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It has been said that Stoic philosophy
first showed its real value when it passed

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from Greece to Rome. The doctrines
of Zeno and his successors were well suited

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to the gravity and practical good sense
of the Romans, and even in the

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Republican period we have an example of
a man m cato Utensis, who lived

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the life of a Stoic and died
consistently with the opinions which he professed.

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He was a man, says Cicero, who embraced the Stoic philosophy from conviction,

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not for the purpose of vain discussion, as most did, but in

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order to make his life conformable to
the Stoic precepts. In the wretched time

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from the death of Augustus to the
murder of Domitian, there was nothing but

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Stoic philosophy which could console and support
the followers of the old religion under imperial

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tyranny and amidst universal corruption. There
were even then noble minds that could dare

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and endure, sustained by good conscious
and elevated idea of the purposes of man's

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existence. Such were Patus Thesea,
Helvidius, Priscius, Cornudus, c.

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Musonius Rufus, and the poets Perseus
and Juvenal, whose energetic language and manly

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thoughts may be as instructive to us
now as they might have been to their

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contemporaries. Perseus died under Nero's bloody
reign, but Juvenal had the good fortune

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to survive the tyrant Domitian and to
see the better times of Nerva, Trajan,

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and Hatrian. His best precepts are
derived from the Stoic school, and

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they are enforced in his finest verses
by the unrivaled vigor of the Latin language.

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The two best expounders of the later
Stoical philosophy were a Greek slave and

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a Roman emperor. Epictetus, a
Phrygian Greek, was brought to Rome.

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We know not how, but he
was there the slave, and afterwards the

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freedman of an unworthy master. Epaphroditus
by name himself a freeman and a favorite

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of Nero. Epictetus may have been
a hearer of C. Musonius Ruthless while

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he was still a slave, but
he could hardly have been a teacher before

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he was made free. He was
one of the philosophers whom Domitian's order.

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Banished from Rome, he retired to
Nicopolis and Epirus, and he may have

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died there. Like other great teachers, he wrote nothing, and we are

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indebted to his grateful pupil Aryan for
what we have of Epictitis's discourses. Aryan

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wrote eight books of the discourses of
Epictisis, of which only four remain,

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and some fragments. We also have
from Aryan's hand the small Enturidian or Manuel

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or the chief Precepts of Epictidis.
There is a valuable commentary on the Inturidian

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by Simplicis, who lived at the
time of the Emperor Justinian. Antoninus,

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in his first book, in which
he gratefully commentaries his obligations to his teachers,

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says that he was made acquainted by
Junius Rusticus with the discourses of Epictitus,

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whom he mentions also in other passages. Indeed, the doctrines of Epectidus

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and Antoninus are the same, and
Epectidis is the best authority for the explanation

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of the philosophical language of Antoninus and
the exposition of his opinions. But the

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method of the two philosophers is entirely
different. Epic Titis addressed himself to his

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hearers in a continuous discourse and in
a familial and simple manner. Antoninus wrote

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down his reflections for his own use
only in short, unconnected paragraphs, which

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are often obscure. The Stoics made
three divisions of philosophy, physic, ethic,

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and logic. This division, we
are told by Diogenes, was made

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by Zenoosidium, the founder of the
Stoic sect, and by Chrysippus, But

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these philosophers placed the three divisions in
the following order, logic, physic,

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ethic. It appears, however,
that this division was made before Zeno's time,

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and acknowledged by Plato. As Cicero
remarks, logic is not synonymous with

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our term logic in the narrow sense
of that word. Cleanthes a Stoic subdivided

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into three divisions and made six dialectic
and rhetoric, comprised in logic, ethic,

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and politic, physic and theology.
This division was merely for practical use,

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for all philosophy is one even among
the earliest Stoics. Logic or dialectic

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does not occupy the same place as
in Plato, is considered only as an

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instrument which is to be used for
the other divisions of philosophy. An exposition

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of the earlier Stoic doctrines and of
their modifications, with require of volume.

