A man cannot really be 
 injured by his brethren, for no act of theirs can make 
 him bad, and he must not be angry with them nor 
 hate them: “For we are made for co-operation, like 
 feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper 
 and lower teeth. To act against one another then is 
 
 * This is what Juvenal means when he says (xiv. 321) — 
 Nunquam aliud Xatura aliud Sapientia dicit. 
 
 f See viii. 52; and Persius iii. 66. 
 
60 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 contrary to nature ; and it is acting against one another 
 to be vexed and to turn away ” (ii. 1). 
 
 Further he says : “ Take pleasure in one thing and 
 rest in it, in passing from one social act to another 
 social act, thinking of God ” (vi. 7). Again : “ Love 
 mankind. Follow God ” (vii. 31). It is the charac- 
 teristic of the rational soul for a man to love his neigh- 
 bor (xi. 1). Antoninus teaches in various passages 
 the forgiveness of injuries, and we know that he also 
 practiced what he taught. Bishop Butler remarks 
 that “ this divine precept to forgive injuries and to 
 love our enemies, though to be met with in Gentile 
 moralists, yet is in a peculiar sense a precept of 
 Christianity, as our Saviour has insisted more upon it 
 than on any other single virtue.” The practice of this 
 prece])t is the most difficult of all virtues. Antoninus 
 often enforces it and gives us aid toward following it. 
 When we are injured, we feel anger and resentment, 
 and the feeling is natural, just and useful for the con- 
 servation of society. It is useful that wrong doers 
 should feel the natural consequences of their actions, 
 among which is the disapprobation of society and the 
 resentment of him who is wronged. But revenge, in 
 the proper sense of that word, must not be practiced. 
 “ The best way of avenging thyself,” says the emperor, 
 “ is not to become like the wrong doer.” It is plain by 
 this that he does not mean that we should in any case 
 practice revenge; but he says to those who talk of 
 revenging wrongs. Be not like him who has done the 
 wrong. Socrates in the Crito (c. 10) says the same in 
 other words, and St. Paul (Ep. to the Eomans, xii. 17). 
 “ AYhen a man has done thee any wrong, immediately 
 consider with what opinion about good or evil he has 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 61 
 
 done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt 
 pity him and wilt neither wonder nor be an^ry ” 
 (vii. 26). Antoninus would not deny that wrong natu- 
 rally produces the feeling of anger and resentment, for 
 this is implied in the recommendation to reflect on the 
 nature of the man’s mind who has done the wrong, 
 and then you will have pity instead of resentment ; and 
 so it comes to the same as St. Paul’s advice to be angry 
 and sin not ; which, as Butler well ex})lains it, is not a 
 recommendation to be angry, which nobody needs, for 
 anger is a natural passion, but it is a warning against 
 allowing anger to lead us into sin. In short the 
 emperor’s doctrine about wrongful acts is this : wrong 
 doers do not know what good and bad are ; they offend 
 out of ignorance, and in the sense of the Stoics this is 
 true. Though this kind of ignorance will never be 
 admitted as a legal excuse, and ought not to be 
 admitted as a full excuse in any way by society, there 
 may be grievous injuries, such as it is in a man’s power 
 to forgive without harm to society ; and if he forgives 
 because he sees that his enemies know not what they 
 do, he is acting in the spirit of the sublime prayer, 
 “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
 do.” 
 
 The emperor’s moral philosophy was not a feeble, 
 narrow system, which teaches a man to look directly 
 to his own happiness, though a man’s happiness or 
 tranquillity is indirectly promoted by living as he ought 
 to do. A man must live conformably to the universal 
 nature, which means, as the emperor explains it in 
 many passages, that a man’s actions must be conform- 
 able to his true relations to all other human beings, 
 both as a citizen of a political cominunity and as a 
 
62 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 member of the whole human family. This implies, 
 and he often expresses it in the most forcible language, 
 that a man’s words and actions, so far as they affect 
 others, must be measured by a fixed rule, which in 
 their consistency with the conservation and the 
 interests of the particular society of which he is a 
 member, and of the whole human race. To live com- 
 formably to such a rule, a man must use his rational 
 faculties in order to discern clearly the consequences 
 and full effect of all his actions and of the actions of 
 others ; he must not live a life of contemplation and 
 reflection only, though he must often retire within 
 himself to calm and purify his soul by thought,* but 
 he must mingle in the work of man and be a fellow- 
 laborer for the general good. 
 
 A man should have an object or purpose in life, that 
 he may direct all his energies to it; of course a good 
 object (ii. 7). He who has not one object or purpose 
 of life, cannot be one and the same all through his life 
 (xi. 21). Bacon has a remark to the same effect, on 
 the best means of “ reducing of the mind unto virtue 
 and good estate; which is the electing and propound- 
 ing unto a man’s self good and virtuous ends of his life, 
 such as may be in a reasonable sort within his compass 
 to attain.” He is a happy man who has been wise 
 enough to do this when he was young and has had the 
 opportunities; but the emperor seeing well that a man 
 cannot always be so wise in his youth, encourages him- 
 self to do it when he can, and not to let life slip away 
 before he has begun. He who can propose to himself 
 good and virtuous ends of life, and be true to them, 
 cannot fail to live comformably to his own interest and 
 
 * Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo. — Pcrsius, iv. 31. 
 
MARCUS A UEELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 63 
 
 the universal interest, for in the nature of things they 
 are one. If a thing is not good for the hive, it is not 
 good for the bee (vi. 54). 
 
 One passage may end this -matter. “ If the gods have 
 determined about me and about the things which must 
 happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not 
 easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and 
 as to doing me harm, why should they have any desire 
 toward that? For what advantage woidd result to 
 them from this or to the whole, which is the special 
 object of their providence? But if they have not de- 
 termined about me individually, they have certainly 
 determined about the whole at least ; and the things 
 which happen by way of sequence in this general 
 arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and to be 
 content with them. But if they determine about 
 nothing — which it is wicked to believe, or if we do 
 believe it, let us neither sacrifice nor pray nor swear 
 by them, nor do anything else which we do as if the 
 gods were present and lived with us — but if, however, 
 the gods determine about none of the things which con- 
 cern us, I am able to determine about myself, and I can 
 inquire about that which is useful ; and that is useful to 
 every man which is conformable to his own constitution 
 and nature. But my nature is rational and social ; and 
 my city and country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome ; 
 but so far as I am a man, it is the world. The things 
 then which are useful to these cities are alone useful 
 to me” (vi. 44). 
 
 It would be tedious, and it is not necessary to state 
 the emperor’s opinions on all the ways in which a man 
 may profitably use his understanding toward perfect- 
 ing himself in practical virtue. The passages to this 
 
G4 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 ]inrpose are in all parts of his book, but as they are in 
 no order or connection, a man must use the book a 
 long time before he will find out all that is in it. A 
 few words may be added here. If we analyze all other 
 tljings, we find how insufficient thej^ are for human life 
 and hoAV truly worthless many of them are. Virtue 
 alone is indivisible, one, and perfectly satisfying. The 
 notion of Virtue cannot be considered vague or un- 
 settled, because a man may find it difficult to explain 
 the notion fully to himself or to expound it to others 
 in such a Avay as to ]>revent cavilling. Virtue is a 
 Avhole,and no more consists of parts than man’s intelli- 
 gence does ; and yet we speak of A'ai'ious intellectual 
 faculties as a convenient way of expressing the various 
 powers Avhich man’s intellect shows by his Avorks. In 
 the same Avay we may speak of various virtues or parts 
 of virtue, in a practical sense, for the purpose of shoAV- 
 ing Avhat particular virtues Ave ought to practice in 
 order to the exercise of the Avhole of virtue — that is, as 
 much as man’s nature is capable of. 
 
 The prime principle in man’s constitution is social. 
 The next in order is not to yield to the persuasions of 
 the body when they are not conformable to the rational 
 principle, Avhich must govern. The third is freedom 
 from error and from deception. “ Let then the ruling 
 jirinciple holding fast to these things go straight on, 
 and it has what is its OAAm” (Aui. 55). The emperor 
 selects justice as the virtue Avhich is the basis of all 
 the rest (x. 11), and this had been said long before his 
 time. 
 
 It is true that all people have some notion of Avhat is 
 meant by justice as a disposition of the mind, and some 
 notion about acting in conformity to this disposition; 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 65 
 
 but experience shows that men’s notions about justice 
 are as confused as their actions are inconsistent with 
 the true notion of justice. The emperor’s notion of 
 justice is clear enough, but not practical enough for all 
 mankind. “ Let there be freedom from perturbations 
 with respect to the things which come from the exter- 
 nal cause, and let there be justice in the things done by 
 virtue of the internal cause — that is, let there be move- 
 ment and action terminating in this, in social acts, for 
 this is according to thy nature” (ix. 31). In another 
 place (ix. 1) he says that “he who acts unjustly acts 
 impiousl}^” which follows of course from all that he 
 says in various places. He insists on the practice of 
 truth as a virtue and as a means to virtue, which no 
 doubt it is: for lying, even in indifferent things, 
 weakens the understanding, and lying maliciously is 
 as great a moral offense as a man can be guilty of, 
 viewed both as showing an habitual disposition and 
 viewed with respect to consequences. He couples the 
 notion of justice with action. A man must not pride 
 himself on having some fine notion of justice in his 
 head, but he must exhibit his justice in act, like St. 
 James’ notion of faith. But this is enough. 
 
 The Stoics and Antoninus among them call some 
 things beautiful and some ugly, and as the}'" are beauti- 
 ful so they are good, and as they are ugly so they are 
 evil or bad (ii. 1). All these things good and evil are 
 in our power, absolutely some of the stricter Stoics 
 would say ; in a manner only, as those who would not 
 depart altogether from common sense would say ; prac- 
 tically they are to a great degree in the power of some 
 persons and in some circumstances, but in a small 
 degree only in other persons and in other circum- 
 
66 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OP 
 
 stances. The 8toics maintain man’s free will as to the 
 things which are in his power; for as to the things 
 which are out of his power, free will terminating in 
 very action is of course excluded by tlie terms of the 
 expression. I hardly know if we can discover exactly 
 Antoninus’ notion of the free will of man, nor is the 
 question worth the inquiiy. What he does mean and 
 does say is intelligible. All the things which are not 
 in our power are indifferent : they are neither good 
 nor bad morally. Such are life, health, wealth, power, 
 disease, poverty and death. Life and death are all 
 men’s portion. Health, wealth, power, disease and 
 poverty happen to men indifferently to the good and 
 to the bad ; to those who live according to nature and 
 to those who do not.* “Life,” says the emperor, “is 
 a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is 
 oblivion” (ii. 17). After speaking of those men who 
 have disturbed the world and then died, and of the 
 death of philosophers such as Heraclitus and Democri- 
 tus, who was destroyed by lice, and of Socrates, whom 
 other lice (his enemies) destroyed, he says: “What 
 means all this? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made 
 the voyage, thou art come to shore ; get out. If 
 indeed to another life, there is no want of gods, not 
 even there. But if to a state without sensation, thou 
 wilt cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be 
 a slave to the vessel which is as much inferior as that 
 
 * “-All events come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous 
 and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean,” 
 etc. Ecclesiastes, ix. v. 2; and v. 3; “This is an evil among all 
 things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all. ” 
 In what sense “evil ” is meant here seems rather doubtful. There is 
 no doubt about the Emperor’s meaning. Compare Epictetus, Encheiri- 
 dion, c. i., etc.; and the doctrine of the Brachmans (Strabo, p. 713, 
 ed. Cas.). 
 
MARCUS A URELtUS ANTONINUS. 6? 
 
 which serves it is superior ; for the one is intelligence 
 and deity ; the other is earth and corruption ” (iii. 3). 
 It is not death that a man should fear, but he should 
 fear never beginning to live according to nature 
 (xii. 1). Every man should live in such a way as 
 to discharge his duty, and to trouble himself about 
 nothing else. He should live such a life that he 
 shall always be ready for death, and shall depart 
 content when the summons comes. For what is 
 death ? “ A cessation of the impressions through the 
 
 senses, and of the pulling of the strings which move 
 the appetites and of the discursive movements of the 
 thoughts, and of the service to the flesh (vi. 28). 
 Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature 
 (iv. 5). In another passage, the exact meaning of 
 which is perhaps doubtful (ix. 3), he speaks of the child 
 which leaves the womb, and so he says the soul at 
 death leaves its envelope. As the child is born or 
 comes into life by leaving the womb, so the soul may 
 on leaving the body pass into another existence which 
 is perfect. I am not sure if this is the emperor’s 
 meaning. Butler compares it with a passage in Strabo 
 (p. 713) about the Brachmans’ notion of death being 
 the birth into real life and a happy life to those who 
 have philosophized; and he thinks that Antoninus 
 may allude to this opinion.* 
 
 * Seneca (Ep. 102) lias the same, whether an expression of his 
 own opinion, or merely a fine saying of others employed to embellish 
 his writings, I know not. After speaking of the child being prepared 
 in the womb to live this life, he adds, “ Sic per hoc spatium, quod ah 
 infantia patet in senectutem, in alium naturae sumimur partum. Alia 
 origo nos expectat, alius rerum status.” See Ecclesiastes, xii. 7; and 
 Lucan, i. 457: 
 
 “Longae, canitis si cognita, vitae 
 Mors media est.” 
 
68 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Antoninus’ opinion of a future life is nowhere clearly 
 expressed. Ilis doctrine of the nature of the soul of 
 necessity implies that it does not perish absolutely, for 
 a portion of the divinity cannot perish. The opinion 
 is at least as old as the time of Epicharmus and Euri- 
 pides ; what comes from earth goes back to earth, and 
 what comes from heaven, the divinity, returns to him 
 who gave it. But I find nothing clear in Antoninus 
 as to the notion of the man existing after death so as 
 to be conscious of his sameness with that soul which 
 occupied his vessel of clay. He seems to be perplexed 
 on this matter, and finally to have rested in this, that 
 God or the gods will do whatever is best and consist- 
 ent with the university of things. 
 
 Nor, I think, does he speak conclusively on another 
 Stoic doctrine, which some Stoics practiced, the antici- 
 pating the regular course of nature by a man’s own 
 act. The reader will find some passages in which this 
 is touched on, and he may make of them what he can. 
 But there are passages in which the emperor encour- 
 ages himself to wait for the end patiently and with 
 tranquillity ; and certainly it is consistent with all his 
 best teaching that a man should bear all that falls to 
 his lot and do useful acts as long as he lives. He 
 should not, therefore, abridge the time of his useful- 
 ness by his own act. Whether he contemplates any 
 possible cases in which a man should die by his own 
 hand, I cannot tell, and the matter is not worth a 
 curious inquiry, for I believe it would not lead to any 
 certain result as to his opinion on this point I do not 
 think that Antoninus, who never mentions Seneca, 
 though he must have known all about him, would have 
 agreed with Seneca when he gives as a reason for 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 69 
 
 suicide, that the eternal law, whatever he means, has 
 made nothing better for us than this, that it has given 
 us only one way of entering into life and many ways 
 of going out of it. The ways of going out indeed are 
 many, and that is a good reason for a man taking care 
 of himself.* 
 
 Happiness was not the direct object of a Stoic’s life. 
 There is no rule of life contained in the precept that a 
 man should pursue his own happiness. Many men 
 think that they are seeking happiness when they are 
 only seeking the gratification of some particular pas- 
 sion, the strongest that they have. The end of a man 
 is, as already explained, to live conformably to nature, 
 and he will thus obtain happiness, tranquillity of mind 
 and contentment (iii. 12; viii. 1, and other places). As 
 a means of living conformably to nature he must study 
 the four chief virtues, each of which has its proper 
 sphere : wisdom, or the knowledge of good and evil ; 
 justice, or the giving to every unan his due; fortitude, 
 or the enduring of labor and pain ; and temperance, 
 which is moderation in all things. By thus living con- 
 formably to nature the Stoic obtained all that he 
 wished or expected. His reward was in his virtuous 
 life, and he was satisfied with that. Some Greek poet 
 long ago wrote : 
 
 O O 
 
 For virtue only of all human things 
 
 Takes her reward not from the hands of others. 
 
 Virtue herself rewards the toils of virtue. 
 
 Some of the Stoics indeed expressed themselves in 
 very arrogant, absurd terms, about the wise man’s self 
 
 *See Plinius, H. N. ii. c. 7; Seneca, De Provid. c. 6; and Ep. 70; 
 “Nihil melius aeterna lex,” etc. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF MARCtlS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 sufficiency ; they elevated him to the rank of a deity.* 
 But these were only talkers and lecturers, such as those 
 in all ages who utter fine words, know little of human 
 affairs, and care only for notoriety. Epictetus and 
 Antoninus both by precept and example labored to 
 improve themselves and others ; and if we discover 
 imperfections in their teaching, we must still honor 
 these great men who attempted to show that there is 
 in man’s nature and in the constitution of things 
 sufficient reason for living a virtuous life. It is diffi- 
 cult enough to live as we ought to live, difficult even 
 for any man to live in such a way as to satisfy himself, 
 if he exercises only in a moderate degree the power of 
 reflecting upon and reviewing his own conduct ; and if 
 all men cannot be brought to the same opinions in 
 morals and religion, it is at least worth while to give 
 them good reasons for as much as they can be per- 
 suaded to accept. 
 
 * J. Smith in his Select Discourses on “ the Excellency and Noble- 
 ness of True Religion ” (c. vi.)has remarked on this Stoical arrogance. 
 He finds it in Seneca and others. In Seneca certainly, and perhaps 
 something of it in Epictetus; but it is not in Antoninus. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS 
 
 FROM 
 
 ‘SEEKERS AFTER GOD, 
 
 BY 
 
 Eev. F. W. FAEEAE, D.D., F.E.S., 
 
 Canon of Westminster. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF AN EMPEEOR. 
 
 The life of the noblest of Pagan Emperors may well 
 follow that of the noblest of Pagan slaves. Their g/ory 
 shines the purer and brighter from the midst ot a cor- 
 rupt and deplorable society. Epictetus showed that a 
 Phrygian slave could live a life of the loftiest exalta- 
 tion; Aurelius proved that a Roman Emperor could 
 live a life of the deepest humility. The one — a for- 
 eigner, feeble, deformed, ignorant, boim in squalor, bred 
 in degradation, the despised chattel of a despicable 
 freedman, surrounded by every depressing, ignoble, 
 and pitiable circumstance of life — showed how one 
 who seemed born to be a wretch could win noble hap- 
 piness and immortal memory ; the other — a Roman, 
 a patrician, strong, of heavenly beauty, of noble ances- 
 tors, almost born to the purple, the favorite of Emper- 
 ors, the greatest conqueror, the greatest philosopher, 
 the greatest ruler of his time — proved forever that it 
 is possible to be virtuous, and tender, and holjq and 
 contented in the midst of sadness, even on an irrespon- 
 sible and imperial throne. Strange that, of the two, 
 the Emperor is even sweeter, more simple, more ad- 
 
74 
 
 ESSAY OiV MAMCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 mirable, more humbly and touchingly resigned, than 
 the slave. In him, Stoicism loses all its haughty self- 
 assertion, all its impracticable paradox, for a manly 
 melancholy which at once troubles and charms the 
 heart. “ It seems,” says M. Martha, “ that in him the 
 philosophy of heathendom grows less proud, draws 
 nearer and nearer to a Christianity which it ignored or 
 which it despised, and is ready to fling itself into the 
 arms of the ‘Unknown God.’ In the sad Meditations 
 of Aurelius we And a pure serenity, sweetness, and 
 docility to the commands of God, which before him 
 were unknown, and which Christian grace has alone 
 surpassed. If he has not yet attained to charity in all 
 that fullness of meaning which Christianity has given to 
 the word, he has already gained its unction, and one 
 cannot read his book, unique in the history of Pagan 
 philosophy, without thinking of the sadness of Pascal 
 and the gentleness of Fenelon. We must pause before 
 this soul, so lofty and so pure, to contemplate ancient 
 virtue in its softest brilliancy, to see the moral delicacy 
 to which profane doctrines have attained — how they 
 laid down their pride, and how penetrating a grace 
 they have found in their new simplicity. To make the 
 example yet more striking. Providence, which, accord- 
 ing to the Stoics, does nothing by chance, determined 
 that the example of these simple virtues should bloom 
 in the midst of all human grandeur — that charity 
 should be taught by the successor of blood-stained 
 Caesars, and humbleness of heart by an Emperor.” 
 Aurelius has always exercised a powerful fascination 
 over the minds of eminent men. “ If you set aside, 
 for a moment, the contemplation of the Christian veri- 
 ties,” says the eloquent and thoughtful Montesquieu, 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 75 
 
 “ search throughout all nature, and you will not find a 
 grander object than the Antonines. . . . One feels 
 a secret pleasure in speaking of this Emperor ; one 
 cannot read his life without a softening feeling of 
 emotion. He produces such an effect upon our minds 
 that we think better of ourselves, because he inspires 
 us with a better opinion of mankind.” “ It is more 
 delightful,” says the great historian, Niebuhr, to speak 
 of Marcus Aurelius than of any man in history; for if 
 there is any sublime human virtue it is his. He was 
 certainly the noblest character of his time, and I know 
 no other man who combined such unaffected kindness, 
 mildness, and humility, with such conscientiousness 
 and severity toward himself. We possess innumerable 
 busts of him, for every Roman of his time w'as anxious 
 to possess his portrait, and if there is anywhere an ex- 
 pression of virtue it is in the heavenly features of 
 Marcus Aurelius.” 
 
 Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26, a. d. 121. 
 His more correct designation would be Marcus Anton- 
 inus, but since he bore several different names at dif- 
 ferent periods of his life, and since at that age nothing 
 was more common than a change of designation, it is 
 hardly worth while to alter the name by which he is 
 most popularly recognized. His father, Annius Yerus, 
 who died in his Prmtorship, drew his blood from a 
 line of illustrious men who claimed descent from Numa, 
 the second King of Rome. His mother, Domitia Cal- 
 villa, was also a lady of consular and kingly race. 
 The character of both seems to have been worthy of 
 their high dignity. Of his father he can have known 
 little, since Annius died when Aurelius was a mere 
 infant ; but in his Meditations he has left us a grateful 
 
76 
 
 ESSA Y ON MARCUS A UR ELI US. 
 
 memorial of both his parents. He says that from his 
 grandfather he learned (or, might have learned) good 
 morals and the government of his temper ; from the 
 reputation and remembrance of his father, modesty 
 and manliness ; from his mother, piety, and benefi- 
 cence, and abstinence not only from evil deeds., but even 
 from evil thoughts ; and, further, simplicity of life far 
 removed from the habits of the rich. 
 
 The childhood and boyhood of Aurelius fell during 
 the reign of Hadrian. The times were better than 
 those which we have contemplated in the reigns of the 
 Caesars. After the suicide of Nero and the brief reigns 
 of Galba and Otho, the Roman world had breathed more 
 freely for a time under the rough good humor of Ves- 
 pasian and the philosophic virtue of Titus. The reign 
 of Domitian, indeed, who succeeded his brother Titus, 
 was scarcely less terrible and infamous than that of 
 Caius or of Nero ; but that prince, shortly before his 
 murder, had dreamed that a golden neck had grown 
 out of his own, and interpreted the dream to indicate 
 that a better race of princes should follow him. The 
 dream was fulfilled. Whatever may have been their 
 other faults, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, were wise and 
 kind-hearted rulers ; Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aure- 
 lius were among the very gentlest and noblest sovereigns 
 whom the world has ever seen. 
 
 Hadrian, though an able, indefatigable, and, on the 
 whole, beneficial Emperor, was a man whose charac- 
 ter was stained with serious faults. It is, however, 
 greatly to his honor that he recognized in Aurelius, at 
 the early age of six years, the germs of those extra- 
 ordinary virtues which afterward blessed the empire 
 and elevated the sentiments of mankind, “ Hadrian’s 
 
B7 CANON FABBAR. 
 
 77 
 
 held and sinful habits left him,” says ISTiebuhr, “ when 
 he gazed on the sweetness of that innocent child. 
 Playing on the bo^^’s paternal name of Verus, he 
 called him Yerissimus, ‘ the most true.’ ” It is inter- 
 esting to find that this trait of character was so early 
 developed in one who thought that all men “should 
 speak as they think, with an accent of heroic verity.” 
 
 Toward the end of his long reign, worn out with 
 disease and weariness, Hadrian, being childless, had 
 adopted as his son L. Ceionius Commodus, a man who 
 had few recommendations but his personal beauty. 
 Upon his death, wdiich took place a year afterward, 
 Hadrian, assembling the senators round his sick bed, 
 adopted and presented to them as their future Emperor 
 Arrius Antoninus, better known by the surname of 
 Pius, which he won by his gratitude to the memory of 
 his predecessor. Had Aurelius been older — he was 
 then but seventeen — it is known that Hadrian would 
 have chosen him, and not Antoninus, for his heir. The 
 latter, indeed, who w^as then fifty two years old, was 
 only selected on the express condition that he should 
 in turn adopt both Marcus Aurelius and the son of the 
 deceased Ceionius. Thus, at the age of seventeen, 
 Aurelius, who, even from his infancy, had been loaded 
 with conspicuous distinctions, saw himself the ac- 
 knowledged heir to the empire of the world. 
 
 We are happily able, mainly from his own writings, 
 to give some sketch of the influences and the educa- 
 tion which had formed him for this exalted station. 
 
 He was brought up in the house of his grandfather, 
 a man who had been three times consul. He makes it 
 a matter of congratulation and thankfulness to the 
 gods, that he had not been sent to any public school. 
 
78 
 
 BSSA T ON MABCU8 A UBELIU8. 
 
 Avhere he would have run the risk of being tainted by 
 that frightful corruption into which, for many years, 
 the Roman youth had fallen. He expresses a sense of 
 obligation to his great-grandfather for having supplied 
 him with good teachers at home, and for the conviction 
 that on such things a man should spend liberally. 
 There was nothing jealous, barren, or illiberal, in the 
 training he received. He was fond of boxing, wrest- 
 ling, running ; he was an admirable player at ball, and 
 he was fond of the perilous excitement of hunting the 
 wild boar. Thus, his healthy sports, his serious studies, 
 his moral instruction, his public dignities and duties, 
 all contributed to form his character in a beautiful and 
 manly mold. There are, however, three respects in 
 which his education seems especially worthy of notice ; 
 I mean the diligence, the gratitude, and the hardiness 
 in which he was encouraged by others, and which he 
 practiced with all the ardor of generous conviction. 
 
 1. In the best sense of the word, Aurelius was dili- 
 gent. He alludes more than once in his Meditations 
 to the inestimable value of time, and to his ardent 
 desire to gain more leisure for intellectual jnirsuits. He 
 flung himself with his usual undeviating steadfastness 
 of purpose into every branch of study, and though he 
 deliberately abandoned rhetoric, he toiled hard at 
 philosophy, at the discipline of arms, at the adminis- 
 tration of business, and at the difficult study of Roman 
 jurisprudence. One of the acquisitions for which he 
 ex]U’esses gratitude to his tutor Rusticus, is that of 
 reading carefully, and not being satisfied with the 
 superlicial understanding of a book. In fact, so stren- 
 uous was his labor, and so great his abstemiousness, 
 that his health suffered by the combination of the two. 
 
BY CANON FABRAR. 
 
 79 
 
 2. His opening remarks show that he remembered 
 all his teachers — even the most insignificant — with 
 sincere gratitude. He regarded each one of them as a 
 man from whom something could be learned, and from 
 whom he actually did learn that something. Hence 
 the honorable respect — a respect as honorable to him- 
 self as to them — which he paid to Fronto, to Husticus, 
 to Julius Proculus, and others whom his noble and 
 conscientious gratitude raised to the highest dignities 
 of the State. He even thanks the gods that “ he made 
 haste to place those who brought him up in the station 
 of honor which they seemed to desire, without putting 
 them off with mere hojpes of his doing it some time 
 after, because they were then still young.” He Avas 
 far the superior of these men, not only socially but 
 even morally and intellectually ; yet from the height 
 of his exalted rank and character he delighted to asso- 
 ciate Avith them on the most friendly terms, and to 
 treat them, even till his death, with affection and 
 honor, to place their likenesses among his household 
 gods, and visit their sepulchres with wreaths and 
 victims. 
 
 3. His hardiness and self-denial were perhaps still 
 more remarkable. I Avish that those boys of our day, 
 Avho think it undignified to travel second-class, Avho 
 dress in the extreme of fashion, wear roses in their 
 button-holes, and spend upon ices and strawberries 
 Avhat would maintain a poor man for a year, w'ould 
 learn how infinitely more noble Avas the abstinence of 
 this young Roman, Avho though born in the midst of 
 splendor and luxury, learned from the first to loathe 
 the petty vice of gluttony, and to despise the un man- 
 liness of self-indulgence. Very early in life he joined 
 
80 
 
 £:SSA r ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 the giorious fellowship of those who esteem it not only 
 a duty but a pleasure 
 
 “ To scorn delights, and live laborious days, ■’ 
 
 and had learned “endurance of labor, and to want 
 little, and to Avork Avith his o\Am hands.” In his 
 eleventh year he become acquainted AA^ith Diognetus, 
 Avho first introduced hi}n to the Stoic philosophy, and 
 in his twelfth year he assumed the Stoic dress. This 
 philosophy taught him “ to prefer a plank bed and skin, 
 and Avhatever else of tlie kind belongs to the Grecian 
 discipline.” It is said that “ tlie skin ” Avas a concession 
 to the entreaties of his mother, and that the young 
 philosopher himself Avould have chosen to sleep on the 
 bare boards or on the ground. Yet he acted thus 
 without self-assertion and Avithout ostentation. His 
 friends found him ahvays cheerful; and his calm 
 features — in Avhich a dignity and thoughtfulness of 
 spirit contrasted AAuth the bloom and beauty of a pure 
 and honorable boyhood — Avere never overshadoAved 
 Avith ill-temper or Avith gloom. 
 
 The guardians of Marcus Aurelius had gathered 
 around him all the most distinguished literary teachers 
 of the age. Never had a prince a greater number of 
 eminent instructors ; never Avere any teachers made 
 happy by a more grateful, a more humble, a more 
 blameless, a more truly royal and glorious pupil. Long 
 years after his education had ceased, during his cam- 
 paign among the Quadi, he wrote a sketch of what 
 he OAved to them. This sketch forms the first book 
 of his Meditations^, and is characterized throughout by 
 the most unaffected simplicity and modesty. 
 
 The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius were, in fact, 
 
BT CANON FARBAR. 
 
 81 
 
 his private diary ; they are a noble soliloquy with his 
 own heart, an honest exa*uiination of his own con- 
 science ; there is not the slightest trace of their having 
 been intended for any eye but his own. In them he 
 was acting on the principle of St. Augustine : “ Go up 
 into the tribunal of thy conscience, and set thyself 
 before thyself.” He was ever bearing about — 
 
 “ A silent court of justice in himself, 
 
 Himself the judge and jury, and himself 
 The prisoner at the bar,” 
 
 And writing amid all the cares and distractions of a 
 war which he detested, he averted his eyes from the 
 manifold weariness which daily vexed his soul, and 
 calmly sat down to meditate on all the great qualities 
 which he had observed, and all the good lessons that 
 he might have learned from those who had instructed 
 his boyhood, and surrounded his manly years. 
 
 And what had he learned? — learned heartily to 
 admire, and {we may say) learned to practice also ? A 
 sketch of his first book will show us. What he had 
 gained from his immediate parents we have seen 
 already, and we will make a brief abstract of his other 
 obligations. 
 
 From “his governor” — to which of his teachers this 
 name applies we are not sure — he had learned to avoid 
 factions at the races, to work hard, and to avoid list- 
 ening to slander ; from Diognetus, to despise frivolous 
 superstitions, and to practice self-denial ; from Apoll- 
 onius, undeviating steadiness of purpose, endurance of 
 misfortune, and the reception of favors without being 
 humbled by them ; from Sextus of Chaeronea (a grand- 
 son of the celebrated Plutarch), tolerance of the igno- 
 rant, gravity without affectation, and benevolence of 
 
82 
 
 ESS A Y ON MARCUS A UEELIUS. 
 
 heart ; from Alexander, delicacy in correcting others ; 
 from Severus, “a disposition to do good, and to give 
 to others readily, and to cherish good hope, and to 
 believe that I am beloved of my friends;” from Maxi- 
 mus, “sweetness and dignity, and to do what was set 
 before me without complaining from Alexander the 
 Platonic, “ not frequently to say to any one,, nor to write 
 in a letter, that I ham no leisure / nor continually to 
 excuse the neglect of ordinary duties by alleging 
 urgent occupations.” 
 
 To one or two others his obligations were. still more 
 cliaracteristic and important. From Eusticus, for in- 
 stance, an excellent and able man, whose advice for 
 years he was accustomed to respect, he had learned to 
 despise sophistry and disjday, to write with simplicity, 
 to be easily pacified, to be accurate, and — an inesti- 
 mable benefit this, and one which tinged the color of 
 his whole life — to become acquainted with the Dis- 
 courses of Epictetus. And from his adoptive father, 
 the great Antoninus Pius, he had derived advantages 
 still more considerable. In him he saAV the example 
 of a sovereign and statesman firm, self-controlled, 
 modest, faithful, and even tempered ; a man who de- 
 spised flattery and hated meanness ; who honored the 
 wise and distinguished the meritorious ; who was in- 
 different to contemptible trifles, and indefatigable in 
 earnest business ; one, in short, “ who had a perfect 
 and invincible soul,” who, like Socrates, “was able 
 both to abstain from and to enjo}" those things which 
 many are too weak to abstain from and cannot enjoy 
 without excess.”* Piety, serenity, sweetness, disre- 
 
 * My quotations from Marcus Aurelius will be made (by permis- 
 sion) from the forcible and admirably accurate translation of Mr. 
 
BT CANON FABBAB. 
 
 83 
 
 gard of empty fame, calmness, simplicity, patience, are 
 virtues which he attributes to him in another full- 
 length portrait (vi. 30) which he concludes with the 
 words, “Imitate all this, that thou mayest have as 
 good a conscience when thy last hour comes as he had.” 
 He concludes these reminiscences of thankfulness 
 with a summary of what he owed to the gods. And 
 for what does he thanks the gods ? for being wealthy, 
 and noble, and an emperor ? A”ay, for no vulgar or 
 dubious blessings such as these, but for the guidance 
 which trained him in philosophy, and for the grace 
 which kept him from sin. And here it is that his 
 genuine modesty comes out. As the excellent divine 
 used to say when he saw a criminal led past for execu- 
 tion, “There, but for the grace of God, goes John 
 Bradford,” so, after thanking the gods for the good- 
 ness of all his family and relatives, Aurelius says, 
 “ Further, I owe it to the gods that I was not hurried 
 into any offense against any of them, though I had a 
 disposition which, if opportunity had offered, might 
 have led me to do something of this kind ; but through 
 their favor there never was such a concurrence of cir- 
 cumstances as put me to the trial. Further, that I 
 was subjected to a ruler and father who took away all 
 pride from me, and taught me that it was possible to 
 live in a palace without guards, or embroidered dresses, 
 or torches, and statues, and such-like show, but to live 
 very near to the fashion of a private person, without 
 being either mean in thought or remiss in action ; that 
 after having fallen into amatory passions I was cured ; 
 
 Long. In thanking Mr. Long, I may be allowed to add that the 
 English reader will find in his version the best means of becoming 
 acquainted with the purest and noblest book of antiquity. 
 
84 
 
 SSSA r ON MARCUS A URULIUS. 
 
 that though it was my mother’s fate to die young, she 
 spent the last years of her life with me ; that when- 
 ever I washed to help any man, I was never told that 
 I had not the means of doing it ; that I had abundance 
 of good masters for my children : for all these things 
 require the help of the gods and fortune.” 
 
 The whole of the Emperor’s Meditations deserve the 
 profound study of this age. The self-denial which they 
 display is a rebuke to our ever-growing luxury ; their 
 generosity contrasts favorably wdth the increasing 
 bitterness of our cynicism; their contented acqui- 
 escence in God’s will rebukes our incessant restless- 
 ness ; above all, their constant elevation shames that 
 multitude of little vices, and little meannesses, which 
 lie like a scurf over the conventionality of modern life. 
 But this earlier chapter has also a special value for the 
 young. It offers a picture which it would indeed be 
 better for them and for us if they could be induced to 
 study. If even under 
 
 “ That fierce light that beats upon the throne,” 
 
 the life of Marcus Aurelius shows no moral stain, it is 
 still more remarkable that the free and beautiful boy- 
 hood of this Roman prince had early learned to recog- 
 nize only the excellences of his teachers, their patience 
 and firmness, their benevolence and sweetness, their 
 integrity and virtue. Amid the frightful universality 
 of moral corruption he preserved a stainless conscience 
 and a most pure soul ; he thanked God in language 
 which breathes the most crystalline delicacy of senti- 
 ment and language, that he had preserved uninjured 
 the flower of his early life, and that under the calm 
 influences of his home in the country, and the studies 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 85 
 
 of philosophy, he had learned to value chastity as the 
 sacred girdle of youth, to be retained and honored to 
 his latest years. “ Surely,” says Mr. Carlyle, “ a day 
 is coming when it will be known again what virtue is 
 in purity and continence of life ; how divine is the 
 blush of young human cheeks ; how high, beneficent, 
 sternly inexorable is the duty laid on every creature 
 in regard to these particulars. Well, if such a day 
 never come, then I perceive much else will never come. 
 Magnanimity and depth of insight will never come ; 
 heroic purity of heart and of eye ; noble pious valor 
 to amend us, and the age of bronze and lacquers, how 
 can they ever come ? The scandalous bronze-lacquer 
 age of hungry animalisms, spiritual impotencies, and 
 mendacities will have to run its course till the pit 
 swallow it.” 
 
86 
 
 ESSA Y OE MARCUS A URELIU8. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LIFE AND THOUGHTS OF MAECUS AUKELIUS. 
 
 On the death of Hadrian in a. d. 138, Antoninus 
 Pius succeeded to the throne, and, in accordance with 
 the late Emperor’s conditions, adopted Marcus Aure- 
 lius and Lucius Coinmodus. Marcus had been be- 
 trothed at the age of fifteen to the sister of Lucius 
 Coinmodus, but the new Emperor broke, off the en- 
 gagement, and betrothed him instead to his daughter 
 Faustina. The marriage, however, was not celebrated 
 till seven years afterward, a. d. 1-16. 
 
 The long reign of Antoninus Pius is one of those 
 happy periods that have no history. An almost un- 
 broken peace reigned at home and abroad. Taxes 
 were lightened, calamities relieved, informers discour- 
 aged ; confiscations were rare, plots and executions were 
 almost unknown. Throughout the whole extent of 
 his v^ast domain the people loved and valued their Em- 
 peror, and the Emperoi'’s one aim was to further the 
 happiness of his people. He, too, like Aurelius, had 
 learned that what was good for the bee was good for 
 the hive. He strove to live as the civil administrator 
 of an unaggressive and united republic ; he disliked 
 war, did not value the military title of Imperator, and 
 never deigned to accept a triumph. 
 
 With this wise and eminent prince, who was as 
 amiable in his private relations as he was admirable in 
 
BY CANON FARRAR. 
 
 87 
 
 the discharge of his public duties, Marcus Aurelius 
 spent the next twenty-three years of his life. So close 
 and intimate was their union, so completely did they 
 regard each other as father and son, that during all 
 that period Aurelius never slept more than twice away 
 from the house of Antoninus. There was not a shade 
 of jealousy between them; each was the friend and 
 adviser of the other, and, so far from regarding his 
 destined heir with suspicion, the emperor gave him the 
 designation “Cmsar,” and heaped upon him ah. the 
 honors of the Roman Commonwealth. It was in vain 
 that the whisper of malignant tongues attempted to 
 shake this mutual confidence. Antoninus once saw the 
 mother of Aurelius in earnest prayer before the statue 
 of Apollo. “ What do you think she is praying for so 
 intently?” asked a wretched mischief-maker of the 
 name of Valerius Omulus-: “ It is that you may die, and 
 her son reign.” This wicked suggestion might have 
 driven a prince of meaner character into violence and 
 disgust, but Antoninus passed it over with the silence 
 of contempt. 
 
 It was the main delight of Antoninus to enjoy the 
 quiet of his country villa. Unlike Hadrian, who tra- 
 versed immense regions of his vast dominion, Antoninus 
 lived entirely either at Rome, or in his beautiful 
 villa at Lorium, a little sea-coast village about twelve 
 miles from the capital. In this villa he had been born, 
 and here he died, surrounded by the reminiscences of 
 his childhood. In this his real home it was his special 
 pleasure to lay aside the pomp and burden of his 
 imperial rank. “ He did not,” says Marcus, “ take the 
 bath at unseasonable hours ; he was not fond of build- 
 ing houses, nor curious about what he eat, nor about 
 
88 
 
 ESSAY ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 the texture and color of his clothes, nor about the 
 beauty of his slaves.” Even the dress he wore was the 
 Avork of the provincial artist in his little native place. 
 So far from checking the philosophic tastes of his 
 adopted son he fostered them, and sent for Apollonius 
 of Chalcisto be his teacher in the doctrines of Stoicism. 
 In one of his notes to Fronto, Marcus draws the picture 
 of their simple country occupations and amusements. 
 Hunting, fishing, boxing, wrestling, occupied the 
 leisure of the tAvo princes, and they shared the rustic 
 festivities of the vintage. “ I have dined,” he Avrites, 
 “ on a little bread. . . . We perspired a great deal, 
 
 shouted a great deal, and left some gleanings of the 
 vintage hanging on the trellis Avork. . . . When I 
 
 got home I studied a little, but not to much advantage 
 I had a long talk Avith my mother, Avho was lying on 
 her couch.” Who knoAvs hoAV much Aurelius and hoAV 
 much the Avorkl may haAm gained from such conversa- 
 tion as this Avith a mother from AAdiom he had learned 
 to hate even the thought of evil? Hor Avill anyone 
 despise the simplicity of heart Avhich made him mingle 
 AAuth the peasants as an amateur vintager, unless he is 
 so tasteless and so morose as to think Avith scorn of 
 Scipio and Laelius as they gathered shells on the sea- 
 shore, or of Henry IV as he plajmd at horses Avith his 
 little boys on all-fours. The capability of unbending 
 thus, the genuine cheerfulness Avhich enters at due 
 times into simple amusements, has been found not 
 rarely in the highest and purest minds. 
 
 For many years no incident of importance broke the 
 even tenor of Aurelius’ life. He lived peaceful, happy, 
 prosperous, and beloved, Avatching without envy the 
 increasing years of his adopted father. But in the 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 89 
 
 year 161, when Marcus was now forty years old, 
 Antoninus Pius, who had reached the age of seventy- 
 five, caught a fever at Lorium. Feeling that his end 
 was near, he summoned his friends and the chief men 
 of Eome to his bedside, and there (without saying a 
 word about his other adopted son, who is generally 
 known by the name of Lucius Yerus) solemnly recom- 
 mended Marcus to them as his successor ; and then, 
 giving to the captain of the guard the watchword of 
 “ Equanimit\^,” as though his earthly task was over, he 
 ordered to be transferred to the bedroom of Marcus 
 the little golden statue of Fortune, which Avas kept in 
 the private chamber of the emperors as an omen of 
 public prosperity. 
 
 The very first public act of the new Emperor Avas one 
 of splendid generosity, namely, the admission of his 
 adoptive brother Lucius Yerus into the fullest partici- 
 pation of imperial honors, the Tribunitian and procon- 
 sular poAvers, and the titles Caesar and Augustus. The 
 admission of Lucius Yerus to a share of the empire 
 Avas due to the innate modesty of Marcus. As he Avas 
 a devoted student, and cared less for manly exercises, 
 in Avhich Yerus excelled, he thought that his adoptive 
 brother Avould be a better and more useful general 
 than himself, and that he could best serve the State 
 by retaining the civil administration, and entrusting 
 to his brother the management of Avar. Yerus, how- 
 ever, as soon as he got away from the immediate influ- 
 ence and ennobling society of Marcus, broke loose 
 from all decency, and shoAved himself to be a Aveak 
 and Avorthless personage, as unfit for war as he Avas 
 for all the nobler duties of peace, and capable of noth- 
 ing but enormous gluttony and disgraceful self-indul- 
 
90 
 
 ESSAY ON MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 g'ence. Two things only can be said in his favor : the 
 one, that, though depraved, he was wholly free from 
 cruelty; and the other, that he had the good sense to 
 submit himself entirely to his brother, and to treat 
 him with the gratitude and deference which were 
 his due. 
 
