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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Section
fourteen. The Philosophy of Antoninus by George

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long Ma. This is a LibriVox
recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the

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public domain. For more information or
a volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.

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Read by mL CO and Cleveland,
Ohio, June two thousand and seven.

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The Philosophy of Antoninus by George long
Ma. It has been said that

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Stoic philosophy first showed its real value
when it passed from Greece to Rome.

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The doctrines of Zeno and his successors
were well suited to the gravity and practical

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good sense of the Romans, and
even in the Republican period, we have

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an example of a man m.
Cato Utensis, who lived the life of

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a Stoic and died consistently with the
opinions which he professed. He was a

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man, says Cicero, who embraced
the Stoic philosophy from conviction, not for

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the purpose of vain discussion, as
most did, in order to make his

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life conformable to the Stoic precepts.
In the wretched time from the death of

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Augustus to the murder of Domitian,
there was nothing but Stoic philosophy which can

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console and support the followers of the
old religion under imperial tyranny and amidst universal

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corruption. There were even then noble
minds that could dare and endure, sustained

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by good conscious and elevated idea of
the purposes of man's existence. Such were

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paidas Thesia, Helvidius, Pricius,
Cornudus, c Musonius, Riefus, and

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the poets Perseus and Juvenile, whose
energetic language and manly thoughts may be as

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instructive to us now as they might
have been to their contemporaries. Perseus died

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under Nero's bloody reign, but Juvenile
had the good fortune to survive the tyrant

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Domitian and to see the better times
of Nerva, Trajan, and Hatrian.

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His best precepts are derived from the
Stoic school, and they are enforced in

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his finest verses by the unrivaled vigor
of the Latin language. The two best

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expounders of the later Stoical philosophy were
a Greek slave and a Roman emperor.

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Epictetus, a Phrygian Greek was brought
to Rome. We know not how that

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he was there the slave, and
afterwards the freedman of an unworthy master.

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Epaphroditis by name himself a freeman in
a favorite of Nero. Epictetus may have

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been a hearer of c. Musonius
Roofless while he was still a slave,

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but he could hardly have been a
teacher before he was made free. He

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was one of the philosophers whom Domitian's
order banished from Rome. He retired to

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Nicopolis and Eperis, and he may
have died there. Like other great teachers,

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he wrote nothing, and we are
indebted to his grateful pupil Arian for

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what we have of Epictetus's discourses.
Rian wrote eight books of the Discourses of

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epictuss of which only four remain,
and some fragments. We also have from

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Arian's hand the small Encharidian or Manuel
or the Chief Precepts of Epictetus. There

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is a valuable commentary on the Inchuridian
by Simplicius, who lived at the time

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of the emperor Justini Antoninus. In
his first book, in which he gratefully

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commentaries his obligations to his teachers,
says that he was made acquainted by Junius

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Rusticus with the discourses of Epictetus,
whom he mentions also in other passages.

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Indeed, the doctrines of Epectidus and
Antoninus are the same, and Epectetus is

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the best authority for the explanation of
the philosophical language of Antoninus and the exposition

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of his opinions. But the method
of the two philosophers is entirely different.

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Epectidus addressed himself to his hearers in
a continuous discourse and in a familial and

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simple manner. Antoninus wrote down his
reflections for his own use only in short,

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unconnected paragraphs, which are often obscure. The Stoics made three divisions of

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philosophy, physic, ethic, and
logic. This division, we are told

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by Diogenes, was made by xeno
Osidium, the founder of the Stoic sect,

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and by Chrysippus, But these philosophers
placed the three divisions in the following

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order, logic, physic, ethic. It appears, however, that this

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division was made before Zeno's time and
acknowledged by Plato. As Cicero remarks,

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logic is not synonymous with our term
logic in the narrow sense of that word.

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Cleanthes, a Stoic subdivided into three
divisions and made six dialectic and rhetoric,

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comprised in logic, ethic and politic, physic and theology. This division

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was merely for practical use, for
all philosophy is one, even among the

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earlier Stoics. Logic or Dialectic does
not occupy the same place as in Plato,

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is considered only as an instrument which
is to be used for the other

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divisions of philosophy. An exposition of
the earlier Stoic doctrines and of their modifications

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with require a volume. My object
is to explain only the opinions of Antoninus,

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so far as they can be collected
from his book. According to the

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subdivision of Cleanthes, physic and theology
go together, or the st study of

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the nature of things and the study
of the nature of the deity, so

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far as man can understand the deity
and of his government of the universe.

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This division or subdivision is not formally
adopted by Antoninus, for as already observed,

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there is no method in his book, but it is virtually contained in

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it. Cleanthes also connects ethic and
politic, or the study of principles of

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morals in the study of the constitution
of civil society. And undoubtedly he did

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well in subdividing ethic into two parts, ethic in a narrower sense and politic.

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For though the two are intimately connected, they are also very distinct,

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and many questions can only be properly
discussed by carefully observing the distinction. Antoninus

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does not treat of politic. His
subject is ethic, an ethic in its

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practical application to his own conduct in
life as a man and as a governor.

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His ethic is founded on the doctrines
about man's nature, the universe nature,

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and the relations of every man to
everything else. It is therefore intimately

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and inseparately connected with physics, or
the nature of things, and with theology,

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or the nature of the deity.
He advises us to examine well all

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the impressions on our minds, and
to form a right judgment of them,

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to make just conclusions, and to
inquire into the meanings of words, in

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so far to apply dialectic. But
he has no attempt at any exposition of

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dialectic, and his philosophy is in
substance purely moral and practical. He says,

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quote constantly, and if it be
possible on the occasion of every impression

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on the soul, apply it to
the principles of physic, of ethic,

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and of dialectic end quote, which
is only another way of telling us to

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examine the impression in every possible way. In another passage, she says,

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quote to the age which have been
mentioned, let this one still be added.

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Make for thyself a definition or description
of the object which is presented to

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thee, so as to see distinctly
what kind of a thing it is,

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in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and tell

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thyself its proper name and the names
of the things which it has been compounded

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and into which it will be resolved
end quote. Such an examination implies the

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use of dialectic, which Antoninus accordingly
employed as a mean towards establishing his physical,

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theological and ethical principles. There are
several expositions of the physical, theological

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and ethical principles which are contained in
the work of Antoninus, and more expositions

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than I have read. Ritter,
after explaining the doctrines of Epictitis, treats

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very briefly and insufficiently those of Antoninus, but he refers to a short essay

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in which the work has done better. There is also an essay on the

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philosophical principles of m Aurelius Antoninus by
J. M. Schultz, placed at

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the end of his German translation of
Antoninus. With the assistance of these two

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useful essays, in his own diligent
study, a man may form a sufficient

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notion of the principles of Antoninus,
but he will find it more difficult to

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expound them to others. Besides the
want of arrangement in the original and of

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connection among the numerous paragraphs, the
corruption of the text, the obscurity of

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the language and the style, and
sometimes perhaps the confusion in the writer's own

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ideas. Besides all this, there
is occasionally an apparent contradiction in the emperor's

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thoughts, as if his principles were
sometimes unsettled, as if doubts sometimes clouded

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his mind. A man who leads
a life of tranquility and reflection, who

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is not disturbed at home and meddles
not with the affairs of the world,

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may keep his mind at ease and
his thoughts on one even course. But

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such a man has not been tried
all his ethical philosophy and his passive virtue

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might turn out to be idle words
if he were once exposed to the rude

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realities of human existence. Fine thoughts
and moral dissertations from men who have not

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worked and suffered may be read,
but they will be forgotten. No religion,

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no ethical philosophy, is worth anything
if the teacher has not lived the

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quote life of an apostle end quote, has been ready to die quote the

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death of a martyr. End quote. Quote. Not in passivity the passive

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affects, but in activity lied the
evil and the good of the rational social

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animal, just as his virtue and
his vice lie not in passivity but in

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activity. End quote, Section nine, paragraph sixteen. The emperor Antoninus was

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a practical moralist. From his youth, he followed the laborious discipline, and

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though his high station placed him above
all want over the fear of it,

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he lived as frugally and as temperately
as the poorest philosopher at Pectitius wanted little,

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and it seems that he always had
the little that he wanted, and

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he was content with it, as
he has been with his servile station.

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But Antoninus, after his succession to
the empire, sat on an uneasy seat.