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My object is to explain only the
opinions of Antoninas, so far as they

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can be collected from his book.
According to the subdivision of Clanthes, physic

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and theology go together, or the
study of the nature of things and the

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study of the nature of the deity, so far as man can understand the

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deity and of his government of the
universe. This division or subdivision is not

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formally adopted by Antonina's for as already
observed, there is no method in his

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book, but it is virtually contained
in it. Cleanthes also connects ethic and

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politic, or the study of principles
of morals in the study of the constitution

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of civil society, and undoubtedly he
did well subdividing ethic into two parts,

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ethic in a narrower sense and politic. For though the two are intimately connected,

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they are also very distinct, and
many questions can only be properly discussed

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by carefully observing the distinction. Antoninus
does not treat of politic. His subject

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is ethic and ethic in its practical
application to his own conduct in life as

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a man and as a governor.
His ethic is founded on the doctrines about

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man's nature, the universal nature,
and the relations of every man to everything

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else. It is therefore intimately and
inseparately connected with physics, or the nature

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of things, and with theology,
or the nature of the deity. He

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advises us to examine well all the
impressions on our minds, and to form

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a right judgment of them, to
make just conclusions, and to inquire into

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the meanings of words, and so
far to apply dialectic. But he has

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no attempt at any exposition of dialectic, and his philosophy is in substance purely

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moral and practical. He said,
quote constantly, and if it be possible,

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on the occasion of every impression on
the soul, apply it to the

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principles of physic, of ethic,
and of dialectic. End quote, which

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is only another way of telling us
to examine the impression into every possible way.

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In another passage, he says,
quote to the age which have been

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mentioned, let this one still be
added. Make for thyself a definition or

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description of the object which is presented
to thee, so as to see distinctly

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what kind of a thing it is, in its substance, in its nudity,

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in its complete entirety, and tell
thyself its proper name, and the

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names of the things which it has
been compounded and into which it will be

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resolved. End quote. Such an
examination implies a use of dialectic, which

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Antoninas accordingly employed as a mean towards
establishing his physical, theological and ethical principles.

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

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contained in the work of Antoninas,
and more expositions than I have read.

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Ritter, after explaining the doctrines of
Epectidis, treats very briefly and insufficiently those

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of Antoninas, but he refers to
a short essay in which the work has

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done better. There is also an
essay on the philosophical principles of m Aurelius

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Antoninus by J. M. Schultz, placed at the end of his German

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translation of Antoninus. With the assistance
of these two useful essays, in his

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own diligent study, a man may
form a sufficient notion of the principles of

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Antoninus, but he will find it
more difficult to expound them to others.

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Besides the want of arrangement in the
original end of connection among the numerous paragraphs,

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the corruption of the text, the
obscurity of the language and the style,

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and sometimes perhaps the confusion in the
writer's own ideas. Besides all this,

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there is occasionally an apparent contradiction in
the emperor's thoughts, as if his

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principles were sometimes unsettled, as if
doubts sometimes clouded his mind. A man

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who leads a life of tranquility and
reflection, who is not disturbed at home

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and meddles not with the affairs of
the world, may keep his mind to

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and his thoughts in one even course. But such a man has not been

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tried all his ethical philosophy and his
passive virse, who might turn out to

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be idle words if he were once
exposed to the rude realities of human existence.

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Fine thoughts and moral dissertations from men
who have not worked and suffered may

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be read, but they will be
forgotten. No religion, no ethical philosophy,

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is worth anything if the teacher has
not lived the quote life of an

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apostle end quote, and has been
ready to die quote the death of a

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martyr end quote quote. Not in
passivity the passive effects, but in activity,

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lie the evil and the good of
the rational social animal, just as

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his virtue and his vice lie not
in passivity, but in activity. End

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quote, Section nine, paragraph sixteen. The Emperor Antoninus was a practical moralist.