 IMarcus had a large family by Faustina, and in the 
 first 3^ear of his reign his wife bore twins, of whom 
 the one who survived became the wicked and detested 
 Emperor Commodus. As though the birth of such a 
 child were in itself an omen of ruin, a storm of calam- 
 ity began at once to burst over the long tranquil State. 
 An inundation of the Tiber flung down houses and 
 streets over a great part of Eome, swept awa}’^ multi- 
 tudes of cattle, spoiled the harvests, devastated the 
 fields, and caused a distress which ended in wide- 
 spread famine. Men’s minds were terrified by earth- 
 quakes, by the burning of cities, and by plagues or 
 noxious insects. To these miseries, which the Em- 
 perors did their best to alleviate, was added the hor- 
 rors of wars and rumors of wars. The Partians, under 
 their king, Vologeses, defeated and all but destroyed 
 a Roman army, and devastated with impunity the 
 Roman province of Syria. The wild tribes of the 
 Catti burst over Germany with fire and sword ; and 
 the news from Britain was full of insurrection and 
 tumult. Such \vere the elements of trouble and discord 
 which overshadowed the reign of Marcus Aurelius 
 from its very beginning down to its weary close. 
 
 As the Partian war was the most important of the 
 three, Yerus was sent to quell it, and but for the 
 ability of his generals — the greatest of whom was 
 Avidius Cassius — would have ruined irretrievably the 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 91 
 
 fortunes of the Empire. These generals, however, 
 vindicated the majesty of the Roman name, and Yerus 
 returned in triumph, bringing back with him from the 
 East the seeds of a terrible pestilence which devastated 
 the whole Empire, and by which, on the outbreak of 
 fresh wars, Yerus himself was carried off at Aquileia. 
 
 Worthless as he was, Marcus, who in his lifetime 
 had so often pardoned and concealed his faults, paid 
 him the highest honors of sepulcre, and interred his 
 ashes in the mausoleum of Hadrian. There were not 
 wanting some who charged him with the guilt of frat- 
 ricide, asserting that the death of Yerus had been has- 
 tened by his means ! 
 
 I have only one reason for alluding to atrocious and 
 contemptible calumnies like these, and that is because 
 — since, no doubt, such whispers reached his ears — 
 they help to account for that deep, unutterable mel- 
 ancholy which breathes through the little golden book 
 of the Emperor’s Meditations. We find, for instance, 
 among them this isolated fragment : 
 
 “A black character, a womanish character, a stub- 
 born character, bestial, childish, animal, stupid, coun- 
 terfeit, scurrilous, fraudulent, tyrannical.” 
 
 We know not of whom he was thinking — perhaps of 
 Hero, perhaps of Caligula, but undoubtedly also of 
 men whom he had seen and known, and Avhose very 
 existence darkened his soul. The same sad spirit 
 breathes also through the following passages ; 
 
 “ Soon, very soon, thou wfilt be ashes, or a skeleton, 
 and either a name or not even a name ; but name is 
 sound and echo. And the things which are much 
 valued in life are empty, and rotten, and trifling, and 
 little dogs hiting one another and little child/ren guar- 
 
92 
 
 ESSA Y OJY MABCUS A UBELl US. 
 
 rding, laughing.^ and then straightway weeping. Bui 
 fidelity., and modesty, o/nd justice and truth are fied 
 
 “ ‘ Up to 01ympu.s from the wide-spread earth.’ ” 
 
 (v. 33.) 
 
 “ It would be a man’s happiest lot to depart from 
 mankind without having had a taste of lying, and 
 hypocrisy, and luxury, and pride. However, to breathe 
 Old one's life when a man has had enough of those things 
 is the next best voyage, as the saying is ” (ix. 2). 
 
 ^'■Enough of this wretched life, and murmuring, and 
 apish trifles. Why art thou thus disturbed ? What is 
 there new in this? What unsettles thee? . . . 
 
 Towards the gods, then, now become at last more 
 simple and better ” (ix. 37). The thought is like that 
 which dominates through the Penitential Psalms of 
 David — that we may take refuge from men, their 
 malignity, and their meanness, and find rest for our 
 souls in God. From men David has ^uhope; mock- 
 ery, treachery, injustice, are all that he expects from 
 them — the bitterness of his enemies, the far-off indiffer- 
 ence of his friends. Hor does this greatly trouble him, 
 so long as he does not wholly lose the light of God's 
 countenance. “I had no place to fiee unto, and no 
 man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord, 
 and said. Thou art my hope, and my portion in the 
 land of the living.” “ Cast me not aAvay from Thy 
 presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” 
 
 But Avhatever may have been his impulse at times 
 to give up in despair all attempt to improve the “ little 
 breed " of men around him, Marcus had schooled his 
 gentle spirit to live continually in far other feelings. 
 Were men contemptible? It was all the more reason 
 Avhy he should himself be noble. Were men petty, 
 
BY CANON F ARRAU. 
 
 93 
 
 and malignant, and passionate, and unjust ? In that 
 proportion were they all the more marked out for pity 
 and tenderness, and ia that proportion was he bound 
 to the utmost of his ability to show himself great, and 
 forgiving, and calm, and true. Thus Marcus turns his 
 very bitterest experience to gold, and from the vile- 
 ness of others, which depressed his lonely life, so far 
 from suffering himself to be embittered as well as 
 saddened, he only draws fi’esh lessons of humanit}’' and 
 love. 
 
 He sa3^s, for instance, “ Begin the morning by sa}dng 
 to thj^self, 1 shall meet loith the husylody, the tmgmte- 
 ful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, 'unsocial. All these 
 things happen to them l>y reason of their ignorance of 
 'what is good and evil. But I who have seen the 
 nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad 
 that it is ugly, and the nature of him that does wrong 
 that is akin to me, . . . and that it partakes of 
 
 the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be 
 injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what 
 is ugly, nor can I be angrv with m}'' kinsman, nor hate 
 him. For 'we are made for co operation, like feet, like 
 hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and 
 lower teeth. To act against one another then is con- 
 trary to nature ; and it is acting against one another 
 to be vexed and turn away ” (ii. 1). Another of his 
 rules, and an eminently wise one, was to fix his 
 thoughts as much as possible on the virtues of others, 
 rather than on their vices. “ When thou wishest to 
 delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live 
 Avith thee — the activity of one, the modesty of another, 
 the liberality of a third, and some other good qualitA’' 
 of a fourth.” What a rebuke to the contemptuous 
 
94 
 
 ESSAY OJSr MARCUS A UBELIUS. 
 
 cynicism which we are daily tempted to display ! ‘‘An. 
 infinite being comes before us,’^ says Eobertson, “ with 
 a whole eternity wrapped up in his mind and soul, and 
 we proceed to classify liim,p\d a label ujoon him, as we 
 would upon a jar, saying. This is rice, that is jelly, and 
 this pomatum / and then Ave think we have saved our- 
 selves the necessity of taking off the coA^er. Hoav 
 differently our Lord treated the people who came to 
 Him ! . . . consequently, at His touch each one 
 
 gave out his peculiar spark of light.” 
 
 Here, again, is a singularly pithy, comprehensive, 
 and beautiful piece of ad\dce : — 
 
 “ Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them 
 or hear with them ” (viii. 59). 
 
 And again : “ The best Avay of avenging thyself is 
 not to become like the Avrong doer.” 
 
 And again, “ If any man has done Avrong, the harm 
 is his OAvn. But perhaps he has not done Avrong ” 
 (ix. 38). 
 
 Most remarkable, hoAvever, are the nine rules which 
 he drew up for himself, as subjects for reflection Avhen 
 any one had offended him, viz. : 
 
 1. That men Avere made for each other : even the 
 inferior for the sake of the superior, and these for the 
 sake of one another. 
 
 2. The invincible influences that act upon men, and 
 mold their opinions and their acts. 
 
 3. That sin is mainly error and ignorance — an invol- 
 untary slavery. 
 
 4. That we are ourselves feeble, and by no means 
 immaculate ; and that often our very abstinence from 
 faults is due more to coAvardice and a care for our 
 reputation than to any freedom from the disposition to 
 commit them. 
 
BT CANON FARBAR. 
 
 95 
 
 5. That our judgments are apt to be very rash and 
 premature. “ And in short a man must learn a great 
 deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on 
 another man’s acts.” 
 
 6. When thou art much vexed or grieved, consider 
 that man’s life is only a moment, and after a short 
 time we are all laid out dead. 
 
 7. That no wrongful act of another can bring shame 
 on us, and that it is not men’s acts which disturb us, 
 but our own opinions of them. 
 
 8. That our own anger hurts us more than the acts 
 themselves. 
 
 9. That henevolenee is invincible, if it be not an 
 affected smile, nor acting a part. “For what will the 
 most violent man do to thee if thou continuest benevo- 
 lent to him? gently and calmly correcting him, ad- 
 monishing him when he is trying to do thee harm, 
 saying, '■Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature 
 for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but 
 thou art injuring thyself, my child.’’ And show him 
 with gentle tact and by general principles that this is 
 so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor any 
 gregarious animal. And this you must do simply, 
 unreproachfully, affectionately ; without rancor, and 
 if possible when you and he are alone” (xi. 18). 
 
 '■‘■Not so, my child; thou art injuring thyself, my 
 child.” Can all antiquity show anything tenderer 
 than this, or anything more close to the spirit of 
 Christian teaching than these nine rules ? They were 
 worthy of the men who, unlike the Stoics in general, 
 considered gentleness to be a virtue, and a proof at 
 once of philosophy and of true manhood. They are 
 written with that effusion of sadness and benevolence 
 to which it is difficult to find a parallel. They show 
 
96 
 
 ESSA r ON Af ARGUS A URELIUS. 
 
 how completely Marcus had triumphed over all petty 
 malignity, and how earnestly he strove to fulfill his 
 own precept of alwa3^s keeping the thoughts so sweet 
 and clear, that “ if any one should suddenly ask, 
 ‘What hast thou now in thy thoughts ? with perfect 
 openness thou niightest immediately answer, ‘ This or 
 that.’ ” In short, to give them their highest pi’aise, 
 they would have delighted the great Christian Apostle 
 who wrote : 
 
 “Warn them that they are unruly, comfort the 
 feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all 
 men. See that none render evil for evil unto any 
 man ; but ever follow that which is good, both among 
 yourselves, and to all men ” (1 Thess. iv. 14, 15). 
 
 “ Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as 
 a brother” (2 Thess. iv. 15). 
 
 “ Forbearing one anotlier, and forgiving one another, 
 if any man have a quarrel against any ” (Col. iii. 13). 
 
 Nay, are they not even in full accordance Avith the 
 mind and spirit of Him who said : 
 
 “ If thy brother tres]>ass against thee, go and tell 
 him his fault hetioeen thee and him alone: if he shall 
 hear thee thou hast gained thy hrotherP 
 
 In the life of Marcus Aurelius, as in so many liA^es, 
 Ave are able to tra,ce the great laAV of compensation. 
 Ilis exalted station, during the later years of his life, 
 threAV him among many Avho Avere false and Phari- 
 saical and base ; but his youth had been spent under 
 happier conditions, and this saved him from falling 
 into the sadness of those whom neither man nor 
 Avoman please. In his earlier years it had been his lot 
 to see the fairer side of humanity, and the recollection 
 of tliose pure and hajApy days was like a healing tree 
 throAvn into the bitter and turbid waters of his reign. 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LIFE AND THOUGHTS OF MARCUS AURELIUS {con- 
 tinued). 
 
 Marcus was now the undisputed lord of the Roman 
 world. He was seated on the dizziest and most 
 splendid eminence which it was possible for human 
 grandeur to obtain. 
 
 But this imperial elevation kindled no glow of pride 
 or self-satisfaction in his meek and chastened nature. 
 He regarded himself as being in fact the servant of 
 all. It was his duty, like that of the bull in the herd, 
 or the ram among the flocks, to confront every peril in 
 his own person, to be foremost in all the hardships of 
 war and the most deeply immersed in all the toils of 
 peace. The registry of the citizens, the suppression of 
 litigation, the elevation of public morals, the restrain- 
 ing of consanguineous marriages, the care of minors, 
 tlie retrenchment of public expenses, the limitation of 
 gladiatorial games and shows, the care of roads, the 
 restoration of senatorial privileges, the appointment of 
 none but worthy magistrates, even the regulation of 
 street traffic — these and numberless other duties so 
 completely absorbed his attention that, in spite of in- 
 different health, they often kept him at severe labor 
 from early morning till long after midnight. His posi- 
 tion indeed often necessitated his presence at games 
 and shows, but on these occasions he occupied himself 
 
98 
 
 ESSAY ON MARCUS AURRLIUS. 
 
 either in reading, or being read to, or in writing notes. 
 He was one of those who held that nothing should be 
 done hastily, and that few crimes were worse than the 
 waste of time. It is to such views and such habits 
 that we owe the compositions of his works. His 
 meditations were written amid the painful self-denial 
 and distracting anxieties of his wars with the Quadi 
 and the JVIarcomanni, and he was the author of other 
 works which unhappily have perished. Perhaps of all 
 the lost treasures of antiquity there are few which we 
 should fe'el a greater wish to recover than the lost 
 autobiography of this wisest of emperors and holiest 
 of Pagan men. 
 
 As for the external trappings of his rank — those 
 gorgeous adjuncts and pompous circumstances which 
 excite the wonder and envy of mankind — no man could 
 have shown himself more indifferent to them. He 
 recognized indeed the necessity of maintaining the 
 dignity of his high position. “Every moment,” he 
 says, “ think steadily as a Roman and a man to do 
 what tho\i hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity ^ 
 and affection, and freedom, and justice” (ii. 5); and 
 again, “ Let the Deity which is in thee be the guardian 
 of a living being, manly and of ripe age^ and engaged 
 in matters political^ and a Roman, and a ruler, who 
 has taken his post like a man waiting for the signal 
 which summons him from life” (iii. 5). But he did 
 not think it necessary to accept the fulsome honors 
 and degi’ading adulations which were so dear to many 
 of his predecessors. He refused tlie pompous blas- 
 phemy of temples and altars, saying that for every 
 true ruler the world was a temple, and all good men 
 were priests. He declined as much as possible aU 
 
BT CANON NABBAB. 
 
 golden statues and triumphal designations. All inevit- 
 able luxuries and splendor, such as his public duties 
 rendered indispensable, he regarded as a mere hollow 
 show. Marcus Aurelius felt as deeply as our own 
 Shakespeare seems to have felt the unsubstantiality, 
 the fleeting evanescence of all earthly things ; he would 
 have delighted in the sentiment that, 
 
 “We are such, stuff 
 
 As dreams are made on, and our little life 
 Is rounded by a sleep. ” 
 
 “ When we have meat before us,” he says, “ and such 
 eatables, we receive the impression that this is the 
 dead body of a fish, and this is the dead body of a 
 bird, or of a pig ; and, again, that this Falerian is only 
 a little grajpe-yuice, and this jyurjjle rohe some sheep's 
 wool dyed with the hlood of a shell-fish: such then are 
 these impressions, and they reach the things them- 
 selves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind of 
 things they are. Just in the same way . . . where 
 
 there are things which appear most worthy of our 
 approbation, we ought to lay them hare, and look at 
 their worthlessness, and strip them of all the words by 
 which they are exalted ” (vi. 13). 
 
 “ What is worth being valued ? To be received with 
 clapping of hands iNo. Neither must we value the 
 clapping of tongues, for the praise wdiich comes from 
 the many is a clapping of tongues ” (vi. 16). 
 
 “Asia, Europe, are corners of the universe; all the 
 sea is a drop in the universe ; Athos a little clod of the 
 universe ; all the present time is a point in eternity. 
 All things are little, changeable, perishable ” (vi. 36). 
 
100 
 
 ES8A Y ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 And to Marcus too, no less than to Shakespeare, it 
 seemed that — 
 
 “All tlie world’s a stage, 
 
 And all the men and women merely players;” 
 
 for he writes these remarkable words : 
 
 “ The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks 
 of sheep, herds, exercises with spears, a hone cast to little 
 dogs, a bit of bread in fish-ponds, laboring s of a/nts, and 
 burden - carrying runnings about of frightened little 
 mice, puppets pulled by strings — this is what life 
 resembles. It is thy duty then, in the midst of such 
 things, to show good humor, and not a proud air ; to 
 understand, however, that every man is worth just so 
 much as the things are worth about which he busies 
 himself. 
 
 In fact, the Court was to Marcus a burden ; he tells 
 us himself that Philosophy was his mother. Empire 
 only his stepmother ; it was only his repose in the one 
 that rendered even tolerable to him the burdens of the 
 other. Emperor as he was, he thanked the gods for 
 having enabled him to enter into the souls of a 
 Thrasea, an Helvidius, a Cato, a Brutus. Above all, 
 he seems to have had a horror of ever becoming like 
 some of his predecessors ; he writes : 
 
 “ Take care that thou art not made into a Csesar ; * 
 take care thou art not dyed -with this dye. Keep thy- 
 self then simple, good, pure, serious, free from affecta- 
 tion, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, 
 kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts. Eever- 
 ence the gods and help men. Short is life. There is 
 
 * Marcus here invents what M. Martha justly calls “ an admir- 
 able barbarism ” to express his disgust towards such men — opa 
 pi] (X7tvHai8ao(aQ7]i — “ take care not to be Ccesarised.” 
 
B7 CANON FARRAR. 
 
 101 
 
 only one fruit of this terrene life / a jpious disposition 
 and social acts ” (iv. 19). 
 
 It is the same conclusion as that which sorrow forced 
 from another weary and less admirable king : “ Let us 
 hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God, 
 and keep His commandments ; for this is the whole 
 duty of man.” 
 
 But it is time for us to continue the meager record 
 of the life of Marcus, so far as the bare and gossiping 
 compilations of Dion Cassius,* and Capitolinus, and the 
 scattered allusions of other writers can enable us to do 
 so. 
 
 It must have been with a heavy heart that he set 
 out once more for German}^ to face the dangerous 
 rising of the Quadi and Marcomanni. To obtain sol- 
 diers sufficient to fill up the vacancies in his army 
 which had been decimated by the plague, he was 
 forced to enroll slaves, and to obtain money he had to 
 sell the ornaments of the palace, and even some of the 
 Empress’ jewels. Immediately before he started his 
 heart was wrung by the death of his little boy, the 
 twin-brother of Commodus, whose beautiful features 
 are still preserved for us on coins. Early in the war, 
 as he was trying the depth of a ford, he was assailed 
 by the enemy with a sudden storm of missiles, and was 
 only saved from imminent death by being sheltered 
 beneath the shields of his soldiers. One battle was 
 fought on the ice of the wintry Danube. But by far 
 the most celebrated event of the war took place in a 
 great victory over the Quadi which he won in a. d. 
 174, and which was attributed by the Christians to 
 
 * As epitomized by Xipbilinus. 
 
1 02 E8SA T ON MARCUS A URELlUS. 
 
 what is known as the “Miracle of the Thundering 
 Legion.” 
 
 Divested of all extraneous additions, the fact which 
 occurred — as established bj the evidence of medals, 
 and by one of the bassi-relievi on the “ Column of 
 Antonine,” — appears to have been as follows. Marcus 
 Aurelius and his army had been entangled in a mount- 
 ain defile, into which they had too hastily pursued a 
 sham retreat of the barbarian archers. In this defile, 
 unable either to fight or to fly, pent in by the enemy, 
 burnt up with the scorching heat and tormented by 
 thirst, they lost all hope, burst into wailing and 
 groans, and yielded to a despair from which not even 
 the strenuous efforts of Marcus could arouse them. 
 At the most critical moment of their danger and 
 misery the clouds began to gather, and heavy showers 
 of rain descended, which the soldiers caught in their 
 shields and helmets to quench their own thirst and 
 that of their horses. While they were thus engaged 
 the enemy attacked them ; but the rain was mingled 
 with hail, and fell with blinding fury in the faces of 
 the barbarians. The storm was also accompanied 
 with thunder and lightning, which seems to have 
 damaged the enemy, and filled them with terror, while 
 no casualty occurred in the Roman ranks. The Romans 
 accordingly regarded this as a Divine interposition, 
 and achieved a most decisive victory, which proved to 
 be the practical conclusion of a hazardous and impor- 
 tant war. 
 
 The Christians regarded the event not 'providential 
 hut as miracxdous, and attributed it to the prayers of 
 their brethren in a legion which, from this circum- 
 stance, received the name of the “ Thundering Legion.” 
 
BY CANON FARRAR. 
 
 103 
 
 It is, however, now known that one of the legions, 
 distinguished by a flash of lightning which was rep- 
 resented on their shields, had been known by this 
 name since the time of Augustus ; and the Pagans 
 themselves attributed the assistance which they had 
 received sometimes to a prayer of the pious Emperor 
 and sometimes to the incantations of an Egyptian 
 sorcerer named Arnuphis. 
 
 One of the Fathers, the passionate and eloquent Ter- 
 tullian, attributes to this deliverance an interposition 
 of the Emperor in favor of the Christians, and appeals 
 to a letter of his to the Senate in which he acknowl- 
 edged how effectual had been the aid he had received 
 from Christian prayers, and forbade any one hereafter 
 to molest the followers of the new religion, lest they 
 should use against him the weapon of supplication 
 Avhich had been so powerful in his favor. This letter 
 is preserved at the end of the Apology of Justin Mar- 
 tyr, and it adds that, not only are no Christians to be 
 injured or persecuted, but that any one who informed 
 against them is to be buried alive ! We see at once 
 that this letter is one of those impudent and transpar- 
 ent forgeries in which the literature of the first five 
 centuries unhappily abounds. What was the real 
 relation of Marcus to the Christians we shall consider 
 hereafter. 
 
 To the gentle heart of Marcus, all war, even when 
 accompanied with victories, was eminently distasteful ; 
 and in such painful and ungenial occujDations no small 
 part of his life was passed. What he thought of war 
 and of its successes is graphically set forth in the fol- 
 lowing remark : 
 
 “ A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and an- 
 
104 
 
 ESS A Y ON MARCUS A UBELIUS. 
 
 other when he has caught a poor hare, and. another 
 when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another 
 Avhen he has taken wild boars or bears, and another 
 when he has taken Sannatians. Are not these robbers, 
 Avhen thou exaininest their principles ?” He here con- 
 demns his OAYn involuntary actions ; but it was his un- 
 happy destiny not to have trodden out the embers of 
 this war before he was burdened with another far 
 more painful and formidable. 
 
 This Avas the revolt of Avidius Cassius, a general of 
 the old blunt Homan type, whom, in spite of some 
 ominous Avarnings, Marcus both loved and trusted. 
 The ingratitude displayed by such a man caused Mar- 
 cus the deepest anguish ; but he was saved from all 
 dangerous consequences by the Avide-spread affection 
 Avhich he had inspired by his virtuous reign. 
 
 The very soldiers of the rebellious general fell away 
 from him ; and, after he had been a nominal Emperor 
 for only three months and six days, he Avas assassinated 
 by some of his own officers. His head Avas sent to 
 Marcus, who received it Avith sorrow, and did not hold 
 out to the murderers the slightest encouragement. 
 The joy of success Avas swallowed up in regret that 
 his enemy had not lived to allow him the luxury of a 
 genuine forgiveness. He begged the Senate to pardon 
 all the family of Cassius, and to suffer this single file 
 to be the only one forfeited in consequence of civil 
 Avar. The Fathers received these proofs of clemency 
 Avith the rapture which they deserved, and the Senate- 
 house resounded with acclamations and blessings. 
 
 Never had a formidable conspiracy been more quietly 
 and effectually crashed. Marcus traveled through the 
 provinces which had favored the cause of AAudius 
 
BT CANON FABRAB. 
 
 105 
 
 Cassius, and treated them all with the most complete 
 and indulgent forbearance. When he arrived in Syria, 
 the correspondence of Cassius was brought to him, 
 and, with a glorious magnanimity of which history 
 affords but few examples, he consigned it all to the 
 flames unread. 
 
 During this journey of pacification, he lost his wife 
 Faustina, Avho died suddenly in one of the valleys of 
 Mount Taurus. Histoiy, or the collection of anecdotes 
 which at this period often passes as history, has 
 assigned to Faustina a character of the darkest in- 
 famy, and it has even been made a charge against 
 Aurelius that he overlooked or condoned her offences. 
 As far as Faustina is concerned, we have not much to 
 say, although there is strong reason to believe that 
 many of the stories told of her are scandalously 
 exaggerated, if not absolutely false. Certain it is, that 
 most of the imputations upon her memory rest on the 
 malignant anecdotes recorded by Dion, who dearly 
 loved every piece of scandal which degraded human 
 nature. The specific charge brought against her of 
 having tempted Cassius from his allegiance is wholly 
 unsupported, even if it be not absolutely incompatible 
 with what we find in her own extant letters ; and, 
 finally, Marcus himself not onl}^ loved her tenderly, as 
 the kind mother of his eleven children, but in his 
 Meditations actually thanks the gods for having granted 
 him “ such a wife, so obedient, so affectionate, and so 
 simple.” No doubt Faustina was unworthy of her 
 husband; but surely it is the glory and not the shame 
 of a noble nature to be averse from jealousy and 
 suspicion, and to trust others more deeply than they 
 deserve. 
 
106 
 
 mSA Y ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 So blameless was the conduct of Marcus Aurelius 
 that neither the malignity of contemporaries nor the 
 spirit of posthumous scandal has succeeded in discover- 
 ing any flaw in the extreme integrity of his life and 
 })rinciples. But meanness will not be balked of its 
 victims. The hatred of all excellence which made 
 Caligula try to put down the memory of great men 
 rages, though less opening in tlie minds of many. 
 They delight to degrade human life into that dull and 
 barren ]ilain “ in which every molehill is a mountain, 
 and every thistle a fo’‘est-tree.” Great men are as 
 small in their eyes as they are saitl to be in the eyes of 
 their valets; and there are multitudes who, if they 
 find 
 
 “ Some stain or blemish in a name of note, 
 
 Not grieving that their greatest are so small, 
 
 Inflate themselves -with some insane delight. 
 
 And judge all nature from her feet of clay. 
 
 Without the will to lift their eyes, and see 
 Her godlike head crown’d with spiritual Are, 
 
 And touching other worlds.” 
 
 This I suppose is the reason why, failing to drag 
 down Marcus Aurelius from his moral elevation, some 
 have attempted to assail his reputation because of the 
 supposed vileness of Faustina and the actual depravity 
 of Commodus. Of Faustina I have spoken already. 
 Respecting Commodus, I tliink it sufficient to ask with 
 Solomon : “ Who knoweth whether his son shall be a 
 wise man or a fool?” Commodus was but nineteen 
 when his father died ; for the first three years of his 
 reign he ruled respectably and acceptably. Marcus 
 Aurelius had left no effort untried to have him trained 
 aright by the first teachers and the wisest men whom 
 the age produced; and Herodian distinctly tells us 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 107 
 
 that he had lived wtuously up to the time of his 
 lather’s death. Setting aside natural affection alto- 
 gether, and even assuming (as I should conjecture from 
 one or two passages of his Meditation^ that Marcus 
 had misgivings about his son, -would it have been eas}’', 
 would it have been even possible, to set aside on gen- 
 eral grounds a son who had attained to years of 
 maturity? However this may be, if there are any 
 who think it worth while to censure Marcus because, 
 after all, Commodus turned out to be but “ a warped 
 slip of wilderness,” their censure is hardly sufficiently 
 discriminating to deserve the trouble of refutation. 
 
 •‘But Marcus Aurelius cruelly persecuted the Chris- 
 tians.” Let us briefly consider this charge. That 
 persecutions took place in his reign is an undeniable 
 fact, and is sufficiently evidenced by the Apologies of 
 Justin Martyr, of Melito, Bishop of Sardis, of Athena- 
 goras, and of Apollinarius, as well as by the Letter of 
 the Church of Smyrna describing the martyrdom of 
 Polycarp, and that of the Churches of Lyons and 
 Vienne to their brethren in Asia Minor. It is fair, 
 however, to mention that there is some documentary 
 evidence on the other side ; Lactantius clearly asserts 
 that under the reigns of those excellent princes who 
 succeeded Homitian the Church suffered no violence 
 from her enemies, and “ spread her hands toward the 
 East and the West;” Tertnllian, writing but twenty 
 years after the death of Marcus, distinctly says (and 
 Eusebius quotes the assertion), that there were letters 
 of the Emperor, in which he not only attributed his 
 delivery among the Quadi to the prayers of Christian 
 soldiers in the Thundering Legion,” but ordered any 
 who informed against the Christians to be most 
 
108 
 
 ESSA Y ON MARCUS A URELIU8. 
 
 severely punished ; and at the end of the works of 
 Justin Martyr is found a letter of similar purport, 
 which is asserted to have been addressed by Marcus to 
 the Senate of Rome. We may set aside these peremp- 
 tory testimonies, we may believe that Tertullian and 
 Eusebius were mistaken, and that the documents to 
 which they referred were spurious; but this should 
 make us also less certain about the prominent participa- 
 tion of the Emperor in these persecutions. My own 
 belief is (and it is a belief which could be supported by 
 many critical arguments), that his share in causing 
 them was almost infinitesimal. If those who love his 
 memory reject the evidence of Fathers in his favor, 
 they may be at least permitted to withhold assent from 
 some of the assertions in virtue of which he is con- 
 demned. 
 
 Marcus in his Meditations alludes to the Christians 
 once only, and then it is to make a passing complaint 
 of the indifference to death, which appeared to him, as 
 it appeared to Epictetus, to arise, not from any noble 
 principles, but from mere obstinacy and perversity. 
 That he shared the profound dislike with which 
 Christians were regarded is very probable. That he 
 was a cold-blooded and virulent persecutor is utterly 
 unlike his whole character, essentially at variance with 
 his habitual clemency, alien to the spirit which made 
 him interfere in every possible instance to mitigate the 
 severity of legal punishments, and may in short be 
 regarded as an assertion which is altogether false. 
 Who will believe that a man who, during his reign, 
 built and dedicated but one single temple, and that a 
 Temple to Beneficence ; that a man who so far from 
 showing any jealousy respecting foreign religions 
 
BY CANON FABBAR. 
 
 109 
 
 allowed honor to be paid to them all ; that a man 
 whose writings breathe on eveiy page the inmost spirit 
 of philanthropy and tenderness, went out of his wa}'’ 
 to join in a persecution of the most innocent, the 
 most courageous, and the most inoffensive of his 
 subjects ? 
 
 The true state of the case seems to have been this. 
 The deep calamities in which, during the whole reign 
 of Marcus, the Empire was involved, caused widespread 
 distress, and roused into peculiar fury the feelings of 
 the provincials against men whose atheism (for such 
 they considered it to be) had kindled the anger of the 
 gods. This fury often broke out into paroxysms of 
 popular excitement, which none but the firmest-minded 
 governors were able to moderate or to repress. Marcus, 
 when appealed to, simply let the existing law take its 
 usual course. That law was as old as the time of 
 Trajan. The young Pliny, Governor of Bithynia, had 
 written to ask Trajan how he was to deal with the 
 Christians, whose blamelessness of life he fully 
 admitted, but whose doctrines, he said, had emptied 
 the temples of the gods, and exasperated their wor- 
 shipers. Trajan, in reply, had ordered that the 
 Christians should not be sought for, but that, if they 
 were brought before the governor, and proved to be 
 contumacious in refusing to adjure their religion, they 
 were then to be put to death. Hadrian and Pius Anto- 
 ninus had continued the same policy, and Marcus Aure- 
 lius saw no reason to alter it. But this law, which 
 in quiet times might become a mere dead letter, might 
 at more troubled periods be converted into a dangerous 
 engine of persecution, as it was in the case of the 
 venerable Poly carp, and in the unfortunate Churches 
 
110 
 
 ESSAY ON MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 of Lyons and Yienne. The Pagans believed that 
 the reason why their gods were smiling in secret, — 
 
 “ Looking over wasted lands, 
 
 Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery 
 sands, — 
 
 Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying 
 hands, — 
 
 was the unbelief and impiety of these hated Galileans, 
 causes of offence which could only be expiated by the 
 death of the guilt}\ “ Their enemies,” says Tertullian, 
 “call aloud for the blood of the innocent, alleging this 
 vain pretext for their hatred, that they believe the 
 Christians to be the cause of every public misfortune. 
 If the Tiber has overflowed its banks, or the Nile has 
 not overflowed, if heaven has refused its rain, if famine 
 or the plague has spread its ravages, the cry is imme- 
 diate, ‘ The Christians to the lions.’ ” In the first 
 three centuries the cry of “No Christianity” became 
 at times as brutal, as violent, and as unreasoning as 
 the cry of “No Popery” has often been in modern 
 days. It was infinitely less disgraceful to Marcus to 
 lend his ear to the one than it has been to some emi- 
 nent modern statesmen to be carried away by the 
 insensate fury of the other. 
 
 To v.diat extent is Marcus Aurelius to be condemned 
 for the martyrdoms which took place in his reign ? 
 Not, I think, heavily or indiscriminately, or with vehe- 
 ment sweeping censure. Common justice surely de- 
 mands that Ave should not confuse the present with the 
 past, or pass judgment on the conduct of the Emperor 
 as though he were living in the nineteenth century, 
 or as though he had been acting in full cognizance of 
 the Gospels and the stories of the Saints. Wise and 
 
BY CANON FABRAB. 
 
 Ill 
 
 good men before him had, in their haughty ignorance, 
 spoken of Christianity with execration and contempt. 
 The philosophers who surrounded his throne treated 
 it with jealousy and aversion. The body of the nation 
 firmly believed the current rumors which charged its 
 votaries with horrible midnight assemblies, rendered 
 infamous by Thyestian banquets and the atrocities of 
 nameless superstitions. These foul calumnies — these 
 hideous charges of cannibalism and incest — were sup- 
 ported by the reiterated perjury of slaves under tort- 
 ure, which in that age, as well as long afterward, was 
 preposterously regarded as a sure criterion of truth. 
 
 Christianity in that day was confounded with a multi- 
 tude of debased and foreign superstitions; and the 
 Emperor in his judicial capacity, if he ever encountered 
 Christians at all, was far more likely to encounter 
 those who were unworthy of the name, than to be- 
 come acquainted with the meek, unworldly, retiring 
 virtues of the calmest, the holiest, and the best. When 
 we have given their due weight to considerations such 
 as these we shall be ready to pardon Marcus Aure- 
 lius for having, in this matter, acted ignorantly, 
 and to admit that in persecuting Christianity he may 
 most honestly have thought that he was doing God 
 service. The very sincerity of his belief, the conscien- 
 tiousness of his rule, the intensity of his philanthropy, 
 the grandeur of his own philosophical tenets, all con- 
 spired to make him a worse enemy of the Church than 
 a brutal Commodus or a disgusting Heliogabalus. 
 And yet that there was not in him the propensity 
 to persecute ; that these persecutions were for the most 
 part spontaneous and accidental ; that they were in 
 no measure due to his direct instigation, or in special 
 
112 
 
 S:SSA T ON MARCUS A URELIU8. 
 
 accordance with his desire, is clear from the fact that 
 the mart^a’doms took place in Gaul and Asia Minor, 
 not in Rome. There must have been hundreds of 
 Christians in Rome, and under the very eye of the 
 Emperor; nay, there were even multitudes of 
 Christians in his own army ; yet we never hear of his 
 having molested any of them. Melito, Bishop of 
 Sardis, in addressing the Emperor, expresses a doubt 
 as to whether he was really aAvare of the manner in 
 which his Christian subjects were treated. Justin 
 Martyr, in his Aj)ology, addresses him in terms of per- 
 fect confidence and deep respect. In short he was in 
 this matter “ blameless, but unfortunate.” It is 
 painful to think that the venerable Poljxarp and the 
 thoughtful Justin may have forfeited their lives for 
 their principles, not only in the reign of so good a 
 man, but even by virtue of his authority ; but we must 
 be very uncharitable or very unimaginative if we can 
 not readily believe that, though they had received the 
 crown of martyrdom from his hands, the redeemed 
 spirits of those great martyrs would have been the 
 first to welcome this holiest of the heathen into the 
 ]iresence of a Saviour whose Church he persecuted, but 
 to whose indwelling Spirit his virtues were due, whom 
 ignorantly and unconsciously he worshiped, and 
 whom, had he ever heard of Him and known Him, he 
 would have loved in his heart and glorified by the con- 
 sistency of his noble and stainless life. 
 
 The persecution of the Churches in Lyons and 
 Vienne happened in a. d. 177. Shortly after this 
 period fresh wars recalled the Emperor to the Horth. 
 It is said that, in despair of ever seeing him again, the 
 chief men of Rome entreated him to address them his 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 113 
 
 farewell admonitions, and that for three days he dis- 
 coursed to them on philosophical questions. When he 
 arrived at the seat of war, victory again crowned his 
 arms. But Marcus was now getting old, and he was 
 worn out with the toils, trials, and travels of his long 
 and weary life. He sunk under mental anxieties and 
 bodily fatigues, and after a brief illness died in Pan- 
 nonia, either at Vienna or Sirmium, on March 17, a. d. 
 180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and the 
 twentieth of his reign. 
 
 Death to him was no calamit 3 ^ He was sadly aware 
 that “ there is no man so fortunate that there shall 
 not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased 
 with what is going to happen. Suppose that he was a 
 good and wise man, will there not be at least some one 
 to say of him, ‘ Let us at last breathe freely, being 
 relieved from this school-master. It is true that he 
 was harsh to none of us, but I perceive that he tacitly 
 condemns us.’ . . . Thou wilt consider this when 
 
 thou art dying, and will depart more contentedly by 
 refiecting thus : ‘ I am going away /Vum a life in which 
 even my associates., on hehalf of whom I have striven., 
 and cared, and prayed so much, themselves wish me to 
 depart, hoping perchance to get some little advantage 
 by it.’ Why then should a man cling to a longer stay 
 here % Do not, however, for this reason go away less 
 hindly disposed to them, hut preserving thy own char- 
 acter, and continuing friendly, and benevolent, and 
 hind.'’ And dreading death far less than he dreaded 
 any departure from the laws of virtue, he exclaims, 
 “ Come quickly, O Death, for fear that at last I should 
 forget myself!” This utterance has been well com- 
 pared to the language which Bossuet put into the 
 
114 
 
 SSSAY ON MARCUS ATTRELWS. 
 
 montli of a Christian soul ; “ O Death, th ou dost not 
 
 trouble 11137- designs, thou accomplishest them. Haste, 
 then, O favorable Death ! . . . N%mc DimittisN 
 
 A nobler, a gentler, a purer, a sweeter soul — a soul 
 less elated by prosperity, or more constant in adver- 
 sity — a soul more fitted by virtue, and chastity, and 
 self-denial to enter into the eternal peace, never passed 
 into the presence of its Heavenly Father. We are not 
 surprised that all, whose means permitted it, possessed 
 themselves of his statues, and that they were to be 
 seen for vears afterward among the household gods of 
 heathen families, who felt themselves more hopeful 
 and more happy from the glorious sense of possibility 
 which was inspired by the memory of one who, in the 
 midst of difiiculties, and breathing an atmosphere 
 heavy with corruption, }^et showed himself so wise, so 
 great, so good a man. 
 
 0 framed for nobler times and calmer beartsl 
 0 studious thinker, eloquent for truth! 
 
 Philosopher, despising wealth and death, 
 
 But patient, childlike, full of life and lovel 
 
BT CANON FARBAR. 
 
 115 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE “meditations” OE MAKCUS AIJHELIUS. 
 
 Empeeok as he was, Marcus Aurelius found himself 
 in a hollow and troublous world ; but he did not give 
 himself up to idle regret or querulous lamentations. 
 If these sorrows and perturbations came from the 
 gods, he kissed the hand that smote him ; “ he deliv- 
 ered up his broken sword to Fate the conquerer with 
 a humble and a manly heart.” In any case he had 
 duties to do, and he set himself to perform them with 
 a quiet heroism — zealously, conscientiously, even 
 cheerfully. 
 
 The principles of the Emperor are not reducible to 
 the hard and definite lines of a philosophic system. 
 But the great laws which guided his actions and 
 molded his views of life were few and simple, and in 
 his book of Meditations, which is merely his private 
 diary written to relieve his mind amid all the trials of 
 war and government, he recurs to them again and 
 again. “ Plays, war, astonishment, torpor, slavery,” 
 he says to himself, “ will wipe out those holy principles 
 of thine ;” and this is why he committed those princi- 
 ples to writing. Some of these I have already adduced, 
 and others I proceed to quote, availing myself, as 
 before, of the beautiful and scholar-like translation of 
 Mr. George Long. 
 
 All pain, and misfortune, and ugliness seemed to the 
 
116 
 
 £:SSA Y ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 Emperor to be most wisely regarded under a threefold 
 aspect, namely, if considered in reference to the gods, 
 as being due to laws beyond their control ; if consid- 
 ered with reference to the nature of things, as being 
 subservient and necessary; and if considered with 
 reference to ourselves, as being dependent on the 
 amount of indifference and fortitude with which we 
 endure them. 
 
 The following passages will elucidate these points of 
 view : 
 
 “The intelligence of the Universe is social. Accord- 
 ingly it has made the inferior things for the sake of 
 the superior, and it has fitted the superior to one 
 another” (v. 30). 
 
 “ Things do not touch the soul, for they are eternal, 
 and remain immovable; but our perturbations come 
 only from the opinion which is within. . . . The 
 
 Universe is Transformation ; life is oj>inion^^ (iv. 3). 
 
 “ To the jaundiced honey tastes bitter, and to those 
 bitten by mad dogs water causes fear ; and to little 
 children the ball is a fine thing. Why, then, am I 
 angry? Dost thou think that a false opinion has less 
 power than the bile in the jaundiced, or the poison in 
 him who is bitten by a mad dog” (vi. 51) ? 
 
 “ How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every 
 impression which is troublesome and unsuitable, and 
 immediately to be at tranquillity ” (v. 2). 
 
 The passages in which Marcus speaks of evil as a 
 relative thing — as being good in the making — the 
 unripe and bitter bud of that which shall be hereafter 
 a beautiful flower — although not expressed with per- 
 fect clearness, yet indicate his belief that our view of 
 evil things rises in great measure from our inability to 
 
BY CANON NABBAB. 
 
 m 
 
 perceive the great whole of which they are but sub- 
 servient parts. 
 
 “ All things,” he says “ come from that universal 
 ruling power, either directly or by way of consequence. 
 And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws, and that which 
 is poisonous, and every hurtftd thing, as a thorn, as 
 mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. 
 Do not therefore imagine that they are of another 
 kind from that which thou dost venerate, but form a 
 just opinion of the source of all.” 
 
 In another curious passage he says that all things 
 which are natural and congruent with the causes which 
 produce them have a certain beauty and attractiveness 
 of their own ; for instance, the splittings and corruga- 
 tions on the surface of bread when it has been baked. 
 “ And again, figs when they are quite ripe gape open ; 
 and in the ripe olives the very circumstances of their 
 being near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to the 
 fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the 
 lion's eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the 
 mouth of wild boars, and many other things — though 
 they are far from being beautiful, if a man should ex- 
 amine them severally — still, because they are conse- 
 quent upon the things which are formed by nature, 
 lielp to adorn them, and they please the mind ; so that 
 if a man should have a feeling and deeper insight 
 about the things found in the universe there is hardly 
 one of those which follow by way of conseguence which 
 will not seem to him to be in a manner disposed so as 
 to give pleasure ” (iv. 2). 
 
 This congruity to nature — the following of nature, 
 and obedience to all her laws — is the key-formula to 
 the doctrines of the Eoman Stoics. 
 
118 ESS A T ON MARCUS A URELl US. 
 
 “ Everything which is in any way beautiful is beau- 
 ful in itself, and terminates in itself, not having praise 
 as part of itself. Neither worse, then, nor better is a 
 thing made by being praised ... Is such a thing 
 as cm emerald made worse them it was, if it is not 
 praised ? or gold, ivory, purple, a lyre, a little Tcnife, a 
 flower, a shruh r (iv. 20.) 
 
 “ Everything harmonizes with me which is harmoni- 
 ous to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early 
 nor too late, which is in due time for thee. Every- 
 thing is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature ! 
 from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee 
 all things return. The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops / 
 auid wilt not thou say. Dear city of God T’’ (iv. 23.) 
 
 “Willingly give thyself up to fate, allowing her 
 to spin thy thread into whatever thing she pleases ” 
 (iv. 34). 
 
 And here, in a very small matter — getting out of 
 bed in a morning — is one practical application of the 
 formula : 
 
 “In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let 
 these thoughts be present, ‘ I am rising to the work of 
 a human being. TUAy, then, am I dissatisfied if I am 
 going to do the things for which I exist, and for which 
 I was brought into the world ? Or have I been made 
 for this, to lie in the bedclothes and keep myself 
 warm V ‘ But this is more pleasant.’ Dost thou exist, 
 then, to take thy pleasure, and not for action or exer- 
 tion f Dost thou not see the little plants, the little 
 birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees, working together 
 to put in order their several parts of the universe? 
 And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human 
 being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which 
 
BY CANON FARRAR. 
 
