A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR. 467 



a charitable view may be taken of the evil doings of others. He says, 

 for example : " When a man has presented the appearance of having 

 done wrong, say, how can I be certain that this is a wrongful act ? 

 And even if he has done wrong, how do I know that he has not con- 

 demned himself?" 



His definition of the way in which injuries should be met shows 

 the true Christian spirit. He urges as invincible the continuance 

 of a benevolent disposition toward even the most violent, and rec- 

 ommends that you "quietly admonish him and calmly correct his 

 errors at the very time when he is trying to do you harm ; saying, 

 'Not so, my child, we are constituted by Nature for something else;' 

 and show him his error, with gentle tact, not with any double mean- 

 ing or in the way of reproaeh, but affectionately and without any ran- 

 cor in your soul, not as if you were lecturing him, nor yet that any 

 by-stander may admire, but either when he is alone, or with caution 

 as if he were alone." 



His style is not particularly elegant, certainly not poetic or imagi- 

 native, but it has an intensely masculine quality, and its virile power 

 of grasp is sufficient to insure to the thoughts of Marcus Antoninus 

 a long future. 



When an ethical principle is to be inculcated about which (we 

 will assume) there is no difference of opinion, the appeal will be 

 made to one kind of intelligence by thinkers of the calibre of (let us 

 say) George Herbert, and to another kind by studious inquirers of a 

 type which may be represented by Emerson and Antoninus, about 

 whom all that one can say in the way of definition is that his appeal 

 in each separate instance seems to be directly made without quali- 

 fication or limitation, to himself, to you, to me, to every being ca- 

 pable of imderstanding the meaning of ordinary words. It is never 

 special, but always general and in the direction of character which 

 belongs, like the air, to every human being, and not in the direction 

 of genius or acquirement, which is owned like the earth by human 

 beings very unequally. Take, for instance, the following quotations: 

 " You say, men cannot admire the sharpness of your wit. Be it so. 

 But there are many other things of which you can hardly say you are 

 not formed for them by Nature. Show those qualities then which are 

 altogether in your power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, con- 

 tentment with your portion, benevolence, frankness, freedom from 

 trifling, magnanimity. Do you not see how many qualities you are 

 immediately able to exhibit in which there is no excuse for natural in- 

 capacity and unfitness ? " 



The most potent charm of the Christian doctrine is in this direc- 

 tion. It is adapted to the rich and poor, but chiefly to the poor; to 

 the educated and uneducated, but very decidedly to the uneducated. 

 Probably the philosophy of Antoninus, emanating, as it does, from a 

 rich, unhampered experience, bears the marks of the habitual sur- 