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He had the administration of an empire
which extended from the Euphrates to the

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Atlantic, from the cold mountains of
Scotland to the hot sands of Africa.

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And we may imagine, though we
cannot know it by experience, what must

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be the trials, the troubles,
the anxiety, and the sorrows of him

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who has the world's business on his
hands, with the wish to do the

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best he can, and the certain
knowledge that he can do very little of

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the good which he wishes, in
the midst of war, pestilence, conspiracy,

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general corruption, and with the weight
of so unwieldy an empire upon him.

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We may easily comprehend that Antoninus often
had need of all his fortitude to

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support him. The best and bravest
men have moments of doubt and of weakness,

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But if they are the best and
the bravest, they rise again from

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their depression by recurring to first principles, as Antoninus does. The Emperor says

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that life is smoke a vapor,
and Saint James and his epistle is of

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the same mind, that the world
is full of envious, jealous, malignant

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people, and a man might well
be content to get out of it he

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has doubts, perhaps sometimes even about
that to which he holds most firmly.

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There are only a few passages of
this kind, but they are the evidence

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of struggles which even the noblest of
the sons of men had to maintain against

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the heart hard realities of his daily
life. A poor remark, it is,

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which I have seen somewhere and made
in a disparaging way, that the

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emperor's reflections showed that he had need
of consolation and comfort in life, and

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even to prepare him to meet his
death. True that he did need comfort

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and support, and we see how
he found it. He constantly recurs to

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his fundamental principle that the universe is
wisely ordered, that every man is a

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part of it, and must conform
to that order which he cannot change.

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That whatever the deity has done is
good, That all mankind are a man's

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brethren, that he must love and
cherish them, and try to make them

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better, even those who would do
him harm. This is his conclusion.

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Quote, what then, is that
which is able to conduct a man one

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thing, and only one philosophy?
But this consists in keeping the divinity within

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a man free from violence and unharmed
superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing

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without a purpose, nor yet falsely
and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need

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of another man's doing or not doing
anything, And besides, accepting all that

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happens and all that is allotted as
coming from thence wherever it is from,

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whence he himself came, and finally
waiting for death with a cheerful mind,

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as being nothing else than a dissolution
of the elements of which every living being

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is compounded. But if there is
no harm to the elements themselves, and

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each continually changing into another, why
should the man have any apprehension about the

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change and dissolution of all the elements
himself? For it is according to nature,

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and nothing is evil, that is
according to nature end quote. The

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physics of Antoninus is the knowledge of
the nature of the universe, of its

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government, and of the relation of
man's nature to both. He names the

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universe quote the universal substance end quote, and he adds that quote reason end

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quote covers the universe. He also
uses the term quote universal nature end quote,

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or quote nature of the Universe end
quote. He calls the universe quote

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the one in all which we name
cosmos or order end quote. If he

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ever seems to use these general terms
as significant of the all of all that

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man can in any way conceive to
exist, He's still, on other occasions

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plainly distinguishes between matter, material things, and cause origin reason. This is

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conformable to Zeno's doctrine that there are
two original principles of all things, that

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which acts and that which is acted
upon. That which is acted on is

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the formless matter. That which acts
is the reason. God, who is

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eternal and operates through all matter and
produces all things. So Antoninus speaks of

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the reason, which pervades all substance
and through all time by fixed periods,

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prenzes revolutions, and prenzes administers the
universe. God is eternal, and matter

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is eternal. It is God who
gives form to matter, but he is

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not said to have created matter.
According to this view, which is as

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old as an exagoris, God and
matter exist independently, but God governs matter.

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This doctrine is simply the expression of
the fact of the existence both of

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matter and of God. The Stoics
did not perplex themselves with the insoluble question

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of the origin and nature of matter. Antoninus also assumes a beginning of things

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as we now know them. But
his language is sometimes very obscure. I

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have endeavored to explain the meaning of
one difficult passage. Matter consists of elemental

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parts of which all material objects are
made, but nothing is permanent in form

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the nature of the universe. According
to Antonina's expression, quote, loves nothing

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so much as to change the things
which are, and to make new things

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like them. For everything that exists
is in a manner the seed of that

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which will be. But thou art
thinking only of seeds which are cast into

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the earth or into a womb.
But this is a very vulgar no quote.

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All things, then, are in
a constant flux and change. Some

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things are dissolved into the elements,
others come in their places, and so

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quote the whole universe continues, every
young and perfect end quote. Antoninus has

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some obscure expressions about what he calls
quote seminal principles end quote. He opposes

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these to the epicurean aboms, and
consequently quote his seminal principles end quote are

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not material atoms which wander about at
hazard and combine. Nobody knows how.

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In one passage he speaks of living
principles, souls after the dissolution of their

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bodies being received into the quote seminal
principle of the universe, and Schultz thinks

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that by quote seminal principles, Antoninus
means the relation of the various elemental principles,

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which relations are determined by the Deity, and by which alone the production

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of organized beings as possible end quote. This may be the meaning, but

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if it is nothing, any value
can be derived from it. Antoninus often

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00:16:03,039 --> 00:16:07,320
uses the word quote nature end quote, and we must attempt to fix its

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meaning. The simple etymological sense is
quote production end quote, the birth of

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what we call things. The Romans
use natura, which also means birth originally,

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but neither the Greeks nor Romans stuck
to this simple meaning, nor do

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we. Antonina says, quote whether
the universe is a concourse of atoms or

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nature is a system, Let this
first be established, that I am part

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of the whole which is governed by
nature end quote. Here it might seem

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as if nature were personified and viewed
as an active efficient power, as something

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which, if not independent of the
deity, acts by a power which is

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given to it by the deity.
Such if I understand the expression right is

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the way in which the word nature
is often used. Now, though it

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00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,879
is plain that many writers use the
word without fixing any exact meaning to it.

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It is the same with the expression
laws of nature, which some writers

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00:17:04,519 --> 00:17:08,839
may use in an intelligible sense,
but others as clearly used in no definite

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sense at all. There is no
meaning in this word nature except that which

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Bishop Butler assigns to it when he
says quote. The only distinct meaning of

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that word natural is stated fixture settled. Since what is natural as much require

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and presuppose as an intelligent agent to
render it, so i e. To

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affect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does

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to affect it at once. This
is Plato's meaning when he says that God

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holds the beginning and end and middle
of all that exists, and proceeds straight

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on his course, making his circuit
according to nature, friends, that is,

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by fixed order and friends. And
he is continually accompanied by justice,

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who punishes those who deviate from the
divine law, that is, from the

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order or course which God observes.
We look at the motion of the planets,

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the action of what we call gravitation, the elemental combination of unorganized bodies

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in their resolution, the production of
plants and of living bodies, their generation,

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growth in their dissolution, which we
call their death. We observe a

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regular sequence of phenomena which, within
the limits of experienced presence in past,

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so far as we know the past, is fixed and invariable. But if

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this is not so, if the
order and sequence of phenomena as known to

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us are subject to change in the
course of an infinite progression, and such

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change is conceivable, we have nor
discovered, not shall we ever discover the

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whole of the order and sequence of
phenomena, in which sequence there may be

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involved according to its very nature,
that is, according to its fixed order,

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some variation of which we now call
order or the nature of things.

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It is also conceivable that such changes
have taken place, changes in the order

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of things, as we are compelled
by the imperfection of language to call them,

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which are no changes. And further, it is certain that our knowledge

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of the truth sequence of all actual
phenomenon, as for instance, the phenomena

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of generation, growth and dissolution,
is an ever, must be imperfect.

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We do not fare much better when
we speak of causes and effects than when

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we speak of nature. For the
practical purposes of life, we may use

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the term's cause and eff conveniently,
and we may fix a distinct meaning to

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00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:22,960
them, distinct enough at least to
prevent all misunderstanding. But the case is

251
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,839
different. When we speak of causes
and effects as of things. All that

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we know is that phenomenon, as
the griefs call them, or appearances which

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follow one another in a regular order, as we conceive it, so that

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00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:38,559
if someone phenomenas fail in the series, we conceive that there must either be

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an interruption of the series, or
that something else will appear after the phenomena

256
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:47,319
which has failed to appear, and
will occupy the vacant place, And so

257
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,920
the series in its progression may be
modified or totally changed. Cause and effect

258
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then mean nothing in a sequence of
natural phenomena beyond what I've said, And

259
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the real cause, or the transcendent
cause, as some would call it,

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of each success as a phenomena,
is in that which is the cause of

261
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all things which are, which have
been, and which will be forever.