 119 
 
 is according to thy nature ?” (v. 1.) [“ Go to the ant, 
 thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise !”] 
 
 The same principle, that Kature has assigned to us 
 our proper place — that a task has been given us to 
 perform, and that our only care should be to perform 
 it aright, for the blessing of the great Whole of which 
 we are but insignificant parts — dominates through the 
 admirable precepts which the Emperor lays down for 
 the regulation of our conduct toward others. Some 
 men, he says, do benefits to others only because they 
 expect a return ; some men even, if they do not 
 demand any return, are not forgetful that they have 
 rendered a benefit ; but others do not even know what 
 they have done, but are like a vine which has produced 
 grapes., and seeks for nothing more after it has pro- 
 duced its proper fruit. So we ought to do good to 
 others as simple and as naturally as a horse runs, or a 
 bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes, season after 
 season, without thinking of the grapes which it has 
 borne. And in another passage, “What more dost 
 thou want when thou hast done a service to another ? 
 Art thou not content to have done an act conformable 
 to thy nature, and must thou seek to be paid for it, 
 just as if the eye demanded a reward for seeing, or the 
 feet for walking ?” 
 
 “ Judge every word and deed which is according to 
 nature to be fit for thee, and be not diverted by the 
 blame which follows . . . but if a thing is good to 
 
 be done or said, do not consider it unworthy of thee ” 
 
 (v. 3). ^ ^ 
 
 Sometimes, indeed, Marcus Aurelius wavers. The 
 evils of life overpower him. “ Such as bathing appears 
 to thee,” he says, “ oil, sweat, dirt, filthy water, all 
 
120 
 
 ESSAY ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 things disgusting — so is every ^art of life and every- 
 thing ” (viii. 24) ; and again : “ Of human life the time 
 is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the per- 
 ce])tion dull, and the composition of the whole body 
 subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and 
 fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of 
 judgment.” But more often he retains his perfect 
 tranquillity, and says, “ Either thou livest here, and 
 hast already accustomed thyself to it, or thou art going 
 away, and this was thine own will ; or thou art dying, 
 and hast discharged thy duty. But besides these things 
 there is nothing. Be of good cheer, then ” (x. 22). 
 “ Take me, and cast me where thou wilt, for then I 
 shall keep my divine part tranquil, that is, content, if 
 it can feel and act conformably to its proper constitu- 
 tion ” (viii. 45). 
 
 There is something delightful in the fact that even 
 in the Stoic Philosophy there was some comfort to 
 keep men from despair. To a holy and scrupulous 
 conscience like that of Marcus, there would have been 
 an inestimable preciousness in the Christian doctrine 
 of the “ forgiveness of the sins.” Of that divine 
 mercy — of that sin-uncreating power — the ancient 
 world knew nothing ; but in Marcus we find some dim 
 and faint adumbration of the doctrine, expressed in a 
 manner which might at least breathe calm into the 
 spirit of the philosopher, though it could never reach 
 the hearts of the suifering multitude. For “ suppose,” 
 he says, “that thou hast detached thyself from the 
 natural unity — for thou wast made by nature a part, 
 but now hast cut th}-self off — yet here is the beautiful 
 provision that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. 
 God has allowed this to no other part — after it has 
 
BY CANON FABBAR. 
 
 121 
 
 been separated and cut asunder, to come together 
 again. But consider the goodness with which He has 
 privileged man / for He has put it in his power ^ when 
 he has heen separated^ to return and to he reimited, and 
 to resume his place P And elsewhere he says, “ If you 
 cannot maintain a true and magnanimous character, go 
 courageously into some corner where you can main- 
 tain them ; or if even there you fail, depart at once 
 from life, not with passion, but with modest and 
 simple freedom — which will be to have done at least 
 one laudable act.” Sad that even to Marcus Aurelius 
 death should have seemed the only refuge from the 
 despair of ultimal e failure in the struggle to be wise 
 and good ! 
 
 Marcus valued temperance and self-denial as being 
 the best means of keeping his heart strong and pure ; 
 but we are glad to learn he did not value the rigors of 
 asceticism. Life brought with it enough, and more 
 than enough, of antagonism to brace his nerves; 
 enough, and more than enough, of the rough wind of 
 adversity in his face to make it unnecessary to add 
 more by his own actions. “ It is not fit,” he says, 
 “that I should give myself pain, for I have never 
 intentionally given pain even to another ” (viii. 42). 
 
 It was a commonplace of ancient philosophy that 
 the life of the wise man should be a contemplation of, 
 and a preparation for, death. It certainly was so with 
 Marcus Aurelius. The thoughts of the nothingness of 
 man, and of that great sea of oblivion Avhich shall 
 hereafter swallow up all that he is and does, are ever 
 present to his mind ; they are thoughts to which he 
 recurs more constantly than any other, and from which 
 he always draws the same moral lesson. 
 
122 
 
 ESSA Y ON MARCUS A UBELIU8. 
 
 “ Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from 
 life this very moment, regulate every act and thought 
 accordingly. . . . Death certainljrj and life, honor 
 
 and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these things happen 
 equally to good men and bad, being things whicli 
 make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are 
 neither good nor evil” (ii. 11). 
 
 Elsewhere he says that Hippocrates cured diseases 
 and died; and the Chaldseans foretold the future and 
 died ; and Alexander, and Pompey, and Caesar killed 
 thousands, and then died ; and lice destroyed Demo- 
 critus, and other lice killed Socrates ; and Augustus, 
 and his wife, and daughter, and all his descendants, 
 and all his ancestors, are dead ; and Y espasian and all 
 his Court, and all who in his day feasted, and married, 
 and were sick, and chaffered, and fought, and flattered, 
 and plotted, and grumbled, and wished other people to 
 die, and pined to become kings or consuls, are dead ; 
 and all the idle people who are doing the same things 
 now are doomed to die; and all human things are 
 smoke, and nothing at all ; and it is not for us, but for 
 the gods, to settle whether we ]flay the play out, or 
 only a part of it. “ There are many grains of frankin- 
 cense on the same altar ; one falls before, another falls 
 after / but it makes no differenced And the moral of 
 all these thoughts is, “ Death hangs over thee while 
 thou livest; while it is in thy power be good ” (iv. 17). 
 “Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, 
 thou hast come to shore; get out. If, indeed, to 
 another life there is no want of gods, not even there. 
 But if to a state without sensation, thou wilt cease to 
 be held by jmins and pleasures” (iii. 3). 
 
 Nor was Marcus at all comforted under present 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 123 
 
 annoyances by the thought of posthumous fame. 
 “How ephemeral and worthless human things are,” 
 he says, “and what was yesterday a little mucus, to- 
 morrow will be a mummy or ashes.” “Many who 
 are now praising thee, will very soon blame thee, and 
 neither a posthumous name is of any value, nor repu- 
 tation, nor anything else.” What has become of all 
 great and famous men, and all they desired, and all 
 they loved ? They are “ smoke, and ash, and a tale, 
 or not even a tale.” After all their rages and envy- 
 ings, men are stretched out quiet and dead at last. 
 Soon thou wilt have forgotten all, and soon all wdll 
 have forgotten thee. But here, again, after such 
 thoughts, the same moral is always introduced again : 
 “ Pass then through the little space of time conform- 
 ably to nature, and end the journey in content, jtist as 
 an olive falls of when it is rijye, hlessing nature who 
 ^produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.’’’’ 
 “ One thing only troubles me, lest I should do some- 
 thing which the constitution of man does not allow, 
 or in the way which it does not allow, or wdiat it does 
 not allow now.” 
 
 To quote the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius is to me 
 a fascinating task. But I have already let him speak 
 so largely for himself that by this time the reader will 
 have some conception of his leading motives. It only 
 remains to adduce a few more of the weighty and 
 golden sentences in which he lays down his rule of life. 
 
 “ To say all in a word, ever^Thing which belongs to 
 the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is 
 a dream and vapor; and life is a warfare, and a 
 stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. "What, 
 then, is that which is able to enrich a man? One 
 
124 
 
 ESSA r ON MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 thing, and only one — philosophy. But this consists in 
 keeping the guardian spirit within a man free from 
 violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleas- 
 ures, without a purjjose, nor yet falsely, 
 
 and with h ypocrisy . . . accepting all that happens 
 
 and all that is allotted . . and finally waiting 
 
 for death with a cheerful mind'’’’ (ii. 17). 
 
 “If thou findest in human life anything better than 
 justice, truth, temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, 
 than thine own soul’s satisfaction in the things which 
 ;t enables thee to do according to right reason, and in 
 the condition that is assigned to thee without thy own 
 choice ; if, I say, thou seest anything better than this, 
 turn to it with all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou 
 hast found to be the best. But ... if thou find- 
 est everything else smaller and of less value than this, 
 give place to nothing else. . . . Simply and freely 
 
 choose the better, and hold to it ” (iii. 6). 
 
 “ Body, soul, intelligence : to the body belong sensa- 
 tions, to the soul appetites, to the intelligence princi- 
 ples.” To be impressed by the senses is peculiar to 
 animals ; to be pulled by the strings of desire belongs 
 to effeminate men, and to men like Phalaris or Nero; 
 to be guided only by intelligence belongs to atheists 
 and traitors, and “men who do their impure deeds 
 when they have shut the doors. . . . There 
 
 remains that Avhich is peculiar to the good man, to he 
 fleased and content with what happens, and with the 
 thread which is spun for him ; and not to defile the 
 divinity which is planted in his breast, nor disturb it 
 by a crowd of images ; but to preserve it tranquil, 
 following it obediently as a god, neither saying any- 
 thing contrary to truth, nor doing anything contrary 
 to justice ” (iii. 16). 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 125 
 
 “Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the 
 country, sea-shores, and mountains, and thou too art 
 wont to desire such things very much. But this is 
 altogether a mark of the commonest sort of men, for 
 it is in thy power whenever thou shalt chose to retire 
 into thyself. For nowhere either tcith more quiet or 
 with more freedom does a man retire than into his own 
 soul, particularly when he has within him such 
 thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately 
 in perfect tranquillity, which is nothing else than the 
 good ordering of the mind ” (iv. 3). 
 
 “Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me? 
 Uot so, but happ3^ am I though this has happened to 
 me, because I continue free from pain ; neither 
 crushed by the present, nor fearing the future” 
 (iv. 19). 
 
 It is just possible that in some of these passages 
 some readers may detect a trace of painful self-con- 
 sciousness, and imagine that they detect a little grain 
 of self-complacence. Something of self consciousness 
 is perhaps inevitable in the diary and examination of 
 his own conscience by one who sat on such a lonely 
 height ; but self-complacency there is none. Uay, there 
 is sometimes even a cruel sternness in the Avay in which 
 the Emperor speaks of his own self. He certainly 
 dealt not with himself in the manner of a dissembler 
 with God. “ When,” he says (x. 8), “ thou hast assumed 
 the names of a man who is good, modest, rational, 
 magnanimous, cling to those names ; and if thou 
 shouldst lose them, quickly return to them. . • . 
 
 For to continue to he such as thou hast hitherto been, and 
 to be torn in pieces, and defiled in such a life, is the 
 character of a very stupid man, and one over-fond of 
 
126 
 
 BSSA T OJSr MARCUS A URELIUS. 
 
 his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with vnld 
 Jjeasts, who, though covered with wounds and gore, still 
 entreat to he hejyt till the following day, though they 
 loill he exposed in the same state to the same claws and 
 hites. Therefore fix thyself in the possession of these 
 fe\v names: and if thou art able to abide in them, 
 abide as if thou were removed to the Islands of the 
 Blest.” Alas! to Aurelius, in this life, the Islands of 
 the Blest were very far away. Heathen philosophy 
 Avas exalted and eloquent, but all its votaries Avere sad ; 
 to “the peace of God, Avhich passeth all understaird- 
 ins:,” it Avas not given them to attain. We see Marcus 
 “ Avise, self -governed, tender, thankful, blameless,” says 
 Mr. Arnold, “ yet with all this agitated, stretching out 
 his arms for something beyond — tendentemgue manue 
 riyxe ulterioris amore.’’'’ 
 
 I will quote, in conclusion, but three short precepts : 
 
 “ Be cheerful, and seek not external help, nor the 
 tranquillity Avhich others giAm. A man must stand 
 erect, not he kept erect hy others’’’’ (iv. 5). 
 
 “ Be like the promontory aga ’inst which the waves con- 
 tinued, ly break, hut it stands firm and tames the fury of 
 the water around it ” (iv. 49). 
 
 This comparison has been used many a time since 
 the days of Marcus Aurelius. The reader will at once 
 recall Goldsmith’s famous lines : 
 
 “ As some tall cliff that rears its awful form, 
 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm. 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread. 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head.” 
 
 “ Short is the little that remains to thee of life. 
 Live as on a mountain. For it makes no difference 
 Avhetlier a man lives there or here, if he lives every- 
 
BT CANON FARRAR. 
 
 m 
 
 where in the Avorld as in a civil community. Let men 
 see, let them know a real man who lives as he was 
 meant to live. If they cannot endure him, let them 
 kiU him. For that is better than to live as men do ” 
 (x. 15). 
 
 Such were some of the thoughts which Marcus 
 Aurelius wrote in his diary after days of battle with 
 the Quadi, and the Marcomanni, and the Sarmatge. 
 Isolated from others no less by moral grandeur than 
 by the supremacy of his sovereign rank, he sought the 
 society of his own noble soul. I sometimes imagine 
 that I see him seated on the borders of some gloomy 
 Pannonian forest or Hungarian marsh ; through the 
 darkness the watch-fires of the enemy gleam in the dis- 
 tance; but both among them, and in the camp around 
 him, every sound is hushed, except the tread of the 
 sentinel outside the imperial tent ; and in that tent 
 long after midnight sits the patient Emperor by the 
 light of his solitary lamp, and ever and anon, amid his 
 lonely musings, he pauses to Avrite doAAm the pure and 
 holy thoughts Avhich shall better enable him, even in a 
 Roman palace, even on barbarian battle-fields, daily to 
 tolerate the meanness and the malignity of the men 
 around him ; daily to amend his own shortcomings, 
 and, as the sun of earthly life begins to set, daily to 
 draAv nearer and nearer to the Eternal Light. And 
 Avhen I thus think of him, I knoAV not Avhether the 
 Avhole of heathen antiquity, out of its gallery of stately 
 and royal figures, can furnish a nobler, or purer, or 
 more loA’^able picture than that of this croAvned 
 philosopher and laurelled hero, Avho Avas yet one of 
 the humblest and one of the most enlightened of all 
 ancient “ Seekers after God.” 
 
the meditations 
 
 OF 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 
 
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 
 
 I. 
 
 From my grandfather Yerus* * * § [I learned] good 
 morals and the goverment of my temper. 
 
 2. From the reputation and remembrance of my 
 father,]; modesty and a manly character. 
 
 3. From my mother, § piety and beneficence, and 
 abstinence, not only from evil deeds, but even from 
 evil thoughts; and further simplicity in iny way of 
 living, far removed from the habits of the rich. 
 
 4. From my great-grandfather,! not to have fre- 
 quented public schools, and to have had good teachers 
 at home, and to know that on such things a man should 
 spend liberally. 
 
 * Annius Verus was liis grandfather’s name. There is no verb in 
 this section connected with the word “from,” nor in the following 
 sections of this book; and it is not quite certain what verb should he 
 supplied. What I have added may express the meaning here, though 
 there are sections which it will not fit. If he does not mean to say 
 that he learned of these good things from the several persons whom 
 he mentions, he means that he observed certain good qualities in 
 them, or received certain benefits from them, and it is implied that 
 he was the better for it, or at least might have been; for it would be 
 
 a mistake to understand Marcus as saying that he possessed all the 
 virtues which he observed in his kinsmen and teachers. 
 
 :j:His father’s name was Annius Verus. 
 
 § His mother was Domitia Calvilla, named also Lucilla. 
 
 I Perhaps his mother’s grandfather, Catilius Severus. 
 
133 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 5. From my goveimor, to be neither of the green nor 
 of the blue party at the games in the Circus, nor a 
 partizan either of the Parmularius or the Scutarius at 
 the gladiators’ fights ; from him too I learned endurance 
 of labor, and to want little, and to work with my own 
 hands, and not to meddle with other people’s affairs, 
 and not to be ready to listen to slander. 
 
 6. From Diognetus,* not to busy myself about 
 trifling things, and not to give credit to what was said 
 by miracle- workers and jugglers about incantations 
 and the driving away of demons and such things ; and 
 not to breed quails [for fighting], nor to give myself up 
 passionately to such things ; and to endure freedom of 
 speech ; and to have become intimate with philosophy ; 
 and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, then of 
 Tandasis and Marcianus ; and to have written dialogues 
 in my youth ; and to have desired a plank bed and 
 skin, and whatever else of the kind belongs to the 
 Grecian discipline. 
 
 7. From Rusticusj; I received the impression that my 
 character required improvement and discipline ; and 
 from him I learned not to be led astray to sophistic 
 emulation, nor to writing on speculative matters, nor 
 
 * In the works of J ustinus there is printed a letter to one 
 Diognetus, whom the writer names “most excellent.” He was a 
 Gentile, but he wished very much to know what the religion of the 
 Christians was, what God they worshipped, and how this worship 
 made them despise the world and death, and neither believe in the 
 gods of the Greeks nor observe the superstition of the Jews ; and 
 what was this love to one another which they had, and why this new 
 kind of religion was introduced now and not before. My friend, Mr. 
 Jenkins, rector of Lyminge in Kent, has suggested to me that this 
 Diognetus may have been the tutor of M. Antoninus. 
 
 Q. Junius Rusticus was a Stoic philosopher, whom Antoninus 
 valued highly, and often took his advice. (Capitol. M. Antonin, iii.) 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 133 
 
 to delivering little hortatory orations, nor to showing 
 myself off as a man who practices much disciphne, or 
 does benevolent acts in order to make a display ; and 
 to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing ; 
 and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor 
 dress, nor to do other things of the kind ; and to write 
 my letters with simphcity, like the letter which 
 Eusticus wrote from Sinuessa to my mother ; and with 
 respect to those who have offended me by words, or 
 done me wrong, to be easily disposed to be pacified and 
 reconciled, as soon as they have shown a readiness to 
 be reconciled ; and to read carefully, and not to be 
 satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book ; 
 nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk over- 
 much ; and I am indebted to him for being acquainted 
 with the discourses of Epictetus, which he communi- 
 cated to me out of his own collection. 
 
 8. From Apollonius* I learned freedom of will and 
 undeviating steadiness of purpose; and to look to 
 nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason ; 
 and to be always the same, in sharp pains, on the 
 occasion of the loss of a child, and in long illness ; and 
 to see clearly in a living example that the same man 
 can be both most resolute and yielding, and not peevish 
 in giving his instruction ; and to have had before my 
 eyes a man who clearly considered his experience and 
 his skill in expounding philosophical principles as the 
 smallest of his merits ; and from him I learned how to 
 receive from friends Avhat are esteemed favors, without 
 being either hmnbled by them or letting them pass 
 unnoticed. 
 
 * Apollonius of CAalcis came to Rome in the time of Pius to be 
 Marcus’ preceptor. He was a rigid Stoic. 
 
134 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 9. From Sextus,* * * § a benevolent disposition, and the 
 example of a family governed in a fatherly manner, 
 and the idea of living conformably to nature ; and 
 gravity without affectation, and to look carefully after 
 the interests of friends, and to tolerate ignorant per- 
 sons, and those who form opinions without considera- 
 tion : he had the power of readily accommodating 
 himself to all, so that intercourse with him was more 
 agreeable than any flattery ; and at the same time he 
 was most highly venerated by those who associated 
 with him : and he had the faculty both of discovering 
 and ordering, in an intelligent and methodical way, 
 the principles necessary for life ; and he never showed 
 anger or any other passion, but was entirely free from 
 passion, and also most affectionate; and he could ex- 
 press approbation without noisy display, and he pos- 
 sessed much knowledge without ostentation. 
 
 10. From Alexander the grammarian, to refrain 
 from fault-flnding, and not in a reproachful way to 
 chide those who uttered any barbarous or solecistic 
 or sti’ange-sounding expression ; but dexterously to 
 introduce the very expression which ought to have 
 been used, and in the way of answer or giving con- 
 firmation, or joining in an inquiry about the thing 
 itself, not about the word, or by some other fit sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 11. From Fronto§ I learned to observe what envy 
 
 * Sextus of Cliteronea, a grandson of Plutarch, or nephew, as 
 
 some say ; hut more probably a grandson. 
 
 Alexander was a Grammaticus, a native of Phrygia. He wrote 
 a commentary on Homer; and the rhetorician Aristides wrote a pane- 
 gyric on Alexander in a funeral oration. 
 
 § M. Cornelius Pronto was a rhetorician, and in great favor with 
 Marcus. There are extant various letters between Marcus and 
 Pronto. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINCS. 
 
 135 
 
 and duplicity and hypocrisy are in a tyrant, and that 
 generally those among us who are called Patricians 
 are rather deficient in paternal affection. 
 
 12. Fi’om Alexander the Platonic, not frequently 
 nor without necessity to say to any one, or to write 
 in a letter, that I have no leisure ; nor continually to 
 excuse the neglect of duties required by our relation 
 to those with whom we live, by alleging urgent occu- 
 pations. 
 
 13. From Catulus,'^ not to be indifferent when a 
 friend finds fault, even if he should find fault without 
 reason, but to tiy to restore him to his usual disposi- 
 tion ; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, as it 
 is reported of Domitius and Athenodotus ; and to love 
 my children truly. 
 
 14. From my brother;}; Severus, to love my kin, and 
 to love truth, and to love justice; and through him 
 I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, 
 Brutus ;§ and from him I received the idea of a polity 
 in which there is the same law for all, a polity admin- 
 istered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom 
 of speech, and the idea of a kingl}'^ government which 
 respects most of all the freedom of the governed ; I 
 learned from him alsof consistency and undeviating 
 steadiness in my regard for philosophy, and a disposi- 
 
 * Cinna Catulus, a Stoic philosopher. 
 
 t The word brother may not he genuine. Antoninus had no 
 brother. It has been supposed that he may mean some cousin. 
 Schultz in his translation omits “brother,” and says that this Severus 
 is probably Claudius Severus, a peripatetic. 
 
 § We know, from Tacitus xiii., xvi. 21, and other passages), 
 who Thrasea and Helvidius were. Plutarch has written the lives of 
 the two Catos, and of Dion and Brutus, Antoninus probably alludes 
 to (["ato of Utica, who was a Stoic, 
 
13G 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 to do good, and to give to others readily, and to 
 cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am loved by 
 my friends ; and in him I observed no concealment 
 of his opinions with respect to those whom he con- 
 demned, and that his friends had no need to con- 
 jecture what he wished or did not wish, but it was 
 quite plain. 
 
 15. From Maximus* I learned self-government, and 
 not to be led aside by anything ; and cheerfulness in 
 all circumstances, as well as in illness; and a just 
 admixture in the moral character of sweetness and 
 dignity, and to do what was set before me without 
 complaining. I observed that everybody believed that 
 he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he did he 
 never had any bad intention; and he never showed 
 amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, 
 and never put off doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor 
 dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his vexa- 
 tion, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate 
 or suspicious. He was accustomed to do acts of be- 
 neficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from 
 all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a 
 man who could not be diverted from right rather than 
 of a man who had been improved. I observed, too, 
 that no man could ever think that he was despised by 
 Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better 
 man. He had also the art of being humorous in an 
 agreeable way. 
 
 16. In ray fatherj; I observed mildness of temper, 
 
 * Claudius Maximus was a Stoic philosopher, who was highly 
 esteemed also by Antoninus Pius, Marcus’ predecessor. The character 
 of Maximus is that of a perfect man. (See viii. 25.) 
 
 t He means his adoptive father, his predecessor, the Emperor 
 Antoninus Pius. Compare vi. 30. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 137 
 
 and unchangeable resolution in the things which he 
 had determined after due deliberation; and no vain- 
 glory in those things which men call honors ; and a 
 love of labor and perseverance; and a readiness to 
 listen to those who had anything to propose for the 
 common weal ; and undeviating firmness in giving to 
 every man according to his deserts ; and a knowledge 
 derived from experience of the occasions for vigorous 
 action and for remission. And I observed that he had 
 overcome all passion for joys ; and he considered him- 
 self no more than any other citizen, and he released his 
 friends from all obligation to sup with him or to 
 attend him of necessity when he went abroad, and 
 those who had failed to accompany him, by reason of 
 any urgent circumstances, always found him the same. 
 I observed, too, his habit of careful inquiry in all mat- 
 ters of deliberation, and his persistency, and that he 
 never stopped his investigation through being satis- 
 fied with appearances which first present themselves ; 
 and that his disposition was to keep his friends, and 
 not to be soon tired of them, nor yet to be extravagant 
 in his affection ; and to be satisfied on all occasions, 
 and cheerful ; and to foresee things a long way off, and 
 to provide for the smallest without display ; and to 
 check immediately popular applause and flattery ; and 
 to be ever watchful over the things that were neces- 
 sary for the administration of the empire, and to be a 
 good manager of the expenditure, and patiently to 
 endure the blame which he got for such conduct ; and 
 he was neither superstitious with respect to the gods, 
 nor did he court men by gifts or by trying to please 
 them, or by flattering the populace ; but he showed 
 sobriety in all things and firmness, and never any 
 
138 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty. And 
 the things which conduce in any way to the commod- 
 ity of life, and of which fortune gives an abundant 
 supply, he used without arrogance and without excus- 
 ing himself ; so that when he had them, he enjoyed 
 them without affectation, and when he had them not 
 he did not want tliem. No one could ever say of him 
 that he was either a sophist or a [home-bred] flippant 
 slave or a pedant; but every one acknowledged him to 
 be a man ripe, perfect, above flattery, able to manage 
 his own and other men’s affairs. Besides this, he hon- 
 ored those who were ti-ue philosophers, and he did not 
 reproach those who pretended to be philosophers, nor 
 yet was he easily led b^^ them. He was also easy m 
 conversation, and he made himself agreeable without 
 any offensive affectation. lie took a reasonable care 
 of his body’s health, not as one who was greatly 
 attached to life, nor out of regard to personal appear- 
 ance, nor yet in a careless way, but so that, through his 
 own attention, he very seldom stood in need of the ]:>hy- 
 sician’s art or of medicine or external ap])lications. He 
 was most ready to give way without envy to those who 
 possessed any particular faculty, such as that of elo- 
 quence or knowledge of the law or of morals, or of any- 
 thing else ; and he gave them his help, that each might 
 enjoy reputation according to his deserts ; and he always 
 acted conformably to the institutions of his country, 
 without showing any affectation of doing so. Further, 
 he was not fond of change, nor unsteady, but he loved 
 to stay in the same places, and to employ himself about 
 the same things ; and after his paroxysms of headache 
 he came immediately fresh and vigorous to his usual 
 occupations. His secrets were not many, but very 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONIMUS. 
 
 139 
 
 few and very rare, and these only about public mat- 
 ters; and he showed prudence and economy in the 
 exhibition of the public spectacles and the construction 
 of public buildings, his donations to the people, and in 
 such things, for he was a man who looked to what 
 ought to be done, not to the reputation w^hich is got 
 by a man’s acts. He did not take the bath at unsea- 
 sonable hours ; he was not fond of building houses, nor 
 curious about what he eat, nor about the texture and 
 color of his clothes, nor about the beauty of his slaves.* * * § 
 His dress came from Lorium, his villa on the coast, and 
 from Lanuvium generally.:}; W e know how he behaved 
 to the toll-collector at Tusculum who asked his par- 
 don ; and such was all his behavior. There was in 
 him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor violent, nor, as 
 one may say, anjdhing carried to the sweating point : 
 but he examined all things severally, as if he had abun- 
 dance of time, and without confusion, in an orderly 
 way, vigorously and consistently. And that might be 
 applied to him which is recorded of Socrates,§ that he 
 was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things 
 which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot 
 enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both 
 to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the 
 mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul, 
 such as he showed in the illness of Maximus. 
 
 17 . To the gods I am indebted for having good 
 grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teach- 
 ers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly 
 
 * This passage is corrupt and the exact meaning is uncertain. 
 
 t Lorium was a villa on the coast north of Rome, and there 
 
 Antoninus was brought up, and he died there. This also is corrupt. 
 
 § Xenophon, Memorab. i. 3. 15. 
 
140 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 everything good. Further, I oAve it to the gods that I 
 Avas not hurried into any offense against any of them, 
 though I had a disposition AA^hioh, if opportunity had 
 offered, might have led me to do something of this 
 kind ; but, through their favor, there never was such a 
 concurrence of circumstances as put me to the trial. 
 Further, I am thankful to the gods that I Avas not 
 longer brought up with my grandfather’s concubine, 
 and that I preserved the flower of my youth, and that 
 I did not make proof of my virility before the proper 
 season, but even deferred the time ; that I AA^as subjected 
 to a ruler and a father who Avas able to take aAvay all 
 pride from me, and to bring me to the knoAvledge that 
 it is possible for a man to live in a palace Avithout Avant- 
 ing either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches 
 and statues, and such-like show ; but it is in such a 
 man’s power to bring himself very near to the fashion 
 of a private person, Avithout being for this reason either 
 meaner in thought, or more remiss in action, Avith 
 respect to the things Avhich must be done for the public 
 interest in a manner that befits a ruler. I thank the 
 gods for giving me such a brother,* Avho Avas able by 
 his moral character to rouse me to vigilance over my- 
 self, and Avho, at the same time, pleased me by his 
 respect and affection ; that my children have not been 
 stupid nor deformed in body ; that I did not make more 
 proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, and the other studies, 
 in Avhich I should perhaps have been completely en- 
 gaged, if I had seen that I Avas making progress in 
 them ; that I made haste to place those Avho brought 
 me up in the station of honor, Avhich they seemed to 
 
 * The emperor had no brother, except L. Verus, his brother by 
 adoption. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 141 
 
 desire, without putting them off with hope of my doing 
 it some time after, because they were then still young; 
 that I knew Apollonius, Eusticus, IVIaximus; that I 
 received clear and frequent impressions about living ac- 
 cording to nature, and what kind of a life that is, so that, 
 so far as depended on the gods, and their gifts and help, 
 and inspirations, nothing hindered me from forthwith 
 living according to nature, though I still fall short of 
 it through my own fault, and though not observing the 
 admonitions of the gods, and, I may ahnoct say, their 
 direct instructions ; that my body has held out so long in 
 such a kind of life ; that I never touched either Benedicta 
 or Theodotus, and that, after having fallen into ama- 
 tory passions, I was cured ; and, thougli I was often out 
 of humor Avith Rusticus, I never did anything of which 
 I had occasion to repent ; that, though it Avas my 
 mother’s fate to die young, she spent the last years of her 
 life with me; that Avhenever I wished to help any man 
 in his need, or on any other occasion, I Avas neAmr told 
 that I had not the means of doing it ; and that to my- 
 self the same necessity ncA^er happened, to receive any 
 thing from another; that I have such a Avife,* so 
 obedient, and so affectionate, and so simple; that I had 
 abundance of good masters for my children; and that 
 remedies have been shown to me by dreams, both 
 others, and against blood-spitting and giddiness;:}; 
 . . , and that, Avhen I had an inclination to philos- 
 
 ophy I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, and 
 that I did not Avaste my time on writers [of histories], 
 or in the resolution of syllogisms, or occupy myself 
 about the investigation of appearances in the heavens ; 
 
 *See tlie Life of Antoninus, 
 i This is corrupt 
 
143 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 for all these things require the help of the gods and 
 fortune. 
 
 Among the Quadi at the Granua.* 
 
 * The Quadi lived in the southern part of Bohemia and Moravia; 
 and Antoninus made a campaign against them. (See the Life.) 
 Granua is prohahly the river Graan, which flows into the-Danube. 
 If these words are genuine, Antoninus may have written this first 
 book during the war with the Quadi. In the first edition of Anto- 
 ninus, and in the older editions, the first three sections of the second 
 book make the conclusion of the first book. Gataker placed them at 
 the beginning of the second book. 
 
MARCU8 A URELIU8 ANT0NINU8. 
 
 143 
 
 II. 
 
 Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet 
 with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, 
 envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them 
 by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. 
 But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is 
 beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature 
 of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not [only] 
 of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in 
 [the same] intelligence and [the same] portion of the 
 divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for 
 no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry 
 with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made 
 for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like 
 the rows of the upper and lower teeth.* To act 
 against one another then is contrary to nature ; and it 
 is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn 
 away. 
 
 2. Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and 
 breath, and the ruling part. Throw away thy books ; 
 no longer distract thyself : it is not allowed ; but as if 
 thou wast now dying, despise the flesh ; it is blood and 
 bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins and 
 arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it 
 is ; air, and not always the same, but every moment 
 sent out and again sucked in. The third then is the 
 
 * Xenophon, Mem. ii. 3. 18. 
 
144 
 
 THE MEDITATION'S OF 
 
 ruling part : consider thus : Thou art an old man ; no 
 longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the 
 strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer 
 be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink 
 from the future. 
 
 3. All that is from the gods is full of providence. 
 That which is from fortune is not separated from 
 nature or without an interweaving and involution with 
 the things which are ordered by Providence. From 
 thence all things flow ; and there is besides necessity, 
 and that which is for the advantage of the whole uni- 
 verse, of which thou art a part. But that is good for 
 every part of nature which the nature of the whole 
 brings, and what serves to maintain this nature, hfow 
 the universe is preserved, as by the changes of the 
 elements so by the changes of things compounded of 
 the elements. Let these principles be enough for thee ; 
 let them always be fixed opinions. But cast away the 
 thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmur- 
 ing, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful 
 to the gods. 
 
 4. Remember how long thou hast been putting off 
 these things, and how often thou hast received an 
 opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. 
 Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou 
 art a part, and of what administrator of the universe 
 thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is 
 fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing 
 away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou 
 wilt go, and it will never return. 
 
 5. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a 
 man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and 
 simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 143 
 
 and justice ; and to give thyself relief from all other 
 thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou 
 doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying 
 aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the 
 commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, 
 and discontent with the portion which has been given 
 to thee. Thou seest how few the things are, the which 
 if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which 
 flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods ; 
 for the gods on their part will require nothing more 
 from him who observes these things. 
 
 6. Do wrong* to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my 
 soul ; but thou wilt no longer have the opportunity of 
 honoring thyself. Every man’s life is sufRcient.f But 
 thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences not 
 itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of others. 
 
 7. Do the things external which fall upon thee dis- 
 tract thee? Give thyself time to learn something new 
 and good, and cease to be whirled around. But then 
 thou must also avoid being carried about the other 
 way. For those too are triflers who have wearied 
 themselves in life by their activity, and yet have no 
 object to which to direct every movement, and, in a 
 word, all their thoughts. 
 
 8. Through not observing what is in the mind of 
 another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy ; 
 but those who do not observe the movements of their 
 own minds must of necessity be unhappy. 
 
 9. This thou must always bear in mind, what is the 
 nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how 
 this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of 
 what kind of a whole ; and that there is no one who 
 
 * Perhaps it should be “ thou art doing violence to thyself.” 
 
14(5 
 
 THE MEHITATIONS OF 
 
 hinders thee from always doing and saying the things 
 which are according to the nature of which thou art a 
 part. 
 
 10. Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts — 
 such a comparison as one would make in accordance 
 with the common notions of mankind — says, like a 
 true ])hilosopher, that the offenses which are committed 
 through desire are more blameable than those which 
 are committed through anger For he who is excited 
 by anger seems to turn away from reason with a 
 certain pain and unconscious contraction ; but he who 
 offends through desire, being overpowered by pleasure, 
 seems to be in a manner more intemperate and more 
 womanish in his offenses. Rightly then, and in a 
 way wortliy of philosophy, he said that the offense 
 Avhich is committed with pleasure is more blameable 
 than that which is committed with pain ; and on the 
 Avhole the one is more like a person who has been first 
 wronged and tlirough pain is compelled to be angry ; 
 but the other is moved by his own impulse to do 
 wrong, being carried toward doing something by desire. 
 
 11. Since it is possible* that thou mayest depart from 
 life this very moment, regulate every act and thought 
 accordingly.;}; Rut to go aAvay from among men, if 
 there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the 
 gods will not iiwolve thee in evil ; but if indeed they do 
 not exist, or if they have no concern about human 
 affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of 
 gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do 
 exist, and they do care for human things, and they have 
 
 * Or it may mean “since it is in tliy power to depart which 
 gives a meaning somewhat diiferent. 
 
 I See Cicero, Tuscul. i. 49. 
 
MARCnS A tlRELIirS ANTONINUS. 
 
 147 
 
 put all the means in man’s power to enable him not to 
 fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was 
 anything evil, they would have provided for this also, 
 that it should be altogether in a man’s power not to 
 fall into it. Now, that which does not make a man 
 worse, how can it make a man’s life worse? But 
 neither through ignorance, nor having the knowledge, 
 but not the power to guard against or correct these 
 things, is it possible that the nature of the universe has 
 overlooked them ; nor is it possible that it has made so 
 great a mistake, either through want of power or w<!,nt 
 of skill, that good and evil should happen indiscrimi- 
 nately to the good and the bad. But death certainly, 
 and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all 
 these things equally happen to good men and bad, 
 being things Avhich make us neither better nor worse. 
 Therefore they are neither good nor evil. 
 
 12. How quickly all these things disappear, in the 
 universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remem- 
 brance of them ; what is the nature of all sensible 
 things, and particularly those which attract with the 
 bait of pleasure or terrify by pain, or are noised abroad 
 by vapory fame ; how worthless, and contemptible, 
 and sordid and perishable, and dead they are — all 
 this it is the part of the intellectual faculty to observe. 
 To observe too who these are whose opinions and 
 voices give reputation ; what death is, and the fact 
 that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the abstract- 
 ive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the 
 things Avhich present themselves to the imagination in 
 it, he will then consider it to be nothing else than an 
 operation of nature ; and if any one is afraid of an 
 operation of nature he is a child. This, however, is 
 
148 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 not only an operation of nature, but it is also a thing 
 which conduces to the purposes of nature. To observe, 
 too, how man conies near to the deity, and by what 
 part of him, and when this part of man is so disposedf 
 (vi. 28). 
 
 13. Nothing is more wretched than a man who 
 traverses everything in a round, and pries into the 
 things beneath the earth, as the poet* says, and seeks 
 by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbors, 
 Avithout perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the 
 demon within him, and to reverence it sincerely. And 
 reverence of the demon consists in keeping it pure 
 from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction 
 with Avhat comes from gods and men. For the things 
 from the gods merit veneration for their excellence ; 
 and the things from men should be dear to us by 
 reason of kinship ; and sometimes even, in a manner, 
 they move our pity by reason of men’s ignorance of 
 good and bad; this defect being not less than that 
 which dejirives us of the power of distinguishing 
 things that are white and black. 
 
 14. Though thou shouldest be going to live three 
 thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, 
 still remember that no man loses any other life than 
 this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this 
 which he noAV loses. The longest and shortest are 
 thus brought to the same. For the present is the 
 same to all, though that which perishes is not the 
 same ;f and so that which is lost appears to be a mere 
 moment. For a man cannot lose either the past or the 
 future : for what a man has not, how can any one take 
 tliis from him? These two things then thou must 
 
 * Pindar in the Thesetetus of Plato. See xi. 1. 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 149 
 
 bear in mind : the one, that all things from eternity 
 are of like forms and come round in a circle, and that 
 it makes no difference whether a man shall see the 
 same things during a hundred years or two hundred, or 
 an infinite time ; and the second, that the longest liver 
 and he who will die soonest lose just the same. For 
 the present is the only thing of which a man can be 
 deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which 
 he has, and that a man cannot lose a thing if he has 
 it not. 
 
 15. Kemember that all is opinion. For what was 
 said by the Cynic Monimus is manifest : and manifest 
 too is the use of what was said, if a man receives what 
 may be got out of it as far as it is true. 
 
 16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of 
 all, when it becomes an abscess and, as it were, a tumor 
 on the universe, so far as it can. For to be vexed at 
 anything which happens is a separation of ourselves 
 from nature, in some part- of which the natures of all 
 other things are contained. In the next place, the soul 
 does violence to itself when it turns away from any 
 man, or even moves toward him with the intention of 
 injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. 
 In the third place, the soul does violence to itself when 
 it is overpowered by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, 
 when it plays a part, and does or says anything insin- 
 cerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act 
 of its own and any movement to be without an aim, 
 and does anything thoughtlessly and without consider- 
 ing what it is, it being right that even the smallest 
 things be done with reference to an end ; and the end 
 of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law 
 of the most ancient city and polity. 
 
150 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 17. Of human life the time is a point, and the sub- 
 stance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the 
 composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, 
 and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and 
 fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a 
 word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, 
 and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor, and 
 life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after- 
 fame is oblivion. What, then, is that which is able to 
 conduct a man ? One thing, and only one — philosophy. 
 But this consists in keeping the demon within a man 
 free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and 
 pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet 
 falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of an- 
 other man’s doing or not doing anything; and besides, 
 accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as 
 coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he 
 himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a 
 cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution 
 of the elements of which every living being is com- 
 pounded. But if there is no harm to the elements 
 themselves in each continually changing into another, 
 why should a man have any apprehension about the 
 change and dissolution of all the elements? For it 
 is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is 
 according to nature. 
 
 This in Carnuntum.* 
 
 * Carnuntum was a town of Pannonia, on the south side of the 
 Danube, about thirty miles east of Vindobona (Vienna). Orosius (vii. 
 15) and Eutropius (viii. 13) say that Antoninus remained three years 
 at Carnu -turn during his war with the Marcorhanni. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 151 
 
 III. 
 
 We ou^ht to consider not only that our life is daily 
 wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but an- 
 other thing also must be taken into the account, that if 
 a man should live longer it is quite uncertain whether 
 the understanding will still continue sufficient for the 
 comprehension of things, and retain the power of con- 
 templation which strives to acquire the knowledge of 
 the divine and the human. For if he shall begin to fall 
 into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and imagination 
 and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, 
 will not fail ; but the power of making use of our- 
 selves, and filling up the measure of our duty, and 
 clearly separating all appearances, and considering 
 whether a man should noAV depart from life, and 
 whatever else of the kind absolutely requires a dis- 
 ciplined reason, all this is already extinguished. We 
 must make haste then, not onlj^ because we are daily 
 nearer to death, but also because the conception of 
 things and the understanding of them cease first. 
 
 2. We ought to observe also that even the things 
 which follow after the things Avhich are produced 
 according to nature contain something pleasing and 
 attractive. For instance, when bread is baked some 
 parts are split at the surface, and these parts which 
 thus open, and have a certain fashion contrary to the 
 purpose of the baker’s art, are beautiful in a manner, 
 
152 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And 
 again, figs, when they are quite ripe, gape open, and in 
 the ripe olives the very circumstance of their being 
 near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to the fruit. 
 And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion’s eye- 
 brows, and the foam which liows from the mouth of 
 wild boars, and many other things — though they are 
 far from being beautiful, if a man should examine 
 them severally — still, because they are consequent 
 upon the things which are formed by nature, help to 
 adorn them, and they please the mind ; so that if a 
 man should have a feeling and deeper insight with 
 respect to the things which are produced in the uni- 
 verse, there is hardly one of those which follow by way 
 of consequence which will not seem to him to be in a 
 manner disposed so as to give pleasure. And so he 
 will see even the real gaping jaws of wild beasts with 
 no less pleasure than those which painters and sculp- 
 tors show by imitation ; and in an old woman and an 
 old man he will be able to see a certain maturity and 
 comeliness; and the attractive loveliness of young per- 
 sons he will be able to look on with chaste eyes ; and 
 many such things will present themselves, not pleasing 
 to every man, but to him only who has become truly 
 familiar with nature and her works. 
 
 3. Hippocrates after curing many diseases himself 
 fell sick and died. The Chaldmi foretold the deaths of 
 many, and then fate caught them too. Alexander, 
 and Pompeius, and Cains Csesar, after so often com- 
 pletely destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to 
 pieces many ten thousands of cavalry and infantry, 
 themselves too at last departed from life. Heraclitus, 
 after so many speculations on the conflagration of the 
 
MABCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 153 
 
 universe, was filled with water internally and died 
 smeared all over with mud. And lice destroyed Demo- 
 critus; and other lice killed Socrates. What means 
 all this ? Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the 
 voyage, thou art come to shore ; get out. If indeed 
 to another life, there is no want of gods, not even 
 there. But if to a state without sensation, thou wilt 
 cease to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a 
 slave to the vessel, which is as much inferior as that 
 which serves it is superior ;f for the one is intelligence 
 and deity ; the other is earth and corruption. 
 
