ter, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good. Further, I owe it to the gods that I was not hurried into any offence 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 circumstances as put me to the trial. Further, I am thankful to the Gods. that I was subjected to a ruler and a father who was able to take away all pride from me, and to bring me to the knowledge that it is possible for a man to live in a palace without wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches and statues, and such like show; but that it is in such a man's power to bring himself very near to the fashion of a private person, without being for this reason either meaner in thought or more remiss in action with respect to the things which must be done for the public interest in a manner that befits a ruler. I thank the gods that I did not make more proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, and the other studies in which I should perhaps have been completely engaged if I had seen that I was making progress in them; that I made haste to place those who brought me up in the station of honor which they seemed to desire, that I received clear and frequent impressions about living according 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 living according to nature, though I still fall short of it through my own fault and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and I may almost say, their direct instructions; that my body has held out so long in such a kind of life, after having fallen into amatory passions I was cured; and, though I was often out of humor with Rusticus, I never did anything of which I had occasion to repent; that though it was my mother's fate to die young, she spent the last hours of her life with me; that whenever I

that

wished to help any man in his need, or on any other occasion, I was never told that I had not the means of doing it; and that to myself the same necessity never happened to receive anything from another; that I have such a wife, so obedient and so affectionate and so simple

for all these things require the help of the gods and for

This long quotation shows Marcus's character, his approvals and disapprovals; it also shows how fully he attributed to the gods all the favoring circumstances of his life, and that he attributed to them even his own virtuous conduct, his performing his duties to his benefactors, his governing his temper and freeing himself from his passions. The general tenor of the passage goes far towards recognizing the direct spiritual aid of the gods in guiding a man's virtuous rational will. Marcus asserts elsewhere the divine care of mankind: "But in truth [the gods] 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 provided for this also, that it should be altogether in a man's power not to fall into it." This is to say, the gods have put it in each man's power to live under all circumstances a life of rational virtue, and outside of this there is neither evil nor good. In another passage Marcus asserts that man may well pray for aid even in things within his power,— his real good or ill: "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 should not happen or happen? for certainly if they can co-operate with men, they can co-operate for these purposes. And perhaps thou wilt say the gods have placed them in thy

1i, 17. Quotations from Marcus Aurelius are from George Long's translation. 2 ii, 11.

power. Who has told thee that the gods do not aid us even in the things which are in our power? Begin then to pray for such things and thou wilt see. The highest part of man's nature, his reason and his virtuous will, comes from God, on whom man may well call for aid in willing what is right and acting accordingly. This is a divergence-up to which Seneca and Epictetus were leading-from the earlier Stoicism which limited man's source of strength to his own reason. "Be not ashamed to be helped," says Marcus.'

"Reverence the gods and help men. Short is life. There is only one fruit of this terrene life, a pious disposition and social acts." The sequence of thought suggests Marcus's way of connecting human virtue with the divine will and obedience to it, as elsewhere he does explicitly, thus, after the mode of Epictetus, giving unity to his system of religious morality: "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, but in no way to injure one another, he who transgresses her will is clearly guilty of impiety towards the highest divinity." Yes, men are made for each other, yet not dependent on each other for their own good: "The ruling power of each of us has its own office, for otherwise my neighbor's wickedness would be my harm, which God has not willed, in order that my unhappiness may not depend on another." And in spite of his thought of prayer to God for help, Marcus sometimes reverts to an older pagan standpoint through the thought that man must look to nothing without, to no other man, for strength: “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."" The reconcilement of

1 ix, 40.

4" To care for all men is according to man's nature," iii, 4; see viii, 59. ix, i; cf. iii, 13. 6 viii, 56. iii, 5.

this passage with the preceding lies in the growing thought of God's spiritual nature existing within each man,' so that aid from him is not aid from without; prayer is a seeking of further strength from the divine. nature, of which our rational souls are part. Marcus does not express this reconcilement, but his thoughts feel their way towards it.

Satisfaction of the Rational

Soul.

So "follow God, love mankind," says Marcus' consistently with his principles. "This too is a property of the rational soul, love of one's neighbor" ;' a property, mark, of the rational soul, through reason conscious of its affinity to other souls, and its higher affinity to God. The principles of Marcus's philosophy did not permit him to recognize instincts of the heart as valid grounds of conduct; through reason will he obey God; through reason will he care for man; through reason will he lead in every way a righteous life, and in reason find his satisfaction. "Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost thou not use it? For if this does its own work, what else dost thou wish?''' There is nothing better in life than "thy own mind's self-satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do according to right reason.' Here the standard of conduct towards others is brought back to its ultimate motive, the well-being of the man himself, which lies in right conduct according to the man's own rational nature and the reason of God, of which it forms part. Unquestionably Marcus's mind was set upon obedience to God; unquestionably he fulfilled his duties to mankind as he conceived them, and lived a righteous life. Yet, according to his own philosophy, his life was not well-ordered unless it possessed peace and happiness, unless it was contented with itself and free from bitterness, and unless he lived it with fair and open eyes, ready always to take to himself whatever was best and to base

1 Marcus often speaks of following obediently the divinity within; e. g., iii, 16. 9 vii, 31. xi, I. • iv, 13. 'iii, 6.

his conduct upon verities and not upon unreal assumptions. We may examine a little further the principles of Marcus's life and test it by them.

The Dis

satisfaction

1

"If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst of the Man, be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound that thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. This is a statement of general principles of living from the Stoical standpoint. Marcus strengthens them with excellent maxims, also of Stoical type: To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason;' consider that everything which happens, happens justly, and if thou observest carefully thou wilt find. it to be so;' 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; the universe loves to make whatever is about to be; I say then to the universe that I love as thou lovest; think of any trouble not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune; for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid, and so that which is an obstacle helps us on this road.' With regard to death, that is an operation of nature, like birth and coming to maturity, a matter of composition and decomposition, generation and decay: "Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature. Nature continually changes all things, making the new from the substance of the old

1 iii, 12.

2 vii, II.

8

3 iv, 10, cf. x, 6.

6

9

4

7 v, 20.

8 ix, 3.

9 iv, 5.