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Marcus Aurelius >> Meditations
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But although Marcus Aurelius may have held intellectually that
his soul was destined to be absorbed, and to lose consciousness
of itself, there were times when he felt, as all who hold
it must sometimes feel, how unsatisfying is such a creed.
Then he gropes blindly after something less empty and vain.
'Thou hast taken ship,' he says, 'thou hast sailed, thou art
come to land, go out, if to another life, there also shalt
thou find gods, who are everywhere.' There is more in this
than the assumption of a rival theory for argument's sake.
If worldly things 'be but as a dream, the thought is not
far off that there may be an awakening to what is real.
When he speaks of death as a necessary change, and points out that
nothing useful and profitable can be brought about without change,
did he perhaps think of the change in a corn of wheat, which is not
quickened except it die? Nature's marvellous power of recreating
out of Corruption is surely not confined to bodily things.
Many of his thoughts sound like far-off echoes of St. Paul;
and it is strange indeed that this most Christian
of emperors has nothing good to say of the Christians.
To him they are only sectaries 'violently and passionately
set upon opposition.
Profound as philosophy these Meditations certainly are not;
but Marcus Aurelius was too sincere not to see the essence
of such things as came within his experience. Ancient religions
were for the most part concerned with outward things.
Do the necessary rites, and you propitiate the gods; and these rites
were often trivial, sometimes violated right feeling or even morality.
Even when the gods stood on the side of righteousness,
they were concerned with the act more than with the intent.
But Marcus Aurelius knows that what the heart is full of, the man
will do. 'Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are,'
he says, 'such will thy mind be in time.' And every page of
the book shows us that he knew thought was sure to issue in act.
He drills his soul, as it were, in right principles, that when the
time comes, it may be guided by them. To wait until the emergency
is to be too late. He sees also the true essence of happiness.
'If happiness did consist in pleasure, how came notorious robbers,
impure abominable livers, parricides, and tyrants,
in so large a measure to have their part of pleasures?'
He who had all the world's pleasures at command can write thus
'A happy lot and portion is, good inclinations of the soul,
good desires, good actions.'
By the irony of fate this man, so gentle and good, so desirous
of quiet joys and a mind free from care, was set at the head of
the Roman Empire when great dangers threatened from east and west.
For several years he himself commanded his armies in chief.
In camp before the Quadi he dates the first book of his Meditations,
and shows how he could retire within himself amid the coarse
clangour of arms. The pomps and glories which he despised
were all his; what to most men is an ambition or a dream,
to him was a round of weary tasks which nothing but the stern
sense of duty could carry him through. And he did his work well.
His wars were slow and tedious, but successful.
With a statesman's wisdom he foresaw the danger to Rome of the
barbarian hordes from the north, and took measures to meet it.
As it was, his settlement gave two centuries of respite
to the Roman Empire; had he fulfilled the plan of pushing
the imperial frontiers to the Elbe, which seems to have
been in his mind, much more might have been accomplished.
But death cut short his designs.
Truly a rare opportunity was given to Marcus Aurelius of showing what
the mind can do in despite of circumstances. Most peaceful of warriors,
a magnificent monarch whose ideal was quiet happiness in home life,
bent to obscurity yet born to greatness, the loving father of children
who died young or turned out hateful, his life was one paradox.
That nothing might lack, it was in camp before the face of the enemy
that he passed away and went to his own place.
Translations THE following is a list of the chief English translations of
Marcus Aurelius: (1) By Meric Casaubon, 1634; (2) Jeremy Collier, 1701;
(3) James Thomson, 1747; (4) R. Graves, 1792; (5) H. McCormac, 1844;
(6) George Long, 1862; (7) G. H. Rendall, 1898; and (8) J. Jackson, 1906.
Renan's "Marc-Aurčle"--in his "History of the Origins of Christianity,"
which appeared in 1882--is the most vital and original book to be had
relating to the time of Marcus Aurelius. Pater's "Marius the Epicurean"
forms another outside commentary, which is of service in the imaginative
attempt to create again the period.
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS THE ROMAN EMPEROR
HIS FIRST BOOK
concerning HIMSELF:
Wherein Antoninus recordeth, What and of whom, whether Parents, Friends,
or Masters; by their good examples, or good advice and counsel,
he had learned:
Divided into Numbers or Sections.