 4. Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts 
 about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to 
 some object of common utility. For thou losest the 
 opportunity of doing something else when thou hast 
 such thoughts as these. What is such a person doing, 
 and why, and what is he saying, and what is he 
 thinking of, and what is he contriving, and whatever 
 else of the kind makes us wander away from the ob- 
 servation of our own ruling power. We ought then 
 to check in the series of our thoughts everything that 
 is without a purpose and useless, but most of all the 
 overcurious feeling and the malignant ; and a man 
 should use himself to think of those things only about 
 which if one should suddenly ask, What hast thou now 
 in thy thoughts ? with perfect openness thou mightest 
 immediately answer : This or that ; so that from thy 
 words it should be plain that everything in thee is 
 simple and benevolent, and such as befits a social 
 animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about 
 pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any 
 rivalry or envy and suspicion, or anything else for 
 which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst say that thou 
 
154 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 liadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such and 
 no longer delays being among the number of the best, 
 is like a ])riest and minister of the gods, using too the 
 [deity] which is planted within him, which makes the 
 man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by any 
 ]iain, untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a 
 tighter in the noblest fight, one who cannot be over- 
 powered by any passion, dyed deep with justice, 
 accepting with all his soul everything which happens 
 and is assigned to him as his portion ; and not often, 
 nor yet without great necessity and for the general 
 interest, imagining what another says, or does, or 
 thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that 
 he makes the matter for his activity ; and he con- 
 stantly thinks of that which is allotted to himself out 
 of the sum total of things, and he makes his own acts 
 fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. 
 For the lot which is assigned to each man is carried 
 along with him and carries him along with it.f And 
 he remembers also that everj^ rational animal is his 
 kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to 
 man’s nature ; and a man should hold on to the opin- 
 ion not of all but of those only who confessedly live 
 according to nature. But as to those who live not so, 
 he always bears in mind what kind of men they are, 
 both at home and from home, both by night and by 
 day, and what they are, and with wdiat men they live 
 an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all 
 the praise which comes from such men, since they are 
 not even satisfied with themselves. 
 
 5. Labor not unwillingly, nor without regard to the 
 common interest, nor without due consideration, nor 
 with distraction ; nor let studied ornament set off thy 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 155 
 
 thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or 
 busy about too many things. And further, let the 
 deity which is in thee be the guardian of a living 
 being, manly and of ripe age, and engaged in matter 
 political, and a Koman, and a ruler, who has taken his 
 post like a man waiting for the signal which summons 
 him from life, and ready to go, having need neither of 
 oath nor of any man’s testimony. Be cheerful also, 
 and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which 
 others give. A man then must stand erect, not be 
 kept erect by others. 
 
 6. If thou findest in human life anything better 
 than justice, truth, temperance, fortitude, and, in a 
 word, anything better than thy own mind’s self- 
 satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do 
 according to right reason, and in the condition that is 
 assigned to thee without thy own choice ; if, I say, 
 thou seest anything better than this, turn to it with 
 all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou hast found to 
 be the best. But if nothing appears to be better than 
 the deity which is planted in thee, which has sub- 
 jected to itself all thy appetites, and carefully ex- 
 amines all the impressions, and, as Socrates said, has 
 detached itself from the persuasions of sense, and has 
 submitted itself to the gods, and cares for mankind ; 
 if thou findest everything else smaller and of less 
 value than this, give place to nothing else, for if thou 
 dost once diverge and incline to it, thou wilt no 
 longer without distraction be able to give the prefer- 
 ence to that good tiling Avhich is thy proper posses- 
 sion and thy own; for it is not right that anything of 
 any other kind, such as praise from the many, or 
 power, or enjoyment of pleasure, should come into 
 
156 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 competition with that which is rationally and politi- 
 cally [or, practically] good. All these things, even 
 though they may seem to adapt themselves [to the 
 better things] in a small degree, obtain the superiority 
 all at once, and carry us away. But do thou, I say, 
 simply and freely choose the better, and hold to it. 
 But that which is useful is the better. Well then, if it 
 is only useful to thee as a rational being, keep to it ; 
 but if it is only useful to thee as an animal, say so, 
 and maintain thy judgment without arrogance ; only 
 take care that thou makest the inquiry by a sure 
 method. 
 
 7. I7ever value anything as profitable to thyself 
 which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose 
 thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, 
 to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs 
 walls and curtains ; for he who has preferred to every- 
 thing else his own intelligence and demon and the 
 w^orship of its excellence, acts no tragic part, does not 
 groan, will not need either solitude or much company ; 
 and, what is chief of all, he will live without either 
 pursuing or flying from [death];* but whether for a 
 longer or a shorter time he shall have the soul in- 
 closed in the body, he cares not at all ; for even if he 
 must depart immediately, he will go as readily as if he 
 were going to do anything else which can be done 
 with decency and order ; taking care of this only, all 
 through life, that his thoughts turn not away from 
 anything which belongs to an intelligent animal and a 
 member of a civil community. 
 
 8. In the mind of one who is chastened and purified 
 thou wilt find no corrupt matter, nor impurity, nor 
 
 * Comp. ix. 3. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 157 
 
 any sore skinned over. ISTor is his life incomplete 
 when fate overtakes him, as one may say of an actor 
 who leaves the stage before ending and finishing the 
 play. Besides, there is in him nothing servile, nor 
 affected, nor too closely bound [to other things], nor 
 yet detached* [from other things], nothing worthy of 
 blame, nothing which seeks a hiding-place. 
 
 9. Eeverence the faculty which produces opinion. 
 On this faculty it entirely depends whether there 
 shall exist in thy ruling part any opinion inconsistent 
 Avith nature and the constitution of the rational 
 animal. And this faculty promises freedom from 
 hasty judgment, and friendship toAAmrd men, and 
 obedience to the gods. 
 
 10. Throwing away, then, all things, hold to these 
 only Avhich are fcAV ; and besides bear in mind that 
 every man liAms only this present time, which is an in- 
 divisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either 
 past or it is uncertain. Short then is the time Avhich 
 every man lives, and small the nook of the earth 
 Avhere he lives ; and short too the longest posthumous 
 fame, and even this only continued by a succession of 
 poor human beings, Avho Avill very soon die, and who 
 know not even themselves, much less him who died 
 long ago. 
 
 11. To the aids Avhich have been mentioned let this 
 one still be added : Make for thyself a definition or 
 description of the thing which is presented to thee, so 
 as to see distinctly Avhat kind of a thing it is in its 
 substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and 
 tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the 
 things of which it has been compounded, and into 
 
 ^ Comp. viii. 34. 
 
158 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 which it will be resolved. For nothing is so productive 
 of elevation of mind as to be able to examine 
 methodically and truly every object which is presented 
 to thee in life, and always to look at things so as to 
 see at the same time what kind of universe this is, 
 and what kind of use everything performs in it, and 
 what value everything has with reference to the 
 whole, and what with reference to man, who is a 
 citizen of the highest city, of which all other cities 
 are like families ; what each thing is, and of what it is 
 composed, and how long it is the nature of this thing 
 to endure which now makes an impression on me, and 
 what virtue I have need of with respect to it, such as 
 gentleness, manliness, truth, fidelity, simplicity, con- 
 tentment, and the rest. Wherefore, on every occasion 
 a man should say : This comes from God ; and this is 
 according to the apportionmentf and spinning of the 
 thread of destiny, and snch-like coincidence and 
 chance ; and this is from one of the same stock, and a 
 kinsman and partner, one who knows not however 
 what is according to his nature. But I know ; for this 
 reason I behave toward him according to the natural 
 law of fellowship with benevolence and justice. At 
 the same time, however, in things indifferent* I 
 attempt to ascertain the value of each. 
 
 12. If thou workest at that which is before thee, fol- 
 lowing right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, with- 
 out allowing anything else to distract thee, but keep- 
 ing thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound 
 to give it back immediately; if thou boldest to this, 
 expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with 
 
 * “ Est et liorum quae media appellamus grande discrimen.”-- 
 Seneca, Ep. 83, 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS AMTONIMUS. 
 
 159 
 
 thy present activity according to nature, and with 
 heroic truth in every word and sound which thou 
 utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man 
 who is able to prevent this. 
 
 13. As physicians have always their instruments and 
 knives ready for cases which suddenly require their 
 skill, so do thou have principles ready for the under- 
 standing of things divine and human, and for doing 
 everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of 
 the bond which unites the divine and human to one 
 another. For neither wilt thou do anything well 
 which pertains to man without at the same time hav- 
 ing a reference to things divine ; nor the contrary. 
 
 Id. No longer wander at hazard ; for neither wilt 
 thou read thy own memoirs,* nor the acts of the 
 ancient Romans and Hellenes, and the selections from 
 books which thou wast reserving for thy old age.:}; 
 Hasten then to the end which thou hast before thee, 
 and, throwing away idle hopes, come to thy own aid, 
 if thou carest at all for thyself, while it is in thy 
 power. 
 
 15. They know not how many things are signified 
 by the words stealing, sowing, buying, keeping quiet, 
 seeing what ought to be done ; for this is not effected 
 by the eyes, but by another kind of vision. 
 
 16. Body, soul, intelligence ; to the body belong 
 sensations, to the soul appetites, to the intelligence 
 principles. To receive the impressions of forms by 
 
 * Memoranda, notes and tlie like. See i. 17. 
 t Compare Fronto, ii. 9; a letter of Marcus to Fronto, who was 
 then consul: “Feci tamen mihi per hos dies excerpta ex lihris 
 sexaginta in quinque tomis.” But he says some of them were small 
 books. 
 
160 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 means of appearances belongs even to animals; to be 
 pulled by tlie strings* of desire belongs both to wild 
 beasts and to men who have made themselves into 
 women, and to a Phalaris and a I^ero ; and to have 
 the intelligence that guides to the things which appear 
 suitable belongs also to those who do not believe in the 
 gods, and who betray their country, and do their 
 impure deeds when they have shut the doors. If then 
 everything else is common to all that I have mentioned, 
 there remains that which is peculiar to the good man, 
 to be pleased and content with what happens, and with 
 the thread which is s]um for him; and not to defile 
 the divinity which is planted in his breast, nor disturb 
 it by a crowd of images, but to ])reserve it tranquil, 
 following it obediently as a god, neither saying any- 
 thing contrary to the truth, nor doing anything con- 
 trary to justice. And if all men refuse to believe that 
 he lives a simple, modest, and contented life, he is 
 neither angry with any of them, nor does he deviate 
 from the way which leads to the end of life, to which 
 a man ought to come pure, tranquil, ready to depart, 
 and without any compulsion perfectly reconciled to his 
 lot. 
 
 * Compare Plato, De Legibus, and Antoninus, ii. 2; vii. 3; sii. 19. 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 161 
 
 IV. 
 
 That which rules within, when it is according to 
 nature, is so affected with respect to the events which 
 happen, that it always easily adapts itself to that 
 which is possible and is presented to it. For it requires 
 no definite material, but it moves toward its purpose,* 
 under certain conditions however; and it makes a 
 material for itself out of that which opposes it, as fire 
 lays hold of what falls into it, by w^hich a small light 
 would have been extinguished : but when the fire is 
 strong, it soon appropriates to itself the matter which 
 is heaped on it, and consumes it, and rises higher by 
 means of this very material. 
 
 2. Let no act be done without a purpose, nor other- 
 wise than according to the perfect principles of art. 
 
 3. Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the 
 country, sea-shores and mountains ; and thou too art 
 wont to desire such things very much. But this is 
 altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, 
 for it IS in thy power whenever thou shait choose to 
 retire into thyself. For nowhere, either with more 
 quiet or more freedom from trouble, does a man retire 
 than into his own soul, particularly when he has 
 within him such thoughts that by looking into them 
 he is immediately in perfect tranquillity ; and I afilrm 
 
 * Literally “towards that which leads.” The exact translation 
 is doubtful. See Gataker’s note. 
 
163 
 
 THE MEDITATION'S OF 
 
 that tranquillity is nothing else than the good order- 
 ing of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this 
 retreat, and renew thyself; and let thy principles be 
 brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou shalt 
 recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul 
 completely, and to send thee back free from all discon- 
 tent with the things to which thou returnest. For 
 with what art thou discontented? With the badness 
 of men? Recall to thy mind this conclusion, that 
 rational animals exist for one another, and that to 
 endure is a part of justice, and that men do wrong 
 involuntarily ; and consider how many already, after 
 mutual enmity, suspicion, hatred and fighting, have 
 been stretched dead, reduced to ashes ; and be quiet at 
 last. But perhaps thou art dissatisfied with that 
 which is assigned to thee out of the universe. Recall 
 to thy recollection this alternative; either there is 
 providence or atoms [fortuitous concurrence of things] ; 
 or remember the arguments by which it has been 
 proved that the world is a kind of political community 
 [and be quiet at last]. But perhaps corporeal things 
 will still fasten upon thee. Consider then further that 
 tlie mind mingles not with the breath, whether moving 
 gently or violently, when it has once drawn itself apart 
 and discovered its own power, and think also of all 
 that thou hast heard and assented to about pain and 
 pleasure [and be quiet at last]. But perhaps the desire 
 of the thing called fame will torment thee. See how 
 soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of 
 infinite time on each side of [the present], and the 
 emptiness of applause, and the changeableness and 
 want of judgment in those who pretend to give praise, 
 and the narrowness of the space within which it is 
 
MAB0U8 AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 163 
 
 circumscribed [and be quiet at last]. For the whole 
 earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this thy 
 dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind 
 of people are they who will praise thee. 
 
 This then remains : Remember to retire into this 
 little territory of thy own,* and, above all, do not dis- 
 tract or strain thyself, but be free, and look at things 
 as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal. 
 But among the things readiest to thy hand to which 
 thou shalt turn, let there be these, which are two. One 
 is that things do not touch the soul, for they are 
 external and remain immovable ; but our perturbations 
 come only from the opinion which is within. The 
 other is that all these things, which thou seest, change 
 immediately and will no longer be; and constantly 
 bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast 
 already witnessed. The universe is transformation : 
 life is opinion. 
 
 4. If our intellectual part is common, the reason 
 also, in respect of which we are rational beings, is 
 common ; if this is so, common also is the reason 
 which commands us what to do, and what not to do ; 
 if this is so, there is a common law also ; if this is so, 
 we are fellow-citizens ; if this is so, we are members of 
 some political community ; if this is so, the world is in 
 a manner a state.]; For of what other common politi- 
 cal community will any one say that the whole human 
 race are members? And from thence, from this com- 
 mon political community comes also our very intel- 
 lectual faculty and reasoning faculty and our capacity 
 
 * Tecum liabita, noris quam sit tibi curta supellex. — Persius, 
 iv. 53, 
 
 ] Compare Cicero De Legibus, i. 7. 
 
1G4 
 
 THE MEDITATION'S OF 
 
 for law ; or whence do they come ? For as my earthly 
 part is a j)ortion given to me from certain earth, and 
 that which is wateiy from another element, and that 
 which is hot and fiery from some peculiar source (for 
 nothing comes out of that which is nothing, as nothing 
 also returns to non-existence), so also the intellectual 
 part comes from some source. 
 
 5. Death is such as generation is, a mystery of 
 nature ; a composition out of the same elements, and a 
 decomposition into the same; and altogether not a 
 thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is 
 not contrary to [the nature of] a reasonable animal, 
 and not contrary to the reason of our constitution. 
 
 6. It is natural that these things should be done by 
 such persons, it is a matter of necessity ; and if a man 
 will not have it so, he will not allow the fig-tree to 
 have juice. But by all means bear this in mind, that 
 within a very short time both thou and he will be 
 dead ; and soon not even your names will be left 
 behind. 
 
 7. Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken 
 awa}^ the complaint, “ I have been harmed.” Take 
 away the complaint, “ I have been harmed,” and the 
 harm is taken away. 
 
 8. That which does not make a man worse than he 
 was, also does not make his life worse, nor does it 
 harm him either from without or from within. 
 
 9. The nature of that which is [universally] useful 
 has been compelled to do this. 
 
 10. Consider that everything which happens, hap- 
 pens justly, and if thou observest carefully, thou wilt 
 find it to be so. I do not say only with respect to the 
 continuity of the series of things, but with respect to 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 165 
 
 what is just, and as if it were done by one who assigns 
 to each, thing its value. Observe then as thou hast 
 begun ; and whatever thou doest, do it in conjunction 
 Avith this, the being good, and in the sense in whjch a 
 man is properly understood to be good. Keep to this 
 in every action. 
 
 11. Do not have such an opinion of things as he has 
 who does thee Avrong, or such as he wishes thee to 
 have, but look at them as they are in truth. 
 
 12. A man should ahvays have these tAVO rules in 
 readiness ; the one, to do only whatever the reason of 
 the ruling and legislating faculty may suggest for the 
 use of men ; the other, to change thy opinion, if there 
 is any one at hand Avho sets thee right and moves thee 
 from any opinion. But this change of opinion must 
 proceed only from a certain persuasion, as of Avhat is 
 just or of common adA'^antage, and the like, not because 
 it appears pleasant or brings reputation. 
 
 13. Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost not 
 thou use it ? For if this does its own Avork, Avhat else 
 dost thou Avish ? 
 
 14. Thou hast existed as a part. Thou shaft dis- 
 appear in that Avhich produced thee ; but rather thou 
 shalt be received back into its seminal principle by 
 transmutation. 
 
 15. Many grains of frankincense on the same altar ; 
 one falls before, another falls after ; but it makes no 
 difference. 
 
 16. Within ten days thou Avilt seem a god to those 
 to Avhom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou Avilt 
 return to thy principles and the worship of reason. 
 
 17. Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten 
 thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou 
 livestj while it is in thy power, be good. 
 
166 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 18. How much trouble he avoids who does not look 
 to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but 
 only to what he does himself, that it may be just and 
 pure ; or as Agathonf sa^^s, look not round at the de- 
 praved morals of others, but run straight along the 
 line without deviating from it. 
 
 19. He who has a vehement desire for posthumous 
 
 fame does not consider that every one of those who 
 remember him will himself also die very soon ; then 
 again also they who have succeeded them, until the 
 whole remembrance shall have been extinguished as it 
 is transmitted through men who foolishly admii^e and 
 perish. But suppose that those who Avill remember 
 are even immortal, and that the remembrance will be 
 immortal, what then is this to thee? And I say not 
 what is it to the dead, but what is it to the living. 
 What is praise, exceptf indeed so far as it hasf a cer- 
 tain utility? For thou nowrejectest unseasonably the 
 gift of nature, clinging to something else. . . .f 
 
 20. Everything which is in any way beautiful is 
 beautiful in itself, and terminates in itself, not having 
 praise as part of itself. Neither worse then nor better 
 is a thing made by being praised. I affirm this also 
 of the things which are called beautiful by the vulgar ; 
 for example, material things and works of art. That 
 which is really beautiful has no need of anything ; not 
 more than law, not more than truth, not more than 
 benevolence or modesty. Which of these things is 
 beautiful because it is praised, or spoiled by being 
 blamed? Is such a thing as an emerald made worse 
 than it was, if it is not praised ? or gold, ivory, purple, 
 a lyre, a little knife, a flower, a shrub ? 
 
 21. If souls continue to exist, how does the air con- 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 16 ? 
 
 tain them from eternity? But how does the earth 
 contain the bodies of those who have been buried 
 from time so remote? For as here the mutation of 
 these bodies after a certain continuance, whatever it 
 may be, and their dissolution make room for other 
 dead bodies; so the souls which are removed into the 
 air after subsisting for some time are transmuted and dib 
 fused, and assume a fiery nature b}^ being received into 
 the seminal intelligence of the universe, and in this way 
 make room for the fresh souls which come to dwell 
 there. And this is the answer which a man might 
 give on the hypothesis of souls continuing to exist. 
 But we must not only think of the number of bodies 
 which are thus buried, but also of the number of 
 animals which are daily eaten by us and the other 
 animals. For what a number is consumed, and thus 
 in a manner buried in the bodies of those who feed on 
 them ? And nevertheless this earth receives them by 
 reason of the changes [of these bodies] into blood, 
 and the transformations into the aerial, or the fiery 
 element. 
 
 What is the investigation into the truth in this mat- 
 ter ? The division into that which is material and that 
 which is the cause of form [the formal] (vii. 29). 
 
 22. Do not be whirled about, but in every movement 
 have respect to justice, and on the occasion of every 
 impression maintain the faculty of comprehension [or 
 understanding]. 
 
 23. Everything harmonizes with me, which is har- 
 monious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too 
 early nor too late, which is in due time for thee. 
 Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O 
 Nature : from thee are all things, in thee are all things, 
 
1G8 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 to thee all things return. The poet says, Dear City 
 of Cecrops ; and wilt not thou say, Dear city of Zeus ? 
 
 24:. Occupy thyself with few things, says the philos- 
 opher, if thou wouldst be tranquil. But consider if it 
 would not be better to say. Do what is necessary, and 
 whatever the reason of the animal which is naturally 
 social requires, and as it requires. For this brings not 
 only the tranquillity which comes from doing well, 
 but also that which comes from doing few things. 
 For the greatest part of what we say and do being un- 
 necessary, if a man takes this away, he will have more 
 leisure and less uneasiness. Accordingly on every 
 occasion a man shonld ask himself. Is this one of the 
 unnecessary things ? How a man should take away not 
 onl}'- unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, 
 for thus superfluous acts will not follow after. 
 
 25. Try how the life of the good man suits thee, 
 the life of him who is satisfied with his portion out of 
 the whole, and satisfled with his own just acts and 
 benevolent disposition. 
 
 26. Hast thou seen those things ? Look also at 
 these. Do not disturb thyself. Make thyself all 
 simplicity. Does any one do wrong ? It is to himself 
 that he does the wrong. Has anything happened to 
 thee 1 W ell, out of the universe from the beginning 
 everything which happens has been apportioned and 
 spun out to thee. In a word, thy life is short. Thou 
 must turn to profit the present by the aid of reason 
 and justice. Be sober in thy relaxation. 
 
 27. Either it is a well arranged universe* or a chaos 
 huddled together, but still a universe. But can a 
 
 * Antonius here uses the word n66iioi both in the sense of the 
 Universe and of Order; and it is difficult to express his meaning. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 169 
 
 certain order subsist in tbee, and disorder in the All ? 
 And this, too, when all things are so separated and 
 dilfused and sympathetic. 
 
 28. A black character, a womanish character, a 
 stubborn character, bestial, childish, animal, stupid, 
 counterfeit, scurrilous, fraudulent, tyrannical. 
 
 29. If he is a stranger to the universe who does not 
 know what is in it, no less is he a stranger who does 
 not know what is going on it. He is a runaway, who 
 flies from social reason ; he is blind, who shuts the eyes 
 of the understanding ; he is poor, Avho has need of 
 another, and has not from himself all things which are 
 useful for life. He is an abscess on the universe who 
 Avithdraws and separates himself from the reason of 
 our common nature through being displeased Avith the 
 things Avhich happen, for the same nature produces 
 this, and has produced thee too ; he is a piece rent 
 asunder from the state, Avho tears bis own soul from 
 that of reasonable animals, Avhich is one. 
 
 30. The one is a philosopher Avithout a tunic, and the 
 other without a book ; here is another half-naked. 
 Bread I have not, he says, and I abide by reason. 
 And I do not get the means of living out of my learn- 
 ing,f and I abide [by my reason]. 
 
 31. Love the art, poor as it may be, Avhich thou 
 hast learned, and be content with it ; and pass through 
 the rest of life like one Avho has intrusted to the gods 
 with his Avhole soul all that he has, making thyself 
 neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man. 
 
 32. Consider, for example, the times of Vespasian. 
 Thou wilt see all these things, people marrying, bring- 
 ing up children, sick, dying, warring, feasting, trafiick- 
 ing, cultivating the ground, flattering, obstinately 
 
170 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 arrogant, suspecting, plotting, wishing for some to die, 
 grumbling about the present, loving, heaping up 
 treasure, desiring consulship, kingly power. Well, 
 then, that life of these people no longer exists at all. 
 Again, remove to the times of Trajan. Again, all is 
 the same. Their life, too, is gone. In like manner 
 view also the other epochs of time and of whole 
 nations, and see how many after great efforts soon fell 
 and were resolved into the elements. But chiefly thou 
 shouldst think of those whom thou hast thyself known 
 distracting themselves about idle things, neglecting to 
 do what was in accordance with their proper constitu- 
 tion, and to hold firmly to this and to be content with 
 it. And herein it is necessary to remember that the 
 attention given to everything has its proper value and 
 proportion. For thus thou wilt not be dissatisfied, if 
 thou applies! thyself to smaller matters no further than 
 is fit. 
 
 33. The words which were formerly familiar are 
 now antiquated ; so also the names of those who were 
 famed of old, are now in a manner antiquated : 
 Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Leonnatus, and a little after 
 also Scipio and Cato, then Augustus, then also Hadri- 
 anus and Antoninus. For all things soon pass away 
 and become a mere tale, and complete oblivion soon 
 buries them. And I say this of those who have shone 
 in a wondrous Avay. For the rest, as soon as they 
 have breathed out their breath, they are gone, and no 
 man speaks of them. And, to conclude the matter, 
 Avhat is even an eternal remembrance ? A mere 
 nothing. What, then, is that about which we ought to 
 employ our serious pains? This one thing, thoughts 
 just, and acts social, and words which never lie, and a 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 171 
 
 disposition which gladly accepts all that happens, as 
 necessary, as usual, as flowing from a principle and 
 source of the same kind. 
 
 34. Willingly give thyself up to Clotho [one of the 
 fates], allowing her to spin thy thread f into whatever 
 things she pleases. 
 
 35. Everything is only for a day, both that which 
 remembers and that which is remembered. 
 
 36. Observe constantly that all things take place by 
 change, and accustom thyself to consider that the 
 nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to 
 change the things which are and to make new things 
 like them. For everything that exists is in a manner 
 the seed of that which will be. But thou art thinking 
 only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a 
 womb : but this is a very vulgar notion. 
 
 37. Thou wilt soon die, and thou art not yet simple, 
 nor free from perturbations, nor without suspicion of 
 being hurt by external things, nor kindly disposed 
 toward all ; nor dost thou yet place wisdom only in 
 acting justly. 
 
 38. Examine men’s ruling principles, even those of 
 the wise, what kind of things they avoid, and what 
 kind they pursue. 
 
 39. What is evil to thee does not subsist in the 
 ruling principle of another ; nor yet in any turning 
 and mutation of thy corporeal covering. Where is it 
 then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the 
 power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power 
 then not form [such] opinions, and all is well. And if 
 that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is cut, burnt, 
 filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the 
 part which forms opinions about these things be quiet, 
 
172 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good 
 which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. 
 For that which happens equally to him who lives con- 
 trary to nature and to him who lives according to 
 nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to 
 nature. 
 
 40. Constantly regard the universe as one living 
 being, having one substance and one soul ; and observe 
 how all things have reference to one perception, the 
 perception of this one living being ; and how all things 
 act with one movement ; and how all things are the 
 co-operating causes of all things which exist ; observe 
 too the continuous spinning of the thread and the 
 contexture of the web. 
 
 41. Thou art a little soul bearing about a corpse, as 
 Epictetus used to say (i. c. 19). 
 
 42. It is no evil for things to undergo change, 
 and no good for things to subsist in consequence of 
 change. 
 
 43. Time is like a river made up of the events which 
 happen, and a violent stream ; for as soon as a thing 
 has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in 
 its place, and this will be carried away too. 
 
 44. Everything which happens is as familiar and 
 well known as the rose in spring and the fruit in 
 summer ; for such is disease, and death, and calumny, 
 and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or 
 vexes them. 
 
 45. In the series of things those which follow are 
 always aptly fitted to those which have gone before; 
 for this series is not like a mere enumeration of dis- 
 jointed things, which has only a necessary sequence, 
 but it is a rational connection ; and as all existing 
 
MARGU8 A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 173 
 
 things are arranged together harmoniously, so the 
 things which come into existence exhibit no mere suc- 
 cession, but a certain wonderful relationship (vi. 38 ; 
 vii. 9 ; vii. 75, note). 
 
 46. Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that 
 the death of earth is to become water, and the death 
 of water is to become air, and the death of air is to 
 become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who 
 forgets whither the way leads, and that men quarrel 
 with that with which they are most constantly in 
 communion, the reason which governs the universe; 
 and the things which they daily meet with seem to 
 them strange : and consider that Ave ought not to act 
 and speak as if Ave Avere asleep, for evmn in sleep Ave 
 seem to act and speak ; and that f we ought not, like 
 children Avho learn from their parents, simply to act 
 and speak as we have been taught.f 
 
 47. If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-mor- 
 roAv, or certainly on the day after to-morrow, thou 
 Avouldst not care much Avhether it was on the third 
 day or on the morrow, unless thou Avast in the highest 
 degree mean-spirited — for hoAv small is the differ- 
 ence? — so think it no great thing to die after as many 
 years as thou canst name rather than to-morrow. 
 
 48. Think continually hoAV many physicians are 
 dead after often contracting their eyebroAvs over the 
 sick ; and how many astrologers after predicting Avith 
 great pretensions the deaths of others ; and hoAv many 
 philosophers after endless discourses on death or im- 
 mortality ; how many heroes after killing thousands ; 
 and hoAv many tyrants Avho have used their power 
 over men’s lives with terrible insolence as if they Avere 
 immortal ; and hoAV many cities are entirely dead, so 
 
174 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 to speak, Helice* and Pompeii and Herculaneum, and 
 others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom 
 thou hast known, one after another. One man after 
 burjdng another has been laid out dead, and another 
 buries him ; and all this in a short time. To conclude, 
 always observe how ephemeral and worthless human 
 tilings are, and what was yesterday a little mucus, to- 
 morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through 
 this little space of time conformably to nature, and 
 end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off 
 when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and 
 thanking the tree on which it grew. 
 
 49. Be like the promotory against which the waves 
 continually break, but it stands firm and tames the 
 fury of the water around it. 
 
 Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me — 
 Not so, but Happy am I, though this has happened to 
 me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed 
 by the ])resent nor fearing the future. For such a 
 thing as this might have happened to every man ; but 
 every man would not have continued free from pain 
 on such an occasion. Why, then, is that rather a mis- 
 fortune than this a good fortune? And dost thou in 
 all cases call that a roan’s misfortune, which is not a 
 deviation from man’s nature ? And does a thing seem to 
 thee to be a deviation from man’s nature, when it is not 
 contrary to the will of man’s nature? W ell, thou knowest 
 the will of nature. Will then this which has happened 
 prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temper- 
 ate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and 
 
 * Ovid, Met. XV. 293: 
 
 Si quaeras Helicen et Burin Achaidas urbes, 
 
 Invenies sub aquis. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTOmNUS. 
 
 175 
 
 falsehood ; will it prevent thee from having modesty, 
 freedom, and everything else, by the presence of 
 which man’s nature obtains all that is its own? Re- 
 member, too, on every occasion which leads thee to 
 vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a mis- 
 fortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune. 
 
 50. It is a vulgar, but still a useful help toward con- 
 tempt of death, to pass in revieAv those Avho have 
 tenaciously stuck to life. What more then have they 
 gained than those who have died early? Certainly 
 they lie in their tombs someAvhere at last, Cadicianus, 
 Fabius, Julianus, Lepidus, or any one else like them, 
 Avho have carried out many to be buried, and then 
 Avere carried out themselves. Altogether the inter- 
 val is small [between birth and death] ; and consider 
 Avith hoAV much trouble, and in company Avith Avhat 
 sort of people, and in Avhat a feeble body this interval 
 is laboriously passed. Do not then consider life a 
 thing of any Amlue.f For look to the immensity of 
 time behind thee, and to the time Avhich is before thee, 
 another boundless space. In this infinity then what is 
 the difference betAveen him Avho liAms three days and 
 him Avho liAms three generations ?* 
 
 51. Ahvays run to the short way ; and the short Avay 
 is the natural : accordingly say and do everything in 
 conformity Avith the soundest reason. For such a 
 purpose frees a man from trouble,! and warfare, and 
 all artifice and ostentatious display. 
 
 * An allusion to Homer’s Nestor, wlio was living at the war of 
 Troy among the third generation, like old Parr with his hundred and 
 fifty-two years, and some others in modern times who have beaten 
 Parr by twenty or thirty years, if it is true; and yet they died at last. 
 
176 
 
 THE MEDITATI0N8 OP 
 
 Y. 
 
 In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this 
 thought be present — I am rising to the work of a 
 human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am 
 going to do the things for which I exist and for which 
 I was brought into the world ? Or have I been made 
 for this, to lie in the bedclothes and keep myself warm ? 
 But this is more pleasant. Dost thou exist then to 
 take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exer- 
 tion ? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little 
 birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together 
 to put in order their several parts of the universe ? 
 And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human 
 being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which 
 is according to thy nature? But it is necessary to take 
 rest also. It is necessary ; however nature has fixed 
 bounds to this too : she has fixed bounds both to eating 
 and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, 
 beyond what is sufficient ; yet in thy acts it is not so, 
 but thou stoppest short of what thou canst do. So 
 thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou wouldst 
 love th}^ nature and her wdll. But those who love 
 their several arts exhaust themselves in working at 
 them unwashed and without food; but thou valuest 
 thy own nature less than the turner values the turning 
 art, or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of 
 money values his money, or the vainglorious man his 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 177 
 
 little glory. And such men, when they have a violent 
 affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep 
 rather than to perfect the things which they care for. 
 But are the acts which concern society more vile in 
 thy eyes and less worthy of thy labor? 
 
 2. How easy it is to repel and to wipe away eveiy 
 impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and 
 immediately to be in all tranquillitj’'. 
 
 3. Judge every word and deed which are according 
 to nature to be fit for thee ; and be not diverted by 
 the blame which follows from any people, nor by their 
 words, but if a thing is good to be done or said, do not 
 consider it unworthy of thee. For those persons have 
 their peculiar leading principle and follow their pecu- 
 liar movement ; which things do not thou regard, but 
 go straight on, following thy own natm’e and the com- 
 mon nature ; and the way of both is one. 
 
 4. I go through the things which happen according 
 to nature until I shall fall and rest, breathing out my 
 breath into that element out of which I daily draw it 
 in, and falling upon that earth out of which my father 
 collected the seed, and my mother the blood, and my 
 nurse the milk ; out of which during so many years I 
 have been supplied with food and drink ; which bears 
 me when I tread on it and abuse it for so many 
 purposes. 
 
 5. Thou sayest, men cannot admire the sharpness of 
 thy wits — Be it so ; but there are many other things 
 of which thou canst not say, I am not formed for them 
 by nature. Show those qualities then which are alto- 
 gether in thy power : sincerity, gravity, endurance of 
 labor, aversion to pleasure, contentment with thy por- 
 tion and with few things, benevolence, frankness, no 
 
178 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 love of superfluity, freedom from trifling magnanimity. 
 Dost thou not see how many qualities thou art imme- 
 diately able to exhibit, in which there is no excuse of 
 natural incapacity and unfitness, and yet thou still 
 remainest voluntarily below the mark? or art thou 
 compelled through being defectively furnished by 
 nature to murmur, and to be stingy, and to flatter, and 
 to find fault with thy poor body, and to try to please 
 men, and to make great display, and to be so restless 
 in thy mind? No, by the gods; but thou mightest 
 have been delivered from these things long ago. Only 
 if in truth thou canst be charged with being rather 
 slow and dull of comprehension, thou must exert thy- 
 self about this also, not neglecting it nor yet taking 
 pleasure in thy dullness. 
 
 6. One man, when he has done a service to another, 
 is ready to set it down to his account as a favor con- 
 ferred. Another is not ready to do this, but still in his 
 own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he 
 knows what he has done. A third in a manner does 
 not even know what he has done, but he is like a vine 
 which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing 
 more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a 
 horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the 
 game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man 
 when he has done a good act, does not call out for 
 others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, 
 as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in 
 season. Must a man then be one of these, who in a 
 manner act thus without observing it ? Y es. But this 
 very thing is necessary, the observation of what a man 
 is doing ; for, it may be said, it is characteristic of the 
 social animal to perceive that he is working in a social 
 
MABOUS A URELinS ANTOmNUS. 
 
 m 
 
 manner, and indeed to wish that his social partner also 
 should perceive it. It is true what thou sayest, but 
 thou dost not rightly understand what is now said ; 
 and for this reason thou wilt become one of those of 
 whom I spoke before, for even they are misled by a 
 certain show of reason. But if thou wilt choose to 
 understand the meaning of what is said, do not fear 
 that for this reason thou wilt omit any social act. 
 
 7. A prayer of the Athenians: Rain, rain, O dear 
 Zeus, down on the plowed fields of the Athenians, 
 and on the plains. In truth we ought not to pray at 
 all, or we ought to pray in this simple and noble 
 fashion. 
 
 8. Just as we must understand when it is said. That 
 ^sculapius prescribed to this man horse-exercise, or 
 bathing in cold water, or going without shoes, so we 
 must understand it when it is said. That the nature of 
 the universe prescribed to this man disease or mutila- 
 tion or loss of anything else of the kind. For in the 
 first case prescribed means something like this : he 
 prescribed this for this man as a thing adapted to pro- 
 cure health ; and in the second case it means, that 
 which happens* to [or suits] every man is fixed m a 
 manner for him suitably to his destiny. For this is 
 what we mean when we say that things are suitable to 
 us, as the workmen say of squared stones in walls or 
 the pyramids, that they are suitable, wdien they fit 
 them to one another in some kind of connection. For 
 there is altogether one fitness [harmony]. And as 
 the universe is made up out of ail bodies to be such a 
 body as it is, so out of all existing causes necessity 
 [destiny] is made up to be such a cause as it is. And 
 
 *In this section there is a play on the meaning of 6vj.il3aiveiv. 
 
180 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 even those who are completely ignorant understand 
 what I mean, for they say, It [necessity, destiny] 
 brought this to such a person. This, then, was 
 brought and this was prescribed to him. Let us then 
 receive these things, as well as those which ..^sculapius 
 prescribes. Many, as a matter of course, even among 
 his prescriptions, are disagreeable, but we accept them 
 in the hope of health. Let the perfecting and accom- 
 plishment of the things, which the common nature 
 judges to be good, be judged by thee to be of the same 
 kind as thy health. And so accept everything which 
 happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads 
 to this, to the health of the universe and to the pros- 
 perity and felicity of Zeus [the universe]. For he 
 would not have brought on any man what he has brought, 
 if it were not useful for the whole. Neither does the 
 nature of anything, whatever it may be, cause any- 
 thing which is not suitable to that which is directed by 
 it. For two reasons, then, it is right to be content 
 with that which happens to thee ; the one, because it 
 was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a 
 manner had reference to thee, originally from the 
 most ancient causes spun with thy destiny ; and the 
 other, because even that which comes severally to 
 every man is to the power which administers the uni- 
 verse a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its 
 very continuance. For the integrity of the whole is 
 mutilated, if thou cuttest off anything whatever from 
 the conjunction and the continuity either of the parts 
 or of the causes. And thou dost cut off, as far as it is 
 in thy power, when thou art dissatisfied, and in a 
 manner triest to put anything out of the way. 
 
 9. Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, 
 
MARCUS A URELiUS ANTONIFUS. 
 
 181 
 
 if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according 
 to right principles ; but when thou hast failed, return 
 back again, and be content if the greater part of what 
 thou doest is consistent with man’s nature, and love 
 this to which thou returnest ; and do not return to 
 philosophy as if she were a master, but act like those 
 who have sore eyes and apply a bit of sponge and egg, 
 or as another applies a plaster, or drenching with 
 water. For thus thou wilt not fail to f obey reason, 
 and thou wilt repose in it. And remember that philoso- 
 phy requires only the things which th}’" nature requires ; 
 but thou wouldst have something else which is not ac- 
 cording to nature. It may be objected. Why, what 
 is more agreeable than this [which I am doing] ? But 
 is not this the very reason why pleasure deceives us ? 
 And consider if magnanimity, freedom, simplicity, 
 equanimity, piety, are not more agreeable. For what 
 is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when thou 
 thinkest of the security and the happy course of all 
 things which depend on the faculty of understanding 
 and knowledge? 
 
 10. Things are in such a kind of envelopment that 
 they have seemed to philosophers, not a few nor those 
 common philosophers, altogether unintelligible; nay 
 even to the Stoics themselves they seem dilficult to 
 understand. And all our assent is changeable; for 
 where is the man who never changes? Carry thy 
 thoughts then to the objects themselves, and consider 
 how short-lived they are and worthless, and that they 
 may be in the possession of a filthy wretch or a Avhore or 
 a robber. Then turn to the morals of those who live 
 with thee, and it is hardly possible to endure even the 
 most agreeable of them, to say nothing of a man being 
 
182 
 
 TEE MEEITATIONS OP 
 
 hardly able to endure himself. In such darkness then, 
 and dirt, and in so constant a flux, both of substance 
 and of time, and of motion, and of things moved, what 
 there is worth being highly prized, or even an object of 
 serious 2 >ursuit, I cannot imagine. B-ut on the contrary'- 
 it is a man’s duty to comfort himself, and to w'ait for 
 the natural dissolution and not to be vexed at the delay, 
 but to rest in these principles only : the one, that 
 nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to 
 the nature of the universe ; and the other, that it is in 
 my power never to act contrary to my god and 
 demon : for there is no man who will compel me to 
 this. 
 
 11. About what am I now employing my own soul? 
 On every occasion I must ask myself this question, 
 and inquire, what have I now in this part of me which 
 they call the ruling principle ? and whose soul have I 
 now ? that of a child, or of a young man, or of a feeble 
 woman, or of a tyrant, or of a domestic animal, or of 
 a wild beast ? 
 
 12. What kind of things those are which appear 
 good to the many, we may learn even from this. For 
 if any man should conceive certain things as being 
 really good, such as prudence, temperance, justice, 
 fortitude, he would not after having first conceived 
 these endure to listen to anythingf which should not 
 be in harmony with what is really good.f But if a 
 man has first conceived as good the things which 
 appear to the many to be good, he will listen and 
 readily receive as very applicable that which was said 
 by the comic writer. fThus even the many perceive 
 the differencef For were it not so, this saying would 
 not offend and would not be rejected [in the first 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS AMTOMINUS. 
 
 1?3 
 
 case], while we receive it when it is said of wealth, 
 and of the means which further luxury and fame, as 
 said fitly and wittily. Go on then and ask if we 
 should value and think those things to be good, to 
 which after their first conception in the mind the words 
 of the comic writer might be aptly applied — that he 
 who has them, through pure abundance has not a place 
 to ease himself in. 
 
 13. I am composed of the formal and the material ; 
 and neither of them will perish into non-existence, as 
 neither of them came into existence out of non- 
 existence. Every part of me then will be reduced by 
 change into some part of the universe, and that again 
 will change into another part of the universe, and so 
 on forever. And by consequence of such a change I 
 too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever 
 in the other direction. For nothing hinders us from 
 saying so, even if the universe is administered according 
 to definite periods [of revolution]. 
 
 Id. Reason and the reasoning art [philosophy] are 
 powers which are sufficient for themselves and for 
 their own works. They move then from a first prin- 
 ciple which is their own, and they make their way to 
 the end which is proposed to them; and this is the 
 reason why such acts are named Catorthoseis or right 
 acts, which word signifies that they proceed by the 
 right road. 
 
 15. Rone of these things ought to be called a man’s, 
 which do not belong to a man, as man. They are not 
 required of a man, nor does man’s nature promise 
 them, nor are they the means of man’s nature attain- 
 ing its end. Reither then does the end of man lie in 
 these things, nor yet that which aids to the accom- 
 
184 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 plisbraent of this end, and that which aids toward this 
 end is that which is good. Besides, if any of these 
 things did belong to man, it would not be right for a 
 man to despise them and to set himself against them; 
 nor would a man be worthy of praise who showed that 
 he did not want these things, nor would he who stinted 
 himself in any of them be good, if indeed these things 
 were good. But now the more of these things a man 
 deprives himself of, or of other things like them, or 
 even when he is deprived of any of them, the more 
 patiently he endures the loss, just in the same degree 
 he is a better man. 
 
 16. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will 
 be the character of thy mind ; for the soul is dyed by 
 the thoughts. Dye it then with a continuous series of 
 such thoughts as these : for instance, that where a 
 man can live, there he can also live well. But he must 
 live in a palace — well then, he can also live well in a 
 palace. And again, consider that for whatever pur- 
 pose each thing has been constituted, for this it has 
 been constituted, and toward this it is carried; and its 
 end is in that toward which it is canned ; and where 
 the end is, there also is the advantage and the good of 
 each thing. H”ow the good for the reasonable animal 
 is society ; for that we are made for society has been 
 shown above.* Is it not plain that the inferior exist 
 for the sake of the superior? but the things which 
 have life are superior to those which have not life, and 
 of those which have life the superior are those which 
 have reason. 
 