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From his youth he followed the laborious
discipline, and though his high station

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placed him above all or the fear
of it, he lived as frugally and

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as temperately as the poorest philosopher at
Pectidius wanted little, and it seems that

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he always had the little that he
wanted, and he was content with it,

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as he has been with his servile
station. But Antoninas, after his

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accession to the empire, sat on
an uneasy seat. He had the administration

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of an empire which extended from the
Euphrates to the Atlantic, from the cold

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mountains of Scotland to the hot sands
of Africa. And we may imagine,

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though we cannot know it by experience, what must be the trials, the

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troubles, the anxiety, and the
sorrows of him who has the world's business

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on his hands, with the wish
to do the best he can, and

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the certain knowledge that he can do
very little of the good which he wishes

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in the midst of war, pestilence, conspiracy, general corruption, and with

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the weight of so unwieldy an empire
upon him. We may easily comprehend that

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Antoninus often had need of all his
fortitude to support him. The best and

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bravest men have moments of doubt and
of weakness. But if they are the

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best and the bravest, they rise
again from their depression by recurring to first

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principles, as Antoninus does. The
Emperor says that life is smoke a vapor,

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and Saint James and his epistle is
of the same mind, that the

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world is full of envious, jealous, malignant people, and a man might

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well be content to get out of
it. He has doubts, perhaps sometimes

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even about that to which he holds
most firmly. There are only a few

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passages of this kind, but they
are the evidence of struggles which even the

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noblest of the sons of men had
to maintained against the hard realities of his

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daily life. A poor remark,
it is, which I have seen somewhere

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and made in a disparaging way,
that the emperor's reflection show that he had

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need of consolation and comfort in life, and even to prepare him to meet

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his death. True that he did
need comfort and support, and we see

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how he found it. He constantly
recurs to his fundamental principle that the universe

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is wisely ordered, that every man
is a part of it and must conform

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to that order, which he cannot
change. That whatever the deity has done

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is good, that all mankind,
or a man's breath, that he must

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love and cherish them and try to
make them better, even those who would

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do him harm. This is his
conclusion. Quote, what then, is

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that which is able to conduct a
man one thing, and only one philosophy?

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But this consists in keeping the divinity
within a man, free from violence

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and unharmed, superior to pains and
pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose,

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nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy,
not feeling the need of another man's doing

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or not doing anything, And besides, accepting all that happens in all that

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is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is from, whence he

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himself came, and finally waiting for
death with a cheerful mind, as being

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nothing else than a dissolution of the
elements of which every living being is compounded.

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But if there is no harm to
the elements themselves, and each continually

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changing into another, why should the
man have any apprehension about the change and

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

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nothing is evil that is according to
nature end quote. The physic of Antoninus

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is the knowledge of the nature of
the universe, of its government, and

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of the relation of man's nature to
both. He names the universe quote the

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universal substance end quote, and he
adds to quote reason end quote covers the

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

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nature of the universe end quote.
He calls the universe quote the one and

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all, which we name cosmus or
order end quote. If he ever seems

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to use these general terms as significant
of the all of all that man can

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in any way conceive to exist,
he still, on other occasions plainly distinguishes

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between matter, material things, and
cause origin reason. This is conformable to

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Zeno's doctrine that there are two original
principles of all things, that which acts

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and that which is acted upon.
That which is acted on is the formless

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matter. That which acts is the
reason, God, who is eternal and

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operates through all matter and produces all
things. So Antoninas speaks of the reason,

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which pervades all substance and through all
time by fixed periods, parentzes,

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revolutions, and prinzes and ministers 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 old

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as an exaggeras God and matter exist
independently, but God governs mattered. This

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doctrine is simply the expression of the
fact of the existence both of matter and

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

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

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now know them, but his language
is sometimes very obscure. I have endeavored

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

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which all material objects are made,
but nothing is permanent in form the nature

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of the universe. According to Antonina's
expression, quote loves nothing so much as

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to change the things which are,
and to make new things like them.

