KINGDOMS WITHOUT JUSTICE LIKE UNTO THIEVISH PUR CHASES justice aside, and what are kingdoms but fair thievish purchases? because what are thieves' purchases but little kingdoms? for in thefts the hands of the underlings are directed by the commander, the confederacy of them is sworn together, and the pillage is shared by the law amongst them. And if those ragamuffins grow but to be able enough to keep up forts, build habitations, possess cities, and conquer adjoining nations, then their government is no more called thievish, but graced with the eminent name of a kingdom, given and gotten, not because they have left their practices, but because that now they may use them without danger of law; for elegant and excellent was that pirate's answer to the great Macedonian Alexander, who had taken him; the king asking him how he durst molest the seas so, he replied with a free spirit, "How darest thou molest the whole world? But because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; thou doing it with a great navy, art called an emperor." Chapter iv., Book IV., "De Civitate Dei." DOMESTIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE ROMAN SPIRIT of WHEN CONQUEST THEN Marius, being imbrued with his countrymen's blood and having slain many of his adversaries, was at length foiled and forced to fly the city, that now got time to take a little breath; presently (to use Tully's words) upon the sudden Cinna and Marius began to be conquerors again. And then out went the heart bloods of the most worthy men, and the lights of all the city. But soon after came Sylla, and revenged this barbarous massacre; but with what damage to the state and city it is not my purpose to utter; for that this revenge was worse than if all the offenses that were punished had been left unpunished. Let Lucan testify, in these words : — "Excessit medicina modum, nimiumque secuta est "The medicine wrought too sore, making the cure The guilty fell; but none yet such remaining, For in that war of Sylla and Marius (besides those that fell in the field), the whole city, streets, market places, theatres, and temples were filled with dead bodies; that it was a question whether the conquerors slaughtered so many to attain the conquest, or because they had already attained it. In Marius's first victory, as his return from exile besides infinite other slaughters, Octavius's head (the consul's) was polled up in the pleading place; Cæsar and Fimbra were slain in their houses, the two Crassi, father and son, killed in one another's sight; Bebius and Numitorius trailed about upon hooks till death; Catullus poisoned himself to escape his enemies: and Menula, the jovial Flamine, cut his own veins and so bled himself out of their danger, Marius having given order for the killing of all them whom he did not re-salute, or proffer his hand unto. Chapter xvii., Book III., «De Civitate Dei.>> 1-19 MARCUS AURELIUS (MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS) (c. 121-180 A. D.) s A horse when he has run, a dog when he has tackled the game, a bee when it has made honey, so a (good) man when he has done a good act does not call out to others to come and see, but goes on to another act as a vine goes on to produce again its grapes in season." This is Long's translation of what is perhaps the most remarkable sentence in the writings of Marcus Aurelius. To the question of what is the highest good, the greatest happiness possible for life, the Stoics answered "tranquillity," the peaceful repose in itself of the mind great enough to be superior to the inevitable at its worst. But in this sentence the Stoic who has been called "the noblest of the pagans, the crown and flower of Stoicism," clearly proposes efficiency as the object of life. To work as the vine bears its fruit and then, without stopping for praise or blame, to prepare for new bearing as the natural object and reward of existence,- this is an ideal higher than that of self-repression, for it involves self-expression, the development of all that is positive and noble at the expense of the evil and merely negative forces of life. That the highest possible efficiency is ever to be attained except through the deliberate sacrifice, for the work's sake, of the peace of a mind at rest in itself,- this is not to be believed for human nature at its average, though it is not to be denied as a possibility. If Polycarp or any martyr who died in the persecutions under Aurelius, died not merely to win a "martyr's crown," but for the work's sake,- for the sake of the efficiency of those after him who, taught by him, were to build, more wisely than they knew, the fabric of the coming centuries, then his loss of personal tranquillity was not important to the sum of things. The always increasing satisfaction of always increasing efficiency, obtained at the expense of all manner of intellectual disturbance and physical discomfort, this is what Aurelius, in the definitions of his fourth book, seems to contemplate as the highest good. "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?» This is his question and it involves a higher thought than any possible for the Stoicism of self-suppression. It is the idea of education, of the evolution of the good in a universe where bee and bird, flower and fruit, men and gods, are vehicles of a universal force of beneficent activity, making for universal goodness and eternal improvement. Marcus Annius Verus, as Marcus Aurelius was named originally, was born at Rome April 20th, 121 A. D., from a family of senatorial rank which succeeded to the imperial dignity by Hadrian's adoption of Antoninus Pius. When Antoninus Pius, the uncle of Aurelius, died in 161 A. D., after succeeding Hadrian on the throne, Aurelius succeeded him, reigning until his own death March 17th, 180 A. D. He did not neglect his work as "Imperator" of the armies of Rome because of his philosophy; and when he died, it was the death of a veteran soldier in camp at Vindobona (now Vienna), far from the comforts of Roman civilization. He has been reproached with persecuting the Christians and defended on the ground that he thought them dangerous anarchists, whose theories were irreconcilable with the authority of his government. It has been asserted also that his wife, the Empress Faustina, was very dissolute, and while this has been denied, it is undeniable that his son, Commodus, for whom the "Meditations" are said to have been written, was one of the weakest and worst of Roman tyrants. While this has been dwelt on with some satisfaction by those who are disposed to condemn the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, it leaves him still "a pagan saint" whose intellect, elevated, pure, and strong, remains to us in his "Meditations" as one of the great and permanent forces of civilization. W. V. B. IN MEDITATIONS ON THE HIGHEST USEFULNESS 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 exertion? 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 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 thy nature and her will. 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 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? How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity. 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 peculiar movement; which things do not thou regard, but go straight on, following thy own nature and the common nature; and the way of both is one. 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. 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 from them by nature. Show those qualities, then, which are altogether in thy power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, aversion to pleasure, contentment with thy portion and with few things, benevolence, frankness, no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, magnanimity. Dost thou not see how many qualities thou art immediately able to exhibit. |