 17. To seek what is impossible is madness : and it is 
 
 *Comp. ii. 1. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 185 
 
 impossible that the bad should not do something of this 
 kind. 
 
 18. Nothing happens to* any man which he is not 
 formed by nature to bear. The same things happen to 
 another, and either because he does not see that the}'' 
 have happened or because he would show a great 
 spirit he is firm and remains unharmed. It is a shame 
 then that ignorance and conceit should be stronger 
 than wisdom. 
 
 19. Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the 
 least degree ; nor have they admission to the soul, nor 
 can they turn or move the soul : but the soul turns 
 and moves itself alone, and whatever judgments it may 
 think proper to make, such it makes for itself the 
 things which present themselves to it. 
 
 20. In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, 
 so far as I must do good to men and endure them. But 
 so far as some men make themselves obstacles to my 
 proper acts, man becomes to me one of the things 
 which are indifferent, no less than the sun or wind or 
 a wild beast. Now it is true that these may impede 
 my. action, but they are no impediments to my affects 
 and disposition, which have the power of acting con- 
 ditionally and changing : for the mind converts and 
 changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid ; 
 and so that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance 
 to an act ; and that which is an obstacle on the road 
 helps us on this road.* 
 
 21. Reverence that which is best in the universe; 
 and this is that which makes use of all things and 
 directs all things. And in like manner also reverence 
 that which is best in thyself; and this is of the same 
 kind as that. For in thyself also, that which makes 
 
186 
 
 TEE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 use of everything else, is this, and thy life is directed 
 by this. 
 
 22. That which does no harm to the State, does no 
 harm to the citizen. In the case of every appearance 
 of harm apply this rule : if the State is not harmed by 
 this, neither am I harmed. But if the State is harmed, 
 thou must not be angr}'- with him who does harm to 
 the State. Show him where his error is. 
 
 23. Often think of the rapidity with which things 
 pass by and disappear, both the things which are and 
 the things which are produced. For substance is like 
 a river in a continual flow, and the activities of things 
 are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite 
 varieties ; and there is hardly anything which stands 
 still. And consider this which is near to thee, this 
 boundless abyss of the past and of the future in which 
 all things disappear. How then is he not a fool who is 
 puffed up Avith such things or plagued about them and 
 makes himself miserable ? for they vex him only for a 
 time, and a short time. 
 
 2i. Think of the universal substance, of which thou 
 hast a very small portion ; and of universal time, of 
 Avhich a short and indivisible interval has been assigned 
 to thee ; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and 
 how small a part of it thou art. 
 
 25. Does another do me Avrong ? Let him look to it. 
 He has his OAvn disposition, his own activity. I noAv 
 have Avhat the universal nature wills me to have; and 
 I do what my nature now Avills me to do. 
 
 26. Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs 
 be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, Avhether 
 of pleasure or of pain ; and let it not unite Avith them, 
 but let it circumscribe itself and limit those affects to 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. ' 
 
 187 
 
 their parts. But when these affects rise up to the 
 mind by virtue of that other sympathy that naturally 
 exists in a body which is all one, then thou must not 
 strive to resist the sensation, for it is natural; but let 
 not the ruling part of itself add to the sensation the 
 opinion that it is either good or bad. 
 
 27. Live with the gods. And he does live with the 
 gods who constantly shows to them that his own soul 
 is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and 
 that it does all that the demon wishes, which Zeus 
 hath given to every man for his guardian and guide, a 
 portion of himself. And this is eveiy man’s under- 
 standing and reason. 
 
 28. Art thou angry with him whose arm-pits stink ? 
 Art thou angry Avith him Avhose mouth smells foul ? 
 What good will this anger do thee ? He has such a 
 mouth, he has such arm-pits : it is necessary that such 
 an emanation must come from such things — but the 
 man has reason, it Avill be said, and he is able, if he 
 takes pains, to discover Avherein he offends — I wish 
 thee well of thy discovery. Well, then, and thou hast 
 reason : by thy rational faculty stir up his rational 
 faculty ; show him his error, admonish him. For if he 
 listens, thou Avilt cure him, and there is no need of 
 anger, [f Neither tragic actor nor whore. f]* 
 
 29. As thou intendest to live when thou art e;one 
 
 out, . . . so it is in thy poAver to live here. But if 
 
 men do not permit thee, then get away out of life, yet 
 so as if thou Avert suffering no harm. The house is 
 smoky, and I quit it. Why dost thou think that this 
 
 *This is imperfect or corrupt, or both. I have translated it 
 literally and left it imperfect. 
 
 t Epictetus, i. 25, 18. 
 
188 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 is any trouble ? But so long as nothing of the kind 
 drives me out, I remain, am free, and no man shall 
 hinder me from doing what I choose ; and I choose to 
 do what is according to the nature of the rational and 
 social animal. 
 
 30. The intelligence of the universe is social. 
 Accordingly it has made the inferior things for the 
 sake of the superior, and it has fitted the superior to one 
 another. Thou seest how it has subordinated, co-ordi- 
 nated and assigned to everything its proper portion, 
 and has brought together into concord with one 
 another the things which are the best. 
 
 31. How hast thou behaved hitherto to the gods, 
 thy parents, brethren, children, teachers, to those who 
 looked after thy infancy, to thy friends, kinsfolk, to 
 thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved 
 to all in such a way that this may be said of thee : 
 
 Never lias wronged a man in deed or word. 
 
 And call to recollection both how many things thou 
 hast passed through, and how many things thou hast 
 been able to endure : and that the history of thy life 
 is now complete, and thy service is ended : and how 
 many beautiful things thou hast seen : and how many 
 pleasures and pains thou hast despised ; and how many 
 things called honorable thou hast spurned ; and to how 
 many ill - minded folks thou hast shown a kind 
 disposition. 
 
 32. Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb 
 him who has skill and knowledge? What soul then 
 has skill and knowledge? That which knows begin- 
 ning and end, and knows the reason which pervades 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 189 
 
 all substance and through all time by fixed periods 
 [revolutions] administers the universe. 
 
 33. Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, 
 and either a name or not even a name ; but name is 
 sound and echo. And the things which are much 
 valued in life are empty and rotten and trilling, and 
 [like] little dogs biting one another, and little children 
 quarrelling, laughing, and then straightway weeping. 
 But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth are 
 fied 
 
 Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth. 
 
 Hesiod, Works, etc., v. 197. 
 
 What then is there which still detains thee here? If 
 the objects of sense are easily changed and never 
 stand still, and the organs of perception are dull and 
 easily receive false impressions; and the poor soul 
 itself is an exhalation from blood. But to have good 
 repute amid such a world as this is an empt}^ thing. 
 Why then dost thou not wait in tranquillity for thy 
 end, whether it is extinction or removal to another 
 state? And until that time comes, what is sufficient ? 
 Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless 
 them, and to do good to men, and to practice tolerance 
 and self-restraint ; * but as to everything which is 
 beyond the limits of the poor flesh and breath, to 
 remember that this is neither thine nor in thy power. 
 
 34. Thou canst pass thy life in an equable flow of 
 happiness, if thou canst go by the right way, and think 
 and act in the right w^ay. These two things are com- 
 
 *This is the Stoic precept dvexov ua'l ditixov. The first part 
 teaches us to be content with men and things as they are. The 
 second part teaches us the virtue of self-restraint, or the government 
 pf our passions. 
 
190 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 mon both to the soul of God and to the soul of man, 
 and to the soul of every rational being, not to be 
 hindered by another ; and to hold good to consist in 
 the disposition to justice and the practice of it, and in 
 this to let thy desire find its termination. 
 
 35. If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect 
 of my own badness, and the common weal is not 
 injured, why am I troubled about it? and what is the 
 harm to the common weal ? 
 
 36. Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the 
 a])pearance of things, but give help [to all] according 
 to thy ability and tlieir fitness ; and if they should 
 have sustained loss in matters which are indifferent, do 
 not imagine this to be a damage. For it is a bad 
 habit. But as the old man, when he went away, 
 asked back his foster-child’s top, remembering that it 
 was a top, so do thou in this case also. 
 
 When thou art calling out on the Eostra, hast thou 
 forgotten, man, what these things are ? Yes ; but they 
 are objects of great concern to these people — wilt thou 
 too then be made a fool for these things ? I was once 
 a fortunate man, but I lost it, I know not how. But 
 fortunate means that a man has assigned to himself a 
 good fortune ; and a good fortune is good disposition 
 of the sold, good emotions, good actions.* 
 
 * This section is unintelligible. Many of the words may be 
 corrupt, and the general purport of the section cannot be discovered. 
 Perhaps several things have been improperly joined in one section. 
 I have translated it nearly literally. Different translators give the 
 section a different turn, and the critics have tried to mend what they 
 cannot understand. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 191 
 
 YI. 
 
 The substance of the universe is obedient and com- 
 pliant ; and the reason which governs it has in itself 
 no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does 
 it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it. 
 But all things are made and perfected according to 
 this reason. 
 
 2. Let it make no difference to thee whether thou 
 art cold or warm, if thou art doing thy duty ; and 
 whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with sleep ; and 
 whether ill-spoken of or praised ; and whether dying 
 or doing something else. For it is one of the acts of 
 life, this act by which we die ; it is sufficient then in 
 this act also to do well what we have in hand 
 (vi. 22, 28). 
 
 3. Look within. Let neither the peculiar quality of 
 anything nor its value escape thee. 
 
 4. All existing things soon change, and they will 
 either be reduced to vapor, if indeed all substance is 
 one, or they will be dispersed. 
 
 5. The reason which governs knows what its own 
 disposition is, and Avhat it does, and on what material 
 it Avorks. 
 
 6. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become 
 like [the wrong doer]. 
 
 7. Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in 
 
192 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 passing from one social act to another social act, think- 
 ing of God. 
 
 8. The ruling principle is that which rouses and 
 turns itself, and while it makes itself such as it is and 
 such as it wills to he, it also makes everything which 
 happens appear to itself to be such as it wills. 
 
 9. In conformity to the nature of the universe every 
 single thing is accomplished, for certainly it is not in 
 conformit}'^ to any other nature that each thing is 
 accomplished, either a nature which externally com- 
 prehends this, or a nature which is comprehended 
 within this nature, or a nature external and inde- 
 pendent of this (xi. 1, vi. 40, viii. 50). 
 
 10. The universe is either a confusion, and a mutual 
 involution of things, and a dispersion ; or it is unity 
 and order and ])rovidence. If then it is the former, 
 why do I desire to tarry in a fortuitous combination 
 of things and such a disorder ? and why do I care about 
 anything else than how I shall at last become earth? 
 and why am I disturbed, for the dispersion of my ele- 
 ments will happen whatever I do. But if the other 
 supposition is true, I venerate, and I am firm, and I 
 trust in him who governs (iv. 27). 
 
 11. When thou hast been compelled by circum- 
 stances to be distiu’bed in a manner, quickly return to 
 thyself and do not continue out of tune longer than 
 the com]uilsion lasts ; for thou wilt have more mastery 
 over the harmony by continually recurring to it. 
 
 12. If thou hadst a step-mother and a mother at the 
 same time, thou wouldst be dutiful to thy step-mother, 
 but still thou wouldst constantly return to thy mother. 
 Let the court and philosophy now be to thee step- 
 mother and mother; return to philosophy frequently 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 193 
 
 and repose in her, through whom what thou meetest 
 with in the court appears to thee tolerable, and thou 
 appearest tolerable in the court. 
 
 13. When we have meat before us and such eatables, 
 we receive the impression, that this is the dead body 
 of a fish, and this is the dead body of a bird or of a pig ; 
 and again, that this Falernian is only a little grape 
 juice, and this purple robe some sheep’s wool dyed 
 with the blood of a shell-fish ; such then are these im- 
 pressions, and they reach the things themselves and 
 penetrate them, and so we see what kind of things 
 they are. Just in the same way ought we to act all 
 through life, and where there are, things v,^hich appear 
 most worthy of our approbation, Ave ought to lay them 
 bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them of 
 all the Avords by Avhicli they are exalted. For outAA-ard 
 show is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and Avhen 
 thou art most sure that thou art employed about 
 things Avorth thy pains, it is then that it cheats thee 
 most. Consider then AA^hat Crates says of Xenocrates 
 himself. 
 
 14. Most of the things Avhich the multitude admire 
 are referred to objects of the most general kind, those 
 which are held together by cohesion or natural organi- 
 zation, such as stones, Avood, fig-trees, vines, olives. 
 But those which are admired by men, Avho are a little 
 more reasonable, are referred to the things Avhich are 
 held together by a living principle, as fiocks, herds. 
 Those Avhich are admired by men Avho are still more 
 instructed are the things Avhich are held together by a 
 rational soul, not howe\"er a universal soul, but rational 
 so far as it is a soul skilled in some art, or expert in some 
 other way, or simply rational so far as it possesses a 
 
194 
 
 TEE MEEITATI0N8 OF 
 
 number of slaves. But he who values a rational soul, 
 a soul universal and fitted for political life, regards 
 nothing else except this ; and above all things he keeps 
 his soul in a condition and in an activity conformable 
 to reason and social life, and he co-operates to this end 
 with those who are of the same kind as himself. 
 
 15. Some things are hurrying into existence, and 
 others are hurrying out of it ; and of that which is 
 coming into existence part is already extinguished. 
 Motions and changes are continually renewing the 
 world, just as the uninterrupted course of time is 
 always renewing the infinite duration of ages. In 
 this flowing stream then, on which there is no abiding, 
 what is there of the things which hurry by on which 
 a man would set a high price? It would be just as if 
 a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows 
 which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight. 
 Something of this kind is the very life of every man, 
 like the exhalation of the blood and the respiration of 
 the air. For such as it is to have once drawn in the air 
 and to have given it back, which we do every moment, 
 just the same as it is with the whole respiratory power, 
 which thou didst receive at thy birth yesterday and 
 the day before, to give it back to the element from 
 which thou didst first draw it. 
 
 16. Neither is transpiration, as in plants, a thing to 
 be valued, nor respiration, as in domesticated animals 
 and wild beasts, nor the receiving of impressions by 
 the appearances of things, nor being moved by desires 
 as puppets by strings, nor assembling in herds, nor 
 being nourished by food ; for this is just like the act of 
 separating and parting with the useless part of our 
 food. What then is worth being valued? To here- 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 195 
 
 ceived with clapping of hands? ~No. hf either must 
 we value the clapping of tongues for the praise which 
 comes from the many is a clapping of tongues. Sup- 
 pose then that thou hast given up this worthless thing 
 called fame, what remains that is worth valuing ? 
 This, in my opinion, to move thyself and to restrain 
 thyself in conformity to thy proper constitution, to 
 which end both all employments and arts lead. For 
 every art aims at this, that the thing which has been 
 made should be adapted to the work for which it has 
 been made ; and both the vine-planter who looks after 
 the vine, and the horse-breaker, and he who trains the 
 dog, seek this end. But the education and the teach- 
 ing of youth aim at something. In this then is the 
 value of the education and the teaching. And if this 
 is Avell, thou wilt not seek anything else. Wilt thou 
 not cease to value many other things too? Then thou 
 wilt be neither free, nor sufficient for thy own happi- 
 ness, nor without passion. For of necessity thon must 
 be envious, jealous, and suspicious of those who can 
 take away those things, and plot against those who 
 have that which is valued by thee. Of necessity a 
 man must be altogether in a state of perturbation who 
 Avants any of these things ; and besides, he must often 
 find fault Avith the gods. But to reverence and honor 
 thy OAvn mind Avill make thee content with thyself, 
 and in harmony with society, and in agreement AAnth 
 the gods, that is, praising all that they give and have 
 ordered. 
 
 17. Above, beloAV, all around are the movements of 
 the elements. But the motion of virtue is in none of 
 these; it is something more divine, and advancing by 
 a Avay hardly observed it goes happily on its road. 
 
196 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 18. How strangely men act. They will not praise 
 those who are living at the same time and living with 
 themselves ; but to be themselves praised by posterity, 
 by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, 
 this they set mnch value on. But this is very much 
 the same as if thou shouldst be grieved because those 
 who have lived before thee did not praise thee. 
 
 19. If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, 
 do not think that it is impossible for man ; but if any- 
 thing is possible for man and conformable to his nature, 
 think that this can be attained by thyself too. 
 
 20. In the gymnastic exercises suppose that a man 
 has torn thee with his nails, and by dashing against 
 thy head has inflicted a wound. Well, we neither 
 show any signs of vexation, nor are we offended, nor 
 do we suspect him afterward as a treacherous fellow ; 
 and yet we are on onr guard against him, not however 
 as an enemy, nor yet with suspicion, but we quietly 
 get out of his way. Something like this let thy be- 
 havior be in all the other parts of life ; let us overlook 
 many things in those who are like antagonists in the 
 gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to get 
 out of the way, and to have no suspicion nor hatred. 
 
 21. If any man is able to convince me and show me 
 that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change ; 
 for I seek the truth by which no man was every in- 
 jured. But he is injured who abides in his error and 
 ignorance. 
 
 22. I do my duty: other things trouble me not; 
 for they are either things without life, or things with- 
 out reason, or things that have rambled and know not 
 the way. 
 
 23. As to the animals which have no reason, and 
 
MARGVrS A URRLtUS ANTONiNUS. 
 
 197 
 
 generally all things and objects, do thou, since thou 
 hast reason and they have none, make use of them 
 with a generous and liberal spirit. But toward 
 human beings, as they have reason, behave in a social 
 spirit. And on all occasions call on the gods, and do 
 not perplex thyself about the length of time in which 
 thou shalt do this ; for even three hours so spent are 
 sufficient. 
 
 24. Alexander the Macedonian and his groom by 
 death were brought to the same state ; for either they 
 were received among the same seminal principles of 
 the universe, or they were alike dispersed among the 
 atoms. 
 
 25. Consider how many things in the same indivisi- 
 ble time take place in each of us, things which concern 
 the body and things which concern the soul ; and so 
 thou wilt not wonder if many more things, or rather 
 all things which come into existence in that which is 
 the one and all, which we call Cosmos, exist in it at 
 the same time. 
 
 26. If any man should propose to thee the question, 
 how the name Antoninus is written, wouldst thou with 
 a straining of the voice utter each letter? What then 
 if they grow angry, wilt thou be angry too? Wilt 
 thou not go on with composure and number every 
 letter? Just- so then in this life also remember that 
 every duty is made up of certain parts. These it is 
 th}^ duty to observe and without being disturbed or 
 showing anger toward those who are angry with thee 
 to go on thy way and finish that which is set before 
 thee. 
 
 27. How cruel it is not to allow men to strive after 
 the things which appear to them to be suitable to their 
 
198 
 
 THE MEHlTATlONS OE 
 
 nature and profitable ! And yet in a manner thou dost 
 not allow them to do this, when thou art vexed because 
 they do wrong. For they are certainly moved toward 
 things because they suppose them to be suitable to 
 their nature and profitable to them. But it is not 
 so. Teach them then, and show them without being 
 angry. 
 
 28. Death is a cessation of the impressions through 
 the senses, and of the pulling of the strings which 
 move the appetites, and of the discursive movements 
 of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh (ii. 12). 
 
 29. It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way 
 in this life, when thy body does not give way. 
 
 30. Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, 
 that thou art not dyed witli this dye ; for such things 
 happen. Keep thyself then simple, good, pure, serious, 
 free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshiper 
 of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper 
 acts. Strive to continue to be such as philosophy 
 wished to make thee. Reverence the gods, and help 
 men. Short is life. There is only one fruit of this 
 terrene life, a pious disposition and social acts. Do 
 everything as a disciple of Antoninus. Remember his 
 constancy in every act wdiich was conformable to 
 reason, and his evenness in all things, and his piet}^, 
 and the serenity of his countenance, and his sweetness, 
 and his disregard of empty fame, and his efforts to 
 understand things ; and how he would never let any- 
 thing pass without having first most carefully exam- 
 ined it and clearly understood it ; and how he bore 
 wdth those who blamed him unjustly without blaming 
 them in return ; how he did nothing in a hurry ; and 
 how he listened not to calumnies, and how exact an 
 
MABGUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 199 
 
 examiner of manners and actions lie was; and not 
 given to reproach people, nor timid, nor suspicious, 
 nor a sophist ; and with how little he was satisfied, 
 such as lodging, bed, dress, food, servants ; and how 
 laborious and patient ; and how he was able on account 
 of his sparing diet to hold out to the evening, not 
 even requiring to relieve himself by any evacuations 
 except at the usual hour ; and his firmness and uni- 
 formity in his friendships; and how he tolerated 
 freedom of speech in those who opposed his opinions ; 
 and the pleasure that he had when any man showed 
 him anything better ; and how religious he was with- 
 out superstition. Imitate all this that thou mayest 
 have as good a conscience, when thy last hour comes, 
 as he had (i. 16). 
 
 31. Eeturn to thy sober senses and call thyself back ; 
 and when thou hast roused thyself from sleep and hast 
 perceived that they were only dreams which troubled 
 thee, now in thy waking hours look at these [the 
 things about thee] as thou didst look at those [the 
 dreams]. 
 
 32. I consist of a little body and a soul. Now to 
 this little body all things are indifferent, for it is not 
 able to perceive differences. But to the understanding 
 those things only are indifferent, which are not the 
 Avorks of its own activity. But Avhatever things are 
 the works of its own activity, all these are in its 
 poAver. And of these, hoAvever, only those Avhich are 
 done with reference to the present ; for as to the 
 future and the past activities of the mind, even these 
 are for the present indifferent. 
 
 33. Neither the labor Avhich the hand does nor that 
 of the foot is contrary to nature, so long as the foot 
 
200 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 does the foot’s work and the hand the hand’s. So 
 then neither to a man as a man is his labor contrary to 
 nature, so long as it does the things of a man. But if 
 the labor is not contrary to his nature, neither is it an 
 evil to him. 
 
 34. How many pleasures have been enjoyed by 
 robbers, patricides, tyrants. 
 
 35. Dost thou not see how the handicraftsmen ac- 
 commodate themselves up to a certain point to those 
 who are not skilled in their craft — nevertheless they 
 cling to the reason [the principles] of their art and do 
 not endure to depart from it ? Is it not strange if the 
 architect and the physician shall have more respect to 
 the reason [the principles] of their own arts than man 
 to his own reason, which is common to him and the 
 gods ? 
 
 36. Asia, Europe are corners of the universe ; all the 
 sea a drop in the universe ; Athos a little clod of the 
 univ^erse ; all the present time is a point in eternity. 
 All things are little, changeable, perishable. All 
 things come from thence, from that universal ruling 
 power either directly proceeding or by way of sequence. 
 And accordingly the lion’s gaping jaws, and that which 
 is poisonous, and every harmful thing, as a thorn, as 
 mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. 
 Do not then imagine that they are of another kind 
 from that which thou dost venerate, but form a just 
 opinion of the source of all (vii. 75). 
 
 37. He who has seen present things has seen all, 
 both everything which has taken place from all eternity 
 and everything which will be for time without end; 
 for all things are of one kin and of one form. 
 
 38. Frequently consider the connection of all things 
 in the universe and their relation to one another? For 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 201 
 
 in a manner all things are implicated with one another, 
 and all in this way are friendly to one another ; for 
 one thing comes in order after another, and this is by 
 virtue of thef active movement and mutual conspira- 
 tion and the unity of the substance (ix. 1). 
 
 39. Adapt thyself to the things with which thy lot 
 has been cast; and the men among whom thou hast 
 received thy portion, love them, but do it truh' 
 [sincerely]. 
 
 40. Every instrument, tool, vessel, if it does that for 
 which it has been made, is well, and yet he who made 
 it is not there. But in the things which are held to- 
 gether by nature there is within and there abides in 
 them the power which made them ; wherefore the 
 more is it fit to reverence this power, and to think, 
 that, if thou dost live and act according to its will, 
 everything in thee is in conformity to intelligence. 
 And thus also in the universe the things which belong 
 to it are in conformity to intelligence. 
 
 41. Whatever of the things which are not within 
 th}'^ power thou shalt suppose to be good for thee or 
 evil, it must of necessity be that, if such a bad thing 
 befall thee or the loss of such a good thing, thou wilt 
 blame the gods, and hate men too, those Avho are the 
 cause of the misfortune or the loss, or those who are 
 suspected of being likely to be the cause ; and indeed 
 we do much injustice, because we make a difference 
 between these things [because we do not regard these 
 things as indifferentf]. But if we judge only those 
 things which are in our power to be good or bad, there 
 remains no reason either for finding fault with God or 
 standing in a hostile attitude to man.* 
 
 *Cicero, De Natura Beorum, iii. 33. 
 
202 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 42. We are all working together to one end, some 
 with knowledge and design, and others without know- 
 ing what they do ; as men also when they are asleep, 
 of whom it is Heraclitus, I think, who says that they 
 are laborers and co-operators in the things which take 
 place in the universe. But men co-operate after dif- 
 ferent fashions : and even those co operate abundantly, 
 who find fault with what happens and those who try 
 to oppose it and to hinder it ; for the universe had 
 need even of such men as these. It remains then for 
 thee to understand among what kind of workmen thou 
 placest thyself ; for he who rules all things will cer- 
 tainly make a right use of thee, and he will receive 
 thee among some part of the co-operators and of those 
 whose labors conduce to one end. But be not thou 
 such a part as the mean and ridiculous verse in the 
 pla}% which Chiysippus speaks of.* 
 
 43. Does the sun undertake to do the work of the 
 rain, or Hisculapius the work of the Fruit-bearer [the 
 earth] ? And how is it with respect to each of the 
 stars, are they not different, and yet they work to- 
 gether to the same end ? 
 
 44. If the gods have determined about me and about 
 the things which must happen to me, they have de- 
 termined well, for it is not easy even to imagine a 
 deity without forethought ; and as to doing me harm, 
 Avhy should they have any desire toward that? foi‘ 
 what advantage \vould result to them from this or to 
 the whole, which is the special object of their j^rovi- 
 dence? But if they have not determined about me 
 individuall 3 g they have certainly determined about the 
 whole at least, and the things which happen by wa_y 
 
 *Plutarcli, adversus Stoicos, c. 14. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 203 
 
 of sequence in this general arrangement I ought to 
 accept with pleasure and to be content Avith them. But 
 if they determine about nothing — which it is Avicked 
 to believe, or if we do belicAm it, let us neither sacrifice 
 nor pray nor swear by them, nor do anything else 
 Avhich Ave do as if the gods Avere present and lived 
 Avith us — but if, hoAvever, the gods determine about 
 none of the things which concern us, I am able to 
 determine about myself, and I can inquire about that 
 which is useful ; and that is useful to every man Avhich 
 is conformable to his OAvn constitution and nature. 
 But my nature is rational and social ; and my city and 
 country, so far as I am Antoninus, is Rome, but so far 
 as I am a man, it is the Avorld. The things then Avhich 
 are useful to these cities are alone useful to me. 
 
 45. Whatever happens to every man, this is for the 
 interest of the universal ; this might be sufficient. But 
 further thou Avilt observe this also as a general truth, 
 if thou dost observe, that AvhateAmr is profitable to any 
 man is profitable also to other men. But let the Avord 
 profitable be taken here in the common sense as said 
 of things of the middle kind [neither good nor bad]. 
 
 46. As it hajApens to thee in the amphitheater and 
 such places, that the continual sight of the same 
 things and the uniformity make the spectacle Aveari- 
 some, so it is in the Avhole of life ; for all things above, 
 below, are the same and from the same. How long 
 then ? 
 
 47. Think continually that all kinds of men and of 
 all kinds of pursuits and of all nations are dead, so 
 that thy thoughts come doAAm even to Philistion and 
 Phoebus and Origanion. Noav turn th}'’ thoughts to 
 the other kinds [of men]. To that place then Ave 
 
204 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 must remove, where there are so many great orators, 
 and so many noble philosophers, Heraclitus, Pytha- 
 goras, Socrates ; so many heroes of former days, and 
 so many generals after them, and tyrants ; besides 
 these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other 
 men of acute natural talents, great minds, lovers of 
 labor, versatile, confident, mockers even of the perish- 
 able and ephemeral life of man, as Menippus and such 
 as are like him. As to all these consider that they 
 have long been in the dust. What harm then is this 
 to them ; and what to those whose names are alto- 
 gether unknown? One thing here is worth a great 
 deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevo- 
 lent disposition even to liars and unjust men. 
 
 48. When thou Avishest to delight thyself, think of 
 the virtues of those who live Avith thee ; for instance, 
 the activity of one, and the modesty of another, and 
 the liberality of a third, and some other good quality 
 of a fourth. For nothing delights so much as the 
 examples of the virtues, Avhen they are exhibited in 
 the morals of those Avho live with us and present them- 
 selves in abundance, as far as is possible. Wherefore 
 Ave must keep them before us. 
 
 49. Thou art not dissatisfied, I suppose, because thou 
 Aveighest only so many litre and not three hundred. Be 
 not dissatisfied then that thou must live only so many 
 years and not more ; for as thou art satisfied Avith the 
 amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, 
 so be content Avith the time. 
 
 50. Let us try to persuade them [men]. But act 
 eA^en against their Avill, Avhen the principles of justice 
 lead that way. If, hoAvever, any man by using force 
 stands in thy Avay, betake thyself to contentment and 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 205 
 
 tranquillity, and at the same time employ the 
 hinderance toward the exercise of some other virtue ; 
 and remember that thy attempt was with a reservation 
 [conditionally], that thou didst not desire to do impos- 
 sibilities. What then didst thou desire? Some such 
 effort as this. But thou attainest thy object, if 
 the things to which thou wast moved are [not] 
 accomplished.f 
 
 61. He who loves fame considers another man’s 
 activity to be his own good ; and he who loves 
 pleasure, his own sensations; but he who has under- 
 standing, considers his own acts to be his own good. 
 
 52. It is in our power to have no opinion about a 
 thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul ; for things 
 themselves have no natural power to form our 
 judgments. 
 
 53. Accustom thyself to attend carefully to what is 
 said by another, and as much as it is possible, be in the 
 speaker’s mind. 
 
 5d. That which is not good for the swarm, neither is 
 it good for the bee. 
 
 55. If sailors abused the helmsman or the sick tlie 
 doctor, would they listen to anybody else ; or how 
 could the helmsman secure the safety of those in 
 the ship or the doctor the health of those vdiom he 
 attends ? 
 
 56. How many together with whom I came into the 
 world are already gone out of it. 
 
 57. To the jaundiced honey tastes bitter, and to 
 those bitten by mad dogs water causes fear ; and to 
 little children the ball is a fine thing. Why then am 
 I angry? Dost thou think that a false opinion has 
 less power than the bile in the jaundiced or the poison 
 in him who is bitten by a mad dog. 
 
206 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 58. No man will hinder thee from living according 
 to the reason of thy own nature : nothing will happen 
 to thee contrary to the reason of the universal 
 nature. 
 
 59. What kind of people are those whom men Avish 
 to please, and for Avhat objects, and by Avhat kind of 
 acts ? How soon Avill time cover all things, and how 
 many it has covered already. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 207 
 
 VII. 
 
 "What is badness? It is that which thou hast often 
 seen. And on the occasion of everything which 
 happens keep this in mind, that it is that which thou 
 hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt 
 find the same things, with which the old histories are 
 filled, those of the middle ages and those of our own 
 day; with which cities and houses are filled now. 
 There is nothing new ; all things are both familiar and 
 short lived. 
 
 2. How can our principles become dead, unless the 
 impressions [thoughts] which correspond to them are 
 extinguished? But it is in thy power continuously to 
 fan these thoughts into a flame. I can have that 
 opinion about anything, which I ought to have. If I 
 can, why am I disturbed? The things which are ex- 
 ternal to my mind have no relation at all to my mind. 
 Let this be the state of thy affects, and thou standest 
 erect. To recover thy life is in thy power. Look at 
 things again as thou didst use to look at them ; for in 
 this consists the recovery of thy life. 
 
 ' 3. The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks 
 of sheep, herds, exercises with spears, a bone cast to 
 little dogs, a bit of bread into fish-ponds, laborings of 
 ants and burden-carrying, runnings about of fright- 
 ened little mice, puppets pulled by strings — [all alike]. 
 It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show 
 
‘>08 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 good humor and not a proud air ; to understand, how- 
 ever, that every man is worth just so much as the 
 things are worth about which he busies himself. 
 
 d. In discourse thou must attend to what is said, and 
 ill every movement thou must observe what is doing. 
 And in tlie one thou shouldst see immediately to what 
 end it refers, but in the other watch carefully what is 
 the thing signified. 
 
 5. Is my understanding sufficient for this or not? If 
 it is sufficient I use it for the work as an instrument 
 given by the universal nature. But if it is not suffi- 
 cient, then either I retire from the work and give way 
 to him who is able to do it better, unless there be some 
 reason why I ought not to do so ; or I do it as well as I 
 can, taking to help me the man who with the aid of 
 my ruling principle can do what is now fit and useful 
 for the general good. For whatsoever either by myself 
 or with another I can do, ought to be directed to this 
 only, to that ivhich is useful and well-suited to society. 
 
 6. How many after being celebrated by fame have 
 been given up to oblivion; and how many who have 
 celebrated the fame of others have long been dead. 
 
 7. Be not ashamed to be helped ; for it is thy busi- 
 ness to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a 
 town. How then, if being lame thou canst not mount 
 up on the battlements alone, but with the help of 
 another it is possible? 
 
 8. Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt 
 come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee 
 the same reason which now thou usest for present 
 things. 
 
 9. All things are implicated with one another, and 
 the bond is holy ; and there is hardly anything uncon- 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 209 
 
 nected with any other thing. For things have been 
 co-ordinated, and they combine to form the same uni- 
 verse [order]. For there is one universe made up of 
 all things, and one god who pervades all things, and 
 one substance, and one law, [one] common reason in 
 all intelligent animals, and one truth ; if indeed there 
 is also one perfection for all animals which are of the 
 same stock and participate in the same reason. 
 
 10. Everything material soon disappears in the sub- 
 stance of the whole ; and everything formal [causal] is 
 very soon taken back into the universal reason ; and 
 the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed 
 in time. 
 
 11. To the rational animal the same act is according 
 to nature and according to reason. 
 
 12. Be thou erect, or be made erect (iii. 5). 
 
 13. Just as it is with the members in those bodies 
 which are united in one, so it is with rational beings 
 which exist separate, for they have been constituted 
 for one co-operation. And the perception of this will 
 be more apparent to thee, if thou often sayest to thy- 
 self that I am a member [//fAos] of the system of 
 rational beings. But if [using the letter r] thou sayest 
 that thou art a part [Af'po?], thou dost not yet love men 
 from thy heart ; beneficence does not yet delight thee 
 for its own sake; thou still doest it barely as a thing 
 of propriety, and not yet as doing good to thyself. 
 
 14. Let there fall externally what will on the parts 
 which can feel the effects of this fall. For those parts 
 which have felt will complain, if they choose. But I, 
 unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am 
 not injured. And it is in my power not to think so. 
 
 15. Whatever any one does or says, I must be good. 
 
210 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were 
 always saying this. Whatever any one does or says, I 
 must be emerald and keep my color. 
 
 16. The ruling faculty does not disturb itself; I 
 mean, does not frighten itself or cause itself pain.f 
 But if any one else can frighten or pain it, let him do 
 so. For the faculty itself will not by its own opinion 
 turn itself into such ways. Let the body itself take 
 care, if it can, that it suffer nothing, and let it speak, 
 if it suffers. But the soul itself, that wdnch is subject 
 to fear, to pain, Avhich has completely the power of 
 forming an opinion about these things, wdll suffer 
 nothing, for it will never deviate into such a judgment. 
 The leading principle in itself wants nothing, unless it 
 makes a want for itself ; and therefore it is both free 
 from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not dis' 
 turb and imjiede itself. 
 
 17. Eudminonia [happiness] is a good demon, or a 
 good thing. What then art thou doing here, O 
 imagination ? go away, I entreat thee by the gods, as 
 thou didst come, for I want thee not. But thou aid 
 come according to thy old fashion. I am not angry 
 with thee ; only go away. 
 
 18. Is any man afraid of change? Why what can 
 take place without change ? What then is more pleas- 
 ing' 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 thj^self also to change is just the 
 same, and equally necessary for the universal nature? 
 
 19. Through the universal substance as through a 
 
MABC JIS A JlRELim ANTONINUS. 211 
 
 furious torrent all bodies are carried, being by their 
 nature united with and co-operating with the whole, 
 as the parts of our body with one another. How many 
 a Chr}"sippus, how many a Socrates, how many an 
 Epictetus has time already swallowed up? And let 
 the same thought occur to thee with reference to every 
 man and thing (v. 23 ; vi. 15). 
 
 20. One thing only troubles me, lest I should do 
 something which the constitution of man does not 
 allow, or in the way which it does not allow, or what 
 it does not allow now. 
 
 21. Hear is thy forgetfulness of all things ; and near 
 the forgetfulness of thee by all. 
 
 22. It is peculiar to man to love even those who do 
 wrong. And this happens, if when they do wrong it 
 occurs to thee that they are kinsmen, and that they do 
 wrong through ignorance and unintentionally, and 
 that soon both of you will die ; and above all, that the 
 wrong-doer has done thee no harm, for he has not 
 made thy ruling faculty worse than it was before. 
 
 23. The universal nature out of the universal sub- 
 stance, as if it were wax, now molds a horse, and 
 when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a 
 tree, then for a man, then for something else ; and 
 each of these things subsists for a very short time. 
 But it is no hardship for the vessel to be broken up, 
 just as there was none in its being fastened together 
 (viii. 50). 
 
 24. A scowling look is altogether unnatural ; when 
 it is often assumed,* the result is that all comeliness 
 dies away, and at last is so completely extinguished 
 that it cannot be again lighted up at all. Try to con- 
 
 * This is corrupt. 
 
213 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 elude from this very fact that it is contrary to reason. 
 For if even the perception of doing wrong shall 
 depart, what reason is there for living any longer ? 
 
 25. Nature which governs the whole will soon 
 change all things which thou seest, and out of their 
 substance will make other things, and again other 
 things from the substance of them, in order that the 
 world may be ever new (xii. 23). 
 
 26. When a man has done thee an}’- wrong, imme- 
 diately consider with what opinion about good or evil 
 he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, 
 thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be 
 angry. For either thou thyself thinkest the same 
 thing to be good that he does, or another thing of the 
 same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. 
 But if thou dost not think such things to be good or 
 evil, thou wilt more readily be well disposed to him 
 who is in error. 
 
 27. Think not so much of what thou hast not as of 
 what thou hast : but of the things which thou hast 
 select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they 
 would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At 
 the same time, however, take care that thou dost not 
 through being so pleased Avith them accustom thyself 
 to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou 
 shouldst not have them. 
 
 28. Retire into thyself. The rational principle Avhich 
 rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when 
 it does Avhat is just, and so secures tranquillity. 
 
 29. Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of 
 the strings. Confine thyself to the present. Under- 
 stand well what happens either to thee or to another. 
 Divide and distribute every object into the casual 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTOMINUS. 
 
 213 
 
 [formal] and the material. Think of thy last hour. 
 Let the wrong which is done by a man stay there 
 where the wrong was done (viii. 29). 
 
 30. Direct thy attention to what is said. Let thy 
 understanding enter into the things that are doing and 
 the things which do them (vii. 4). 
 
 31. Adorn th3'Self with simplicity and modesty and 
 with indifference toward the things which lie between 
 virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The 
 poet says that Law rules all.f And it is enough to 
 remember that law rules all.* 
 
 32. About death : whether it is a dispersion, or a 
 resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either 
 extinction or change. 
 
 33. About pain : the pain which is intolerable carries 
 us off ; but that which lasts a long time is tolerable ; 
 and the mind maintains its own tranquillity b}'' retiring 
 into itself,f and the ruling faculty is not made worse. 
 But the parts which are harmed by pain, let them, if 
 they can, give their opinion about it. 
 
 34. About fame : look at the minds [of those who 
 seek fame], observe what they are, and what kind of 
 things they avoid, and what kind of things they 
 pursue. And consider that as the heaps of sand piled 
 on one another hide the former sands, so in life the 
 events which go before are soon covered by those 
 which come after. 
 
 35. From Plato : ]; the man who has an elevated 
 mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, 
 dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that 
 human life is anything great? It is not possible, he 
 
 * The end of this section is unintelligible. 
 
 I Plato, Pol. vi. 486. 
 
214 
 
 TEE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 said. Such a man then will think that death also is no 
 evil. Certainly not. 
 
 36. From Antisthenes : It is royal to do good and 
 to be abused. 
 
 37. It is a base thing for the countenance to be 
 obedient and to regulate and compose itself as the 
 mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated 
 and composed by itself. 
 
 38. It is not right to vex ourselves at things, 
 
 For they care nought about it.* * * § 
 
 39. To the immortal gods and us give joy. 
 
 40. Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn : 
 One man is born ; another dies.j; 
 
 41. If gods care not for me and for my children, 
 There is a reason for it. 
 
 42. For the good is with me, and the just.§ 
 
 43. No joining others in their wailing, no violent 
 emotion. 
 
 44. From Plato :|| But I would make this man a 
 sufficient answer, which is this: Thou sayest not w^ell, 
 if thou thinkest that a man who is good for anything 
 at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death, 
 and should not rather look to this only in all that he 
 does, whether he is doing what is just or unjust, and 
 the works of a good or a bad man. 
 
 45. ||For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth; wher- 
 
 * From tlie Belleroplion of Euripides. 
 
 I From tlie Hypsipyle of Euripides. Cicero (TuscuL iii. 25), 
 has translated six lines from Euripides, and among them are these 
 two lines : 
 
 Reddenda terras est terra : turn vita omnibus 
 Metenda ut fruges : Sic jubet necessitas. 
 
 § See Aristophanes, Acharnenses, v. 661. 
 
 I From the Apologia, c. 16. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 215 
 
 ever a man has placed himself thinking it the best 
 place for him, or has been placed by a commander, 
 there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the 
 hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death 
 or anything else, before the baseness [of deserting his 
 post]. 
 
 46. But, my good friend, reflect whether that which 
 is noble and good is not something different from 
 saving and being saved ; for as to a man living such or 
 such a time, at least one who is really a man, consider 
 if this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts : 
 and there must be no love of life: but as to these 
 matters a man must intrust them to the deity and 
 believe what the women say, that no man can escape 
 his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best 
 live the time that he has to live.* 
 
 47. Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou 
 wert going along with them ; and constantly consider 
 the changes of the elements into one another ; for such 
 thoughts purge away the filth of the terrene life. 
 
 48. This is a flne saying of Plato That he who is 
 discoursing about men should look also at earthly 
 things as if he viewed them from some higher place ; 
 should look at them in their assembles, armies, agri- 
 cultural labors, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise 
 of the courts of justice, desert places, various nations 
 of barbarians, feasts, lamentations, markets, a mixture 
 of all things and an orderly combination of contraries. 
 
 49. Consider the past ; such great changes of polit- 
 ical supremacies. Thou mayest foresee also the things 
 which will be. For they will certainly be of like form. 
 
 * Plato, Gorgias, c. 68 (512). 
 
 t It is said that this is not in the extant writings of Plato. 
 
216 
 
 TEE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 and it is not possible that they should deviate from the 
 order of the things which take place now : accordingly 
 to have contemplated human life for forty years is the 
 same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand 
 years. For what more wilt thou see? 
 
 50. That which has grown from the earth to the 
 
 earth, 
 
 But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, 
 Back to the heavenly realms returns.* 
 
 This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution 
 of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient 
 elements. 
 
 51. With food and drinks and cunning magic arts 
 Turning the channel’s course to ’scape from 
 
 death.:]; 
 
 The breeze which heaven has sent 
 We must endure, and toil without complaining. 
 
 52. Another may be more expert in casting his 
 opponent ; but he is not more social, nor more modest, 
 nor better disciplined to meet all that happens, nor 
 more considerate with respect to the faults of his 
 neighbors. 
 
 53. Where any work can be done conformably to 
 the reason which is common to gods and men, there we 
 have nothing to fear ; for where we are able to get 
 profit by means of the activity which is successful and 
 proceeds according to our constitution, there no harm 
 is to be suspected. 
 
 54. Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power 
 piously to acquiesce in thy present condition, and to 
 behave justly to those who are about thee, and to 
 
 * From tlie Chrysippus of Euripides. 
 
 t The first two lines are from the Supplices of Euripides, v. 1110. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 211 
 
 exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing 
 shall steal into them without being well examined. 
 
 55. Do not look around thee to discover other men’s 
 ruling principles, but look straight to this, to what 
 nature leads thee, both the universal nature through 
 the things which happen to thee, and thy own nature 
 through the acts which must be done by thee. But 
 every being ought to do that which is according to its 
 constitution ; and all other things have been consti- 
 tuted for the sake of rational beings, just as among 
 irrational things the inferior for the sake of the 
 superior, but the rational for the sake of one another. 
 