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For everything that exists in a manner, the seed of that which will be.

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But thou art thinking only of seeds
which are cast into the earth or

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into a womb. But this is
a very vulgar notion. End quote.

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

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

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the whole universe continues, every young
and perfect endote. Antoninas has some obscure

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expressions by what he calls quote seminal
principles end quote. He opposes these to

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the epicurean aboms, and consequently quote
his seminal principles end quote are not material

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atoms which wander about it, hazard
and combine. Nobody knows how. In

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

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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 is possible. End
quote. This may be the meaning but

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

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often uses the word quote nature,
end quote, and we must attempt to

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fix its meaning. The simple etymological
sense is quote production end quote, the

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

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birth originally, but neither the Greeks
nor Romans stuck to the simple meaning,

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nor do we. Antoninis says,
quote whether the universe is a concourse of

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atoms or nature as a system.
Let this first be established, that I

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am part of the whole which is
governed by nature. Here it might seem

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

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

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00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:22.399
is given to it by the deity. Such if I understand the expression right

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00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:26.159
is the way in which the word
nature is often used. Now, though

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00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.759
it is plain that many writers use
the word without fixing any exact meaning to

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00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:33.960
it. It is the same with
the expression laws of nature, which some

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00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:38.159
writers may use in an intelligible sense, but others as clearly used in no

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00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:45.000
definite sense at all. There is
no meaning in this word nature except that

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00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.480
which Bishop Butler assigns to it when
he says, quote, the only distinct

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00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:52.720
meaning of that word naturalist stated fixture
settled. Since what is natural as much

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00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:56.399
required and presuppose as an intelligent agent
to render it, so i e.

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To affect it continually or at stated
time, as what is supernatural or miraculous

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does to affect it at once end
quote. This is Plato's meaning when he

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says that God holds the beginning and
end and middle of all that exists,

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and proceeds straight on his course,
making his circuit according to nature friends,

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

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

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from the order or course which God
observes. When we look at the motion

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of the planets, the action of
what we call gravitation, the elemental combination

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of unorganized bodies and their resolution,
the production of plants and of living bodies,

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their generation, growth in their dissolution, which we call their death,

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we observe a regular sequence of phenomena
which, within the limits of experience,

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presence, and past, so far
as we know, the past is fixed

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and invariable. But if this is
not so, if the order and sequence

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of phenomena as known to us are
subject to change in the course of an

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infinite progression, and such change is
conceivable. We have nor discovered, not

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shall we ever discover, the whole
of the order and sequence of phenomena in

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which sequence there may be involved according
to its very nature, that is,

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according to its fixed order, some
variation which we now call order or the

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nature of things. It is also
conceivable that such changes have taken place,

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changes in the order of things,
as we are compelled by the imperfection of

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language to call them, which are
no changes. And further, it is

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certain that our knowledge of the true
sequence of all actual phenomena, as for

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instance, the phenomena of generation,
growth, and dissolution, is and ever

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00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:41.119
must be imperfect. We do not
fare much better when we speak of causes

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and effects than when we speak of
nature. For the practical purposes of life,

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we may use the terms cause and
effect conveniently, and we may fix

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00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:52.119
a distinct meaning to them, distinct
enough at least to prevent all misunderstanding.

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But the case is different. When
we speak of causes and effects as of

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things. All that we know is
that phenomenon as it Greeks call them or

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appearances which follow one another in irregular
order, as we conceive it, so

250
00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:07.759
that if some one phenomena should fail
in the series, we conceive that there

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must either be an interruption of the
series, or that something else will appear

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after the phenomena which has failed to
appear, and will occupy the vacant place.

253
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And so the series in its progression
may be modified or totally changed.