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Thus the word creation may have a
real sense if we consider it as the

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first if we can conceive a first
in the present order of natural phenomenon,

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but in the vulgar sense, the
creation of all things at a certain time,

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followed by acquiescence of the first cause
and an abandonment of all sequences and

266
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phenomena to the laws of nature,
or to the other words that people may

267
00:20:26,279 --> 00:20:32,440
use, is absolutely absurd. Now, though there is great difficulty in understanding

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00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:34,920
all the passages of Antaninus in which
he speaks of nature, of the changes

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00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,039
of things, and of the economy
of the universe, I am convinced that

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00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,359
his sense of nature and natural is
the same as that which I have stated.

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And as he was a man who
knew how to use words in a

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00:20:45,839 --> 00:20:49,240
clear way and with a strict consistency, we ought to assume, even if

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00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,519
it is a meaning in some passages, is doubtful that his view of nature

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was in harmony with his fixed belief
in the all pervading, ever present,

275
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and ever active energy of God.
There is much in Antoninus that is hard

276
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,519
to understand, and it might be
said that he did not fully comprehend all

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00:21:06,519 --> 00:21:08,559
that he wrote, which would,
however, be in no way remarkable.

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For it happens now that a man
may write what neither he nor anybody can

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00:21:12,279 --> 00:21:17,599
understand. Antoninus tells us to look
at things and see what they are,

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00:21:18,079 --> 00:21:22,400
resolving them into the material, the
causal, and the relation or the purpose

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00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,000
by which he seems to mean something
in nature of what do we call effect

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00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:30,880
or end? The word cause is
the difficulty. There is the same word

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00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,519
in the Sanskrit, and the subtle
philosophers of India and of Greece, and

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00:21:34,559 --> 00:21:38,680
the less subtle philosophers of modern times
have all used this word or an equivalent

285
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:45,640
word in a vague way. Yet
the confusion sometimes may be the inevitable ambiguity

286
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:48,079
of language, rather than in the
mind of the writer. For I cannot

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00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:52,240
think that some of the wisest of
men did not know what they intended to

288
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:57,039
say. When Antoninus says that quote
everything that exists is in a manner of

289
00:21:57,079 --> 00:22:02,279
the seed of that which will be
end quote, he might be supposed to

290
00:22:02,319 --> 00:22:06,880
say what some of the Indian philosophers
have said, and thus a profound truth

291
00:22:07,279 --> 00:22:11,839
might be converted into a gross absurdity. But he says quote in a manner

292
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,359
end quote, and in a manner
he said true, And in another manner,

293
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,920
if you mistake his meaning, he
said false. When Plato said,

294
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,119
quote, nothing ever is, but
is always becoming end quote, he delivered

295
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,920
a text out of which we may
derive something, for he destroys by it

296
00:22:27,039 --> 00:22:32,720
not all practical but all speculative notions
of cause and effect. The whole series

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00:22:32,759 --> 00:22:36,440
of things as they appear to us
must be contemplated in time, that is,

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in succession. And we conceive or
suppose intervals between one state of things

299
00:22:40,279 --> 00:22:42,559
and another state of things, so
that there is priority in sequence, an

300
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:48,039
interval and being and is ceasing to
be, and beginning and ending. But

301
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:52,079
there is nothing of this kind in
the nature of things. It is an

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00:22:52,079 --> 00:22:59,160
everlasting continuity. When Antonina speaks of
generation, he speaks of one cause acting,

303
00:22:59,559 --> 00:23:03,559
and then an another cause taking up
the work which the former left in

304
00:23:03,599 --> 00:23:07,279
a certain state, and so on. And we might conceive that he has

305
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:11,319
some notion like what has been called
quote, the self evolving power of nature

306
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,680
end quote. A fine phrase,
indeed, the full import of which I

307
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,519
believe that the writer of it did
not see. And thus he laid himself

308
00:23:17,559 --> 00:23:19,920
open to the imputation of being a
follower of one of the Hindu sects,

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00:23:21,079 --> 00:23:23,279
which makes all things come by evolution
out of nature. A matter, or

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00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:27,359
out of something which takes the place
of the deity but is not deity.

311
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,920
I would have all men think as
they please, or as they can,

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00:23:32,039 --> 00:23:36,559
And I only claim the same freedom
which I give when a man writes anything.

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00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:38,359
We may fairly try to find out
all that his words must mean,

314
00:23:38,599 --> 00:23:41,799
even if the result is that they
mean what he did not mean. And

315
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:45,519
if we find this contradiction, it
is not our fault but his misfortune.

316
00:23:45,599 --> 00:23:49,480
Now Antoninus is perhaps somewhat in a
condition in what he says, though he

317
00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:52,920
speaks at the end of the paragraph
of the power which acts unseen by the

318
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,920
eyes, but still no less clearly. But whether in this passage he means

319
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,200
the power is conceived to be in
different secs, as of causes, or

320
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,200
in something else, nobody can tell
from other passages. However, I do

321
00:24:04,319 --> 00:24:07,880
collect it. His notion of the
phenomena of the universe is what I have

322
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,799
stated. The deity works unseen,
if we may use such language, And

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00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,319
perhaps I may, as Job did, or he wrote the book of Job.

324
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,640
Quote in him we live and move
and are end. Quote said Saint

325
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:22,880
Paul to the Athenians and the show
as bearers, that this was no new

326
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,759
doctrine. He quoted the Greek poets. One of these poets was the Stoic

327
00:24:26,799 --> 00:24:30,799
Cleanthes, whose noble hymn to Zeus
her God as an elevated expression of devotion

328
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,880
and philosophy. It deprives nature of
her power and puts on under the immediate

329
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:40,240
government of the deity. Quote thee
all this heaven, which whirls around the

330
00:24:40,279 --> 00:24:44,400
earth, obeys and willing follows.
Where thou leadest. Without thee God,

331
00:24:44,559 --> 00:24:47,839
nothing is done on earth, nor
in the ethereal realms, nor in the

332
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:52,160
sea, save what the wicked,
through their folly do end quote. Antony's

333
00:24:52,319 --> 00:24:56,079
conviction of the existence of a divine
power in government was founded on his perception

334
00:24:56,319 --> 00:25:00,160
of the order of the universe.
Like Socrates, he says that the we

335
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,799
cannot see the form of divine powers, we know that they exist because we

336
00:25:03,839 --> 00:25:08,039
see their works. Quote to those
who asked, where hast thou seen the

337
00:25:08,079 --> 00:25:11,359
gods? Or how dost thou comprehend
that they exist and so worship with them?

338
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,319
I answer in the first place,
that they may be seen even with

339
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,640
the eyes. In the second place, neither have I seen my own soul,

340
00:25:18,759 --> 00:25:21,680
and yet I honor it. Thus, then with respect to the gods,

341
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,960
from what I constantly experience of their
power. From this, I comprehend

342
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:29,119
that they exist, and I venerate
them. End quote. This is a

343
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,759
very old argument which has always had
great weight with most people, and has

344
00:25:32,799 --> 00:25:37,880
appeared sufficient. It does not acquire
the least additional strength by being developed in

345
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,160
the learned treatise. It is as
intelligible in its simple enunciation as it can

346
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:45,839
be made. If it is rejected, there is no arguing with him who

347
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,559
rejects it, and if it has
worked out into innumerable particulars, the value

348
00:25:49,559 --> 00:25:52,720
of the evidence runs the risk of
being buried under a mass of words.