 The prime principle then in man’s constitution is the 
 social. And the second is not to yield to the per- 
 suasions of the body, for it is the peculiar office of the 
 rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, 
 and never to be overpowered either by the motion of 
 the senses or of the appetites, for both are animal ; but 
 the intelligent motion claims superiority and does not 
 permit itself to be overpowered by the others. And 
 with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all 
 of them. The third thing in the I’ational constitution 
 is freedom from error and from deception. Let then 
 the ruling principle holding fast to these things go 
 straight on, and it has what is its own. 
 
 56. Consider thyself to be dead, and to have com- 
 pleted thy life up to the present time ; and live accord- 
 ing to nature the remainder which is allowed thee. 
 
 57. Love that only which happens to thee and is 
 spun with the thread of thy destiny. For what is 
 more suitable ? 
 
 58. In everything which happens keep before thy 
 eyes those to whom the same things happened, and 
 
218 
 
 TEE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 how they were vexed, and treated them as strange 
 things, and found fault with them ; and now where 
 are they? Nowhere. Why then dost thou too choose 
 to act in the same way ? and why dost thou not leave 
 these agitations which are foreign to nature, to those 
 who cause them and those who are moved by them ? 
 And why art thou not altogether intent upon the right 
 Avay of making use of the things which happen to 
 thee? for then thou wilt use them well, and they Avill 
 be a material for thee [to work on]. Only attend to 
 thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act 
 which thou doest ; and remember * 
 
 59. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, 
 and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig. 
 
 60. The body ought to be compact, and to show no 
 irregularity either in motion or attitude. For what 
 the mind shows in the face by maintaining in it the 
 expression of intelligence and propriety, that ought to 
 be required also in the whole body. But all these 
 things should be observed without affectation. 
 
 61. The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art 
 than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should 
 stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden 
 and unexpected. 
 
 62. Constantly observe who those are whose appro- 
 bation thou wishest to have, and what ruling prin- 
 ciples they possess. For then thou wilt neither blame 
 those who offend involuntarily, nor wilt thou want 
 their approbation, if thou lookest to the sources of 
 their o])inions and appetites. 
 
 * This section is obscure, and the conclusion is so corrupt that it 
 3s impossible to give any probable meaning to it. It is better to 
 leave it as it is than to patch it up, as some critics and translators 
 have done. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 219 
 
 63. Every soul, the philosopher says, is involuntarily 
 deprived of truth ; consequently in the same u^ay it is 
 deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence 
 and everything of the kind. It is most necessary to 
 bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt be 
 more gentle toward all. 
 
 14. In every pain let this thought be present, that 
 there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the govern- 
 ing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the 
 intelligence either so far as the intelligence is rational 
 or so far as it is social. Indeed in the case of most 
 pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is 
 neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bearest in 
 mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing 
 to it in imagination : and remember this, too, that we 
 do not perceive that many things which are disagree- 
 able to us are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsi- 
 ness, and the being scorched by heat, and the having no 
 appetite. When then thou art discontented about any 
 of these things, say to thyself, that thou art yielding 
 to pain. 
 
 65. Take care not to feel toward the inhuman, as 
 they feel toward men. 
 
 66. How do we know if Telauges was not superior 
 in character to Socrates ? for it is not enough that 
 Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed more 
 skillfully with the sophists, and passed the night in 
 the cold with more endurance, and that when he was 
 bid to arrest Leon* of Salamis, he considered it more 
 noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering 
 
 * Leon of Salamis. See Plato, Epist, 7 ; Apolog. c. 30 ; Epic- 
 tetus, iv. 1, 160; iv. 7, 30. 
 
220 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 way in the streets’’'— though as to this fact one may 
 have gTeat doubts if it was true. But we ought to 
 inquire, what kind of a soul it was that Socrates pos- 
 sessed, and if he was able to be content with being 
 just toward men and pious toward the gods, neither 
 idly vexed on account of men’s villainy, nor yet making 
 himself a slave to any man’s ignorance, nor receiving 
 as strange anything that fell to his share out of the 
 universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing 
 his understanding to sympathize with the affects of 
 the miserable flesh. 
 
 67. Nature has not so mingledf [the intelligence] with 
 the composition of the body, as not to have allowed 
 thee the power of circumscribing thyself and of bring- 
 ing under subjection to thyself all that is thy own; 
 for it is very possible to be a divine man and to be 
 recognized as such by no one. Always bear this in 
 mind ; and another thing too, that very little indeed 
 is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou 
 hast despaired of becoming a dialectician and skilled in 
 the knowledge of nature, do not for this reason re- 
 nounce the hope of being both free and modest and 
 social and obedient to God. 
 
 68. It is in thy power to live free from all compul- 
 sion in the greatest tranquillity of mind, even if all 
 the world cry out against thee as much as they choose, 
 and even if wild beasts tear in pieces the members of 
 this kneaded matter which has grown around thee. 
 For what hinders the mind in the midst of all this 
 from maintaining itself in tranquillity, and in a just 
 judgment of all surrounding things, and in a ready 
 use of the objects which are presented to it, so that 
 
 Aristophan, Nub. 363. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 221 
 
 the judgment may say to the thing which falls under 
 its observation: This thou art in substance [reality], 
 though in men’s o]iinion thou mayest appear to be of 
 a different kind ; and the use shall say to that which 
 falls under the hand : Thou art the thing that I was 
 seeking ; for to me that which presents itself is always 
 a material for virtue, both rational and political, and, 
 in a word, for the exercise of art, which belongs to 
 man or God. For everthing which happens has a 
 relationship either to God or man, and is neither new 
 nor difficult to handle, but usual and apt matter to 
 work on. 
 
 69. The perfection of moral character consists in 
 this, in passing every day as the last, and in being 
 neither violently excited, nor torpid, nor playing the 
 hypocrite. 
 
 70. The gods who are immortal are not vexed be- 
 cause during so long a time they must tolerate contin- 
 ually men such as they are and so many of them bad ; 
 and besides this, they also take care of them in all 
 ways. But thou, who art destined to end so soon, art 
 thou wearied of enduring the bad, and this too when 
 thou art one of them ? 
 
 71. It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from, 
 his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fl}^ 
 from other men’s badness, which is impossible. 
 
 72. Whatever the rational and political [social] 
 faculty finds to be neither intelligent nor social, it 
 properly judges to be inferior to itself. 
 
 73. When thou hast done a good act and another 
 has received it, why dost thou still look for a third thing 
 besides these, as fools do, either to have the reputation 
 of having done a good act or to obtain a return ? 
 
222 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 74. No man is tired of receiving what is useful. But 
 it is useful to act according to nature. Do not then 
 be tired of receiving what is useful by doing it to 
 others. 
 
 75. The nature of the All moved to make the uni- 
 verse. But now either everything that takes place 
 comes by way of consequence or [continuity] ; or even 
 the chief things toward which the ruling power of the 
 universe directs its own movement are governed by 
 no rational principle. If this is remembered it will 
 make thee more tranquil in many things (vi. 44 ; ix. 
 
 28 j.* 
 
 * It is not easy to understand this section. It has been suggested 
 that there is some error in aX6yi6ra, etc. Some of the trans- 
 lators have made nothing of the passage, and they have somewhat 
 perverted the words. The first proposition is, that the universe was 
 made by some sufficient power. A beginning of the universe is 
 assumed, and a power 'which framed an order. The next question 
 is. How are things produced now; or, in other words, by what power 
 do forms appear in continuous succession ? The answer, according to 
 Antoninus, may be this: It is by virtue of the original constitution 
 of things that all change and succession have been effected and are 
 effected. And this is intelligible in a sense, if we admit that the 
 universe is always one and the same, a continuity of identity; as 
 much one and the same as man is one and the same, which he 
 believes himself to be, though he also believes, and cannot help believ- 
 ing, that both in his body and in his thoughts there is change and 
 succession. There is no real discontinuity then in the universe ; and 
 if we say that there was an order framed in the beginning and that 
 the things which are now produced are a consequence of a previous 
 arrangement, we speak of things as we are compelled to view them, 
 as forming a series or succession ; just as we speak of the changes 
 in our own bodies and the sequence of our own thoughts. But as 
 there are no intervals, not even intervals infinitely small, between 
 any two supposed states of any one thing, so there are no intervals, 
 not even infinitely small, between what we call one thing and any 
 Other thing which we speak of as immediately preceding or follow- 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 223 
 
 ing it. What we call time is an idea derived from our notion of a 
 succession of things or events, an idea which is a part of our con- 
 stitution, but not an idea which we can suppose to belong to an 
 infinite intelligence and power. The conclusion then is certain that 
 the present and the past, the production of present things and the 
 supposed original order, out of which we say that present things 
 now come, are one ; and the present productive power and the so- 
 called past arrangement are only different names for one thing. I 
 suppose then that Antoninus wrote here as people sometimes talk 
 now, and that his real meaning is not exactly expressed by his words. 
 There are certainly other passages from which, 1 think, that we may 
 collect that he had notions of production something like what 1 have 
 expressed. 
 
 We now come to the alternative : “or even the chief things 
 . . . principle.” I do not exactly know what he means by 
 rd nvpiQbrara, “the chief,” or “the most excellent,” or whatever 
 it is. But as he speaks elsewhere of inferior and superior things, 
 and of the inferior being for the use of the superior, and of rational 
 beings being the highest, he may here mean rational beings. He also, 
 in this alternative, assumes a governing power of the universe, and 
 that it acts by directing its power toward these chief objects, or 
 making its special, proper, motion toward them. And here he uses 
 the noun (bpprf) “movement,” which contains the same notion as 
 the verb {Spprjde) “moved,” which he used at the beginning of the 
 paragraph when he was speaking of the making of the universe. If 
 we do not accept the first hypothesis, he says, we must take the con- 
 clusion of the second, that the ‘ ‘ chief things toward which the 
 ruling power of the universe directs its own movement are governed 
 by no rational principle.” The meaning then is, if there is a mean- 
 ing in it, that though there is a governing power, which strives to 
 give effect to its efforts, we must conclude that there is no rational 
 direction of anything, if the power which first made the universe 
 does not in some way govern it still. Besides, if we assume that 
 anything is now produced or now exists without the action of the 
 supreme intelligence, and yet that this intelligence makes an effort 
 to act, we obtain a conclusion which cannot be reconciled with the 
 nature of a supreme power, whose existence Antoninus always 
 assumes. The tranquillity that a man may gain from these reflec- 
 tions must result from his rejecting the second hypothesis, and 
 accepting the first ; whatever may be the exact sense in which the 
 emperor understood the first. Or, as he says elsewhere, if there is 
 
THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 ■lU 
 
 no providence which governs the world, man has at least the power 
 of governing himself according to the constitution of his nature ; 
 and so he may he tranquil, if he does the best that he can. 
 
 If there is no error in the passage, it is worth the labor to dis- 
 cover the writer’s exact meaning ; for I think that he had a meaning, 
 though people may not agree what it was. (Compare ix. 28.) If I 
 have rightly explained the emperor’s meaning in this and other pas- 
 sages, he has touched the solution of a great question. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 225 
 
 VIII. 
 
 This reflection also tends to the removal of the desire 
 of empty fame, that it is no longer in thy power to 
 have lived the whole of thy life, or at least thy life 
 from thy youth upward, like a philosopher; but both 
 to many others and to thyself it is plain that thou art 
 far from philosophy. Thou hast fallen into disorder 
 then, so that it is no longer easy for thee to get the 
 reputation of a philosopher ; and thy plan of life also 
 opposes it. If then thou hast truly seen where the 
 matter lies, throw away the thought. How thou shalt 
 seem [to others], and be coutent if thou shalt live 
 the rest of thy life in such wise as thy nature wills. 
 Observe then what it wills, and let nothing else distract 
 thee ; for thou hast had experience of many wander- 
 ings without having found happiness anyivliere, not 
 in syllogisms, nor in wealth, nor in reputation, nor in 
 enjoyment, nor anywhere. Where is it then? In 
 doing what man’s nature requires. How then shall a 
 man do this ? If he has principles from which come 
 his affects and his acts. What principles? Those 
 which relate to good and bad : the belief that there is 
 nothing good for man, which does not make him just, 
 temperate, manly, free ; and that there is nothing bad, 
 which does not do the contrary to what has been 
 mentioned. 
 
 2. On the occasion of every act ask thyself, Hoav is 
 
226 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OP 
 
 this with respect to me ? Shall I repent of it ? A 
 little time and I am dead, and all is gone. What more 
 do I seek, if what I am now doing is the work of an 
 intelligent living being, and a social being, and one 
 who is under the same law with God? 
 
 3. Alexander and Caius* and Pompeius, what are 
 they in comparison with Diogenes and Heraclitus and 
 Socrates? For they were acquainted with things, and 
 their causes [forms], and their matter, and the ruling 
 principles of these men were the same [or conformable 
 to their pursuits]. But as to the others, how many 
 things had they to care for, and to how many things 
 were they slaves. 
 
 4. [Consider] that men will do the same things 
 nevertheless, even though thou shouldst burst. 
 
 5. This is the chief thing : Be not perturbed, for all 
 things are according to the nature of the universal ; 
 and in a little time thou wilt be nobody and nowhere, 
 like Hadrianus and Augustus. In the next place 
 having fixed thy eyes steadily on thy business look at 
 it, and at the same time remembering that it is thy 
 duty to be a good man, and what man’s nature 
 demands, do that without turning aside ; and speak as 
 it seems to thee most just, only let it be with a 
 good disposition and with modesty and without 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 6. The nature of the universal has this work to do, 
 to remove to that place the things which are in this, to 
 change them, to take them away hence, and to carry 
 them there. All things are change, yet we need not 
 fear anything new. All things are familiar [to us] ; 
 but the distribution of them still remains the same. 
 
 *Caius is C. Julius Caesar, the dictator; and Pompeius is Cn. 
 Pompeius, named Magnus. 
 
MARC US A URELtUS ANTONINUS. 221 
 
 7. Every nature is contented with itself when it goes 
 on its way well ; and a rational nature goes on its way 
 well, when in its thoughts it assents to nothing false or 
 uncertain, and when it directs its movements to social 
 acts only, and when it confines its desires and aversions 
 to the things which are in its power, and when it is 
 satisfied with everything that is assigned to it by the 
 common nature. For of this common nature every 
 particular nature is a part, as the nature of the leaf is 
 a part of the nature of the plant ; except that in the 
 plant the nature of the leaf is part of a nature which 
 has not perception or reason, and is subject to be 
 impeded ; but the nature of man is part of a nature 
 Avhich is not subject to impediments, and is intelligent 
 and just, since it gives to everything in equal portions 
 and according to its worth, times, substance, cause 
 [form], activity, and incident. But examine, not to 
 discover that any one thing compared with any other 
 single thing is equal in all respects, but by taking all 
 the parts together of one thing and comparing them 
 with all the parts together of another. 
 
 8. Thou hast not leisure [or ability] to read. But 
 thou hast leisure [or ability] to check arrogance : thou 
 hast leisui’e to be superior to pleasure and pain : thou 
 hast leisure to be superior to love of fame, and not to 
 be vexed at stupid and ungrateful people, nay even to 
 care for them. 
 
 9. Let no man any longer hear thee finding fault 
 with the court life or with thy own (v. 16). 
 
 10. Repentance is a kind of self-reproof for having 
 neglected something useful ; but that which is good 
 must be something useful, and the perfect good man 
 should look after it. But no such man would ever 
 
228 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 repent of having refused any sensual pleasure. Pleasure 
 then is neither good nor useful. 
 
 11. This thing, what is it in itself, in its own consti- 
 tution? What is its substance and material? And 
 what its causal nature [or form] ? And what is it doing 
 in the world ? And how long does it subsist? 
 
 12. When thou risest from sleep Avith reluctance, 
 remember that it is according to thy constitution and 
 according to human nature to perform social acts, but 
 sleeping is common also to irrational animals. But 
 that Avhich is according to each individual’s nature 
 is also more peculiarly its OAvn, and inore suitable to its 
 nature, and, indeed, also more agreeable (v. 1). 
 
 13. Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion 
 of every impression on the soul, apply to it the princi- 
 ples of Physic, of Ethic, and of Dialectic. 
 
 14. Whatever man thou meetest Avith, immediately 
 say to thyself : What opinions has this man about good 
 and bad? For if Avith respect to pleasure and pain 
 and the causes of each, and Avith respect to fame and 
 ignominy, death and life he has such and such opinions, 
 it Avill seem nothing wonderful or strange to me, if he 
 does such and such things ; and I shall bear in mind 
 that he is compelled to do so.* 
 
 15. Eemember that as it is a shame to be surprised 
 if the fig-tree produces figs, so it is to be surprised if 
 the AAmrld produces such and such things of which it 
 is productive ; and for the physician and the helms- 
 man it is a shame to be surprised, if a man has a fever, 
 or if the Avind is unfaAmrable. 
 
 16. Eemember that to change thy opinion and to 
 folloAv him Avho corrects thy error is as consistent Avith 
 
 * Antoninus V. 16. Thucydides, iii. 10. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 229 
 
 freedom as it is to persist- in thy error. For it is thy 
 own, the activity which is exerted according to thy 
 own movement and judgment, and indeed according 
 to thy own understanding too. 
 
 17. If a thing is in thy own power, why dost thou 
 do it ? but if it is in the power of another, w^hom dost 
 thou blame ? the atoms [chance] or the gods ? Both are 
 foolish. Thou must blame nobody. For if thou canst, 
 correct [that which is the cause] ; but if thou canst 
 not do this, correct at least the thing itself ; but if thou 
 canst not do even this, of what use is it to thee to find 
 fault? for nothing should be done without a purpose. 
 
 18. That which has died falls not out of the universe. 
 If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dis- 
 solved into its proper parts, which are elements of the 
 universe and of thyself. And these too change, and 
 they murmur not. 
 
 19. Everything exists for some end, a horse, a vine. 
 Why dost thou wonder ? Even the sun will say, I 
 am for some purpose, and the rest of the gods will 
 say the same. For what purpose then art thou? To 
 enjoy pleasure ? See if common sense allows this. 
 
 20. ^Nature has had regard in everything no less to 
 the end than to the beginning and the continuance, 
 just like the man who throws up a ball. What good 
 is it then for the ball to be thrown up, or harm for it 
 to come down, or even to have fallen ? And what good 
 is it to the bubble while it holds together, or what 
 harm when it is burst ? The same may be said of a 
 light also. 
 
 21. Turn it [the body] inside out, and see what kind 
 of thing it is; and when it has grown old, what kind 
 of thing it becomes, and when it is diseased. 
 
230 
 
 \ fHE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 Short lived are both the praiser and the praised, and 
 the rememberer and the remembered : and all this in 
 a nook of this part of the world ; and not even here 
 do all agree, no, not any one with himself : and the 
 whole earth too is a point. 
 
 22. Attend to the matter which is before thee, 
 whether it is an opinion or an act or a word. 
 
 Thou sulferest this justly: for thou choosest rather 
 to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day. 
 
 23. Am I doing anything? I do it Avith reference 
 to the good of mankind. Does anything happen to 
 me? I receive it and refer it to the gods, and the 
 scource of all things, from which all that happens is 
 derived. 
 
 24. Such as bathing appears to thee — oil, SAA^eat, dirt, 
 filthy Avater, all things disgusting — so is every part of 
 life and everything. 
 
 25. Lucilla saw Verus die, and then Lucilla died. 
 Secunda saAV Maximus die, and then Secunda died. 
 Epitynchanus saAV Diotimus die, and then Epityncha- 
 nus died. Antoninus saAV Faustina die, and then 
 Antoninus died. Such is everything. Celer saAV 
 Hadrianus die, and then Celer died. And those sharp- 
 Avitted men, either seers or men inflated Avith pride, 
 Avhere are they ? for instance, the sharp-Avitted men, 
 Charax and Demetrius the Platonist and Eudmmon, 
 and any one else like them. All ephemeral, dead long 
 ago. Some indeed have not been remembered even 
 for a short time, and others have become the heroes of 
 fables, and again others liaA^e disappeared eA'en from 
 fables. Remember this, then, that this little com- 
 pound, thyself, must either be dissolved, or thy poor 
 breath must be extinguished, or be remoA^ed and placed 
 elseAvhere. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 231 
 
 26. It is satisfaction to a man to do the proper works 
 of a man. Now it is a proper work of a man to be 
 benevolent to his own kind, to despise the movements 
 of the senses, to form a just judgment of plausible 
 appearances, and to take a survey of the nature of the 
 universe and of the things which happen in it. 
 
 27. There are three relations [between thee and 
 other things] : the one to the body which surrounds 
 thee ; the second to the divine cause from which all 
 things come to all ; and the third to those who live 
 with thee. 
 
 28. Pain is either an evil to the body — then let the 
 body say what it thinks of it — or to the soul ; but it is 
 in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity 
 and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is an evil. 
 For every judgment and movement and desire and 
 aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high. 
 
 29. Wipe out thy imaginations by often saying to 
 thyself : now it is in my power to let no badness be in 
 this soul, nor desire, nor any perturbation at all ; but 
 looking at all things I see what is their nature, and I 
 use each according to its value. Remember this power 
 Avhich thou hast from nature. 
 
 30. Speak both in the senate and to every man, who- 
 ever he may be, appropriately, not with any affecta- 
 tion ; use plain discourse. 
 
 31. Augustus’ court, wife, daughter, descendants, 
 ancestors, sister, Agrippa, kinsmen, intimates, friends, 
 Areius,* Maecenas, physicians and sacrificing priests — 
 the whole court is dead. Then turn to the rest, not 
 
 * Areius was a pliilosoplier, wlio was intimate with Augustus ; 
 Sucton, Augustus, c. 89 ; Plutarch, Antoninus, 80 ; Dion Cassius, 51, 
 c. 16. 
 
232 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 considering the death of a single man, [but of a whole 
 race], as of the Pompeii ; and that which is inscribed 
 on the tombs — the last of his race. Then consider 
 Avhat trouble those before them have had that they 
 might leave a successor ; and then, that of necessity 
 some one must be the last. Again here consider the 
 death of a Avhole race. 
 
 32. It is thy duty to order thy life Avell in every 
 single act ; and if every act does its duty, as far as is 
 possible, be content; and no one is able to hinder thee 
 so that each act shall not do its duty — but something 
 external Avill stand in the Avay. Nothing Avill stand 
 in the Avay of thy acting justly and soberly and con- 
 siderately, but perhaps some other active power will 
 be hindered. Well, but by acquiescing in the hin- 
 derance and by being content to transfer thy efforts to 
 that Avhich is allowed, another opportunity of action 
 is immediately put before thee in place of that Avhich 
 Avas hindered, and one Avhich will adapt itself to this 
 ordering of Avhich Ave are speaking. 
 
 33. Receive [AA^ealth or prosperity] Avithout arro. 
 gance ; and be ready to let it go. 
 
 34. If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, 
 or a head, lying anywhere apart from the rest of the 
 body, such does a man make himself, as far as he can, 
 Avho is not content Avith what happens, and separates 
 himself from others, or does anything unsocial. Sup- 
 ])ose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural 
 unity — for thou wast made by nature a part, but now 
 thou hast cut thyself off — yet here there is this beauti- 
 ful provision, that it is in thy poAver again to unite 
 thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after 
 it has been separated and cut asunder, to come 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 233 
 
 together again. But consider the kindness by which 
 he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his 
 power not to be separated at all from the universal ; 
 and when he has been separated, he has allowed him 
 to return and to be united and to resume his place as a 
 part. 
 
 35. As the natui’e of the universal has given to every 
 rational being all the other powers that it has,f so we 
 have received from it this power also. For as the 
 universal nature converts and fixes in its predestined 
 place everything which stands in the way and opposes 
 it, and makes such things a part of itself, so also the 
 rational animal is able to make every hinderance its 
 OAvn material, and to use it for such purposes as it maj^ 
 have designed. 
 
 36. Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the Avhole 
 of thy life. Let not thy thoughts at once embrace all 
 the various troubles which thou mayest expect to 
 befall thee : but on every occasion ask thyself, What 
 is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing? 
 for thou Avilt be ashamed to confess. In the next 
 place remember that neither the future nor the past 
 pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced 
 to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and 
 chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against 
 even this. 
 
 37. Does Panthea or Pergamus now sit by the tomb 
 of Yerus?* Does Chaurias or Diotimus sit by the tomb 
 of Hadrianus? That Avould be ridiculous. Well, sup- 
 pose they did sit there, AA^ould the dead be conscious 
 of it? and if the dead were conscious, would they be 
 
 *“ Veras” is a conjecture of Saumaise, and perhaps the true 
 reading. 
 
234 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 pleased? and if they ^yere pleased, would that make 
 them immortal? Was it not in the order of destiny 
 that these persons too should first become old women 
 and old men and then die? What then would those 
 do after these were dead ? All this is foul smell and 
 blood in a bag. 
 
 38. If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely,! 
 says the philosopher. 
 
 39. In the constitution of the rational animal I see 
 no virtue which is o]iposed to justice ; but I see a 
 virtue which is opposed to love of pleasure, and that 
 is temperance. 
 
 40. If thou takest away thy opinion about tliat 
 which appears to give thee pain, thou thyself standest 
 in perfect security. Who is this self ? The reason. 
 But I am not reason. Be it so. Let then the reason 
 itself not trouble itself. But if any other part of thee 
 suffers, let it have its own opinion about itself (vii. 16). 
 
 41. Ilinderance to the perceptions of sense is an evil 
 to the animal nature. Hinderance to the movements 
 [desires] is equally an evil to the animal nature. And 
 something else also is equally an impediment and an 
 evil to the constitution of plants. So then that which 
 is a hinderance to the intelligence is an evil to the 
 intelligent nature. Apply all these things then to 
 thyself. Does pain or sensuous pleasure affect thee ? 
 The senses will look to that. Has any obstacle opposed 
 thee in thy efforts toAvard an object? if indeed thou 
 wast making this effort absolutely [unconditionally, or 
 without any reservation], certainly this obstacle is an 
 evil to thee considered as a rational animal. But if 
 thou takest [into consideration] the usual course of 
 things, thou hast not yet been injured nor even im- 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 235 
 
 peded. The things however which are proper to the 
 understanding no other man is used to impede, for 
 neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it 
 in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it 
 continues a sphere (xi. 12). 
 
 4:2. It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I 
 have never intentionally given pain even to another. 
 
 48. Different things delight different people. But 
 it is my delight to keep the ruling faculty sound with- 
 out turning away either from any man or from any 
 of the things which happen to men, but looking at 
 and receiving all with welcome eyes and using every 
 thing according to its value. 
 
 44. See that thou secure this present time to thyself ; 
 for those who rather pursue posthumous fame do not 
 consider that the men of after time will be exactly 
 such as these whom they cannot bear now ; and both 
 are mortal. And what is it in any way to thee if 
 these men of after time utter this or that sound, or 
 have this or that opinion about thee. 
 
 45. Take me and cast me where thou wilt ; for there 
 I shall keep my divine part tranquil, that is, content, 
 if it can feel and act conformably to its proper con- 
 stitution. Is this [change of place] sufficient reason 
 why my soul should be unhappy and worse than it 
 was, depressed, expanded, shrinking, affrighted? and 
 what wilt thou find which is sufficient reason for this.* 
 
 46. Nothing can happen to any man which is not a 
 human accident, nor to an ox Avhich is not according 
 to the nature of an ox, nor to a vine AA^hich is not 
 
 * opeyoi-iEvrj in this passage seems to have a passive sense. It is 
 difficult to find an apt expression for it and some of the other words. 
 A comparison with xi. 12, will help to explain the meaning. 
 
236 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 according to the nature of a vine, nor to a stone which 
 is not proper to a stone. If then there happens to eacii 
 thing both what is usual and natural, why shouldst 
 thou complain? For the common nature brings 
 nothing which may not be borne by thee. 
 
 47. If thou art pained by any external thing, it is 
 not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judg- 
 ment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out 
 this judgment now. But if anything in thy own dis- 
 position gives thee pain, who hinders thee from cor- 
 recting thy opinion? And even if thou art pained 
 because thou art not doing some particular thing 
 which seems to thee to be right, why dost thou not 
 rather act than complain? But some insuperable 
 obstacle is in the way ? Do not be grieved then, for 
 the cause of its not being done depends not on thee. 
 But it is not worth while to live, if this cannot be 
 done. Take thy departure then from life contentedly, 
 just as he dies who is in full activity, and well pleased 
 too with the things which are obstacles. 
 
 48. Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, 
 wRen self-collected it is satisfied with itself, if it does 
 nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist 
 from mere obstinacy. What then will it be when it 
 forms a judgment about anything aided by reason and 
 deliberately ? Therefore the mind which is free from 
 passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure 
 to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be 
 inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an 
 ignorant man ; but he who has seen it and does not fly 
 to this refuge is unhappy. 
 
 49. Say nothing more to thyself than what the first 
 appearances report. Suppose that it has been reported 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 237 
 
 to thee that a certain person speaks ill of thee. This 
 has been repoi’tecl ; but that thou hast been injured, 
 that has not been reported. I see that my child is 
 sick. I do see ; but that he is in danger, I do not see. 
 Thus then always abide by the first appearances, and 
 add nothing thyself from within, and then nothing 
 happens to thee. Or rather add something, like a man 
 who knows everything that happens in the world. 
 
 50. A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There 
 are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This 
 is enough. Do not add. And why were such things 
 made in the world? For thou wilt be ridiculed by a 
 man who is acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst 
 be ridiculed by a carpenter and shoemaker if thou 
 didst find fault because thou seest in their workshop 
 shavings and cuttings from the things which they 
 make. And yet they have places into which they can 
 throw these shavings and cuttings, and the universal 
 nature has no external space ; but the wondrous part of 
 her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, 
 everything within her which appears to decay and to 
 grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, 
 and again makes other new things from these very 
 same, so that she requires neither substance from with- 
 out nor wants a place into which she may cast that 
 Avhich decays. She is content then with her own 
 space, and her own matter, and her own art. 
 
 51. Neither in thy actions be sluggish, nor in thy 
 conversation without method, nor wandering in thy 
 thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul inward conten- 
 tion nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to 
 have no leisure. 
 
 Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse 
 
238 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 thee. What then can these things do to prevent thy 
 mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just? For 
 instance, if a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, 
 and curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable 
 Avater ; and if he should cast clay into it or filth, it 
 Avill speedily disperse them and wash them out, and 
 will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou pos- 
 sess a perpetual fountain [and not a mere well] ? By 
 formingt thyself hourly to freedom conjoined with 
 contentment, simplicity and modesty. 
 
 62. He who does not know what the world is, does 
 not know where he is. And he Avho does not know 
 for what purpose the Avorld exists, does not know who 
 he is, nor Avhat the world is. But he who has failed 
 in any one of these things could not even say for what 
 purpose he exists himself. What then dost thou think 
 of him Avho [avoids or] seeks the praise of those Avho 
 applaud, of men who know not either where they are 
 or who they are ? 
 
 53. Dost thou wish to be praised by a man Avho 
 curses himself thrice every hour? Wouldst thou Avish 
 to please a man Avho does not please himself? Does a 
 man please himself Avho repents of nearly everything 
 that he does ? 
 
 64. Ho longer let thy breathing only act in concert 
 Avith the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelli- 
 gence also noAV be in harmony Avith the intelligence 
 Avhich embraces all things. For the intelligent poAver 
 is no less diffused in all parts and pervades all things 
 for him who is Avilling to draAv it to him than the 
 aerial poAver for him Avho is able to respire it. 
 
 55. Generally, Avickedness does no harm at all to the 
 universe ; and particularly, the AAUckedness [of one 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 239 
 
 man] does no harm to another. It is only harmful to 
 him who has it in his power to be released from it, as 
 soon as he shall choose. 
 
 56. To my own free will the free will of my neigh- 
 bor is just as indifferent as his poor breath and flesh. 
 For though we are made especially for the sake of one 
 another, still the ruling power of each of us has its 
 own olBce, for otherwise my neighbor’s wickedness 
 would be my harm, wdiich God has not willed in order 
 that my unhappiness may not depend on another. 
 
 57. The sun appears to be poured down, and in all 
 directions indeed it is diffused, yet it is not effused. 
 For this diffusion is extension : Accordingly its rays 
 are called Extensions [aKrz^es] because they are ex- 
 tended [azro Tov eKTeive6Qai\.^ But one may judge 
 what kind of a thing a ray is, if he looks at the sun’s 
 light passing through a narrow opening into a 
 darkened room, for it is extended in a right line, and, 
 as it were, is divided when it meets with any solid body 
 which stands in the way and intercepts the air beyond ; 
 but there the light remains fixed and does not glide or 
 fall off. Such then ought to be the outpouring and 
 diffusion of the understanding, and it should in no 
 way be an effusion, but an extension, and it should 
 make no violent or impetuous collision with the obsta- 
 cles which are in its way ; nor yet fall doAvn, but be 
 fixed and enlightened that which receives it. For a 
 body will deprive itself of the illumination, if it does 
 not admit it. 
 
 58. He who fears death either fears the loss of sen- 
 sation or a different kind of sensation. But if thou 
 shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any 
 
 * A piece of bad etymology. 
 
240 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 harm ; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensa- 
 tion, thou wilt be a different kind of living being, and 
 thou wilt not cease to live. 
 
 59. Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach 
 them then or bear with them. 
 
 60. In one way an arrow^ moves, in another way the 
 mind. The mind, indeed, both when it exercises 
 caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves 
 straight onward not the less, and to its object. 
 
 61. Enter into every man’s ruling faculty ; and also 
 let every other man enter into thine.* 
 
 Compare Epictetus, iii. 9, 13. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 241 
 
 IX. 
 
 He who acts unjustly acts impiously. For since the 
 universal nature has made rational animals for the sake 
 of one another to help one another according to their 
 deserts, hut in no way to injure one another, he who 
 transgresses her will, is clearly guilty of impiety 
 toward the highest divinity. And he too who lies is 
 guilty of impiety to the same divinity ; for the uni- 
 versal nature is the nature of things that are ; and 
 things that are have a relation to all things that come 
 into existence.* And further, this universal nature is 
 named truth, and is the prime cause of all things that 
 are true. He then who lies intentionally is guilty of 
 impiety inasmuch as he acts unjustly by deceiving ; and 
 he also who lies unintentionally, inasmuch as he is at 
 variance with the universal nature, and inasmuch as he 
 disturbs the order by fighting against the nature of 
 the world ; for he fights against it, who is moved of 
 himself to that which is contrary to truth, for he had 
 
 *“As there is not any action or natural event, which we are 
 acquainted with, so single and unconnected as not to have a respect 
 to some other actions and events, so, possibly each of them, when it 
 has not an immediate, may yet have a remote, natural relation to 
 other actions and events, much beyond the compass of this present 
 world.” Again: “Things seemingly the most insignificant imagin- 
 able, are perpetually observed to be necessary conditions to other 
 things of the greatest importance; so that any one thing whatever, 
 may, for aught we know to the contrary, be a necessary condition to 
 any other.” (Butler’s Analogy, Chap. 7. See all the chapter.) 
 
U2 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OP 
 
 I’eceived powers from nature through the neglect of 
 which he is not able now to distinguish falsehood from 
 truth. And, indeed, he who pursues pleasure as good, 
 and avoids pain as evil, is guilty of impiety. For of 
 necessity such a man must often find fault with the 
 universal nature, alleging that it assigns things to the 
 bad and tlie good contrary to their deserts, because 
 frequently the bad are in the enjoyment of pleasure 
 and possess the things which procure pleasure, but the 
 good have pain for their share and the things which 
 cause pain. And further, he wdio is afraid of pain will 
 sometimes also be afraid of some of the things which 
 will happen in the world, and even this is inipiet}'^. 
 And he who pursues pleasure wdll not abstain from 
 injustice, and this is plainly impiety. Now, with 
 respect to the things toward which the universal 
 nature is equally affected — for it would not have made 
 both, unless it was equally affected toward both- — 
 toward these they who wish to follow nature should be 
 of the same mind with it, and equally affected. With 
 respect to pain, then, and pleasure, or death and life, 
 or honor and dishonor, which the universal nature 
 employs equally, whoever is not equally affected is 
 manifestly acting impiously. And I say that the uni- 
 versal nature employs them equally, instead of saying 
 that they happen alike to those who are produced in 
 continuous series and to those who come after them 
 by virtue of a certain original movement of Provi- 
 dence, according to which it moved from a certain 
 beginning to this ordering of things, having conceived 
 certain principles of the things which were to be, and 
 having determined powers productive of beings and of 
 changes and of such like successions (vii. 75). 
 
MARCUS A UBELIUS ANTONINUS. 241 
 
 2. It would be a man’s- happiest lot to depart from 
 mankind without having had any taste of lying and 
 hypocrisy and luxury and pride. However to breathe 
 out one’s life when a man has had enough of these 
 things is the next best voyage, as the saying is. Hast 
 thou determined to abide with vice, and has not 
 experience yet induced thee to lly from this pestilence ? 
 For the destruction of the understanding is a pesti- 
 lence, much more, indeed, than any such corruption 
 and change of this atmosphere which suiTounds us. 
 For this corruption is a pestilence of animals so far as 
 they are animals ; but the other is a pestilence of men 
 so far as they are men. 
 
 3. Do not despise death, but be well content with 
 it, since this too is one of those things which nature 
 wills. For such as it is to be young and to grow old, 
 and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have 
 teeth and beard and gray hairs, and to beget, and to 
 be pregnant, and to bring forth, and all the other 
 natural operations which the seasons of thy life bring, 
 such also is dissolution. This, then, is consistent with 
 the character of a reflecting man, to be neither care- 
 less nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to 
 death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of 
 nature. As thou now waitest for the time when the 
 child shall come out of th}'- wife’s womb, so be ready 
 for the time when thy soul shall fall out of this 
 envelope.* But if thou requires! also a vulgar kind 
 of comfort which shall reach thy heart, thou wilt be 
 made best reconciled to death by observing the objects 
 from which thou art going to be removed, and the 
 morals of those with whom thy soul will no longer be 
 
 *See note of the Philosophy, p. 67. 
 
244 the MEHITATI0N8 OF 
 
 mingled. For it is no right to be offended with 
 men, but it is thy duty to care for them and to bear 
 with them gently ; and yet to remember that thy 
 departure will be not from men who have the same 
 ])i’inciples as thyself. For this is the only thing, if 
 there be any, which could draw us the contrary way 
 and attach us to life, to be permitted to live with those 
 who have the same principles as ourselves. But now 
 thou seest how great is the trouble arising from the 
 discordance of those who live together, so that thou 
 mayest say. Come quick, O death, lest perchance I, too, 
 should forget mj^self. 
 
 4. He who does wrong does wrong against himself. 
 He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because 
 he makes himself bad. 
 
 5. He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain 
 thing ; not only he who does a certain thing. 
 
 6. Thy present opinion founded on understanding, 
 and thy present conduct directed to social good, and 
 thy present disposition of contentment with every 
 thing whicli happensf — that is enough. 
 
 7. Wipe out imagination : check desire: extinguish 
 appetite : keep the ruling faculty in its own power. 
 
 8. Among the animals which have not reason one 
 life is distributed ; but among reasonable animals one 
 intelligent soul is distributed : just as there is one 
 earth of all things Avhich are of an earthly nature, 
 and we see by one light, and breathe one air, all of us 
 that have the facult}'^ of vision and all that have life. 
 
 9. All things which participate in anything which 
 is common to them all move toward that which is of 
 the same kind with themselves. Everything which is 
 earthly turns toward the earth, everything which is 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 245 
 
 liquid flows together, and everything which is of an 
 aerial kind does the same, so that they require some- 
 thing to keep them asunder, and the application of 
 force. Fire indeed moves upward on account of the 
 elemental fire, but it is so ready to be kindled together 
 with all the fire which is here, that even every sub- 
 stance which is somewhat drv, is easily ignited, because 
 there is less mingled with it of that which is a hinder- 
 ance to ignition. Accordinghq then everything also 
 which participates in the common intelligent nature 
 moves in like manner toward that which is of the 
 same kind with itself, or moves even more. For so 
 much as it is superior in comparison with all other 
 things, in the same degree also is it more ready to 
 mingle with and to be fused with that which is akin 
 to it. Accordingly among animals devoid of reason 
 we find swarms of bees, and herds of cattle, and the 
 nurture of young birds, and in a manner, loves ; for 
 even in animals there are souls, and that power which 
 brings them together is seen to exert itself in the 
 superior degree, and in such a way as never has been 
 observeddn plants nor in stones nor in trees. But in 
 rational animals there are political communities and 
 friendships, and families and meetings of people ; and 
 in wars, treaties and armistices. But in the things 
 which are still superior, even though they are sepa- 
 rated from one another, unit}'^ in a manner exists, as in 
 the stars. Thus the ascent to the higher degree is able 
 to produce a sympathy even in things which are sepa- 
 rated. See, then, what now takes place. For only 
 intelligent animals have now forgotten this mutual 
 desire and inclination, and in them alone the property 
 of flowing together is not seen. But still, though men 
 
246 
 
 THE MEmTATToNS OP 
 
 strive to avoid [this union], they are caught and held 
 by it, for their nature is too strong for them ; and thou 
 wilt see what I say, if thou only observest. Sooner, 
 then, will one find anything earthy which comes in 
 contact with no earthy thing than a man altogether 
 separated from other men. 
 
 10. Both man and God and the universe produce 
 fruit ; at the proper seasons each produces it. But if 
 usage has especially fixed these terms to the vine and 
 like things, this is notliing. Beason produces fruit 
 both for all and for itself, and there are produced from 
 it other things of the same kind as reason itself. 
 
 11. If thou art able, correct by teaching those who 
 do wrong; but if thou canst not, remember that indul- 
 gence is given to thee for this purpose. And the gods, 
 too, are indulgent to such persons ; and for some pur- 
 poses they even help them to get health, wealth, 
 reputation ; so kind they are. And it is in thy poAver 
 also ; or say, Avho hinders thee ? 
 
 12. Labor not as one who is wretched, nor yet as 
 one who would be pitied or admired ; but direct thy 
 Avill to one thing only, to put thyself in motion and to 
 check thyself, as the social reason requires. 
 
 13. To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I 
 have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but 
 within and in my opinions. 
 
 14. All things are the same, familiar in experience, 
 and ephemeral in time, and worthless in the matter. 
 Everything now is just as it was in the time of those 
 whom Ave have buried. 
 
 15. Things stand outside of us, themselves by them- 
 selves, neither knoAving aught of themselves, nor ex- 
 pressing any judgment. What is it, then, Avhich does 
 judge about them? The ruling faculty. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 24? 
 
 16. N’ot in passivity, but in activity lie the evil and 
 the good of the rational social animal, just as his virtue 
 and his vice lie not in passivity, but in activity.* 
 
 17. For the stone which has been thrown up it is no 
 evil to come down, nor indeed any good to have been 
 carried up (viii. 20). 
 
 18. Penetrate inward into men’s leading principles, 
 and thou wilt see what judges thou art afraid of, and 
 what kind of judges they are of themselves. 
 
 19. All things are changing ; and thou thyself art 
 in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous 
 destruction, and the whole universe too. 
 
 20. It is thy duty to leave another man’s wrongful 
 act there where it is (vii. 29, ix. 38). 
 
 21. Termination of activity, cessation from move- 
 ment and opinion, and in a sense their death, is no 
 evil. Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of 
 thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, 
 thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. 
 Is this anything to fear? Turn thy thoughts now to 
 thy life under thy grandfather, then to thy life under 
 thy mother, then to thy life under thy father ; and as 
 thou findest many other differences and changes and 
 terminations, ask thyself. Is this anything to fear ? In 
 like manner, then, neither are the termination and 
 cessation and change of thy whole life a thing to be 
 afraid of. 
 
 22. Hasten [to examine] thy own ruling faculty and 
 that of the universe and that of thy neighbor ; thy 
 own that thou mayest make it just ; and that of the 
 universe, that thou mayest remember of what thou art 
 
 *“Virtiitis omnis laus in actione consistH.” (Cicero, De 
 Off, i 6.) 
 
248 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 a part ; and that of thy neighbor, that thou mayest 
 know whether he has acted ignorantly or with knowl- 
 edge, and that thou mayest also consider that his ruling 
 faculty is akin to thine. 
 
 23. As thou thyself art a component part of a social 
 system, so let every act of thine be a component part 
 of social life. Whatever act of thine then has no 
 reference, either immediately or remotely, to a social 
 end, this tears asunder thy life, and does not allow it 
 to be one, and it is of the nature of a mutiny, just as 
 when in a popular assembly a man acting by himself 
 stands apart from the general agreement. 
 