ANTONINUS Book vi. Num. xlviii. Whensoever thou wilt rejoice thyself,
think and meditate upon those good parts and especial gifts, which thou
hast observed in any of them that live with thee:
as industry in one, in another modesty, in another bountifulness,
in another some other thing. For nothing can so much rejoice thee,
as the resemblances and parallels of several virtues, eminent in
the dispositions of them that live with thee, especially when
all at once, as it were, they represent themselves unto thee.
See therefore, that thou have them always in a readiness
THE FIRST BOOK
I. Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle
and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.
From the fame and memory of him that begot me I have learned both
shamefastness and manlike behaviour. Of my mother I have learned
to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do,
but to intend any evil; to content myself with a spare diet,
and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth.
Of my great-grandfather, both to frequent public schools
and auditories, and to get me good and able teachers at home;
and that I ought not to think much, if upon such occasions,
I were at excessive charges.
II. Of him that brought me up, not to be fondly addicted to
either of the two great factions of the coursers in the circus,
called Prasini, and Veneti: nor in the amphitheatre partially to
favour any of the gladiators, or fencers, as either the Parmularii,
or the Secutores. Moreover, to endure labour; nor to need many things;
when I have anything to do, to do it myself rather than by others;
not to meddle with many businesses; and not easily to admit of
any slander. III. Of Diognetus, not to busy myself about vain things,
and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken,
by such as take upon them to work wonders, and by sorcerers,
or prestidigitators, and impostors; concerning the power of charms,
and their driving out of demons, or evil spirits; and the like.
Not to keep quails for the game; nor to be mad after such things.
Not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech, and to apply
myself unto philosophy. Him also I must thank, that ever I heard
first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus, and that I did write
dialogues in my youth; and that I took liking to the philosophers'
little couch and skins, and such other things, which by the Grecian
discipline are proper to those who profess philosophy.
IV. To Rusticus I am beholding, that I first entered into
the conceit that my life wanted some redress and cure.
And then, that I did not fall into the ambition of ordinary sophists,
either to write tracts concerning the common theorems, or to exhort
men unto virtue and the study of philosophy by public orations;
as also that I never by way of ostentation did affect to show
myself an active able man, for any kind of bodily exercises.
And that I gave over the study of rhetoric and poetry, and of
elegant neat language. That I did not use to walk about the house
in my long robe, nor to do any such things. Moreover I learned
of him to write letters without any affectation, or curiosity;
such as that was, which by him was written to my mother from Sinuessa:
and to be easy and ready to be reconciled, and well pleased
again with them that had offended me, as soon as any of them
would be content to seek unto me again. To read with diligence;
not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge,
nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken of: whom also I
must thank that ever I lighted upon Epictetus his Hypomnemata,
or moral commentaries and commone-factions: which also he gave
me of his own.
V. From Apollonius, true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness,
and not to regard anything at all, though never so little,
but right and reason: and always, whether in the sharpest pains,
or after the loss of a child, or in long diseases, to be still
the same man; who also was a present and visible example unto me,
that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss:
a man not subject to be vexed, and offended with the incapacity
of his scholars and auditors in his lectures and expositions;
and a true pattern of a man who of all his good gifts and faculties,
least esteemed in himself, that his excellent skill and ability
to teach and persuade others the common theorems and maxims
of the Stoic philosophy. Of him also I learned how to receive
favours and kindnesses (as commonly they are accounted:)
from friends, so that I might not become obnoxious unto them,
for them, nor more yielding upon occasion, than in right I ought;
and yet so that I should not pass them neither, as an unsensible
and unthankful man.
VI. Of Sextus, mildness and the pattern of a family governed with
paternal affection; and a purpose to live according to nature:
to be grave without affectation: to observe carefully the several
dispositions of my friends, not to be offended with idiots,
nor unseasonably to set upon those that are carried with the
vulgar opinions, with the theorems, and tenets of philosophers:
his conversation being an example how a man might accommodate
himself to all men and companies; so that though his company were
sweeter and more pleasing than any flatterer's cogging and fawning;
yet was it at the same time most respected and reverenced:
who also had a proper happiness and faculty, rationally and
methodically to find out, and set in order all necessary
determinations and instructions for a man's life. A man without
ever the least appearance of anger, or any other passion;
able at the same time most exactly to observe the Stoic Apathia,
or unpassionateness, and yet to be most tender-hearted: ever
of good credit; and yet almost without any noise, or rumour:
very learned, and yet making little show.