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Cause an effect, then mean nothing
in a sequence of natural phenomena beyond what

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00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:27.160
I've said, And the real cause, or the transcendent cause, as some

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00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:32.200
would call it, of each successive
phenomena, is in that which is the

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cause of all things which are,
which have been, and which will be

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00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:40.440
forever. Thus the word creation may
have a real sense if we consider it

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00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.279
as the first and we can conceive
a first in the present order of natural

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00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:48.079
phenomena put in the vulgar sense,
the creation of all things at a certain

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time, followed by acquiescence of the
first cause, in an abandonment of all

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sequences and phenomena. To the laws
of nature or to the other words that

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00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:00.599
people may use, is absolutely absurd. Now, though there is great difficulty

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in understanding all the passages of antoniness
in which he speaks of nature, of

265
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:07.279
the changes of things, and of
the economy of the universe. I am

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00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:11.799
convinced that his sense of nature and
natural is the same as that which I

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00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:15.559
have stated. And as he was
a man who knew how to use words

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00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:18.559
in a clear way and with a
strict consistency, we ought to assume,

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00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:22.960
even if it's a meaning in some
passage, this is doubtful that his view

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00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:26.440
of nature was in harmony with his
fixed belief in the all pervading, ever

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00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:32.480
present, and ever active energy of
God. There is much an antoniness that

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00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:34.720
is hard to understand, and it
might be said that he did not fully

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00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:38.519
comprehend all that he wrote, which
would however, be in no way remarkable.

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00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:42.000
For it happens now that a man
may write what neither he nor anybody

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00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:47.480
can understand. Antoninis tells us to
look at things and see what they are,

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00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:51.920
resolving them into the material, the
causal, and the relation or the

277
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.119
purpose by which he seems to mean
something in nature what we call effect or

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00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.960
end. The word cause is the
difficult. There is the same word in

279
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:04.839
the Sanskrit, and the subtle philosophers
of India and of Greece and the less

280
00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:10.000
subtle philosophers of modern times have all
used this word or an equivalent word in

281
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.200
a vague way. Yet the confusion
sometimes may be the inevitable ambiguity of language,

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00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:18.440
rather than in the mind of the
writer. For I cannot think that

283
00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:22.480
some of the wisest of men did
not know what they intended to say.

284
00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:27.440
When Antoninus says that quote everything that
exists is in a manner of the seed

285
00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:32.880
of that which will be end quote, he might be supposed to say what

286
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:37.519
some of the Indian philosophers have said, and thus a profound truth might be

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00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:41.440
converted into a gross absurdity. But
he says quote in a manner end quote,

288
00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:45.480
and in a manner he said true, And in another manner, if

289
00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:49.759
you mistake his meaning, he said
false. When Plato said quote nothing ever

290
00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:53.759
is, but is always becoming end
quote, he delivered a text out of

291
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:57.920
which we may derive something, For
he destroys by it not all practical,

292
00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:03.079
but all speculate to notions of cause
and effect. The whole series of things

293
00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:06.519
as they appear to us must be
contemplated in time, that is, in

294
00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:10.680
succession, and we conceive or supposed
intervals between one state of things in another

295
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:14.599
state of things, so that there
is priority in sequence and interval and being,

296
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:18.359
and is ceasing to be, and
beginning and ending. But there is

297
00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:23.519
nothing of this kind in the nature
of things. It is an everlasting continuity.

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00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:29.640
When Antoninus speaks of generation, he
speaks of one cause acting, and

299
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:33.359
then another cause taking up the work
which the former left in a certain state,

300
00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:37.000
and so on. And we might
conceive that he has some notion like

301
00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:41.799
what has been called quote the self
evolving power of nature, a fine phrase,

302
00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:45.599
indeed, the full import of which
I believe that the writer of it

303
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:48.599
did not see unless he laid himself
open to the imputation of being a follower

304
00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:52.119
of one of the Hindu sects,
which makes all things come by evolution out

305
00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:55.880
of nature a matter, or out
of something which takes the place of the

306
00:22:55.960 --> 00:23:00.559
deity, but is not deity.
I would have all men think as they