349
00:25:56,839 --> 00:26:00,960
Man being conscious that he has a
spiritual power or intellectual power, or that

350
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,960
he has such a power in whatever
way he conceives that he has it,

351
00:26:03,079 --> 00:26:06,880
for which, simply to state of
fact, from this power which he has

352
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:08,839
in himself, he has led,
as Antonina says, to believe that there

353
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,319
is a greater power, which,
as the old stoics tell us, pervades

354
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:18,119
the whole universe, as the intellect
pervades man. God exists, then,

355
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,400
but what do we know of his
nature? Antonina says that the soul of

356
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,319
man is an e flux from the
Divinity. We have bodies like animals,

357
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:30,319
but we have reason. Intelligence is
the Gods. Animals have life and what

358
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:34,759
we call instincts or natural principles of
action. But the rational animal man alone

359
00:26:34,759 --> 00:26:40,839
has rational, intelligent soul. Antoninas
insists on this continually. God is in

360
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,799
man, and so he must constantly
attend to the divinity within us. For

361
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,480
it is only in this way that
we can have any knowledge of the nature

362
00:26:47,519 --> 00:26:51,559
of God. The human soul is
in a sense of portion of the Divinity,

363
00:26:52,039 --> 00:26:53,920
and the soul alone has any communication
with the Deity. For, as

364
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:59,440
he says, with his intellectual part
alone, God touches the intelligence only which

365
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,599
has flowed and has been derived from
himself into these bodies. In fact,

366
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,960
he says that which is hidden within
a man is life, that is,

367
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,000
the man himself. All the rest
is vesture, covering organ's instrument, which

368
00:27:11,039 --> 00:27:15,839
the living man, the real man, uses for purposes of his present existence.

369
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,720
The air is universally diffused for him
who is able to respire, and

370
00:27:18,799 --> 00:27:22,119
so for him who is willing to
partake of it. The intelligent power which

371
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,680
holds within it all things, is
diffused as wide and as free as the

372
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,960
air. It is by living a
divine life. That man approaches to a

373
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:34,720
knowledge of the divinity. It is
by following the divinity within, as Antonius

374
00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:37,839
calls it, that man comes nearest
to the deity, the supreme good.

375
00:27:38,279 --> 00:27:44,039
For a man can never attain the
perfect agreement with his internal guide quote live

376
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,599
with the gods, and he does
live with the gods, who constantly shows

377
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,160
them that his own soul is satisfied
with that which is assigned to him,

378
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,279
and that it does all the demon
wishes which Zeus hath given to every man

379
00:27:55,599 --> 00:27:59,759
for his guardian and guide a portion
of himself. And this demon is every

380
00:27:59,759 --> 00:28:06,000
man understanding and reason end quote.
There is in man that is in the

381
00:28:06,039 --> 00:28:08,839
reason, the intelligence, a superior
faculty, which, if exercise, rules

382
00:28:08,839 --> 00:28:14,319
all the rest. This is the
ruling faculty, which Cicero renders by the

383
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,920
Latin word principatis quote, to which
nothing can or ought to be superior end

384
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,200
quote. Antoninus often uses this term
in others which are equivalent. He names

385
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:30,240
it quote the governing intelligence end quote. The governing faculty is the master of

386
00:28:30,279 --> 00:28:33,920
the soul. A man must reverence
only is ruling faculty and the divinity within

387
00:28:34,039 --> 00:28:38,359
him, as we must reverence that
which is supreme in the universe. So

388
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,079
we must reverence that which is supreme
in ourselves, and this is that which

389
00:28:42,079 --> 00:28:47,519
of the like kind with that which
is the supreme in the universe. So

390
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,000
as Platinus says, the soul of
man can only know the divine so far

391
00:28:52,039 --> 00:28:56,039
as it knows itself. In one
passage, Antonina speaks of a man's condemnation

392
00:28:56,119 --> 00:29:00,200
of himself when the diviner part within
him has been over powered and yields to

393
00:29:00,279 --> 00:29:04,079
the less honorable and to the perishable
part, the body and its gross pleasures.

394
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,519
In a word, the views of
Antoninas on this matter, however his

395
00:29:08,559 --> 00:29:14,039
expressions may vary, are exactly what
Bishop Butler expresses when he speaks of quote,

396
00:29:14,079 --> 00:29:18,200
the natural supremacy of the reflection are
conscious end quote of the faculty,

397
00:29:18,279 --> 00:29:22,799
quote which surveys, approves or disapproves, the several affectations of our mind and

398
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:29,799
actions of our lives end quote.
Much matter might be collected from Antoninus on

399
00:29:29,839 --> 00:29:33,200
the notion of the universe being one
animated being, but all that he says

400
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,880
amounts to no more is sulture marks
than this. The soul of man is

401
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,720
most intimately united to his body,
and together they make one animal, which

402
00:29:40,759 --> 00:29:44,680
we call man. So the deity
is most intimately united to the world or

403
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:49,200
the material universe, and together they
form one whole. But Antoninus did not

404
00:29:49,319 --> 00:29:52,279
view God in the material universe has
the same any more than he viewed the

405
00:29:52,279 --> 00:29:57,680
body and soul of man as one. Antoninus has no speculations on the absolute

406
00:29:57,759 --> 00:30:00,480
nature of the deity. It was
not his fashioned to waste his time on

407
00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:04,799
what a man cannot understand. He
was satisfied that God exists, that he

408
00:30:04,839 --> 00:30:08,640
governs all things, that man can
only have an imperfect knowledge of his nature,

409
00:30:10,039 --> 00:30:14,359
and he must attain this imperfect knowledge
by reverencing the divinity which is within

410
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,440
him and keeping it pure. From
all that has been said, it follows

411
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,359
that the universe is administered by the
providence of God, and that all things

412
00:30:22,359 --> 00:30:26,039
are wisely ordered. There are passages
in which Antonius expresses doubts or states different

413
00:30:26,119 --> 00:30:30,079
possible theories of the constitution and government
of the universe, but he always recurs

414
00:30:30,119 --> 00:30:33,880
to his fundamental principle that if we
admit the existence of a deity, we

415
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:40,160
must also admit that he orders all
things wisely and well. Epictitis says that

416
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:42,599
we can discern the providence which rules
the world if he possess two things,

417
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,920
the power of seeing all that happens
with respect to each thing, and a

418
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,240
grateful disposition. But if all things
are wisely ordered, how is the world

419
00:30:52,319 --> 00:30:56,000
so full of what we call evil? Physical and moral? If instead of

420
00:30:56,039 --> 00:30:59,640
saying that there is evil in the
world, we use the expression which I

421
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,880
have viewed us to quote what we
call evil? End quote, we have

422
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:07,480
partly anticipated the Emperor's answer. We
see and feel and know imperfectly very few

423
00:31:07,519 --> 00:31:11,960
things in a few years that we
live, And all the knowledge and all

424
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,720
the experience of all the human race
is positive ignorance of the whole, which

425
00:31:15,759 --> 00:31:18,920
is infinite. Now, as our
reason teaches us that everything is in some

426
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:23,559
way related to and connected with every
other thing, all notion of evil as

427
00:31:23,559 --> 00:31:27,079
being in the universe of things as
a contradiction. For if the whole comes

428
00:31:27,079 --> 00:31:32,160
from and is covered by an intelligent
being, it is impossible to conceive anything

429
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,920
in it which tends to the evil
or destruction of the whole. Everything is

430
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,319
in constumutation, and yet the whole
subsists. We might imagine the solar system

431
00:31:41,359 --> 00:31:45,680
resolved into its elemental parts, and
yet the whole would still subsist. Quote.

432
00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:52,599
Every young and perfect end quote.
All things, all forms are dissolved,

433
00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:56,799
and new forms appear. All living
things undergo the change we call death.

434
00:31:56,839 --> 00:32:01,079
If we call death and evil,
then all change an evil. Living

435
00:32:01,119 --> 00:32:05,960
beings also suffer pain, and man
suffers most of all, for he suffers

436
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,759
both in and by his body,
and by his intelligent part. Men suffer

437
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:14,599
also from one another, and perhaps
the largest part of human suffering comes to

438
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:21,400
man from those whom he calls his
brothers. Antoninus says, quote Generally,

439
00:32:21,599 --> 00:32:25,200
wickedness does no harm at all to
the universe, and particularly the wickedness of

440
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:29,720
one man does no harm to another. It is only harmful to him who

441
00:32:29,799 --> 00:32:31,119
has it in his power to be
released from it, as soon as he

442
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:37,759
shall choose end quote. The first
part of this is perfectly consistent with the

443
00:32:37,799 --> 00:32:42,400
doctrine that the whole can sustain no
evil or harm. The second part must

444
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,960
be explained by the Stoic principle that
there is no evil in anything which is

445
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:49,880
not in ira power. What wrong
we suffer from another is his evil,

446
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,519
not ours. But this is an
admission that there is evil in a sort,

447
00:32:52,839 --> 00:32:55,880
for he who does wrong does evil, And if others can endure the

448
00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:00,599
wrong, still there is evil in
the wrong doer. Antoninus gives many excellent

449
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:06,000
precepts of respect wrongs and injuries,
and as precepts are practical, he teaches

450
00:33:06,079 --> 00:33:07,960
us to bear what we cannot avoid, and as lessons may be just as

451
00:33:08,039 --> 00:33:12,319
useful to him who denies the being
and the government as God as to him

452
00:33:12,359 --> 00:33:15,599
who believes in both. There is
no direct answer in Antoninus to the objections

453
00:33:15,599 --> 00:33:19,839
which may be made to the existence
and providence of God because of the moral

454
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,200
disorder and suffering which are in the
world, except this answer, which he

455
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:27,240
makes in reply to the supposition that
even the best men may be extinguished by

456
00:33:27,279 --> 00:33:30,880
death. He says, if it
is so, we may be sure that

457
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:34,359
if it ought to have been otherwise, the Gods would have ordered it otherwise.