Vii. From Alexander the Grammarian, to be un-reprovable myself,
and not reproachfully to reprehend any man for a barbarism,
or a solecism, or any false pronunciation, but dextrously by way
of answer, or testimony, or confirmation of the same matter
(taking no notice of the word) to utter it as it should have
been spoken; or by some other such close and indirect admonition,
handsomely and civilly to tell him of it. VIII. Of Fronto,
to how much envy and fraud and hypocrisy the state of a tyrannous
king is subject unto, and how they who are commonly called
[Eupatridas Gk.], i.e. nobly born, are in some sort incapable,
or void of natural affection.
IX. Of Alexander the Platonic, not often nor without great necessity
to say, or to write to any man in a letter, 'I am not at leisure';
nor in this manner still to put off those duties, which we owe
to our friends and acquaintances (to every one in his kind)
under pretence of urgent affairs.
X. Of Catulus, not to contemn any friend's expostulation,
though unjust, but to strive to reduce him to his former disposition:
freely and heartily to speak well of all my masters upon
any occasion, as it is reported of Domitius, and Athenodotus:
and to love my children with true affection.
XI. From my brother Severus, to be kind and loving to all them
of my house and family; by whom also I came to the knowledge
of Thrasea and Helvidius, and Cato, and Dio, and Brutus.
He it was also that did put me in the first conceit and desire
of an equal commonwealth, administered by justice and equality;
and of a kingdom wherein should be regarded nothing more
than the good and welfare of the subjects. Of him also,
to observe a constant tenor, (not interrupted, with any other
cares and distractions,) in the study and esteem of philosophy:
to be bountiful and liberal in the largest measure; always to
hope the best; and to be confident that my friends love me.
In whom I moreover observed open dealing towards those whom
he reproved at any time, and that his friends might without
all doubt or much observation know what he would, or would not,
so open and plain was he.
XII. From Claudius Maximus, in all things to endeavour to have power
of myself, and in nothing to be carried about; to be cheerful and
courageous in all sudden chances and accidents, as in sicknesses:
to love mildness, and moderation, and gravity: and to do my business,
whatsoever it be, thoroughly, and without querulousness.
Whatsoever he said, all men believed him that as he spake, so he thought,
and whatsoever he did, that he did it with a good intent.
His manner was, never to wonder at anything; never to be in haste,
and yet never slow: nor to be perplexed, or dejected, or at any
time unseemly, or excessively to laugh: nor to be angry, or suspicious,
but ever ready to do good, and to forgive, and to speak truth;
and all this, as one that seemed rather of himself to have been
straight and right, than ever to have been rectified or redressed;
neither was there any man that ever thought himself undervalued by him,
or that could find in his heart, to think himself a better man than he.
He would also be very pleasant and gracious.
XIII. In my father, I observed his meekness; his constancy
without wavering in those things, which after a due examination
and deliberation, he had determined. How free from all
vanity he carried himself in matter of honour and dignity,
(as they are esteemed:) his laboriousness and assiduity,
his readiness to hear any man, that had aught to say tending
to any common good: how generally and impartially he would
give every man his due; his skill and knowledge, when rigour
or extremity, or when remissness or moderation was in season;
how he did abstain from all unchaste love of youths;
his moderate condescending to other men's occasions as an
ordinary man, neither absolutely requiring of his friends,
that they should wait upon him at his ordinary meals,
nor that they should of necessity accompany him in his journeys;
and that whensoever any business upon some necessary
occasions was to be put off and omitted before it could
be ended, he was ever found when he went about it again,
the same man that he was before. His accurate examination
of things in consultations, and patient hearing of others.
He would not hastily give over the search of the matter,
as one easy to be satisfied with sudden notions and apprehensions.