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00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:03.799
please, or as they can,
and I only claim the same freedom which

308
00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:07.880
I give. When a man writes
anything. We may fairly try to find

309
00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:10.880
out all that his words must mean, even if the result is that they

310
00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:14.279
mean what he did not mean.
And if we find this contradiction, it

311
00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:18.640
is not our fault but his misfortune. Now Antoninus is perhaps somewhat in a

312
00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:21.359
condition. And what he says,
though he speaks at the end of the

313
00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:25.359
paragraph of the power which acts unseen
by the eyes, but still no less

314
00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:29.319
clearly. But whether in this passage
he means the power is conceived to be

315
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.799
in different successive causes, or in
something else, nobody can tell from other

316
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:36.920
passages. However, I do collect
that his notion of the phenomena of the

317
00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.599
universe is what I have stated.
The deity works unseen, if we may

318
00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:44.200
use such language, and perhaps I
may, as Job did, or he

319
00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.960
wrote the Book of Job. Quote
in him, we live and move and

320
00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.000
are end quote said Saint Paul to
the Athenians. And to show his bearers

321
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.519
that this was no new doctrine,
he quoted the Greek poets. One of

322
00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:59.119
these poets was the Stoic Cleanthes,
whose noble hymn to Zeus or God is

323
00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:03.599
an elevated reretion of devotion and philosophy. It deprives nature of her power and

324
00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:08.079
puts her under the immediate government of
the deity ute thee. All this heaven,

325
00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:12.119
which whirls around the earth, obeys
and willing follows. Where thou leadest.

326
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:15.880
Without thee God, nothing is done
on earth, nor in the ethereal

327
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.319
realms, nor in the sea,
save what the wicked through their folly due

328
00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:23.920
end quote. Antoni's conviction of the
existence of a divine power and government was

329
00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:29.359
founded on his perception of the order
of the universe. Like Socrates, he

330
00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:32.680
says that though we cannot see the
form of divine powers, we know that

331
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:37.119
they exist because we see their works. Quote to those who asked, where

332
00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:41.359
hast thou seen the gods, or
how dost thou comprehend that they exist and

333
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:44.240
so worship with them? I answer, in the first place, that they

334
00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:47.400
may be seen even with the eyes. In the second place, neither have

335
00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:49.519
I seen my own soul, and
yet I honor it. Thus, then,

336
00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:52.680
with respect to the gods, from
what I constantly experience of their power.

337
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.319
From this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them. End

338
00:24:56.359 --> 00:25:00.519
quote. This is a very old
argument which has always had great weight with

339
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:06.640
most people, and has appeared sufficient. It does not acquire the least additional

340
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:10.680
strength by being developed in a learned
treatise. It is as intelligible and its

341
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.920
simple enunciation as it can be made. If it is rejected there is no

342
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.200
arguing with him who rejects it,
and if it has worked out into innumerable

343
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:22.799
particulars, the value of the evidence
runs the risk of being buried under a

344
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:30.079
mass of words. Man being conscious
that he has a spiritual power or intellectual

345
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.480
power, or that he has such
a power in whatever way he conceives that

346
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:36.319
he has it, for which,
simply to state a fact from this power

347
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:38.160
which he has in himself, he
has led, as Antonina says, to

348
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.440
believe that there is a greater power, which, as the old Stoics tell

349
00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:47.759
us, pervades the whole universe,
as the intellect pervades man. God exists,

350
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:51.839
then, but what do we know
of his nature? Antonina says that

351
00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:55.640
the soul of man is an efflux
from the divinity. We have bodies like

352
00:25:55.799 --> 00:26:00.079
animals, but we have reason intelligence
as to gods. Als have life and

353
00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:04.200
what we call instincts and natural principles
of action. But the rational animal man

354
00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:10.519
alone has rational, intelligent soul.
Antoninus insists on this. Continually, God

355
00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:14.319
is in man, and so he
must constantly attended the divinity within us,