458
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:37,000
His conviction of the wisdom which we
may observe in the government of the

459
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:42,359
world is too strong to be disturbed
by any apparent irregularities in the order of

460
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:47,279
things. That these disorders exist is
a fact, and those would conclude from

461
00:33:47,279 --> 00:33:52,400
them against the being in government of
God conclude too hastily. We all admit

462
00:33:52,799 --> 00:33:54,759
that there is an order in the
material world, a nature in the sense

463
00:33:54,759 --> 00:33:59,559
in which the world has been explained
a constitution what we call a system,

464
00:34:00,039 --> 00:34:02,039
relation of parts to one another,
and a fitness for the whole for something.

465
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,599
So in the constitution of plants and
animals there is an order, a

466
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:10,159
fitness for some end. Sometimes the
order as we conceive it is interrupted,

467
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,519
and the end as we conceive it
is not attained. The seed, the

468
00:34:14,559 --> 00:34:17,280
plant, or the animals sometimes perishes
before it has passed through all its changes

469
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:22,639
and done all its uses. It
is according to nature that is a fixed

470
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,000
order for some to perish early,
and for others to do all their uses

471
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:30,719
and leave successors to take their place. So man has a corporeal and intellectual

472
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:35,000
and moral constitution fit for certain uses, and on the whole man performs these

473
00:34:35,079 --> 00:34:38,480
uses, dies and leaves other men
in his place. So society exists,

474
00:34:38,599 --> 00:34:43,199
and a social state is manifestly the
natural state of man, the state for

475
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:47,079
which his nature fits him. And
society, amidst innumerable irregularities and disorders,

476
00:34:47,119 --> 00:34:51,760
still subsists. And perhaps we may
say that the history of the past in

477
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,559
our present knowledge give us a reasonable
hope that its disorders will diminish, and

478
00:34:54,599 --> 00:35:00,880
in order, its governing principle may
be more firmly established as order. Then

479
00:35:01,039 --> 00:35:05,360
a fixed order, we may say, subject to deviations, real or a

480
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:07,599
parent must be admitted to exist in
the whole of nature of things. That

481
00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:12,000
which we call disorder or evil,
as it seems to us, does not

482
00:35:12,079 --> 00:35:15,760
in any way alter the fact of
the general constitution of things having a nature

483
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:20,280
or fixed order. Nobody will conclude
from the existence of disorder that order is

484
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,440
not the rule. For the existence
of order, both physical and moral,

485
00:35:22,559 --> 00:35:28,159
is proved by daily experience. In
all past experience, we cannot conceive how

486
00:35:28,199 --> 00:35:30,800
the order of the universe is maintained. We cannot even conceive how our own

487
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:35,159
life, from day to day is
continued, nor how we perform the simplest

488
00:35:35,159 --> 00:35:37,920
movements of the body, nor how
we grow and think and act, though

489
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:42,679
we know many of the conditions which
are necessary for all these functions. Knowing

490
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,519
nothing then the unseen power which acts
in ourselves except by what is done,

491
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,760
we know nothing of the power which
acts through what we call all time in

492
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,559
all space. But seeing that there
is a nature or fixed order in all

493
00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:55,880
things known to us, it is
conformable to the nature of our minds to

494
00:35:55,920 --> 00:36:00,920
believe that this universal nature has a
cause which operates can continually and that we

495
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,599
are totally unable to speculate on the
reason of any of those disorders or evils

496
00:36:04,639 --> 00:36:07,519
which we perceive. This, I
believe, is the answer which may be

497
00:36:07,519 --> 00:36:15,079
collected from all that Antoninus has said. The origin of evil is an old

498
00:36:15,159 --> 00:36:20,559
question. Achilles tells Prium that Zeus
has two casks, one filled with good

499
00:36:20,599 --> 00:36:23,000
things and the other with bad,
and that it gives to men out of

500
00:36:23,039 --> 00:36:28,039
each according to his pleasure. And
so we must be content, for we

501
00:36:28,079 --> 00:36:31,360
cannot alter the will of Zeus.
One of the Greek commentators asked how we

502
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:36,440
must reconcile this doctrine with what we
find in the first book of the Odyssey,

503
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,760
where the King of the Gods says, men say evil comes to them

504
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:45,639
from us, but they bring it
on themselves to their own folly. The

505
00:36:45,679 --> 00:36:50,119
answer is plain enough even to the
Greek commentator. The poets make both Achilles

506
00:36:50,119 --> 00:36:53,320
and Zeus speak appropriately to their several
characters. Indeed, Zeus says plainly that

507
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:58,000
men do attribute their sufferings to the
gods, but they do it falsely,

508
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:04,920
for they are the cause of their
own sins. Epictetus, in his Enchardian,

509
00:37:05,159 --> 00:37:08,360
make short work of the question of
evil. He says quote as a

510
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:12,519
mark is not set up for the
purpose of missing it, so neither does

511
00:37:12,559 --> 00:37:16,599
the nature of evil exist in the
universe end quote. This will appear obscure

512
00:37:16,679 --> 00:37:20,920
enough to those who are not acquainted
with that pictetis, but he always knows

513
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,280
what he is talking about. We
do not set up a mark in order

514
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:28,440
to miss it, though we may
miss it. God, whose existence Epictetus

515
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,679
assumes, has not ordered all things
so that his purpose shall fail. Whatever

516
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,239
there may be of what we call
evil, the nature of evil, as

517
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,480
he expresses it does not exist.
That is, evil is not part of

518
00:37:37,519 --> 00:37:42,800
the constitution or nature of things.
If there were a principle of evil in

519
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,679
the constitution of things, evil would
no longer be evil, as Simplicious argues,

520
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:52,199
but evil would be good. Simplicius
has a long and curious discourse on

521
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:58,280
this text of Epictetus, and it
is amusing an instructive one passage more will

522
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,440
conclude this matter. It contains all
that the emperor could say quote to go

523
00:38:01,559 --> 00:38:05,000
from among men. If there are
gods, it's not a thing to be

524
00:38:05,039 --> 00:38:07,039
afraid of, for the gods will
not involve thee in evil. But if

525
00:38:07,039 --> 00:38:10,559
indeed they do not exist, or
if they have no concern about human affairs.

526
00:38:10,599 --> 00:38:13,960
What is it to me to live
in a universe devoid of gods,

527
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,559
a devoid of providence. But in
truth they do exist, and they do

528
00:38:16,679 --> 00:38:20,559
care for human things, and they
have put all the means in man's power

529
00:38:20,599 --> 00:38:23,039
to enable him not to fall into
real evils. And as to the rest,

530
00:38:23,519 --> 00:38:27,199
if there was anything evil, they
would have provided for this, also,

531
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,159
that it should be altogether in a
man's power not to fall into it.

532
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,719
But that which does not make a
man worse, how can it make

533
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:38,000
a man's life worse? But neither
through ignorance nor having the knowledge but not

534
00:38:38,039 --> 00:38:42,599
the power to guard against or correct
these things. Is it possible that the

535
00:38:42,679 --> 00:38:45,079
nature of the universe has overlooked them? Nor is it possible that has made

536
00:38:45,159 --> 00:38:49,239
so great a mistake, either through
want of power or want of skill,

537
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,320
That good and even shall happen indiscriminately
to the good and the bad. But

538
00:38:52,559 --> 00:38:57,280
death, certainly, and life,
honor and dishonor pain and pleasure, all

539
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,880
these things equally happen to good and
bad men, being things which make us

540
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:07,800
neither better nor worse. Therefore they
are neither good nor evil. End quote.