His care to preserve his friends; how neither at any time
he would carry himself towards them with disdainful neglect,
and grow weary of them; nor yet at any time be madly fond of them.
His contented mind in all things, his cheerful countenance,
his care to foresee things afar off, and to take
order for the least, without any noise or clamour.
Moreover how all acclamations and flattery were repressed by him:
how carefully he observed all things necessary to the government,
and kept an account of the common expenses, and how patiently
he did abide that he was reprehended by some for this his strict
and rigid kind of dealing. How he was neither a superstitious
worshipper of the gods, nor an ambitious pleaser of men,
or studious of popular applause; but sober in all things,
and everywhere observant of that which was fitting; no affecter
of novelties: in those things which conduced to his ease
and convenience, (plenty whereof his fortune did afford him,)
without pride and bragging, yet with all freedom and liberty:
so that as he did freely enjoy them without any anxiety or
affectation when they were present; so when absent, he found no
want of them. Moreover, that he was never commended by any man,
as either a learned acute man, or an obsequious officious man,
or a fine orator; but as a ripe mature man, a perfect sound man;
one that could not endure to be flattered; able to govern
both himself and others. Moreover, how much he did honour all
true philosophers, without upbraiding those that were not so;
his sociableness, his gracious and delightful conversation,
but never unto satiety; his care of his body within bounds
and measure, not as one that desired to live long, or over-studious
of neatness, and elegancy; and yet not as one that did not
regard it: so that through his own care and providence,
he seldom needed any inward physic, or outward applications:
but especially how ingeniously he would yield to any that
had obtained any peculiar faculty, as either eloquence,
or the knowledge of the laws, or of ancient customs,
or the like; and how he concurred with them, in his best
care and endeavour that every one of them might in his kind,
for that wherein he excelled, be regarded and esteemed:
and although he did all things carefully after the ancient
customs of his forefathers, yet even of this was he not desirous
that men should take notice, that he did imitate ancient customs.
Again, how he was not easily moved and tossed up and down,
but loved to be constant, both in the same places and businesses;
and how after his great fits of headache he would return fresh
and vigorous to his wonted affairs. Again, that secrets he neither
had many, nor often, and such only as concerned public matters:
his discretion and moderation, in exhibiting of the public
sights and shows for the pleasure and pastime of the people:
in public buildings. congiaries, and the like. In all these things,
having a respect unto men only as men, and to the equity of
the things themselves, and not unto the glory that might follow.
Never wont to use the baths at unseasonable hours; no builder;
never curious, or solicitous, either about his meat,
or about the workmanship, or colour of his clothes,
or about anything that belonged to external beauty.
In all his conversation, far from all inhumanity,
all boldness, and incivility, all greediness and impetuosity;
never doing anything with such earnestness, and intention,
that a man could say of him, that he did sweat about it:
but contrariwise, all things distinctly, as at leisure;
without trouble; orderly, soundly, and agreeably. A man might have
applied that to him, which is recorded of Socrates, that he knew
how to want, and to enjoy those things, in the want whereof,
most men show themselves weak; and in the fruition, intemperate:
but to hold out firm and constant, and to keep within
the compass of true moderation and sobriety in either estate,
is proper to a man, who hath a perfect and invincible soul;
such as he showed himself in the sickness of Maximus.
XIV. From the gods I received that I had good grandfathers,
and parents, a good sister, good masters, good domestics,
loving kinsmen, almost all that I have; and that I never
through haste and rashness transgressed against any of them,
notwithstanding that my disposition was such, as that such a thing
(if occasion had been) might very well have been committed by me,
but that It was the mercy of the gods, to prevent such a concurring
of matters and occasions, as might make me to incur this blame.
That I was not long brought up by the concubine of my father;
that I preserved the flower of my youth. That I took not upon me
to be a man before my time, but rather put it off longer than I needed.
That I lived under the government of my lord and father,
who would take away from me all pride and vainglory, and reduce me
to that conceit and opinion that it was not impossible for a prince
to live in the court without a troop of guards and followers,
extraordinary apparel, such and such torches and statues, and other
like particulars of state and magnificence; but that a man may reduce
and contract himself almost to the state of a private man, and yet
for all that not to become the more base and remiss in those public
matters and affairs, wherein power and authority is requisite.