356
00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:17.079
For it is only in this way
that we can have any knowledge of the

357
00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:19.960
nature of God. The human soul
is in a sense of portion of the

358
00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:23.559
divinity, and the soul alone has
any communication with the Deity. For,

359
00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:27.920
as he says quote, with his
intellectual part alone, God touches the intelligence

360
00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:33.200
only which has flowed and has been
derived from himself into these bodies. In

361
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:36.799
fact, he says, that which
is hidden within a man is life,

362
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:41.240
that is, the man himself.
All the rest is vesture, covering organ's

363
00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:44.720
instrument, which the living man,
the real man, uses for purposes of

364
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:48.880
his present existence. The air is
universally diffused for him who is able to

365
00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:51.920
respire, and so for him who
is willing to partake of it. The

366
00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:55.799
intelligent power, which holds within it
all things, is diffused, as wide

367
00:26:55.880 --> 00:26:57.960
and as free as the air.
It is by living a divine life that

368
00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:03.680
man approaches to an knowledge of the
divinity. It is by following the divinity

369
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:07.799
within, as Anthonys calls it,
that man comes nearest to the Deity,

370
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.599
the supreme good. For a man
can never attain the perfect agreement with his

371
00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:15.279
internal guide Quote. Live with the
gods, and he does live with the

372
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:19.240
gods, who constantly shows them that
his own soul is satisfied with that which

373
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:23.000
is assigned to him, and that
it does all the demon wishes which Zus

374
00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:26.720
hath given to every man for his
guardian and guide a portion of himself.

375
00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:33.359
And this demon is every man's understanding
and reason end quote. There is in

376
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:37.640
man that is in the reason,
the intelligence, a superior faculty, which,

377
00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.720
if exercised, rules all the rest. This is the ruling faculty,

378
00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:47.839
which Cicero renders by the Latin word
principatus quote to which nothing can or ought

379
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:52.400
to be superior end quote. Antonias
often uses this term in others which are

380
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:59.079
equivalent. He names it quote the
governing intelligence end quote. The governing faculty

381
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:03.559
is the mass of the soul.
A man must reverence only is ruling faculty

382
00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:07.440
and the divinity within him. As
we must reverence that which is supreme in

383
00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:11.240
the universe, so he must reverence
that which is supreme in ourselves. And

384
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:15.839
this is that which of the like
kind with that which is the supreme in

385
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:21.000
the universe. So as Platinus says, the soul of man can only know

386
00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:25.839
the divine so far as it knows
itself. In one passage, Antoninus speaks

387
00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:30.400
of a man's condemnation of himself when
the diviner part within him has been overpowered

388
00:28:30.440 --> 00:28:33.240
and yields to the less honorable and
to the perishable part the body and its

389
00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:37.920
gross pleasures. In a word,
the views of antonina Is on this matter,

390
00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:42.119
however his expressions may vary, are
exactly what Bishop Butler expresses when he

391
00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:47.480
speaks of quote the natural supremacy of
the reflection or conscious end, quote of

392
00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:51.960
the faculty, quote which surveys,
approves or disapproves, the several affectations of

393
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:57.960
our mind and actions of our lives
end quote. Much matter might be collected

394
00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:02.799
from Antoninus on the of the universe
being one animated being, but all that

395
00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:06.400
he says amounts to no more his
sultier marks than this. The soul of

396
00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:10.480
man is most intimately united to his
body, and together they make one animal,

397
00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:14.119
which we call man. So the
deity is most intimately united to the

398
00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:18.880
world or the material universe, and
together they form one whole. But Antonias

399
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.839
did not view God and the material
universe says the same any more than he

400
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:27.119
viewed the body and soul of man
as one. Antoninas has no speculations on

401
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:30.119
the absolute nature of the deity.
It was not his fashion to waste his

402
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:34.319
time. And what a man cannot
understand he was satisfied that God exists,

403
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:38.039
that he governs all things, that
man can only have an imperfect knowledge of