 24. Quarrels of little children and their sports, and 
 poor spirits carrying about dead bodies [such is every- 
 thing] ; and so what is exhibited in the representation 
 of the mansions of the dead strikes our eyes more 
 clearly. 
 
 25. Examine into the quality of the form of an 
 object, and detach it altogether from its material part, 
 and then contemplate it ; then determine the time, the 
 longest which a thing of this peculiar form is naturally 
 made to endure. 
 
 26. Thou hast endured infinite troubles through not 
 being contented with thy ruling faculty, when it does 
 the things which it is constituted by nature to do. But 
 enoughf [of this]. 
 
 27. When another blames thee or hates thee, or 
 when men say about thee anything injurious, approach 
 their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind 
 of men they are. Thou wilt discover that there is no 
 reason to take any trouble that these men may have 
 this or that opinion about thee. However, thou must 
 be well-disposed toward them, for by nature they are 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANl'ONmUS. 
 
 249 
 
 friends. And the gods too aid them in all ways, by 
 dreams, by signs, toward the attainment of those things 
 on which they set a value. f 
 
 28. The periodic movements of the universe are the 
 same, up and down from age to age. And either the 
 universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every 
 separate etfect, and if this is so, be thou content with 
 that which is the result of its activity ; or it puts itself 
 in motion once, and everything else comes by way of 
 sequence in a manner ; or indivisible elements are the 
 origin of all things. In a word, if there is a god, all is 
 well ; and if chance rules, do not thou also be governed 
 by it (vi. 44, vii. 75). 
 
 Soon will the earth cover us aU : then the earth, too, 
 will change, and the things also which result from 
 change will continue to change forever, and these 
 again forever. For if a man reflects on the changes 
 and transformations which follow one another like 
 wave after wave and their rapidity, he will despise 
 everything which is perishable (xii. 21). 
 
 29. The universal cause is like a winter torrent ; it 
 carries everything along with it. But how worthless 
 are all these poor people who are engaged in matters 
 political, and, as they suppose, are playing the philoso- 
 pher! All drivelers. Well then, man: do what 
 nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in 
 thy power, and do not look about thee to see if any 
 one will observe it ; nor \"et expect Plato’s Kepublic ; * 
 but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and 
 consider such an event to be no small matter. For who 
 can change men’s opinions ? And without a change of 
 
 * Those who wish to know what Plato’s Republic is, may now 
 study it in the accurate translation of Davies and Vaughan. 
 
250 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 opinions what else is there than the slavery of men 
 who groan while they pretend to obey ? Come now 
 and tell me of Alexander and Philippus and Demetrius 
 of Phalerum. They themselves shall judge whether 
 they discovered what the common nature required, and 
 trained themselves accordingly. But if they acted like 
 tragedy heroes, no one has condemned me to imitate 
 them. Simple and modest is the work of philosophy. 
 Draw me not aside to insolence and pride. 
 
 30. Look down from above on the countless herds of 
 men and their countless solemnities, and the infinitely 
 varied voyagings in storms and calms, and the differ- 
 ences among those who are born, who live together, 
 and die. And consider, too, the life lived by others in 
 olden time, and the life of those who will live after 
 thee, and the life now lived among barbarous nations, 
 and hoAV many know not even thy name, and how 
 many will soon forget it, and how the}^ who, perhaps, 
 now are praising thee will very soon blame thee, and 
 that neither a posthumous name is of any value, nor 
 reputation, nor anything else. 
 
 31. Let there be freedom from perturbations with 
 respect to the things which come from the external 
 cause ; and let there be justice in the things done by 
 virtue of the internal cause, that is, let there be move- 
 ment and action terminating in this, in social acts, for 
 this is according to thy nature. 
 
 32. Thou canst remove out of the way many useless 
 things among those which disturb thee, for they lie 
 entirely in thy opinion ; and thou wilt then gain for 
 thyself ample space by comprehending the whole uni- 
 verse in thy mind, and by contemplating the eternity 
 of time, and observing the rapid change of every sev- 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 251 
 
 eral thing, how short is the time from birth to dissolu- 
 tion, and the illimitable time before birth as well as 
 the equally boundless time after dissolution. 
 
 33. All that thou seest Avill quickly perish, and those 
 who have been spectatois of its dissolution will veiy 
 soon perish too. And he who dies at the extremest 
 old age will be brought into the same condition with 
 him who died prematurely. 
 
 34. What are these men’s leading principles, and 
 about what kind of things are they busy, and for what 
 kind of reasons do they love and honor ? Imagine that 
 thou seest their poor souls laid bare. When they 
 think that they do harm by their blame or good by 
 their praise, what an idea ! 
 
 35. Loss is nothing else than change. But the uni- 
 versal nature delights in change, and in obedience to 
 her all things are now done well, and from eternity 
 have been done in like form, and will be such to time 
 without end. What, then, dost thou say? That all 
 things have been and all things always will be bad, 
 and that no power has ever been found in so many 
 gods to rectify these things, but the Avorld has been 
 condemned to be bound in never-ceasing evil ? (iv. 45, 
 vii. 18.) 
 
 36. The rottenness of the matter which is the foun- 
 dation of everything! water, dust, bones, filth; or 
 again, marble rocks, the callosities of the earth ; and 
 gold and silver, the sediments ; and garments, only 
 bits of hair; and purple dye, blood; and everything 
 else is of the same kind. And that which is of the 
 nature of breath, is also another thing of the same 
 kind, changing from this to that. 
 
 37. Enough of this wretched life and murmuring 
 
252 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 and apish tricks. Why art thou disturbed ? What is 
 there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the 
 form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? 
 Look at it. But besides these there is nothinsr. 
 Toward the gods, then, now become at last more sim- 
 ple and better. It is the same whether we examine 
 these things for a hundred years or three. 
 
 38. If any man has done wrong, the harm is his 
 own. But perhaps he has not done wrong. 
 
 39. Either all things proceed from one intelligent 
 source and come together as in one body, and the part 
 ought not to find fault with what is done for the 
 benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and 
 nothing else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, 
 art thou disturbed ? Say to the ruling faculty, Art 
 thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing the 
 hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and 
 feed with the rest ?^' 
 
 40. Either the gods have no power or they have 
 power. If, then, they have no power, why dost thou 
 pray to them ? But if they have power, why dost 
 thou not pray for them to give thee the faculty of not 
 fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not 
 desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not 
 being pained at anything, rather than pray that any 
 of these things sliould not happen or happen? for cer- 
 tainly if they can co-operate with men, they can co- 
 operate for these purposes. But perhaps thou wilt 
 say, the gods have placed them in thy power. Well, 
 
 * There is some corruption at the end of this section ; but I think 
 that the translation expresses the emperor’s meaning. Whether intelli- 
 gence rules all things or chance rules, a man must not he disturbed. 
 He must use the power that he has, and be tranquil. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 253 
 
 then, is it not better to use what is in thy power like 
 a free man than to desire in a slavish and abject way 
 what is not in thy power ? And who has told thee 
 that the gods do not aid us even in the things which 
 are in our power? Begin, then, to pra}'^ for such 
 things, and thou wilt see. One man prays thus : How 
 shall I be able to lie with that woman ? Do thou pray 
 thus : How shall I not desire to lie with her ? Another 
 prays thus : How shall I be released from this ? 
 Another prays : How shall I not desme to be released ? 
 Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? 
 Thou thus : Hoav shall I not be afraid to lose him ? In 
 fine, turn thy prayers this way, and see what comes. 
 
 41. Epicurus sa}'s. In m}^ sickness my conversation 
 Avas not about my bodily sufferings, nor, saj^s he, did I 
 talk on such subjects to those Avho visited me ; but I 
 continued to discourse on the nature of things as 
 before, keeping to this main point, how the mind, 
 Avhile participating in such movements as go on in the 
 poor flesh, shall be free from perturbations and main- 
 tain its proper good. Hor did I, he says, give the 
 physicians an opportunity of putting on solemn looks, 
 as if they were doing something great, but my life 
 Avent on Avell and happily. Do, then, the same that he 
 did both in sickness, if thou art sick, and in any other 
 circumstances ; for never to desert philosophy in any 
 events that may befall us, nor to hold trifling talk either 
 Avith an ignorant man or with one unacquainted Avith 
 nature, is a principle of all schools of philosophy ; but 
 to be intent only on that Avhich thou art noAV doing 
 and on the instrument by Avhich thou doest it. 
 
 42. When thou art offended Avith any man’s shame- 
 less conduct, immediately ask thyself, Is it possible, 
 
254 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 then, that shameless men should not be in the world ? 
 It is not possible. Do not, then, require what is impos- 
 sible. For this man also is one of those shameless men 
 who must of necessity be in the world. Let the same 
 considerations be present to thy mind in the case of 
 the knave, and the faithless man, and of every man 
 who does wrong in any way. For, at the same time, 
 that thou dost remind thyself that it is impossible that 
 such kind of men should not exist, thou wilt become 
 more kindly disposed toward every one individually. 
 It is useful to perceive tliis, too, immediately when the 
 occasion arises, what virtue nature has given to man to 
 oppose to every wrongful act. For she has given to 
 man, as an antidote against the stupid man, mildness, 
 and against another kind of man some other power. 
 And in all cases it is possible for thee to correct by 
 teaching the man who is gone astray ; for every man 
 who errs misses his object and is gone astray. Besides 
 wherein hast thou been injured? For thou wilt find 
 that no one among those against whom thou art 
 irritated has done anything by which thy mind could 
 be made worse ; but that which is evil to thee and 
 harmful has its foundation only in the mind. And 
 what harm is done or Avhat is there strange, if the man 
 who has not been instructed does the acts of an unin- 
 structed man? Consider whether thou.shouldst not 
 rather blame thyself, because thou didst not expect 
 such a man to err in such a Avay. For thou hadst 
 means given thee by thy reason to supjiose that it Avas 
 likely that he Avould commit this error, and yet thou 
 hast forgotten and art amazed that he has erred. But 
 most of all Avhen thou blamest a man as faithless or 
 ungrateful, turn to thyself. For the fault is manifestly 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 255 
 
 thy own, whether thou didst trust that a man who had 
 such a disposition would keep his promise, or when 
 conferring thy kindness thou didst not confer it abso- 
 lutely, nor yet in such way as to have received from 
 thy very act all the profit. For what more dost thou 
 want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou 
 not content that thou hast done something conforma- 
 ble to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it ? 
 Just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, 
 or the feet for walking. For as these members are 
 formed for a particular purpose, and by working 
 according to their several constitutions obtain what is 
 their own ; so also as man is formed by nature to acts 
 of benevolence, when he has done anything benevolent 
 or in any other way conducive to the common interest, 
 he has acted conformably to his constitution, and he 
 gets what is his own. 
 
256 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 X. 
 
 Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple 
 and one and naked, more manifest than the body 
 which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy an 
 affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou 
 never be full and without a want of any kind, longing 
 for nothing more, nor desiring anything, either ani- 
 mate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures? 
 nor yet desii’ing time wherein thou shalt have longer 
 enjoyment, or place, or ]ileasant climate, or societ}'^ of 
 men with wliom thou mayest live in harmony ? but wilt 
 thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and 
 pleased with all that is about thee, and wilt thou con- 
 vince thyself that thou hast everything and that it 
 comes from the gods, that everything is well for thee, 
 and will be well whatever shall please them, and what- 
 ever they shall give for the conservation of the perfect 
 living being,* the good and just and beautiful, which 
 generates and holds together all things, and contains 
 and embraces all things which are dissolved for the 
 production of other like things? Wilt thou never be 
 such that thou shalt so dwell in community with gods 
 and men a,s neither to find fault with them at all, nor 
 to be condemned by them ? 
 
 2. Oliserve what thy nature requires, so far as thou 
 
 * That is, (lod (iv. 40), as he is defined by Zeno. But the con- 
 fusion between gods and God is strange. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 257 
 
 art governed by nature only ; then do it and accept it, 
 if thy nature, so far as thou art a living being, shall 
 not be made worse by it. And next thou must observe 
 what thy nature requires so far as thou art a living 
 being. And all this thou mayest allow thyself^ if thy 
 nature, so far as thou art a rational animal, shall not 
 be made worse by it. But the rational animal is conse- 
 quently also a political [social] animal. Use these 
 rules, then, and trouble thyself about nothing else. 
 
 3. Everything which happens either happens in such 
 wise as thou art formed by nature to bear it, or as 
 thou art not formed by nature to bear it. If, then, it 
 happens to thee in such way as thou art formed by 
 nature to bear it, do not complain, but bear it as thou 
 art formed by nature to bear it. But if it happens in 
 such wise as thou art not formed by nature to bear it, 
 do not complain, for it will perish after it has con- 
 sumed thee. Eemember, however, that thou art 
 formed by nature to bear everything, with respect to 
 which it depends on thy own opinion to make it endur- 
 able and tolerable, by thinking that it is either thy 
 interest or thy duty to do this. 
 
 4. If a man is mistaken, instruct him kindly and 
 show him his error. But if thou art not able, blame 
 thyself, or blame not even thyself. 
 
 5. Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared 
 for thee from all eternity; and the implication of 
 causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy 
 being, and of that which is incident to it (iii. 11 ; iv. 26). 
 
 6. Whether the universe is [a concourse of] atoms, 
 or nature [is a system], let this first be established, 
 that I am a part of the Avhole which is goA^erned by 
 nature ; next, I am in a manner intimately related to 
 
358 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 the parts which are of the same kind with myself. 
 For remembering this, inasmuch as I am a part, I shall 
 be discontented with none of the things which are 
 assigned to me out of the whole ; for nothing is in- 
 jurious to the part, if it is for the advantage of the 
 whole. For the whole contains nothing Avhich is not 
 for its advantage ; and all natures indeed have this 
 common principle, but the nature of the universe has 
 this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even 
 by any external cause to generate anything harmful to 
 itself. By remembering, then, that I am a part of 
 such a whole, I shall be content with everything that 
 happens. And inasmuch as I am in a manner inti- 
 mately related to the parts which are of the same 
 kind with myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I 
 shall rather direct myself to the things which are of 
 the same kind with myself, and I shall turn all my 
 efforts to the common interest, and divert them from 
 the contrary. ISTow, if these things are done so, life 
 must flow on happily, just as thou mayest observe that 
 the life of a citizen is happy, who continues a course of 
 action which is advantageous to his fellow-citizens, and 
 is content with whatever the state may assign to him. 
 
 7. The parts of the whole, everything, I mean, which 
 is naturally comprehended in the universe, must of 
 neeessity perish ; but let this be understood in this 
 sense, that they must undergo change. But if this is 
 naturally both an evil and a necessity for the parts, 
 the whole would not continue to exist in a good con- 
 dition, the parts being subject to change and consti- 
 tuted so as to perish in various ways. For whether 
 did nature herself design to do evil to the things which 
 are parts of herself, and to make them subject to evil 
 
MARCUS A URBLIUS AMTOmNUS. 
 
 259 
 
 and of necessity fall into evil, or have such results 
 happened without her knowing it ? Both these sup- 
 positions, indeed, are incredible. But if a man should 
 even drop the term Nature [as an efficient power], 
 and should speak of these things as natural, even then 
 it would be ridiculous to affirm at the same time that 
 the parts of the whole are in their nature subject to 
 change, and at the same time to be surprised or vexed 
 as if something were happening contrary to nature, 
 particularly as the dissolution of things is into those 
 things of which each thing is composed. For there is 
 either a dispersion of the elements out of which every 
 thing has been compounded, or a change from the 
 solid to the earthly and from the airy to the aerial, so 
 that these parts are taken back into the universal 
 reason, whether this at certain periods is consumed by 
 fire or renewed by eternal changes. And do not 
 imagine that the solid and the airy part belong to thee 
 from the time of generation. For all this received its 
 accretion only yesterday and the day before, as one 
 may say, from the food and the air which is inspired. 
 This, then, which has received [the accretion], changes, 
 not that which thy mother brought forth. But sup- 
 pose that this [which thy mother brought forth] im- 
 plicates thee very much with that other part, which 
 has the peculiar quality [of change], this is nothing in 
 fact in the way of objection to what is said.* 
 
 * The end of this section is perhaps corrupt. The meaning is 
 very obscure. I have given that meaning which appears to be con- 
 sistent with the whole argument. The emperor here maintains that the 
 essential part of man is unchangeable, and that the other parts, if 
 they change or perish, do not affect that which really constitutes the 
 man. See the Philosophy of Antoninus, p. 50, note. 
 
260 
 
 ^ THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 8. "When thou hast assumed these names, good, mod- 
 est, true, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnani- 
 mous, take care thou dost not change these names ; 
 and if thou shouldst lose them, quickly return to 
 them. And remember that the term Rational was in- 
 tended to signify a discriminating attention to every 
 several thing and freedom from negligence ; and that 
 Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things 
 which are assigned to thee by the common nature ; 
 and that Magnanimity is the elevation of the intelli- 
 gent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations 
 of the flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, 
 and death, and all such things. If, then, thou main- 
 tamest thyself in the possession of these names, with- 
 out desiring to be called by these names by others, 
 thou wilt be another person and wilt enter on another 
 life. Eor to continue to be such as thou hast hitherto 
 been, and to be torn in pieces and defiled in such a 
 life, is the character of a very stupid man and one 
 overfond of his life, and like those half-devoured fight- 
 ers with wild beasts, who, though covered with wounds 
 and gore, still intreat to be kept to the following day, 
 though they will be exposed in the same state to the 
 same claAvs and bites.* Therefore fix thyself in the 
 possession of these few names : and if thou art able 
 to abide in them, abide as if thou wast removed to 
 certain islands of the Ilaiipy.:}; But if thou shalt 
 
 * See Seneca, Epp. 70, on these exhibitions which amused the 
 people of those days. These figliters were the Bestlarii, some of 
 whom may have been criminals, but even if they were, the exhibi- 
 tion was equally characteristic of the depraved hahits of the spectators. 
 
 I The islands of the Happy, or the Fortunatse Insul®, are spoken 
 of by the Greek and Roman writers. They were the abode of 
 Heroes, like Achilles and Diomedes, as we see in the Scolion of Har- 
 
MARCUS A URELWS ANTONINUS. 
 
 361 
 
 perceive that thou tallest out of them and dost not 
 maintain thy hold, go courageously into some nook 
 where thou shalt maintain them, or even depart at 
 once from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and 
 freedom and modesty, after doing this one [laudable] 
 thing at least in thy life, to have gone out of it thus. 
 In order, however, to the remembrance of these 
 names, it will greatly help thee, if thou rememberest 
 the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but 
 wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves ; 
 and if thou rememberest that what does the work of 
 a fig-tree is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of 
 a dog' is a dog, and that what does the work of a bee 
 is a bee, and that what does the work of a man is a 
 man. 
 
 9. Mimi,* war, astonishment, torpor, slavery, will daily 
 wipe out those holy principles of thine, f How many 
 things without studying nature dost thou imagine, and 
 how many dost thou neglect ? But it is thy duty so to 
 
 modius and Aristogiton. Sertorius heard of the islands at Cadiz from 
 some sailors who had been there, and he had a wish to go and live in 
 them and rest from his troubles. (Plutarch, Sertorius, c. 8.) In the 
 Odyssey, Proteus told Menelaus that he should not die in Argos, but 
 be removed to a place at the boundary of the earth where Rhada- 
 manthus dwelt : (Odyssey, iv. 565.) 
 
 For there in sooth man’s life is easiest: 
 
 Nor snow nor raging storm nor rain is there. 
 
 But ever gently breathing gales of Zephyr 
 Oceanus sends up to gladden man. 
 
 It is certain that the writer of the Odyssey only follows some old 
 legend without having any knowledge of any place which corresponds 
 to his description. The two islands which Sertorius heard of may be 
 Madeira and the adjacent island. (Compare Pindar, 01. ii. 129.) 
 
 Corals conjectured yUldoS “ hatred ” in place of Mimi, Roman 
 plays in which action and gesticulation were all or nearly all. 
 
2G2 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS Off 
 
 look on and so to do everything, that at the same time 
 the power of dealing with circumstances is perfected, 
 and the contemplative faculty is exercised, and the 
 confidence which comes from the knowledge of each 
 several thing is maintained without showing it, but 
 yet not concealed. For when wilt tliou enjoy simplic- 
 ity, when gravity, and when the knowledge of every 
 several thing, both what it is in substance, and what 
 place it has in the universe, and how long it is formed 
 to exist, and of what things it is compounded, and to 
 whom it can belong, and who are able both to give it 
 and take it away ? 
 
 10. A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and 
 another when he has caught a poor hare, and another 
 when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another 
 when he has taken wild boars, and another when he 
 has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sar- 
 matians. Are not these robbers, if thou examinest 
 their opinions ? * 
 
 11. Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how 
 all things change into one another, and constantly 
 attend to it, and exercise thyself about this part [of 
 philosophy]. For nothing is so much adapted to pro- 
 duce magnanimity. Such a man has put off the body, 
 and, as he sees that he must, no one knows how soon, 
 go away from among men and leave everything here, he 
 gives himself up entirely to just doing in all his 
 actions, and in everything. else that happens he resigns 
 himself to the universal nature. But as to what any 
 man shall say or think about him, or do against him, he 
 
 * Marcus means to say that conquerors are robbers. He himself 
 warred against Sarmatians, and was a robber, as he says, like the 
 rest. But compare the life of Avidius Cassius, c. 4, by Vulcatius. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 263 
 
 never even thinks of it, being himself contented with 
 these two things, with acting justly in what he now 
 does, and being satisfied with what is noAV assigned to 
 him ; and he lays aside all distracting and busy pur- 
 suits, and desires nothing else than to accomplish the 
 straight course through the law,* and by accomplish- 
 insT the straight course to folloAV God. 
 
 12. What need is there of suspicious fear, since it is 
 in thy power to inquire what ought to be done? And 
 if thou seest clear, go by this Avay content, without 
 turning back : but if thou dost not see clear, stop and 
 take the best advisers. But if any other things oppose 
 thee, go on according to thy powers with due consid- 
 eration, keeping to that Avhich appears to be just. 
 For it is best to reach this object, and if thou dost fail, 
 let thy failure be in attempting this. He who follows 
 reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the 
 same time, and also cheerful and collected. 
 
 13. Inquire of thyself as soon as thou Avakest from 
 sleep Avhether it Avill make any difference to thee, if 
 another does what is just and right. It will make no 
 difference (au. 32 ; viii. 55). 
 
 Thou has not forgotten, I suppose, that those who 
 assume arrogant airs in bestowing their praise or 
 blame on others, are such as they are at bed and at 
 board, and thou hast not forgotten Avhat they do, and 
 Avhat they avoid and Avhat they pursue, and hoAv they 
 steal and hoAV they rob, not Avith hands and feet, but 
 with their most A^aluable part, by means of Avhich there 
 is produced, when a man chooses, fidelity, modesty, 
 truth, law, a good demon [happiness]? (vii. 17.) 
 
 * By the law, he means the divine law, obedience to the will of 
 God. 
 
264 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 14. To her who gives and takes back all, to nature, 
 the man who is instructed and modest says. Give what 
 thou wilt ; take back what thou wilt. And he says 
 this not proudly, but obediently and well pleased 
 with her. 
 
 15. Short is the little which remains to thee of life. 
 Live as on a mountain. For it makes no difference 
 whether a man lives there or here, if he lives every- 
 where in the world as in a state [political community]. 
 Let men see, let them know a real man who lives 
 according to nature. If they cannot endure him, let 
 them kill him. For that is better than to live thus [as 
 men do]. 
 
 16. No longer talk at all about the kind of man that 
 a good man ought to be, but be such. 
 
 17. Constantly contemplate the whole of time and 
 the whole of substance, and consider that all individual 
 things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to 
 time, the turning of a gimlet. 
 
 18. Look at everything that exists, and observe that 
 it is already in dissolution and in change, and as it 
 were putrefaction or dispersion, or that everything is 
 so constituted by nature as to die. 
 
 19. Consider what men are when they are eating, 
 sleeping, generating, easing themselves and so forth. 
 Then what kind of men they are when they are im- 
 periousf and arrogant, or angry and scolding from 
 their elevated place. But a short time ago to how 
 many they were slaves and for what things: and 
 after a little time consider in what a condition they 
 will be. 
 
 20. That is for the good of each thing, which the 
 universal nature brings to each. And it is for its 
 good at the time when nature brings it. 
 
MABCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 265 
 
 21. “ The earth loves the shower and “ the solemn 
 ether loves and the universe loves to make what- 
 ever 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.”* 
 
 22. Either thou livest here and hast already accus- 
 tomed th^^self to it, or thou aid going awa}^, and this 
 was thy own will: or thou art dying and hast dis- 
 charged thy duty. But besides these things there is 
 nothing. Be of good cheer, then. 
 
 23. Let this alwa}^s be plain to thee, that this piece 
 of land is like any other ; and that all things here are 
 the same with things on the top of a mountain, or on 
 the sea-shore, or wherever thou choosest to be. For 
 thou wilt find just what Plato says. Dwelling within 
 the walls of a city as in a shepherd’s fold on a mount- 
 ain. [The three last words are omitted in the trans- 
 lation.]]; 
 
 2-1. What is my ruling faculty now to me? and of 
 what nature am I now making it ? and for what pur- 
 pose am I now using it ? is it void of understanding ? 
 is it loosed and rent asunder from social life? is it 
 melted into and mixed with the poor flesh so as to 
 move together with it ? 
 
 * These words are from Euripides. They are cited by Aristotle, 
 Ethic. Nicom. viii. 1. It was the fashion of the Stoics to work on 
 the meanings of words. So Antoninus here takes the verb qnXei, 
 “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 utter them, without 
 knowing how much they mean. 
 
 X Plato, Thesei. 174 D. E. But compare the original with the 
 use that Antoninus has made of it. 
 
266 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 25. He who flies from his master is a runaway ; but 
 the law is master, and he who breaks the law is a run- 
 away. And he also who is grieved or angry or afraid,f 
 is dissatisfied because something has been or is or shall 
 be of the things which are appointed by him who rules 
 
 , all things, and he is Law, and assigns to every man 
 what is fit. He then who fears or is grieved or is 
 angry is a runaway.* 
 
 26. A man deposits seed in a womb and goes away, 
 and then another cause takes it, and labors on it and 
 makes a child. What a thing from such a material ! 
 Again, the child passes food down through the throat, 
 and then another cause takes it and makes perception 
 and motion, and in fine life and strength and other 
 things; how many and how strange! Observe then 
 the things which are produced in such a hidden way, 
 and see the power just as we see the power which 
 carries things downward and u])ward, not with the 
 eyes, but still no less plainly (vii. 75). 
 
 27. Constantly consider how all things such as they 
 now are, in time past also were ; and consider that they 
 will be the same again. And place before thy eyes 
 entire dramas and stages of the same form, whatever 
 thou hast learned from thy experience or from older 
 history ; for example, the whole court of Hadrianus, 
 und the whole court of Antoninus, and the whole court 
 of Philippus, Alexander, Croesus ; for all those were 
 such dramas as we see now, only with different actors. 
 
 28. Imagine every man who is grieved at anything 
 or discontented to be like a j^ig which is sacrificed and 
 kicks and screams. 
 
 * Antoninus is here playing on the etymology of vofioi, law, as 
 signment, that which assigns (yef^Ei) to every man his portion. 
 
MABCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 267 
 
 Like this pig also is he who on his bed in silence 
 laments the bonds in’ which we are held. And con- 
 sider that only to the rational animal is it given to 
 follow voluntarily what happens ; but simply to follow 
 is a necessity imposed on all. 
 
 29. Severally on the occasion of everything that 
 thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dread- 
 ful thing because it deprives thee of this. 
 
 30. When thou art offended at any man’s fault, 
 forthwith turn to thyself and reflect in what like man- 
 ner thou dost err thyself ; for example, in thinking 
 that money is a good thing, or pleasure, or a bit of 
 reputation, and the like. For by attending to this 
 thou wilt quickly forget thy anger, if this considera- 
 tion also is added, that the man is compelled ; for what 
 else could he do ? or, if thou art able, take away from 
 him the compulsion. 
 
 31. When thou hast seen Satyron* the Socratic,! 
 think of either, Eutyches or Hymen, and when thou 
 hast seen Euphrates, think of Eutychion or Silvanus, 
 and when thou hast seen Alciphron think of Tropmo- 
 phorus, and when thou hast seen Xenophon think of 
 Crito:]; or Severus, and when thou hast looked on thy- 
 self, think of any other Ceesar, and in the case of every 
 one do in like manner. Then let this thought be in 
 thy mind, Where then are those men? Xowhere, or 
 
 * Nothing is known of Satyron or Satyrion; nor, I believe, of 
 Eutyches or Hymen. Euphrates is honorably mentioned by Epictetus 
 (iii. 15, 8; iv. 8, 17). Pliny (Epp. i. 10), speaks very highly of him. 
 He obtained the permission of the Emperor Hadrian to drink poison, 
 because he was old and in bad health (Dion Cassius. 69, c. 8). 
 
 t Crito is the friend of Socrates; and he was, it appears, also a 
 friend of Xenophon. When the emperor says “seen,” he does not 
 mean with the eyes, 
 
268 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 nobody knows where. For thus continuously thou 
 wilt look at human things as smoke and nothing at 
 all ; especially if thou reflectest at the same time that 
 what has once changed will never exist again in the 
 infinite duration of time. But thou, in what a brief 
 space of time is thy existence? And why art thou 
 not content to pass through this short time in an 
 orderly way ? What matter and opportunity [for thy 
 activity] art thou avoiding? For what else are all 
 these things, except exercises for the reason, when it 
 has viewed carefully and by examination into their 
 nature the things which happen in life? Persevere 
 then until thou shalt have made these things thy own, 
 as the stomach which is strengthened makes all things 
 its own, as the blazing fire makes flame and brightness 
 out of everything that is thrown into it. 
 
 32. Let it not be in any man’s poAver to say truly of 
 thee that thou art not simple, or that thou art not 
 good; but let him be a liar whoever shall think any- 
 thing of this kind about thee ; and this is altogether in 
 thy power. For who is he that shall hinder thee from 
 being good and simple? Do thou only determine 
 to live no longer, unless thou shalt be such. For 
 neither does reason allow [thee to live], if thou art not 
 such.* 
 
 33. What is that which as to this material [our life] 
 can be done or said in the way most conformable to 
 reason. For whatever this may be, it is in thy poAver 
 to do it or to say it, and do not make excuses that thou 
 art hindered. Thou Avilt not cease to lament till thy 
 mind is in such a condition that, Avhat luxury is to 
 those Avho enjoy pleasure, such shall be to thee, in the 
 
 * Compare Epictetus, i. 39, 28. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 2G9 
 
 matter which is subjected and presented to thee, the . 
 doin^ of the things which are conformable to man’s 
 constitution ; for a man ought to consider as an enjoy- 
 ment everything which it is in his power to do accord- 
 ing to his own nature. And it is in his power every- 
 where. Now, it is not given to a cylinder to move 
 everywhere by its own motion, nor yet to water nor to 
 fire, nor to anything else which is governed by nature 
 or an irrational soul, for the things which check them 
 and stand in the way are many. But intelligence and 
 reason are able to go through everything that opposes 
 them, and in such manner as they are formed by nature 
 and as they choose. Place before thy eyes this facility 
 with which the reason will be carried through all 
 things, as fire upward, as a stone downward, as a cyl- 
 inder doAvn an inclined surface, and seek for nothing 
 further. For all other obstacles either affect the body 
 only which is a dead thing ; or, except through opinion 
 and the yielding of the reason itself, they do not crush 
 nor do any harm of any kind ; for if they did, he who 
 felt it would immediately become bad. Now, in the 
 case of all things which have a certain constitution, 
 whatever harm may happen to any of them, that 
 which is so affected becomes consquently worse ; but 
 in the like case, a man becomes both better, if one may 
 say so, and more worthy of praise by making a right 
 use of these accidents. And finally remember that 
 nothing harms him who is realh'^ a citizen, which does 
 not harm the state ; nor yet does anything harm the 
 state which does not harm law [order] ; and of these 
 things which are called misfortunes not one harms law. 
 What then does not harm law does not harm either 
 state or citizen. 
 
270 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 34. To him who is penetrated by true principles even 
 the briefest precept is suflficient, and any common pre- 
 cept, to remind him that he should be free from grief 
 and fear. For example ; 
 
 Leaves, some the wind scatters on the ground — 
 
 So is the race of men.* * • 
 
 Leaves, also, are thy children ; and leaves, too, are they 
 who cry out as if they were worthy of credit and 
 bestow their praise, or on the contrary curse, or 
 secretly blame and sneer ; and leaves, in like manner, 
 are tliose who shall receive and transmit a man’s fame 
 to after-times. For all such things as these “are pro- 
 duced in the season of spring,” as the poet says ; then 
 the wind casts them down; then the forest produces 
 othei" leaves in their places. But a brief existence is 
 common to all things, and yet thou avoidest and pur- 
 suest all things as if they would be eternal. A little 
 time, and thou shalt close thy eyes; and him who 
 has attended thee to thy grave another soon will 
 lament. 
 
 35. The healthy eye ought to see all visible things 
 and not to say, I wish for green things ; for this is the 
 condition of a diseased eye. And the healthy hearing 
 and smelling ought to be ready to perceive all that 
 can be heard and smelled. And the healthy stomach 
 ought to be with respect to all food just as the mill 
 with respect to all things which it is formed to grind. 
 And accordingly the healthy understanding ought to 
 be prepared for everything which happens ; but that 
 which says. Let my dear children live, and let all men 
 praise whatever I may do, is an eye which seeks for 
 
 green things, or teeth which seek for soft things. 
 
 * Homer, II. vi. 146. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 sri 
 
 36. There is no man so fortunate that there shall 
 not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased 
 with what is going to happen.* Suppose that he was 
 a good and wise man, will there not be at last some 
 one to say to himself, Let us at last breathe freely 
 being relieved from this school-master ? It is true that 
 he was harsh to none of us, but I perceived that he 
 tacitly condemns us. This is what is said of a good 
 man. But in our own case how many other things 
 are there for which there are many who wish to get 
 rid of us. Thou wilt consider this then when thou 
 art dying, and thou wilt depart more contentedly by 
 reflecting thus : I am going away from such a life, in 
 which even my associates in behalf of whom 1 have 
 striven so much, prayed, and cared, themselves wish 
 me to depart, hoping perchance to get some little 
 advantage by it. Why then should a man cling to a 
 longer stay here ? Do not, however, for this reason go 
 awa}^ less kindly disposed to them, but preserving thy 
 own character, and friendly and benevolent and mild, 
 and on the other hand not as if thou wast torn away ; 
 but as when a man dies a quiet death, the poor soul is 
 easily separated from the body, such also ought thy 
 departure from men to be, for nature united thee to 
 them and associated thee. But does she now dissolve 
 the union ? W ell, I am separated as from kinsmen, not 
 however dragged resisting, but without compulsion ; 
 for this too is one of the things according to nature. 
 
 37. Accustom thyself as much as possible on the 
 occasion of anything being done by any person to 
 
 * He says uaxov but as be affirms in other places that death is 
 no evil, he must mean what others may call an evil, and he means 
 only “what is going to happen.” 
 
272 tee meditations OF 
 
 inquire with thyself, For what object is this man 
 doing this? but begin with thyself, and examine 
 tln^self first. 
 
 38. Remember that this which pulls the strings is 
 the thing which is hidden within ; this is the power 
 of persuasion, this is life ; this, if one may so say, is man. 
 In contemplating thyself never include the vessel 
 which surrounds thee, and these instruments which are 
 attached about it. For they are like to an ax, differing 
 only in this that they groAv to the body. For indeed 
 there is no more use in these parts without the cause 
 which moves and checks them than in the weaver’s 
 shuttle, and the writer’s pen, and the driver’s whip.* 
 
 * See “ The Philosophy of Antoninus,” n. 13. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS AMTONINUS. 
 
 273 
 
 XI. 
 
 These are the properties of the rational soul : it sees 
 itself, analyzes itself, and makes itself such as it 
 chooses ; the fruit which it bears itself enjoys — for the 
 fruits of plants and that in animals which corresponds 
 to fruits others enjoy — it obtains its own end, wherever 
 the limit of life may be fixed. Not as in a dance and 
 in a play and in such like things, where the whole 
 action is incomplete, if anything cuts it short ; but in 
 every part and wherever it may be stopped, it makes 
 what has been set before it full and complete, so that 
 it can say, I have what is my own. And further it 
 traverses the whole universe, and the surrounding 
 vacuum, and surveys its form, and it extends itself into 
 the infinity of time, and embraces and comprehends 
 the * periodical renovation of all things, and it com- 
 prehends that those who come after us will see nothing 
 new, nor have those before us seen anything more, but 
 in a manner he who is forty years old, if he has any 
 understanding at all, has seen by virtue of the uni- 
 formity that prevails all things which have been and 
 all that will be. This, too, is a property of the 
 rational soul, love of oner’s neighbor, and truth and 
 modesty, and to value nothing more than itself, Avhich 
 is also the property of Law.:}; Thus, then, right reason 
 differs not at all from the reason of justice. 
 
 See V. 13, 32 ; x. 7. 
 
 \ Law is the order by which all things are governed. 
 
THE MEDITATIONS OP 
 
 2. Thou wilt set little value on pleasing song and 
 dancing and the pancratium, if thou wilt distribute the 
 melody of the voice into its several sounds, and ask 
 thyself as to each, if thou art mastered by this ; for 
 thou wilt be prevented by shame from confessing it : 
 and in the matter of dancing, if at each movement 
 and attitude thou wilt do the same ; and the like also 
 in the matter of the pancratium. In all things, then, 
 except virtue and the acts of virtue, remember to apply 
 thyself to their several parts, and by this division to 
 come to value them little : and apply this rule also to 
 thy whole life. 
 
 3. What a soul that is which is ready, if at any 
 moment it must be separated from the body, and 
 ready either to be extinguished or dispersed or con- 
 tinue to exist ; but so that this readiness comes from a 
 man’s own judgment, not from mere obstinacy, as with 
 the Christians,* but considerately and with dignity 
 and in a way to persuade another, without tragic 
 show. 
 
 4. Have I done something for the general interest ? 
 Well then I have had my reward. Let this always 
 be present to thy mind, and never stop [doing such 
 good]. 
 
 5. What is thy art ? To be good. And how is this 
 accomplished well except by general principles, some 
 about the nature of the universe, and others about the 
 proper constitution of man ? 
 
 6. At first tragedies were brought on the stage as 
 means of reminding men of the things which happen 
 
 * See the Life of Antoninus. This is the only passage in which 
 the emperor speaks of the Christians. Epictetus (iv. 7, 6) names them 
 Galitei. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 m 
 
 to them, and that it is according to nature for things 
 to happen so, and that, if you are delighted with what 
 is shown on the stage, you should not be troubled with 
 that which takes place on the larger stage. For you 
 see that these things must be accomplished thus, and 
 that even they bear them who cry out,* “ O Cithaeron.” 
 And, indeed, some things are said well by the 
 dramatic writers, of which kind is the following 
 especially : 
 
 Me and my children if the gods neglect, 
 
 This has its reason too4 
 
 And again — 
 
 We must not chafe and fret at that which happens. 
 
 And— 
 
 Life’s harvest reap like the wheat’s fruitful ear. 
 
 And other things of the same kind. 
 
 After tragedy the old comedy was introduced, which 
 had a magisterial freedom of speech, and by its very 
 plainness of speaking was useful in reminding men to 
 beware of insolence ; and for this purpose too Diogenes 
 used to take from these writers. 
 
 But as to the middle comedy which came next, 
 observe what it was, and again, for what object the 
 new comedy was introduced, which gradually sunk 
 down into a mere mimic artifice. That some good 
 things are said even by these writers, everybody 
 knows: but the whole plan of such poetry and 
 dramaturgy, to what end does it look ! 
 
 7. How plain does it appear that there is not an- 
 
 * Sopkocles, CEdipus Eex. 
 I See vii. 41, 38, 40. 
 
21G 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 other condition of life so well suited for philosophiz- 
 ing as this in which thou now happenest to be. 
 
 8. A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must 
 of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also. So 
 too a man when he is separated from another man has 
 fallen oif from the whole social community. Now as 
 to a branch, another cuts it off, but a man by his own 
 act separates himself from his neighbor when he 
 hates him and turns away from him, and he does not 
 know that he has at the same time cut himself off 
 from the whole social system. Y et he has this priv- 
 ilege certainly from Zeus who framed society, for it is 
 in our power to grow again to that which is near to 
 us, and again to become a part which helps to make 
 up the whole. However, if it often happens, this kind 
 of separation, it makes it difficult for that which 
 detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be re- 
 stored to its former condition. Finally, the branch, 
 which from the first grew together with the tree, and 
 has continued to have one life with it, is not like that 
 which after being cut off is then ingrafted, for this is 
 something like what the gardeners mean when they 
 say that it grows with the rest of the tree, butf that 
 it has not the same mind with it. 
 
 9. As those who try to stand in thy way when thou 
 art proceeding according to right reason, will not be 
 able to turn thee aside from th}'^ proper action, so 
 neither let them drive thee from thy benevolent feel- 
 ings toward them, but be on thy guard equally in 
 both matters, not only in the matter of steady judg- 
 ment and action, but also in the matter of gentleness 
 toward tliose who try to hinder or otherwise trouble 
 thee. For this also is a weakness, to be vexed at 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 27 ? 
 
 them, as well as to be diverted from thy course of 
 action and to ^ive way through fear ; for both are 
 equally deserters from their post, the man who does it 
 through fear, and the man who is alienated from him 
 who is by nature a kinsman and a friend. 
 
 10. There is no nature which is inferior to art, for 
 the arts imitate the natures of things. But if this is 
 so, that nature which is the most perfect and the most 
 comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of the 
 skill of art. Now all arts do the inferior things for 
 the sake of the superior ; therefore the universal 
 nature does so too. And, indeed, hence is the origin 
 of justice, and in justice the other virtues have their 
 foundation : for justice will . not be observed, if we 
 either care for middle things [things in different], or 
 are easily deceived and careless and chanffeable (v. 16, 
 30 ; vii. 55). 
 
 11. If the things do not come to thee, the pursuits 
 and avoidances of which disturb thee, still in a manner 
 thou goest to them. Let then thy judgment about 
 them be at rest, and they will remain quiet, and thou 
 wilt not be seen either pursuing or avoiding. 
 
 12. The spherical form of the soul maintains its 
 figure, when it is neither extended toward any object, 
 nor contracted inward, nor dispersed nor sinks down, 
 but is illuminated by light, by which it sees the truth, 
 the truth of all things and the truth that is in itself 
 (viii. 41, 45 ; xii. 3). 
 
 13. Suppose any man shall despise me. Let him 
 look to that himself. But I will look to this, that I be 
 not discovered doing or saying anything deserving of 
 contempt. Shall any man hate me? Let him look to 
 it. But I will be mild and benevolent toward every 
 
THE MEElTA'llONS OF 
 
 01*^0 
 *v I O 
 
 man, and ready to show even him his mistake, not re- 
 proachfully, nor yet as making a display of my endur- 
 ance, but nobly and honestly, like the great Phocion, 
 unless indeed he only assumed it. For the interior 
 [parts] ought to be such, and a man ought to be seen 
 by the gods neither dissatisfied with anything nor 
 complaining. For what evil is it to thee, if thou art 
 now doing what is agreeable to thy own nature, and 
 art satisfied with that which at this moment is suitable 
 to the nature of the universe, since thou art a human 
 being placed at thy post in order that what is for the 
 common advantage may be done in some way ? 
 
 14. Men despise one another and flatter one another ; 
 and men wish to raise themselves above one another, 
 and crouch before one another. 
 
 15. How unsound and insincere is he who says, I 
 have determined to deal with thee in a fair way. 
 What art thou doing, man? There is no occasion to 
 give this notice. It will soon show itself by acts. 
 The voice ought to be plainly written on the forehead. 
 Such as a man’s character is,f he immediately shows 
 it in his eyes, just as he who is beloved forthwith 
 reads everything in the eyes of lovers. The man who 
 is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who 
 smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he 
 comes near him must smell whether he choose or not. 
 But the affectation of simplicity is like a crooked stick.* 
 Nothing is more disgraceful than a wolfish friendship 
 [false friendship]. Avoid this most of all. The good 
 
 * There is a Greek proverb, “ You cannot make a crooked stick 
 straight.” The wolfish friendship is an illusion to the fable of the 
 sheep and the wolves. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 279 
 
 and simple and benevolent show all these things in the 
 eyes, and there is no mistaking. 
 