541
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,719
The ethical part of Antoninus's philosophy follows
from his general principles. The end

542
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,559
of all his philosophy is to live
conformably to nature, both a man's own

543
00:39:15,679 --> 00:39:21,679
nature and the nature of the universe. Bishop Butler has explained what the Greek

544
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:23,920
philosopher has meant when they spoke of
living according to nature, and he says

545
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,199
that when it is explained as he
has explained it, and as they understood

546
00:39:28,199 --> 00:39:30,639
it, it is quote a manner
of speaking, not loose and undetermined,

547
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:37,360
but clear and distinct, strictly just
and true. End quote. To live

548
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,360
according to nature is to live according
to a man's whole nature, not according

549
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:44,639
to a part of it, and
to reverence the divinity within him as the

550
00:39:44,639 --> 00:39:49,039
governor of all his actions. Quote
to the rational animal, the same acts

551
00:39:49,079 --> 00:39:52,519
according to nature and according to reason. End quote. That which has done

552
00:39:52,599 --> 00:39:58,159
contrary to reason is also an act
contrary to nature, to the whole nature.

553
00:39:58,679 --> 00:40:00,840
Though it is certainly conformable with some
part of man's nature, or it

554
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,840
could not be done. Man is
made for action, not for idleness or

555
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,800
pleasure. As plants and animals do
the uses of their nature, so man

556
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:14,960
must do his. Man must also
live conformably to the universal nature, conformable

557
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:17,199
to the nature of all things of
which he is won. And as a

558
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:22,280
citizen of a political community, he
must direct his life in actions with reference

559
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:28,119
to those among whom and for whom, among other purposes he lives. A

560
00:40:28,199 --> 00:40:30,679
man must not retire into solitude and
cut himself off from his fellow men.

561
00:40:31,039 --> 00:40:35,400
He must be ever active to do
his part in a great whole. All

562
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,400
men are his kin, not only
in blood, but still more by participating

563
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:42,559
in the same intelligence, and by
being a portion of the same divinity.

564
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,880
A man cannot really be injured by
his brethren, for no act of theirs

565
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:50,119
can make him bad, and he
must not be angry with them nor hate

566
00:40:50,119 --> 00:40:53,679
them. Quote. For we are
made for cooperation, like feet, like

567
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,519
hands, like eyelids, like the
rows of the upper and lower teeth.

568
00:40:58,159 --> 00:41:01,280
To act against one another than is
conscient to nature. And it is acting

569
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:08,159
against one another to be vexed and
to turn away. End quote. Further,

570
00:41:08,199 --> 00:41:12,840
he says, quote, take pleasure
in one thing and rest in it,

571
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,480
in passing from one social act to
another social act, thinking of God.

572
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:22,880
End quote again quote love mankind follow
God end quote. It is the

573
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:27,760
characteristic of the rational soul. For
man to love his neighbor. Antoninus teaches

574
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,760
in various passages the forgiveness of injuries, and we know that he also practiced

575
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:37,000
what he taught. Bishop Butler remarks
that quote this divine precept to forgive injuries

576
00:41:37,039 --> 00:41:39,880
and to love our enemies, though
to be met with gentil moralist yet,

577
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:45,320
is in a particular sense a precept
of Christianity, as our Savior has insisted

578
00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:51,159
more upon it than on any other
single virtue end quote. The practice of

579
00:41:51,159 --> 00:41:54,719
this precept is the most difficult of
all virtues. Antoninas often enforces it and

580
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:59,119
gives us aid towards following it.
When we are injured, we feel anger

581
00:41:59,119 --> 00:42:01,880
and resentment, and a feeling is
natural, just and useful for the conservation

582
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:07,000
of society. It is useful that
wrongdoers should feel the natural consequences of their

583
00:42:07,039 --> 00:42:10,559
actions, among which is the disapprobation
of society and the resentment of him who

584
00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:15,480
is wronged. But revenge in the
proper sense of that word, must not

585
00:42:15,559 --> 00:42:20,760
be practiced. Quote. The best
way of avenging thyself end quote, says

586
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:24,079
the Emperor quote is not to become
like the wrongdoer. End quote. It

587
00:42:24,159 --> 00:42:28,079
is plain by this that he does
not mean that we should in any case

588
00:42:28,119 --> 00:42:30,800
practice revenge. But he says to
those who talk of revenging wrongs, be

589
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:35,559
not like him who has done the
wrong. Socrates in the Credos says the

590
00:42:35,599 --> 00:42:37,639
same. In other words, in
Saint Paul quote, when a man has

591
00:42:37,679 --> 00:42:42,639
done the any wrong, immediately consider
with what opinion about good or evil he

592
00:42:42,639 --> 00:42:45,199
has done wrong. For when thou
hast seen this, thou wilt pity him,

593
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:51,639
and wilt neither wonder nor be angry
end quote. Antoninus would not deny

594
00:42:51,679 --> 00:42:54,440
that wrong naturally produces the feeling of
anger and resentment, for this is implied

595
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:58,639
in the recommendation to reflect on the
nature of the man's mind who has done

596
00:42:58,679 --> 00:43:01,440
the wrong, and then you will
have pity instead of resentment. And so

597
00:43:01,519 --> 00:43:05,679
it comes to the same as Saint
Paul's advice to be angry and sin not,

598
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,000
which, as Butler well explains,
it is not a recommendation to be

599
00:43:08,079 --> 00:43:12,599
angry, which nobody needs, for
anger is a natural passion, but it

600
00:43:12,679 --> 00:43:16,039
is a warning against allowing anger to
lead us into sin. In short,

601
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:22,639
the Emperor's doctrine about wrongful acts is
this, wrongdoers do not know what good

602
00:43:22,679 --> 00:43:25,360
and bad are. They offend out
of ignorance, and in the sense of

603
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:30,280
the stoics this is true. Though
this kind of ignorance will never be admitted

604
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,679
as a legal excuse, and ought
not to be admitted as a full excuse

605
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:37,679
in any way by society. There
may be grievous injuries, such as it

606
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:42,440
is in a man's power to forgive
without harm to society. And if he

607
00:43:42,519 --> 00:43:45,880
forgives because he sees that his enemies
know not what they do, he is

608
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,960
acting in the spirit of the sublime
prayer. Quote Father, forgive them,

609
00:43:50,079 --> 00:43:55,239
for they know not what they do
end quote. The Emperor's moral philosophy was

610
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,679
not a feeble, narrow system which
teaches man to look directly to his own

611
00:43:59,679 --> 00:44:04,079
happinespiness. Though a man's happiness or
tranquility is indirectly promoted by living as he

612
00:44:04,119 --> 00:44:07,559
ought to do, a man must
live conformably to the universal nature, which

613
00:44:07,599 --> 00:44:12,280
means, as the Emperor explains it
in many passages, that a man's action

614
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,360
must be conformable to his true relations
to all other human beings, both as

615
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:20,280
a citizen of a political community and
as a member of the whole human family.

616
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,480
This implies, and he often expresses
it in the most forcible language that

617
00:44:23,559 --> 00:44:27,480
a man's words and actions, so
far as they affect others, must be

618
00:44:27,519 --> 00:44:30,639
measured by a fixed rule, which
is their consistency with the conservation and the

619
00:44:30,679 --> 00:44:35,280
interests of the particular society of which
he is a member, and of the

620
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:38,480
whole human race. To live conformably
to such a rule, a man must

621
00:44:38,599 --> 00:44:43,920
use his rational faculties in order to
discern clearly the consequences and full effect of

622
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,920
all his actions and of the actions
of others. He must not live a

623
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:51,800
life of contemplation and reflection, only, though he must often retire within himself

624
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:53,800
to calm and purify his soul by
thought, but he must mingle in the

625
00:44:53,840 --> 00:45:00,519
work of man and be a fellow
laborer. For the general good man should

626
00:45:00,519 --> 00:45:02,920
have an object or purpose in life, then he may direct all his energies

627
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:07,280
to it. Of course, a
good object. He who is not one

628
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:09,840
object or purpose of life cannot be
one and the same all through his life.

