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 conditionally 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. 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 use of everything else is this, and thy life is directed by this. 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 angry with him who does harm to the state. Show him where his error is. 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 with such things or plagued about them, and makes himself miserable? for they vex him only for a time, and a short time. Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which 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. Does another do me wrong? Let him look to it. He has his own disposition, his own activity. I now have what the universal nature now wills me to have; and I do what my nature now wills me to do. Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those affections to their parts. But when these affections 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. 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 dæmon wishes, which Zeus hath given to every man for his guardian and guide, a portion of himself. And this is every man's understanding and reason. Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do thee? He has such a mouth, he has such armpits; it is necessary that such an emanation must come from such things. But the man has reason, it will be said, and he is able, if he takes pains, to discover wherein 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 listen, thou wilt cure him, and there is no need of anger. As thou intendest to live when thou art gone out, SO it is in thy power to live here. But if men do not permit thee, then get away out of life, yet so as if thou wert suffering no harm. The house is smoky, and I quit it. Why dost thou think that this 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. 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-ordinated, and assigned to everything its proper portion, and has brought together into concord with one another the things which are the best. 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: "He never has 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 illminded folks thou hast shown a kind disposition. Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and knowledge? What soul, then, has skill and knowledge? That which knows beginning and end, and knows the reason which pervades all substance, and though all time by fixed periods (revolutions) administers the universe. 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 trifling, and (like) little dogs biting one another, and little children quarreling, laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth are fled Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth. -Hesiod, "Works and Days,» 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 empty 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. 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 way. These two things are common 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. 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? Do not be carried along inconsiderately by the appearance of things, but give help (to all) according to thy ability and their 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 Rostra, 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 soul, good emotions, good actions.* Book V. of the «Meditations » complete. *The text of this section is corrupt. ALFRED AUSTIN (1835-) LFRED AUSTIN, who succeeded Tennyson as Poet Laureate of 1835. Graduating at the University of London in 1853. he was called to the bar four years later, but has been identified with literature and journalism rather than with law. He was field correspondent of the London Standard during the Franco-Prussian War, and when the National Review was founded in 1883 became its editor. He is the author of several volumes of verse, and as Poet Laureate is adding with meritorious industry to his metrical productions. It is as a writer of prose essays and newspaper articles, however, that he has done his most effective work in his generation. IT THE APOSTLE OF CULTURE T IS scarcely too much to say that, in his very earliest verse, Matthew Arnold frowned rather than smiled-frowned as a teacher might frown who thinks he has discovered everything is going amiss in the school it is his mission to instruct. His first poem is a lament over "a thousand discords," "man's fitful uproar,» « » «our vain turmoil," and "noisy schemes." We turn the page to read that there are "bad days," that "we ask and ask, while Shakespeare smiles and is free," and that it has become "a monotonous, dead, unprofitable world." That these utterances were perfectly sincere, and no mere metrical affectation, who can doubt that is acquainted with the general body of Matthew Arnold's poetry? Here, for instance, are some notable but strictly representative passages, mostly written while he was still a young man: "But we, brought forth and reared in hours Of change, alarm, surprise What shelter to grow ripe is ours? What leisure to grow wise? |