That I have had such a brother, who by his own example might stir
me up to think of myself; and by his respect and love, delight and
please me. That I have got ingenuous children, and that they
were not born distorted, nor with any other natural deformity.
That I was no great proficient in the study of rhetoric and poetry,
and of other faculties, which perchance I might have dwelt upon,
if I had found myself to go on in them with success.
That I did by times prefer those, by whom I was brought up, to such
places and dignities, which they seemed unto me most to desire;
and that I did not put them off with hope and expectation, that
(since that they were yet but young) I would do the same hereafter.
That I ever knew Apollonius and Rusticus, and Maximus.
That I have had occasion often and effectually to consider and meditate
with myself, concerning that life which is according to nature,
what the nature and manner of it is: so that as for the gods
and such suggestions, helps and inspirations, as might be expected
from them, nothing did hinder, but that I might have begun long
before to live according to nature; or that even now that I
was not yet partaker and in present possession of that life,
that I myself (in that I did not observe those inward motions,
and suggestions, yea and almost plain and apparent instructions
and admonitions of the gods,) was the only cause of it.
That my body in such a life, hath been able to hold out so long.
That I never had to do with Benedicta and Theodotus, yea and
afterwards when I fell into some fits of love, I was soon cured.
That having been often displeased with Rusticus, I never did
him anything for which afterwards I had occasion to repent.
That it being so that my mother was to die young, yet she lived
with me all her latter years. That as often as I had a purpose
to help and succour any that either were poor, or fallen into
some present necessity, I never was answered by my officers
that there was not ready money enough to do it; and that I myself
never had occasion to require the like succour from any other.
That I have such a wife, so obedient, so loving, so ingenuous.
That I had choice of fit and able men, to whom I might commit
the bringing up of my children. That by dreams I have received help,
as for other things, so in particular, how I might stay my casting
of blood, and cure my dizziness, as that also that happened to thee
in Cajeta, as unto Chryses when he prayed by the seashore.
And when I did first apply myself to philosophy, that I did not fall
into the hands of some sophists, or spent my time either in reading
the manifold volumes of ordinary philosophers, nor in practising
myself in the solution of arguments and fallacies, nor dwelt
upon the studies of the meteors, and other natural curiosities.
All these things without the assistance of the gods, and fortune,
could not have been.
XV. In the country of the Quadi at Granua, these. Betimes in
the morning say to thyself, This day I shalt have to do
with an idle curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer,
a crafty, false, or an envious man; an unsociable uncharitable man.
All these ill qualities have happened unto them, through ignorance
of that which is truly good and truly bad. But I that understand
the nature of that which is good, that it only is to be desired,
and of that which is bad, that it only is truly odious and shameful:
who know moreover, that this transgressor, whosoever he be,
is my kinsman, not by the same blood and seed, but by participation
of the same reason, and of the same divine particle; How can I
either be hurt by any of those, since it is not in their power
to make me incur anything that is truly reproachful? or angry,
and ill affected towards him, who by nature is so near unto me?
for we are all born to be fellow-workers, as the feet, the hands,
and the eyelids; as the rows of the upper and under teeth:
for such therefore to be in opposition, is against nature;
and what is it to chafe at, and to be averse from, but to be
in opposition? XVI. Whatsoever I am, is either flesh, or life,
or that which we commonly call the mistress and overruling part
of man; reason. Away with thy books, suffer not thy mind any more
to be distracted, and carried to and fro; for it will not be;
but as even now ready to die, think little of thy flesh:
blood, bones, and a skin; a pretty piece of knit and twisted work,
consisting of nerves, veins and arteries; think no more of it,
than so. And as for thy life, consider what it is; a wind;
not one constant wind neither, but every moment of an hour
let out, and sucked in again. The third, is thy ruling part;
and here consider; Thou art an old man; suffer not that excellent
part to be brought in subjection, and to become slavish:
suffer it not to be drawn up and down with unreasonable and
unsociable lusts and motions, as it were with wires and nerves;
suffer it not any more, either to repine at anything now present,
or to fear and fly anything to come, which the destiny
hath appointed thee.
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