629
00:45:10,559 --> 00:45:15,559
Bacon has remarked to the same effect
on the best means of quote reducing

630
00:45:15,599 --> 00:45:19,440
of the mind unto virtue and good
estate, which is the electing and propounding

631
00:45:19,559 --> 00:45:22,079
unto a man's self, good and
virtuous ends of his life, such as

632
00:45:22,079 --> 00:45:27,119
may be in a reasonable sort within
his compass to attain end. Quote.

633
00:45:29,599 --> 00:45:31,480
He is a happy man who has
been wise enough to do this when he

634
00:45:31,559 --> 00:45:36,480
was young, and has had the
opportunities. But the Emperor, seeing well

635
00:45:36,559 --> 00:45:39,159
that a man cannot always be so
wise in his youth, encourages him to

636
00:45:39,199 --> 00:45:43,559
do it when he can, and
not to let his life slip away before

637
00:45:43,599 --> 00:45:47,519
he has begun. He who can
propose to himself good and virtuous ends of

638
00:45:47,559 --> 00:45:52,079
life and be true to them,
cannot fail to live conformably to his own

639
00:45:52,159 --> 00:45:55,599
interest and universal interest. For in
the nature of things, they are one.

640
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:59,960
If a thing is not good for
the hive, it is not good

641
00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:05,119
from the bee. One passage may
end this matter. Quote. If the

642
00:46:05,159 --> 00:46:07,360
gods have determined about me and about
the things which must happen to me,

643
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:12,320
they have determined well. For it
is not easy even to imagine a deity

644
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:15,679
without forethought, and as to doing
me harm, Why should they have any

645
00:46:15,679 --> 00:46:20,159
desire towards that? For what advantage
would result to them for this or to

646
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:23,199
the whole, which is the special
object through their providence. But if they

647
00:46:23,199 --> 00:46:28,480
have not determined about me individually,
they have certainly determined about the whole at

648
00:46:28,599 --> 00:46:31,559
least, and the things which happen
by way of sequence in this general arrangement.

649
00:46:31,559 --> 00:46:37,119
I ought to accept with pleasure and
to be content with them. But

650
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:39,679
if they determine about nothing which it
is wicked to believe, or if we

651
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:43,679
do believe it, let us neither
sacrifice, nor pray, nor swear by

652
00:46:43,679 --> 00:46:45,000
them, nor do anything else which
we do, as if the gods were

653
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:47,840
present and lived with us. But
if, however, the God's determined about

654
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:52,199
none of these things which concern us, I am able to determine about myself,

655
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:54,480
and I can inquire about that which
is useful, and that is useful

656
00:46:54,519 --> 00:47:00,360
to every man, which is conformable
to his own constitution and nature. But

657
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,800
my nature is rational and social,
and my city and country, so far

658
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:07,679
as I am Antoninus, is Rome. But so far as I am a

659
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,480
man, it is the world.
The things, then, which are useful

660
00:47:10,519 --> 00:47:16,840
to these cities, are alone useful
to me. It would be tedious,

661
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,280
And it is not necessary to state
that the Emperor's opinions on all the ways

662
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:24,800
in which a man may profitably use
his understanding towards perfecting himself in practical virtue.

663
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:28,920
The passages to this purpose are in
all parts of his book. But

664
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:30,840
as they are in no order or
connection, a man must use the book

665
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:35,199
a long time before he will find
out all that is in it. A

666
00:47:35,199 --> 00:47:38,079
few words may be added here.
If we analyze all other things, we

667
00:47:38,159 --> 00:47:43,119
find how insufficient they are for human
life, and how truly worthless many of

668
00:47:43,119 --> 00:47:49,320
them are. Virtue alone is indivisible, one and perfectly satisfying. The notion

669
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,519
of virtue cannot be considered vague or
unsettled, because a man may find it

670
00:47:52,519 --> 00:47:57,000
difficult to explain the notion fully to
himself, would expound it to others in

671
00:47:57,039 --> 00:48:00,320
such a way as to prevent covealing. Virtue as a whole, and no

672
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,239
more consists of parts than man's intelligence
does. And yet we speak of various

673
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:08,159
intellectual faculties as a convenient way of
expressing the various powers which man's intellect shows

674
00:48:08,159 --> 00:48:13,039
by his works. In the same
way, we may speak of various virtues

675
00:48:13,119 --> 00:48:15,599
or parts of virtue in a practical
sense, for the purpose of showing what

676
00:48:15,639 --> 00:48:20,960
particular virtues we ought to practice in
order to exercise the whole of virtue.

677
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:27,559
That is, as much as man's
nature is capable of, the prime principle

678
00:48:27,559 --> 00:48:30,599
in man's constitution is social The next
in orders is not to yield to the

679
00:48:30,639 --> 00:48:35,679
persuasions of the body when they are
not conformable to the rational principle which much

680
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:40,039
govern The third is freedom from error
and from deception. Quote. Let then

681
00:48:40,079 --> 00:48:45,119
the ruling principle holding fast, that
these things go straight on, and it

682
00:48:45,199 --> 00:48:50,079
has what is its own end quote. The Empress elects justice as the virtue

683
00:48:50,079 --> 00:48:52,400
which is the basis of all the
rest. And this had been said long

684
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:58,719
before his time. It is true
that all people have some notion of what

685
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:02,079
is meant by justice disposition of the
mind, and some notion about acting in

686
00:49:02,199 --> 00:49:08,280
conformity to this disposition. But experience
shows that men's notions about justice are as

687
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:14,639
confused as their actions are inconsistent with
the true notion of justice. The Emperor's

688
00:49:14,639 --> 00:49:17,880
notion of justice is clear enough,
but not practical enough for all mankind.

689
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:22,360
Quote, let there be freedom from
perturbations with respect to the things which come

690
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,559
from the external cause, and let
there be justice in the things done by

691
00:49:25,639 --> 00:49:30,199
virtue of the internal cause. That
is, let there be a movement in

692
00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:35,039
action terminating in this and social acts, for this is according to thy nature.

693
00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:38,639
End quote. In another place,
he says that quote he who acts

694
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:44,320
unjustly, acts impiously end quote,
which follows, of course, from all

695
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,800
that he says in various places.
He insists on the practice of truth as

696
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:51,960
a virtue and as a means to
virtue, which it no doubt is for

697
00:49:52,079 --> 00:49:57,480
lying even and indifferent things weakens the
understanding and lying maliciously is as great a

698
00:49:57,559 --> 00:50:00,320
moral offense as man can be guilty
of. Fewed both as showing an habitual

699
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:06,480
disposition, and viewed with respect to
consequences. He couples the notion of justice

700
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,400
with action. A man must not
pride himself on having some fine notion of

701
00:50:09,519 --> 00:50:14,480
justice in his head, but he
must exhibit his justice and act like Saint

702
00:50:14,599 --> 00:50:21,360
James's notion of faith. But this
is enough. The Stoics and Antoninus among

703
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:24,639
them, call some things beautiful and
some ugly. And as they are beautiful,

704
00:50:24,679 --> 00:50:28,320
so they are good. And as
they are ugly, so they are

705
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:31,280
evil or bad. All these things, good and evil are in our power.

706
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:36,920
Absolutely. Some of the stricter stokes
would say in a manner only as

707
00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:39,599
those who would not depart altogether from
common sense would say. Practically, they

708
00:50:39,639 --> 00:50:43,280
are to a great degree in the
power of some persons, and in some

709
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:47,079
circumstances, but in a small degree
only in other persons and in other circumstances.

710
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,760
The Stoics maintain man's free will as
to the things which are in his

711
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:54,559
power. For as to the things
which are out of his power, free

712
00:50:54,559 --> 00:50:59,639
will terminating in action is of course
excluded by the very terms of the expression.