 16. As to living in the best way, this power is in the 
 soul, if it be indifferent to things which are indifferent. 
 And it will be indifferent, if it looks on each of these 
 things separately and all together, and if it remembers 
 that not one of them produces in us an opinion about 
 itself, nor comes to us ; but these things remain im- 
 movable, and it is we ourselves who produce the judg- 
 ments about them, and, as we may say, write them in 
 ourselves, it being in our power not to write them, and 
 it being in our power, if perchance these judgments 
 have imperceptibly got admission to our minds, to 
 wipe them out ; and if we remember also that such 
 attention will only be for a short time, and then life 
 will be at an end. Besides, what trouble is there at 
 all in doing this ? For if these things are according to 
 nature, rejoice in them, and they will be easy to thee ; 
 but if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to 
 thy own nature, and strive tow^ard this, even if it bring 
 no reputation ; for every man is allowed to seek his 
 own good. 
 
 17. Consider whence each thing is come, and of 
 what it consists,t and into what it changes, and what 
 kind of a thing it will be when it has changed, and 
 that it will sustain no harm. 
 
 18. [If any have offended against thee, consider 
 
 first] : What is my relation to men, and that we are 
 
 made for one another ; and in another respect, I was 
 made to be set over them, as a ram over the flock or a 
 bull over the herd. But examine the matter from first 
 principles, from this : If all things are not mere atoms, 
 it is nature which orders all things ; if this is so, the 
 
280 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 inferior things exist for the sake of the superior, and 
 these for the sake of one another (ii. 1 ; ix. 39 ; v. 16 ; 
 iii. 4:). 
 
 Second, consider what kind of men they are at table, 
 in bed, and so forth ; and particularly, under what 
 compulsions in respect of opinions they are ; and as to 
 their acts, consider with what pride they do what they 
 do (viii. 14 ; ix. 34). 
 
 Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we 
 ought not to be displeased ; but if they do not right, 
 it is plain that they do so involuntarily and in igno- 
 rance. For as every soul is unwillingly deprived of the 
 truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power of 
 behaving to each man according to his deserts. Ac- 
 cordingly men are pained when they are called unjust, 
 ungrateful, and greedy, and in a word wrong-doers to 
 their neighbors (vii. 62, 63 ; ii. 1 ; vii. 26 ; viii. 29). 
 
 Fourth, consider that thou also doest many things 
 wrong, and that thou art a man like others ; and even 
 if thou dost abstain from certain faults, still thou hast 
 the disposition to commit them, though either through 
 cowardice, or concern about reputation or some such 
 mean motive, thou dost abstain from such faults (i. 17). 
 
 Fifth, consider that thou dost not even understand 
 whether men are doing wrong or not, for many things 
 are done with a certain reference to circumstances. 
 And, in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable 
 him to pass a correct judgment on another man’s acts 
 (ix. 38 ; iv. 51). 
 
 Sixth, consider when thou art much vexed or 
 grieved, that man’s life is only a moment, and, after a 
 short time, we are all laid out dead (vii. 58 ; iv. 48). 
 
 Seventh, that it is not men’s acts which disturb us, 
 
MARCUS A URELIU8 ANTONINUS. 
 
 281 
 
 for those acts have their foundation in men’s ruling 
 principles, hut it is our own opinions which disturb us. 
 Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss 
 thy judgment about an act as if it were something 
 grievous, and thy anger is gone. How, then, shall I 
 take away these opinions ? By reflecting that no 
 wrongful act of another brings shame on thee : for 
 unless that which is shameful is alone bad, thou also 
 must of necessity do many things wrong, and become 
 a robber and everything else (v. 25 ; vii. 16). 
 
 Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on 
 us h}^ the anger and vexation caused by such acts than 
 by the acts themselves, at which we are angry and 
 vexed (iv. 39, 49 ; vii. 24). 
 
 Ninth, consider that a good disposition is invincible, 
 if it be genuine, and not an affected smile and acting 
 a part. For what Avill the most violent man do to 
 thee, if thou continuest to be of a kind disposition 
 toward him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently 
 admonishest him and calmly correctest his errors at 
 the very time when he is trying to do thee harm, 
 saying. Not so, my child ; we are constituted by nature 
 for something else : I shall certainly not be injured, 
 hut thou art injuring thyself, my child. And show 
 him with gentle tact and by general principles that 
 this is so, and that even bees do not do as he does, nor 
 any animals which are formed by nature to be gregari- 
 ous. And thou must do this neither with any double 
 meaning nor in the Ava}’’ of reproach, but affectionately 
 and without any rancour in thy soul ; and not as if 
 thou wert lecturing him, nor yet that any bystander 
 may admire, but either when he is alone, and if others 
 are present . . 
 
 * It appears that there is a defect in the text here. 
 
282 
 
 TEE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 Eemember these nine rules, as if thou hadst received 
 them as a gift from the Muses, and begin at last to be 
 a man while thou livest. But thou must equally avoid 
 flattering men and being vexed at them, for both are 
 unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be 
 present to thee in the excitement of anger, that to be 
 moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and 
 gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human 
 nature, so also are they more manly ; and he who 
 possesses these qualities possesses strength, nerves and 
 courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of 
 passion and discontent. For in the same degree in 
 which a man’s mind is nearer to freedom from aU 
 passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength : 
 and as tlie sense of pain is a characteristic of weak- 
 ness, so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and 
 he wlio yields to anger, both are wounded and both 
 submit. 
 
 But if thou wilt, receive also a tenth present from the 
 leader of the [Muses Apollo], and it is this — that to 
 expect bad men not to do wrong is madness, for he 
 Avho expects this desires an impossibility. But to 
 allow men to behave so to others, and to expect 
 them not to do thee any wrong, is irrational and 
 tyrannical. 
 
 19. There are four principal aberrations of the 
 superior faculty against which thou shouldst be con- 
 stantly on thy guard, and when thou hast detected them, 
 thou shouldst wipe them out and say on each occasion 
 thus : this thought is not necessary : this tends to 
 destroy social union : this which thou art going to say 
 comes not from the real thoughts ; for thou shouldst 
 consider it among the most absurd of things for a man 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 283 
 
 not to speak from his real thoughts. But the fourth is 
 when thou shalt reproach thyself for anything, for this 
 is an evidence of the diviner part within thee being 
 overpowered and yielding to the less honourable and to 
 the perishable part, the body, and to its gross pleasures 
 (iv. 24 ; ii. 16). 
 
 20. Thy aerial part and all the fiery parts which are 
 mingled in thee, though by nature they have an upward 
 tendency, still in obedience to the disposition of the 
 universe they are overpowered here in the compound 
 mass [the body]. And also the whole of the earthly 
 part in thee and the watery, though their tendency is 
 downward, still are raised up and occupy a position 
 which is not their natural one. In this manner then 
 the elemental parts obey the universal, for when they 
 have been fixed in any place perforce they remain there 
 until again the universal shall sound the signal for 
 dissolution. Is it not then strange that thy intelligent 
 part only should be disobedient and discontented with 
 its own place ? And yet no force is imposed on it, but 
 only those things which are comformable to its nature : 
 still it does not submit, but is carried in the opposite 
 direction. For the movement towards injustice and 
 intemperance and to anger and grief and fear is nothing 
 else than the act of one who deviates from nature. 
 And also when the ruling faculty is discontented with 
 anything that happens, then toojt deserts its post : for 
 it is constituted for piety and reverence toward the 
 gods no less than for justice. For these quahties also 
 are comprehended under the generic term of content- 
 ment with the constitution of things, and indeed they 
 . are prior* to acts of justice. ... 
 
 *Tlie word "wliich is here translated " prior,” may algg mean 
 
284 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 21. He who has not one and always the same object 
 in life, cannot be one and the same all through his life. 
 But what I have said is not enough, unless this also is 
 added, what this object ought to be. For as there is 
 not the same opinion about all the things which in some 
 way or other are considered by the majority to be good, 
 but only about some certain things, that is, things which 
 concern the common interest ; so also ought we to 
 propose to ourselves an object which shall be of a 
 common kind [social] and political. For he who directs 
 all his own efforts to this object, will make all his acts 
 alike, and thus will always be the same. 
 
 22. Think of the country mouse and of the town 
 mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town 
 mouse.* 
 
 23. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many 
 by the name of Lamiae, bugbears to frighten children. 
 
 “ superior but Antoninus seems to say that piety and reverence 
 of the gods precede all virtues, and that other virtues are derived from 
 them, even justice, which in another passage (xi. 10) he makes the 
 foundation of all virtues. The ancient notion of justice is that of giving 
 to every one his due. It is not a legal definition, as some have sup- 
 posed, hut a moral rule which law cannot in all cases enforce. 
 Besides law has its own rules, which are sometimes moral and some- 
 times immoral ; but it enforces them all simply because they are 
 general rules, and if it did not or could not enforce them, so far Law 
 would not be Law. Justice, or the doing what is just, implies a 
 universal rule and obedience to it ; and as we all live under universal 
 Law, which commands both our body and our intelligence, and is the 
 law of our nature, that is the law of the whole constitution of man, 
 we must endeavor to discover what this supreme Law is. It is the 
 will of the power that rules all . By acting in obedience to this will, 
 we do justice, and by consequence everything else that we ought to 
 do. 
 
 * The story is told by Horace ip hie Satires (ii. 6), and by others 
 sin'cs, but not better. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 285 
 
 24. The Lacedaemonians at their public spectacles 
 used to set seats in the shade for strangers, but them- 
 selves sat down anywhere. 
 
 25. Socrates excused himself to Perdiccas * for not 
 going to him, saying. It is because I would not perish 
 b}'^ the worst of all ends, that is, I would not receive a 
 favor and then be unable to return it. 
 
 26. In the writings of the [Ephesians] there was this 
 precept, constantly to think of some one of the men of 
 former times who practiced virtue. 
 
 27. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look 
 to the heavens that we may be reminded of those 
 bodies which continually do the same things and in 
 the same manner perform their work, and also be re- 
 minded of their purity and nudity. For there is no 
 veil over a star. 
 
 28. Consider what a man Socrates was when he 
 dressed himself in a skin, after Xanthippe had taken 
 his cloak and gone out, and Avhat Socrates said to his 
 friends who were ashamed of him and drew back from 
 him when they saw him dressed thus. 
 
 29. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be 
 able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt 
 have first learned to obey rules thyself. Much more 
 is this so in life. 
 
 30. A slave thou art ; free speech is not for thee. 
 
 31. And my heart laughed within (Od. ix. 413). 
 
 32. And virtue they will curse speaking harsh woi’ds 
 (Hesiod, Works and Days, 184). 
 
 33. To look for the fig in winter is a madman’s act : 
 
 * Perhaps the emperor made a mistake here, for other writers say 
 that it was Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas, wlro invited Socrates to 
 Macedonia. 
 
286 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 such is he who looks for his child when it is no longer 
 allowed (Epictetus, hi. 2d, 87). 
 
 34. When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he 
 should whisper to himself, “To-morrow perchance 
 thou wilt die.” But those are words of bad omen. 
 “No word is a wo"d of bad omen,” said Epictetus, 
 “ which expresses any work of nature; or if it is so, it 
 is also a word of bad omen to speak of the ears of 
 corn being reaped ” (Epictetus, iii. 24, 88). 
 
 35. The unripe grape, the ripe bunch, the dried grape 
 all are changes, not into notliing, but into something 
 which exists not yet (Epictetus, iii. 24). 
 
 36. No man can rob us of our free will (Epictetus, 
 iii. 22, 105). 
 
 37. Epictetus also said, a man must discover an art 
 [or rules] with respect to giving his assent ; and in 
 respect to his movements he must be careful that they 
 be made with regard to circumstances, that they be 
 consistent with social interests, that they have regard 
 to the value of the object ; and as to sensual desire, 
 he should altogether keep away from it; and as to 
 avoidance [aversion] he should not show it with 
 respect to any of the things which are not in our 
 power. 
 
 38. The dispute then, he said, is not about any com- 
 mon matter, but about being mad or not. 
 
 39. Socrates used to say. What do you want ? 
 Souls of rational men or irrational ? Souls of rational 
 men. Of what rational men? Sound or unsound? 
 Sound. W hy then do you not seek for them ? Be- 
 cause we have them. Why then do you fight and 
 quarrel ? 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS AETONINUS. 
 
 287 
 
 XII. 
 
 All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by 
 a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not 
 refuse them to thyself. And this means, if thou wilt 
 take no notice of all the past, and trust the future to 
 providence, and direct the present only conformably to 
 piety and justice. Conformably to piety, that thou 
 ma3mst be content with the lot which is assigned to 
 thee, for nature designed it for thee and thee for it. 
 Conformably to justice, that thou majmst always 
 speak the truth freely and without disguise, and do 
 the things which are agreeable to law and according 
 to the worth of each. And let neither another man’s 
 wickedness hinder thee, nor opinion nor vmice, nor yet 
 the sensations of the poor flesh which has grown about 
 thee ; for the passive part will look to this. If then, 
 whatever the time may be when thou shalt be near to 
 thy departure, neglecting everjflhing else thou shalt 
 'respect only thy ruling faculty and the divinity within 
 thee, and if thou shalt be afraid not because thou must 
 some time cease to live, but if thou shalt fear never to 
 have begun to live according to nature, then thou wilt 
 be a man worthy of the universe which has produced 
 thee, and thou wilt cease to be a stranger in thy native 
 land, and to wonder at things which happen daily as 
 if they were something unexpected, and to be depend- 
 ent on this or that. 
 
 2. God sees the minds (ruling principles) of aU men 
 
288 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 bared of the material vesture and rind and impurities. 
 For with his intellectual part alone he touches the 
 intelligence only which has flowed and been derived 
 from himself into these bodies. And if thou also usest 
 thyself to do this, thou wilt rid thyself of thy much 
 trouble. For he who regards not tlie poor flesh which 
 envelops him, surely will not trouble himself by look- 
 ing after raiment and dwelling and fame and such 
 like externals and show. 
 
 3. The things are three of which thou art composed, 
 a little body, a little breath [life], intelligence. Of 
 these the first two are thine, so far as it is thy duty to 
 take care of them ; but the third alone is properly 
 thine. Therefore, if thou shalt separate from thyself, 
 that is, from thy understanding, whatever others do or 
 say, and whatever thou hast done or said thyself, and 
 whatever future things trouble thee because they may 
 happen, and whatever in the body which envelops 
 thee, or in the breath [life], which is by nature associ- 
 ated with the body, is attached to thee independent of 
 thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent 
 vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power 
 exempt from the things of fate can live pure and free 
 by itself, doing what is just and accepting what 
 happens and saying the truth : if thou wilt separate, I 
 say, from this ruling faculty the things which are 
 attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the 
 things of time to come and of time that is past, and 
 wilt make thyself like Empedocles’ sphere : 
 
 All round, and in its joyous rest reposing;* 
 
 and if thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy 
 
 * The verse of Empedocles is corrupt in Antoninus. 
 
MARCUS AURELIUS AMTONINUS. 
 
 289 
 
 life, that is, the present, then thou wilt be able to pass 
 that portion of life which remains for thee up to the 
 time of thy death, free from perturbations, nobly, and 
 obedient to thy own demon [to the god that is within 
 thee] (ii. 13, 17 ; hi. 5, 6 ; xi. 12). 
 
 4:. I have often wondered how it is that every man 
 loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet 
 sets less yalue on his own opinion of himself than on 
 the opinion of others. If then a god or a wise teacher 
 should present himself to a man and bid him to think 
 of nothing and to design nothing which he would not 
 express as soon as he conceived it, he could not endure 
 it even for a single day. So much more respect have 
 we to what our neighbors shall think of us than to 
 what we shall think of ourselves. 
 
 5. How can it be that the gods, after having arranged 
 all things well and benevolently for mankind, have 
 overlooked this alone, that some men and very good 
 men, and men who, as we may say, have had most 
 communion with the divinity, and through pious acts 
 and religious observances have been most intimate 
 with the divinity, when they have once died should 
 never exist again, but sJiould be completely extin- 
 guished ? 
 
 But if this is so, be assured that if it ought to have 
 been otherwise, the gods would have done it. Bor if 
 it were just, it would also be possible; and if it were 
 according to nature, nature would have had it so. 
 But because it is not so, if in fact it is not so, be thou 
 convinced that it ought not to have been so : for thou 
 seest even of thyself that in this inquiry thou art dis- 
 puting with the deity ; and we should not thus dispute 
 with the gods, unless they were most excellent and 
 
290 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 most just; but if this is so, they would not have 
 allowed anything in the ordering of the universe to be 
 neglected unjustly and irrationally. 
 
 6. rractice thyself even in the things which thou 
 despairest of accomplishing. For even the left hand, 
 which is ineffectual for all other things for want of 
 practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than the 
 right hand ; for it has been practiced in this. 
 
 7. Consider in what condition, both in body and soul, 
 a man should be when he is overtaken by death ; and 
 consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of 
 time, past and future, the feebleness of all matter. 
 
 8. Contemplate the formative principles [forms] of 
 things bare of their coverings ; the purposes of actions ; 
 consider what pain is, what pleasure is, and death, and 
 fame; who is to himself the cause of his uneasiness; 
 how no man is hindered by another ; that everything 
 is opinion. 
 
 9. In the application of thy principles thou must be 
 like the pancratiast, not like the gladiator ; for the 
 gladiator lets fall the sword which he uses and is 
 killed ; but the other always has his hand, and needs 
 to do nothing else than use it. 
 
 10. See what things are in themselves, dividing them 
 into matter, form and purpose. 
 
 11. What a power man has to do nothing except 
 what God will approve, and to accept all that God 
 may give him. 
 
 12. With respect to that which happens conformably 
 to nature, we ought to blame neither gods, for they do 
 nothing wrong either voluntarily or involuntarily, nor 
 men, for they do nothing wrong except involuntarily. 
 Consequently we should blame nobody (ii. 11, 12, 13 ; 
 vii. 62 ; viii. 17). 
 
MARCUS A URBLIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 291 
 
 13. How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who 
 is surprised at anything which happens in life. 
 
 14:. Either there is a fatal necessity and invincible 
 order, or a kind providence, or a confusion without a 
 purpose and Avithout a director (iv. 27). If then there 
 is an invincible necessity, why dost thou resist % But 
 if there is a providence which allows itself to be pro- 
 pitiated, make thyself worthy of the help of the 
 divinity. But if there is a confusion without a 
 governor, be content that in such a tempest thou hast 
 in thyself a certain ruling intelligence. And even if 
 the tempest carry thee away, let it carry away the 
 poor flesh, the poor breath, everything else ; for the 
 intelligence at least it will not carry away. 
 
 15. Does the light of the lamp shine Avithout losing 
 its splendor until it is extinguished ; and shall the 
 truth which is in thee and justice and temperance be 
 extinguished [before thy death] ? 
 
 16. When a man has presented the appearance of 
 having done wrong, [say], How then do I knoAV if this 
 is a wrongful act ? And even if he has done Avrong, 
 how do I knoAV that he has not condemned himself ? 
 and so this is like tearing his own face. Consider that 
 he, Avho Avould not have the bad man do Avrong, is like 
 the man Avho Avould not have the fig-tree to bear juice 
 in the figs, and infants to cry, and the horse to neigh, 
 and whatever else must of necessity be. For what 
 must a man do Avho has such a character ? If then 
 thou art irritable,f cure this man’s disposition.* 
 
 * The interpreters translate yopyoZ by the words “acer, valid- 
 usque,” and “skillful.” But in Epictetus (ii. 16, 20 ; iii. 12, 10) this 
 word means “vehement,” “prone to anger,” “irritable,” 
 
292 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 17. If it is not right, do not do it : if it is not true, 
 
 do not say it. [For let thy efforts be ]* 
 
 18. In everything always observe what the thing is 
 which produces for thee an appearance, and resolve it 
 by dividing it into the formal, the material, the pur- 
 pose, and the time within which it must end. 
 
 19. Perceive at last that thou hast in thee something 
 better and more divine than the things which cause 
 the various effects, and, as it were, pull thee by the 
 strings. What is there nowin my mind? is it fear, 
 or suspicion, or desire, or anything of the kind? (v. ii.) 
 
 20. First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a 
 purpose. Second, make thy acts refer to nothing else 
 than to a social end. 
 
 21. Consider that before long thou wilt be nobody 
 and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist which 
 thou now seest, nor any of those who are now living. 
 For all things are formed by nature to change and be 
 turned and to perish in order that other things in con- 
 tinuous succession may exist (ix 28). 
 
 22. Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion 
 is in thy power. Take away then, when thou choos- 
 est, th}^ opinion, and like a mariner, who has doubled 
 the promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, 
 and a waveless bay. 
 
 23. Any one activity, whatever it may be, when it 
 has ceased at its proper time, suffers no evil because it 
 has ceased ; nor he wlio has done this act, does he 
 suffer any evil for this reason that the act has ceased. 
 In like manner then the whole which consists of all 
 the acts, which is our life, if it cease at its proper time, 
 suffers no evil for this reason that it has ceased ; nor 
 
 * There is something wrong here, or incomplete. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 293 
 
 he who has terminated this series at the proper time, 
 has he been ill dealt with. But the proper time and 
 the limit nature fixes, sometimes as in old age the 
 peculiar nature of man, but always the universal 
 nature, by the change of whose parts the whole uni- 
 verse continues ever young and perfect. And every 
 thing which is useful to the universal is alwa^'s good 
 and in season. Therefore the termination of life for 
 every man is no evil, because neither is it shameful, 
 since it is both independent of the will and not opposed 
 to the general interest, but it is good, since it is sea- 
 sonable and profitable to and congruent with the uni- 
 versal. For thus too he is moved by the deity who is 
 moved in the same manner with the deity and moved 
 toward the same things in his mind. 
 
 2d. These three principles thou must have in readi- 
 ness. In the things which thou doest do nothing either 
 inconsiderately or otherwise than as justice herself 
 would act ; but with respect to what may happen to 
 thee from without, consider that it happens either by 
 chance or according to providence, and thou must 
 neither blame chance nor accuse providence. Second, 
 consider what every being is from the seed to the time 
 of its receiving a soul, and from the reception of a 
 soul to the giving back of the same, and of what things 
 every being is compounded and into what things it is 
 resolved. Third, if thou shouldst suddenly be raised 
 up above the earth, and shouldst look down on human 
 things, and observe the variety of them how great it 
 is, and at the same time also shouldst see at a glance 
 how great is the number of beings who dwell all 
 around in the air and the ether, consider that as often 
 as thou shouldst be raised up, thou wouldst see the 
 
294 
 
 TBE MEDITATIONS OE 
 
 same things, sameness of form and shortness of dura- 
 tion. Are these things to be proud of ? 
 
 25. Cast away opinion : thou art saved. Who then 
 hinders thee from casting it away ? 
 
 26. When thou art troubled about anything, thou 
 hast forgotten this, that all things happen according to 
 the universal nature ; and forgotten this, that a man’s 
 wrongful act is nothing to thee ; and further thou hast 
 forgotten this, that everything which happens, always 
 happened so and will happen so, and now happens 
 so everywhere ; forgotten this, too, how close is the 
 kinship between a man and the whole human race, for 
 it is a community, not of a little blood or seed, but of 
 intelligence. And thou hast forgotten this too, that 
 every man’s intelligence is a god, and is an efflux of the 
 deity;* and forgotten this, that nothing is. a man’s 
 OAvn, but that his child and his body and his very soul 
 came from the deity ; forgotten this, that everything 
 is opinion ; and lastly thou hast forgotten that every 
 man lives the present time only, and loses only this. 
 
 27. Constantly bring to thy recollection those who 
 have complained greatly about anything, those who 
 have been most conspicuous by the greatest fame or 
 misfortunes or enmities or fortunes of anj^ kind : then 
 think where are they all now ? Smoke and ash and a 
 tale, or not even a tale. And let there be present to 
 thy mind also everything of this sort, how Fabius 
 Catullinus lived in the country, and Lucius Lupus in his 
 gardens, and Stertinius at Baiae, and Tiberius at Capreae, 
 and Velius Rufus [or Rufus at Yelia] ; and in fine think 
 of the eager pursuit of anything cojoined with pride 
 
 * See Epictetus, ii. 8, 9, etc. 
 t Epict. i. 8, 6. 
 
MARCUS A URELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 295 
 
 and how worthless everything is after which men 
 violently strain ; and how much more philosophical it 
 is for a man in the opportunities presented to him to 
 show himself just, temperate, obedient to the gods, and 
 to do this with all simplicity : for the pride which is 
 proud of its want of pride is the most iniolerable of all. 
 
 28. To those who ask. Where hast thou seen the gods, 
 or how dost thou comprehend that they exist and so 
 worshipest them, I answer, in the first place, they may 
 be seen even with the eyes ;* in the second place neither 
 have I seen even my own soul and yet I honor it. 
 Thus then with respect to the gods, from what I con- 
 stantly experience of their power, from this I compre- 
 hend that they exist and I venerate them. 
 
 29. The safety of life is this, to examine everything 
 
 ■* “Seen even with the eyes.” It is supposed that this may be 
 explained hy the Stoic doctrine, that the universe is a god or living 
 being (iv. 40), and that the celestial bodies are gods (viii. 19). But 
 the emperor may mean that we know that the gods exist, as he after- 
 wards states it, because we see what they do ; as we know that man 
 has intellectual powers, because we see what he does, and in no other 
 way do we know it. This passage then will agree with the passage 
 in the Epistle to the Romans (i. v. 20), and with the Epistle to the 
 Colossians (i. 15), in which Jesus Christ is named “the image of 
 
 the invisible god and with the passage in the Gospel of St. John 
 (xiv. v. 9). 
 
 Gataker, whose notes are a wonderful collection of learrlng, and 
 all of it sound and good, quotes a passage of Calvin which is founded 
 on St. Paul’s language (Rom. 1. ®. 20) ; “ God by creating the uni- 
 verse [or world, mundum], being himself invisible, has presented 
 himself to our eyes conspicuously in a certain visible form.” He also 
 quotes Seneca (De Benef. iv. c. 8) : “ Quocunque te flexeris, ibi ilium 
 videbie occurrentem tibi : nihil ab illo vacat, opussuum ipse implet.” 
 Compare also Cicero, De Senectute (c. 22), Xenophon’s Cyropsedia 
 (viii. 7) and Mem. iv. 3 ; also Epictetus, i. 6, de Providentia. I think 
 that my iaterpretation of Antoninus is right! 
 
296 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF 
 
 all through, what it is itself, what is its material, what 
 the formal part ; with all thy soul to do justice and to 
 say the truth. What remains except to enjoy life by 
 joining one good thing to another so as not to leave 
 even the smallest intervals between. 
 
 30. There is one light of the sun, though it is inter- 
 rupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite. 
 There is one common substance,* though it is distributed 
 among countless bodies which have their several 
 qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed 
 among infinite natures and individual circumscriptions 
 [or individuals]. There is one intelligent soul, though 
 it seems to be divided. Now in the things which have 
 been mentioned all the other parts, such as those which 
 are air and matter, are without sensation and have no 
 fellowship : and yet even these parts the intelligent 
 principle holds together, and the gravitation toward 
 the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends 
 to that which is of the same kin, and combines 
 with it, and the feeling for communion is not 
 interrupted. 
 
 31. What dost thou wish? To continue to exist? 
 W ell, dost thou wish to have sensation ? movement ? 
 growth? and then again to cease to grow? to use thy 
 speech? to think? What is there of all these things 
 which seem to thee worth desiring ? But if it is easy 
 to set little value on all these things, turn to that 
 which remains, which is to follow reason and god. 
 But it is inconsistent with honoring reason and god to 
 be troubled because by death a man will be deprived 
 of the other things. 
 
 32. How small a part of the boundless and unfath- 
 
 * iv. 40. 
 
MABCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
 297 
 
 omable time is assigned to every man ? For it is very 
 soon swallowed up in the eternal. And how small a 
 part of the whole substance ? And how small a part 
 of the universal soul ? And on what a small clod of 
 the whole earth thou creepest ? Reflecting on all this 
 consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy 
 nature leads thee, and to endure that which the 
 common nature brings. 
 
 33. How does the ruling faculty make use of itself? 
 For all lies in this. But everything else, whether it is 
 in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes 
 and smoke. 
 
 34. This reflection is most adapted to move us to 
 contempt of death, that even those who think pleasure 
 to be a good, and pain an evil, still have despised it. 
 
 35. The man to whom that only is good which comes 
 in due season, and to whom it is the same thing 
 whether he has done more or fewer acts conformable 
 to right reason, and to whom it makes no difference 
 whether he contemplates the world for a longer or a 
 shorter time — for this man neither is death a terrible 
 thing (hi. 7 ; vi. 23 ; x. 20 ; xii. 23). 
 
 36. JMan, thou hast been a citizen in this great state 
 [the world] : * what difference does it make to thee 
 whether for five years [or three]? For that which is 
 conformable to the laws is just for all. Where is the 
 hardship then, if no tyrant nor yet an unjust judge 
 sends thee away from the state, but nature who 
 brought thee into it? The same as if a praetor who 
 has employed an actor dismisses him from the stage.* 
 “ But I have not finished the five acts, but only three 
 
 *ii. 16; iii. 11: jv. 29. 
 8 J Si; 1. 
 
298 
 
 THE MEDITATIONS OF ANTONINUS. 
 
 of them.” Thou sayest well, but in life the three acts 
 are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete 
 drama is determined by him who was once the cause 
 of its composition, and now of its dissolution : but thou 
 art the cause of neither. Depart then satisfied, for he 
 also who releases thee is satisfied. 
 
INDEX 
 
 **♦ Tte paragraphs (par.) and lines (1.) are those of the sections. 
 
 Active, man is by nature, ix. 16. 
 
 Advice from the good to be taken, vi. 21; viii. 16. 
 
 Affectation, vii. 60; viii. 30; xi. 18 (par. 9), 19. 
 
 Anger discouraged, vi. 26, 27 ; xi. 18. 
 
 Anger, offenses of, ii. 10. 
 
 Anger, uselessness of, v. 28; viii. 4. 
 
 Appearances not to be regarded, v. 36; vi. 3, 13. 
 
 Astonishment should not be felt at anything that happens, viii. 15; 
 xii. 1, 13. 
 
 Attainment, what is within everyone’s, vii. 67; viii, 8. 
 
 Attention to what is said or done, vi. 53; vii. 4, 30; viii. 22. 
 
 Bad, the, ii. 1. 
 
 Beautiful, the, li. 1. 
 
 Causal. See Formal. 
 
 Change keeps the world ever new, vii. 25; viii. 50(1. 13); xii. 23 (1. 13). 
 Change, law of, iv. 3, 36; v. 13, 23; vi. 4, 15, 36; vii. 18; viii. 6; ix. 
 
 19, 28 (par. 2), 35; x. 7; xii. 21. 
 
 Change, no evil in, iv. 42. 
 
 Christians, the, xi. 3. 
 
 Circle, things come round in a, ii. 14. 
 
 Comedy, new, xi. 6. 
 
 Comedy, old, xi. 6. 
 
 Complaining, uselessness of, viii. 17, 50. 
 
 Connection. See Universe. 
 
 Conquerors are robbers, x. 10. 
 
 Contentment. See Resignation. 
 
 Co-operation. See Mankind and Universe. 
 
300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Demon, the, ii. 13, 17; iii. 6 (1. 8), 7, 16 (1. 14); v. 10, 27; xii. 3. 
 Death, ii. 11, 12, 17; iii. 3, 7; iv. 5; v. 33; vi. 2, 24, 28; vii. 32; viii. 
 
 20, 58; is. 3, 21; x. 36; xii. 23, 34, 35. 
 
 Death inevitable, iii. 3; iv. 3 (1. 19), 6, 32, 48, 50; v. 33; vi. 47; viii. 
 25, 31. 
 
 Desire, offenses of, ii. 10. 
 
 Destiny, iii. 11 (1. 23); iv. 26; v. 8 (1. 10, etc.), 24; vii. 57; x. 5. 
 Discontent. See Resignation. 
 
 Doubts discussed, vi. 10; vii. 75; ix. 28, 39; xii. 5, 14. 
 
 Duty, all importance of, vi. 2, 22; x. 22. 
 
 Earth, insignificance of the, iii. 10; iv. 3 (par. 2); vi. 36; viii. 21; xii. 32. 
 Earthly things, transitory nature of, ii. 12, 17; iv. 32, 33, 35, 48; v. 
 
 23; vi. 15, 36; vii. 21, 34; viii. 21, 25; x. 18, 31; xii. 27. 
 
 Earthly things, worthlessness of, ii. 12; v. 10; 33; vi. 15; vii. 3; ix. 
 
 24, 36; xi. 2; xii. 27. 
 
 Equanimity, x. 8. 
 
 Example, we should not follow bad, vi. 6; vii. 65. 
 
 Existence, meanness of, viii. 24. 
 
 Existence, the object of, v. 1; viii. 19. 
 
 External things cannot really harm a man, or affect the soul, ii. 11 
 (1, 12); iv. 3, 8, 39, 49 (par. 2); v. 35; vii. 64; viii. 1, 32, 51 (par. 2); 
 ix. 31; X. 33. 
 
 Failure, x. 12. 
 
 Fame, worthlessness of, iii. 10; iv. 3 (1. 38), 19, 33 (1. 10); v. 33; vi. 
 
 16, 18; viii. 34; viii. 1, 44; ix. 30. 
 
 Fear, what we ought to, xii. 1 (1. 19). 
 
 Fellowship. See Mankind. 
 
 Few things necessary for a virtuous and happy life, ii. 5; iii. 10; vii. 
 
 67; X. 8 (1. 24). 
 
 Flattery, xi. 18 (par. 10). 
 
 Formal, the, and the material, iv. 21 (par. 2); v. 13; vii. 10, 29; viii. 
 11; ix. 25; xii. 8, 10, 18. 
 
 Future, we should not be anxious about the, vii. 8; viii. 36; xii. 1. 
 
 Gods, perfect j ustice of the, xii. 5 (par. 2). 
 
 Gods, the, vi. 44; xii. 28. 
 
 Gods, the, cannot be evil, ii. 11; vi. 44. 
 
 Good, the, ii. 1. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 301 
 
 Habit of thought, v. 16. 
 
 Happiness, what is true, v. 9, 34; viii. 1; x. 33. 
 
 Help to be accepted from others, vii. 7. 
 
 Heroism, true, xi. 18 (par. 10). 
 
 Ignorance. See Wrong-doing. 
 
 Independence. See Self-reliance. 
 
 Indifferent things, ii. 11; iv. 39; vi. 33; ix. 1 (1. 29). 
 
 Individual, the. See Interests. 
 
 Infinity. See Time. 
 
 Ingratitude. See Mankind. 
 
 Injustice, ix. 1. 
 
 Intelligent soul, rational beings participate in the same, iv. 40; ix. 8, 
 9; X. 1 (1. 15); xii. 26, 30. 
 
 Interests of the whole and the individual identical, iv. 23; v. 8 (1. 30); 
 vi. 45, 54; x. 6, 20, 33; xii. 23 (1. 13). 
 
 Justice, V. 34; x. 11; xi. 10. 
 
 Justice and reason identical, xi. 1. 
 
 Justice prevails everywhere, iv. 10. 
 
 Leisure, we ought to have some, viii. 51. 
 
 Life, a good, everywhere possible, v. 16. 
 
 Life can only be lived once, ii. 14; x. 31 (1. 10). 
 
 Life, shortness of, ii. 4, 17; iii. 10, 14; iv. 17, 48, 60; vi. 15, 36, 56; x. 
 31, 34. 
 
 Life to be made a proper use of, without delay, ii. 4; iii. 1, 14; iv. 17, 
 37; vii. 56; viii. 32; x. 31 (1. 15); xii. 1 (1. 15). 
 
 Life, whether long or short, matters not, vi. 49; ix. 33; xii. 36. 
 
 Magnanimity, x. 8. 
 
 Mankind, co-operation and fellowship of , one with another, ii. 1 (1. 12), 
 16; iii. 4, 11; iv. 4, 33; v. 16 (1. 13), 20; vi. 7, 14, 23, 39; vii. 5, 13, 
 33, 55; viii. 13, 26, 34, 43, 59; ix. 1, 9, 23, 31, 42; x. 36 (1. 13); xi. 
 8, 31; xii. 20. 
 
 Mankind, folly and baseness of, v. 10 (1. 10); ix. 2, 3 (1. 15), 29; x. 15, 
 19. 
 
 Mankind, ingratitude of, x. 36. 
 
 Material, the. See Formal. 
 
 Nature, after products of, iii. 2; vi. 36. 
 
302 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nature, bounds fixed by, v. 1. 
 
 Nature, man formed by, to bear all that happens to him, v. 18; 
 viii. 46. 
 
 Nature, nothing evil, which is according to, ii. 17; vi. 33. 
 
 Nature of the universe. See Universe, nothing that happens is con- 
 trary to the nature of the. 
 
 Nature, perfect beauty of, iii. 2; vi. 36. 
 
 Nature, we should live according to, iv. 48, 51; v. 3, 25; vi. 16 (1. 14); 
 vii. 15, 55; viii. 1, 54; x. 33. 
 
 New, nothing under the sun, ii. 14 (1. 12); iv. 44; vi. 37, 46; vii. 1, 
 49; viii. 6; ix. 14; x. 27; xi. 1. 
 
 Object, we should always act with a view to some, ii. 7, 16 (1. 16); iii. 
 
 4; iv. 2; viii. 17; x. 37; xi. 21; xii, 20. 
 
 Obsolete, all things become, iv. 33. 
 
 Omission, sins of, ix. 5. 
 
 Opinion, iv. 3, 7, 12, 39; vi. 52, 57; vii. 2, 14, 16, 26, 68; viii. 14, 29, 
 40, 47, 49, ix. 13, 29 (1. 10), 32, 42 (1. 22); x. 3; xi. 16, 18; xii. 
 22, 25. 
 
 Others’ conduct not to be inquired into, iii. 4; iv. 18; v. 25. 
 
 Others, opinion of, to be disregarded, viii. 1 (1. 10); x. 8 (1. 13), 11; xi. 
 13; xii. 4. 
 
 Others, we should be lenient toward, ii. 13; iii. 11; iv. 3(1. 19); v. 
 33 (1. 19); vi. 20, 27; vii. 26, 62, 63, 70; ix. 11, 27; x. 4; xi. 9, 13, 18; 
 xii. 16. 
 
 Others, we should examine the ruling principles of, iv. 38; ix. 18, 22, 
 27, 34. 
 
 Ourselves often to blame, for expecting men to act contrary to their 
 nature, ix. 42 (1. 26). 
 
 Ourselves, reformation should begin with, xi. 29. 
 
 Ourselves, we should judge, x. 30; xi. 18 (par. 4). 
 
 Pain, vii. 33, 64; viii. 28. 
 
 Perfection not to be expected in this world, ix. 29 (1. 8). 
 
 Perseverance, v. 9; x. 12. 
 
 Persuasion, to be used, vi. 50. 
 
 Perturbation, vi. 16; vii. 58; ix. 31. 
 
 Pessimism, ix. 35. 
 
 Philosophy, v. 9; vi. 12; ix. 41 (1. 13). 
 
 Pleasure, he who pursues, is guilty of impiety, ix. 1 (1. 21). 
 
INDEX. 
 
 303 
 
 Pleasures are enjoyed by the bad, vi. 34; ix. 1 (1. 25). 
 
 Power, things in our own, v. 5, 10; vi. 32, 41, 52, 58; vii. 2, 14, 54, 
 68; X. 32, 33. 
 
 Power, things not in our own, v. 33; vi. 41. 
 
 Practice is good, even in things which we despair of accomplishing, 
 xii. 6. 
 
 Praise, worthlessness of, iii. 4; iv. 20; vi. 16, 59; vii. 62; viii. 52, 53; 
 ix. 34. 
 
 Prayer, the right sort of, v. 7; ix. 40. 
 
 Present time the only thing a man really possesses, ii. 14; iii. 10; viii. 
 44; xii. 3. 
 
 Procrastination. See Life to be made a proper use of, etc. 
 
 Puppet pulled by strings of desire, ii. 2; iii. 16; vi. 16, 28; vii. '3, 29; 
 xii. 19. 
 
 Rational soul. See Ruling part. 
 
 Rational soul, spherical form of the, viii. 41; xi. 12; xii. 3 (and see 
 Ruling part). 
 
 Reason, all-prevailing, v. 32; vi. 1, 40. 
 
 Reason and nature identical, vii. 11. 
 
 Reason, the, can adapt everything that happens to its own use, v. 20; 
 vi. 8; vii. 68 (1. 14); viii. 35; x. 31. 
 
 Reason, we should live according to. See Nature. 
 
 Repentance does not follow renouncement of pleasure, viii. 10. 
 
 Resignation and contentment, iii. 4 (1. 23, etc.), 16 (1. 11, etc.); iv. 23, 
 31, 33, 34; v. 8, 33 (1. 14); vi. 16, 44, 49; vii. 27, 57; ix. 37; x. 1, 11, 
 14, 25, 28, 35. 
 
 Revenge, best kind of, vi. 6. 
 
 Rising from bed, v. 1; viii. 12. 
 
 Ruling part, the, ii. 2; iv. 1; v. 11, 19, 21, 26; vi. 14, 35; vii. 16, 55 
 (par. 2); viii. 45, 48, 56, 57, 60, 61; ix. 15, 26; x. 24, 33 (1. 17), 38; 
 xi. 1, 19, 20; xii. 3, 14. 
 
 Self reliance and steadfastness of soul, iii. 5, 12; iv. 11, 29 (1. 3), 49 
 (par. 1); v. 3, 34 (1. 3); vi. 44 (1. 17); vii. 12, 15; ix. 28 (1. 8), 29; xii, 
 14. 
 
 Self-restraint, v. 33. 
 
 Self, we should retire into, iv. 3 (1. 6 and par. 2); vii. 28, 33, 59; viii. 
 48. 
 
 Senses, movements of the, to be disregarded, v. 31 (1. 10); vii. 55 (par, 
 2); viii. 26, 39; x. 8 (1. 17); xi. 19; xii. 1 (1. 12). 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sickness, behavior in, ix. 41. 
 
 Social. See Mankind. 
 
 Steadfastness of soul. See Self-reliance. 
 
 Substance, the universal, iv. 40; v. 24; vii. 19, 23; xii. 7, 30. 
 Suicide, v. 29; viii. 47; x. 8 (1. 27). 
 
 Time compared to a river, iv. 43. 
 
 Time, infinity of, iv. 3 (1. 38), 50; v. 24; ix. 32; xii. 7, 32. 
 
 Tragedy, xi. 6. 
 
 Tranquillity of soul, iv. 3; vi. 11; vii. 68; viii. 28. 
 
 Ugly, the, ii. 1. 
 
 Unintelligible things, v. 10. 
 
 Universe, harmony of the, iv. 27, 45; v. 8 (1. 15). 
 
 Universe, intimate connection and co operation of all things in the, 
 one with another, ii. 3, 9; iv. 29; v. 8, 30; vi. 38, 42, 43; vii. 9, 19, 
 68; viii. 7; ix. 1; x. 1. 
 
 Universe, nothing that dies falls out of the, viii, 18, 50 (1. 11); x. 7 (1. 
 
 21 ). 
 
 Universe, nothing that happens is contrary to the nature of the, v. 
 
 8, 10; vi. 9, 58; viii. 5; xii. 26. 
 
 Unnecessary things, v. 15. 
 
 Unnecessary thoughts, words and actions, iii. 4; iv. 24. 
 
 Vain professions, x. 16; xi. 15. 
 
 Virtue, vi. 17. 
 
 Virtue its own reward, v. 6; vii. 73; ix. 42 (1. 40); xi. 4, 
 
 Virtue, omnipotence of, iv. 16. 
 
 Virtue, pleasure in contemplating, vi. 48. 
 
 "Whole, integrity of the, to be preserved, v. 8. 
 
 Whole, the. See Interests. 
 
 Wickedness has always existed, vii. 1. 
 
 Wickedness must exist in the world, viii. 15, 50; ix. 42; xi. 18 (par. 
 11); xii. 16. 
 
 Worst evil, the, ix. 2 (1. 8). 
 
 Worth and importance, things of real, iv. 33; v. 10 (1. 17); vi. 16, 30 
 (1. 3), 47; vii. 20, 44, 46, 58, 66; viii. 2, 3, 5; ix. 6, 12; x. 8 (1. 24), 
 11; xii. 1, 27, 31, 33. 
 
INDEX. 305 
 
 Wrong-doing cannot really harm any one, vii. 22; viii. 55; is. 42(1. 20); 
 X. 13 (par. 1); si. 18 (par. 7). 
 
 Wrong-doing injures the wrong-doer, iv. 26; is. 4, 38; si. 18 (par. 3). 
 Wrong-doing owing to ignorance, ii. 1, 13; vi. 27; vii. 22, 26, 62, 63; 
 si. 18; xii. 12. 
 
 Wrong-doing to be left where it is, vii. 29; is. 20. 
 
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