48 
THE STOICS. 
By Mr. J. H. HUDSON, M.A. 1th October, 1904, 

The Lecturer, whose previous services to the Club were 
recognised by the President, referred to and enlarged on the 
value of two books. 
Two books, which have come to us from ancient times, are to 
be found on the shelves of most men who are interested in the 
spiritual history of the really great souls who have honoured this 
earth by dwelling on it for a time. One was written by an 
Emperor and one by a slave, and both the Emperor and the slave 
were Stoics. 
The emperor was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who lived about 
160 years after Christ and who was one of the very best of the 
Roman Emperors. In later life he wrote the thoughts with which 
he nerved himself to action. Sometimes he wrote in the brief 
intervals of rest during arduous campaigns against the barbarians 
who pressed on the remote frontiers of his empire; sometimes 
during the few and brief intervals, he allowed himself when at 
Rome. But they were written so privately that no one knew of 
it. His manuscript was not found till 900 years after his death, 
and it was not till 1,100 years after his death that his private 
thoughts, almost miraculously preserved, were made public 
under the title he himself had affixed to them— ‘‘ Marcus Aurelius 
Antoninus to himself ”—giving us an intimate revelation, which 
it was not intended we should have, of the way in which a great 
man, in the recesses of his closet, prepared his mind to meet the 
stress of the difficulties he had to overcome. 
The slave was Epictetus, who lived about a hundred years 
before Marcus Aurelius. He lived during the troubled times, 
when Nero was Emperor, and no man’s life was worth twenty- 
four hours’ purchase. We do not know how in old age he gained 
his freedom, but when he found himself free he crossed the 
Adriatic to Nicopolis, where he lived cheerfully in deep poverty, 
and lectured or conversed with such as came to hear and discuss 
with a Stoic, who taught only what himself had practised so 
many years. His discourses were not lectures in our modern 
sense of the word; they were free and easy discussions between 
the teacher and a few auditors who frequently put questions and 
raised objections, One of his admirers, Arrian, has preserved 