713
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:04,000
I hardly know if we can discover
exactly Antonina's notion of the free will

714
00:51:04,039 --> 00:51:07,760
of man, Nor is the question
worth the inquiry. What he does mean

715
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:12,880
and does say is intelligible. All
the things which are not in our power

716
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:16,880
are indifferent. They are neither good
nor bad morally. Such are life,

717
00:51:17,079 --> 00:51:21,920
health, wealth, power, disease, poverty, and death. Life and

718
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:24,599
death are all men's portion. Health, wealth, power, disease, and

719
00:51:24,599 --> 00:51:29,559
poverty happen to men indifferently, to
the good and to the bad, to

720
00:51:29,599 --> 00:51:32,559
those who live according to nature,
and to those who do not. Quote

721
00:51:32,599 --> 00:51:37,559
Life says the Emperor is a warfare
and a stranger's sojourn, And after fame

722
00:51:37,639 --> 00:51:44,159
is oblivion. End quote, after
speaking of those men who have disturbed the

723
00:51:44,199 --> 00:51:46,480
world and then died, and of
the death of philosophers such as Heraclitis and

724
00:51:46,519 --> 00:51:52,280
Democritus, who is destroyed by lice, and of Socrates, whom other life

725
00:51:52,599 --> 00:51:55,480
his enemies destroyed. He says,
quote what means all this, thou hast

726
00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:59,480
embarked, thou hast made the voyage. Thou art come to shore, get

727
00:51:59,519 --> 00:52:01,760
out, If indeed to another life, there is no want of gods,

728
00:52:02,079 --> 00:52:07,559
not even there. But if to
a state without sensation, thou wilt cease

729
00:52:07,599 --> 00:52:09,480
to be held by pains and pleasures, and to be a slave to the

730
00:52:09,559 --> 00:52:14,440
vessel which is as much inferior to
that which serves it as superior. For

731
00:52:14,519 --> 00:52:17,280
the one is intelligence and deity,
the other is earth and corruption. End

732
00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:22,360
quote. It is not death that
man should fear, but he should fear

733
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,599
never beginning to live according to his
nature. Every man should live in such

734
00:52:25,599 --> 00:52:30,360
a way as to discharge his duty
and to trouble himself about nothing else.

735
00:52:30,159 --> 00:52:32,880
He should live such a life that
he shall always be ready for death,

736
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:37,920
and shall depart content when the summon
comes. For what is death? Quote

737
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:43,239
A cessation of the impressions through the
senses, and of the pulling of the

738
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,440
strings which move the appetites, and
of the discursive movements of the thoughts,

739
00:52:46,639 --> 00:52:52,599
and of the service to the flesh
end quote. Death is such as generation

740
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:58,159
is a mystery of nature. In
another passage, the exact meaning of which

741
00:52:58,239 --> 00:53:01,079
is perhaps doubtful, speaks of the
child which leaves the womb, And so

742
00:53:01,159 --> 00:53:05,960
he says, the soul of death
leaves its envelope as the child is born

743
00:53:06,079 --> 00:53:08,440
or comes into life by leaving the
womb. So the soul may, on

744
00:53:08,559 --> 00:53:14,679
leaving the body, pass into another
existence which is perfect. I'm not sure

745
00:53:14,679 --> 00:53:19,559
if this is the Emperor's meaning.
Antonininus's opinion of a future life is nowhere

746
00:53:19,559 --> 00:53:22,960
clearly expressed. His doctrine of the
nature of the soul of necessity implies that

747
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:27,679
it does not perish, absolutely,
for a portion of divinity cannot perish.

748
00:53:28,800 --> 00:53:31,519
The opinion is at least as old
as the time of Epicharmus and Euripides.

749
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:35,960
What comes from the earth goes back
to the earth, and what comes from

750
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:39,760
heaven the divinity returns to him who
gave it. But I find nothing clear

751
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:44,320
in Antoninus as to the notion of
the man existing after death so as to

752
00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:49,480
be conscious of his sameness with the
soul which occupied his vessel of clay.

753
00:53:49,559 --> 00:53:52,119
He seemed to be perplexed on this
matter, and finally to have rested in

754
00:53:52,159 --> 00:53:57,119
this that God or the gods,
will do whatever is best and consistent with

755
00:53:57,159 --> 00:54:02,679
the university of things. Nor I
think does he speak conclusively on another Stoic

756
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:08,239
doctrine which some Stoics practice, the
anticipating the regular course of nature by man's

757
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:14,800
own act. The reader will find
some passages in which this is touched on,

758
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:17,199
and he may make of them what
he can. But there are passages

759
00:54:17,199 --> 00:54:22,599
in which the Emperor encourages himself to
wait for the end patiently and with tranquility.

760
00:54:22,039 --> 00:54:25,159
And certainly it is consistent with all
his best teaching that a man should

761
00:54:25,199 --> 00:54:29,599
bear all that falls to his lot
and do useful acts as long as he

762
00:54:29,679 --> 00:54:34,440
lives. He should not therefore abridge
the time of his usefulness by his own

763
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:38,599
act. Whether he contemplates any possible
cases in which a man should die by

764
00:54:38,599 --> 00:54:43,000
his own hand, I cannot tell, and the matter is not worth the

765
00:54:43,079 --> 00:54:45,679
curious inquiry, for I believe it
would not lead to any certain result as

766
00:54:45,679 --> 00:54:51,400
to his opinion on this point.
I do not think that Antoninus, who

767
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,119
never mentioned Seneca, though he must
have known all about him, would have

768
00:54:54,119 --> 00:54:58,960
agreed with Seneca when he gives as
a reason for suicide that the eternal law,

769
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,239
whatever he means, has made nothing
better for us than this, that

770
00:55:01,320 --> 00:55:05,440
it has given us only one way
of entering life, and many ways of

771
00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:08,440
going out of it. The ways
of going out, indeed are many,

772
00:55:08,719 --> 00:55:14,320
and that is a good reason for
a man taking care of himself. Happiness

773
00:55:14,599 --> 00:55:17,679
was not the direct object of a
Stoic's life. There is no rule of

774
00:55:17,719 --> 00:55:22,400
life contained in the precept that a
man should pursue his own happiness. Many

775
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:27,239
men think that they are seeking happiness, when they are only seeking the gratification

776
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:31,119
of some particular passion. The strongest
that they have. The end of a

777
00:55:31,159 --> 00:55:36,239
man is, as already explained,
to live conformably to nature, and he

778
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:39,960
will thus obtain happiness, tranquility of
mind, and contentment. As a means

779
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:45,119
of living conformably to nature, he
must study the four chief virtues. Each

780
00:55:45,119 --> 00:55:49,480
of us has its proper sphere wisdom
or the knowledge of good and evil,

781
00:55:50,599 --> 00:55:54,679
justice, or the giving to every
man his due fortitude, or the enduring

782
00:55:54,760 --> 00:56:00,639
of labour and pain and temperance,
which is moderation in all things. By

783
00:56:00,679 --> 00:56:04,960
thus having come formerly to nature,
the Stoic obtained all that he wished her

784
00:56:05,039 --> 00:56:08,599
expect it. His reward was in
his virtuous life, and he was satisfied

785
00:56:08,639 --> 00:56:15,440
with that. Some Greek poet long
ago wrote quote, for virtue only of

786
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:20,880
all human things, takes a reward
not from the hands of others. Virtue

787
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:29,000
herself rewards the toils of virtue end. Some of the Stoics indeed express themselves

788
00:56:29,079 --> 00:56:34,239
in very arrogant, absurd terms about
the wise man's self sufficiency. They elevated

789
00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:37,440
him to the rank of a deity. But these were only talkers and lectures,

790
00:56:37,559 --> 00:56:40,880
such as those in all layers,
who utter fine words, knowing little

791
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:46,679
of human affairs, and caring only
for notoriety. Etpectitus and Antoninus, both

792
00:56:46,679 --> 00:56:52,320
by precept and example, labor to
improve themselves in others. And if we

793
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:57,000
discover imperfections in their teaching, we
must still honor these great men who attempted

794
00:56:57,000 --> 00:57:00,440
to show that there is in a
man's nature and in a constant tution of

795
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:05,760
things, sufficient reason for living a
virtuous life. It is difficult enough to

796
00:57:05,800 --> 00:57:08,360
live as we ought to live,
difficult even for any man to live in

797
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:13,559
such a way as to satisfy himself, if he exercises only in a moderate

798
00:57:13,559 --> 00:57:17,960
degree the power of reflecting upon and
reviewing his own conduct, and if all

799
00:57:19,039 --> 00:57:22,800
men cannot be brought to the same
opinions and morals in religion. It is

800
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,360
at least worthwhile to give them good
reasons for as much as they can be

801
00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:36,679
persuaded to accept. End Meditations of
Marcus Aurelius Santaninus, Section fourteen, The

802
00:57:36,679 --> 00:58:04,119
Philosophy of Antonias by George Long.
End of Meditations of Marcus Aurelius