MR. MIVART AND MR. DARWIN. 291 



doubt. Mr. Mivart and myself should probably differ 

 as to what is and what is not beautiful. Thus he writes 

 of "the noble virtue of a Marcus Aurelius" (p. 235), 

 than whom, for my own part, I know few respectable 

 figures in history to whom I am less attracted. I can- 

 not but think that Mr. Mivart has taken his estimate 

 of this emperor at second-hand, and without reference 

 to the writings which happily enable us to form a fair 

 estimate of his real character. 



Take the opening paragraphs of the " Thoughts " of 

 Marcus Aurelius, as translated by Mr. Long : 



" From the reputation and remembrance of my father 

 [I learned] modesty and a manly character ; from my 

 mother, piety and beneficence, abstinence not only from 

 evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts. . . . From my 

 great-grandfather, not to have frequented public schools, 

 and to have had good teachers at home, and to know that 

 on such things a man should spend liberally. . . . From 

 Diognetus ... [I learned] to have become intimate 

 with philosophy, . . . and to have written dialogues 

 in my youth, and to have desired a plank bed and skin, 

 and whatever else of the kind belongs to the Greek dis- 

 cipline. . . . From Rusticus I received the impression 

 that my character required improvement and disci- 

 pline ;" and so on to the end of the chapter, near which, 

 however, it is right to say that there appears a redeem- 

 ing touch, in so far as that he thanks the gods that he 

 could not write poetry, and that he had never occupied 

 himself about the appearance of things in the heavens. 



Or, again, opening Mr. Long's translation at random 

 I find (p. 37) : 