404
00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:42.839
his nature, and he must attain
this imperfect knowledge by reverencing the divinity which

405
00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:47.880
is within him and keeping it pure. From all that has been said,

406
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.720
it follows that the universe is administered
by the providence of God, and that

407
00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:56.400
all things are wisely ordered. There
are passages in which Antonius expresses doubts or

408
00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:00.279
states different possible theories of the constitution
and government of the universe, but he

409
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:03.599
always recurs to his fundamental principle that
if we admit the existence of a deity,

410
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:08.559
we must also admit that he orders
all things wisely and well. Epictetus

411
00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:12.119
says that we can discern the providence
which rules the world if we possess two

412
00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:15.960
things, the power of seeing all
that happens with respect to each thing,

413
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:22.759
and a grateful disposition. But if
all things are wisely ordered, how is

414
00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:26.519
the world so full of what we
call evil? Physical and moral? If

415
00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:29.359
instead of saying that there is evil
in the world, we use the expression

416
00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:32.799
which I have used to quote what
we call evil end quote, we have

417
00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:37.440
partly anticipated the Emperor's answer. We
see and feel and know imperfectly very few

418
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:41.920
things in a few years that we
live, and all the knowledge and all

419
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:45.599
the experience of all the human race
is positive ignorance of the whole, which

420
00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:48.839
is infinite. Now, as our
reason teaches us that everything is in some

421
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:53.480
way related to and connected with every
other thing. All notion of evil is

422
00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:57.000
being in the universe of things as
a contradiction. For if the whole comes

423
00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:02.119
from and is governed by an intelligent
being, it is impossible to conceive anything

424
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:06.880
in it which tends to the evil
or destruction of the whole. Everything is

425
00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:11.279
in contimputation, and yet the whole
subsists. We might imagine the solar system

426
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:15.559
resolved into its elemental parts, and
yet the whole would still subsist. Quote

427
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:22.839
every young and perfect end quote all
things. All forms are dissolved and new

428
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:27.039
forms appear. All living things undergo
the changes we call death. If we

429
00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:32.680
call death an evil, then all
change is an evil. Living beings also

430
00:31:32.759 --> 00:31:36.359
suffer pain, and man suffers most
of all, for he suffers both in

431
00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:41.480
and by his body, and by
his intelligent part. Men suffer also from

432
00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:45.079
one another, and perhaps the largest
part of human suffering comes to man from

433
00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:52.400
those whom he calls his brothers.
Antoninus says, quote Generally, wickedness does

434
00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:56.559
no harm at all to the universe, and particularly the wickedness of one man

435
00:31:56.680 --> 00:31:59.920
does no harm to another. It
is only harmful to him who has it

436
00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:01.759
in his power to be released from
it, as soon as he shall choose

437
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:07.319
end quote. The first part of
this is perfectly consistent with the doctrine that

438
00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:12.880
the whole can sustain no evil or
harm. The second part must be explained

439
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:15.160
by the Stoic principle that there is
no evil in anything which is not in

440
00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:20.559
ira power. What wrong we suffer
from another is his evil, not ours.

441
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:22.880
But this is an admission that there
is evil in a sort. For

442
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:27.160
he who does wrong does evil,
and if others can endure the wrong,

443
00:32:27.400 --> 00:32:31.599
still there's evil in the wrong doer. Antoninus gives many excellent precepts of respect

444
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:36.240
to wrongs and injuries, and his
precepts are practical. He teaches us to

445
00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:38.400
bear what we cannot avoid, and
his lessons may be just as useful to

446
00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:42.839
him who denies the being in the
government as God as to him who believes

447
00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:45.920
in both. There is no direct
answer in Antoninus to the objections which may

448
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:50.319
be made to the existence and providence
of God because of the moral disorder and

449
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:52.480
suffering which are in the world.
Except this answer, which he makes in

450
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:57.480
reply to the supposition that even the
best men may be extinguished by death,

451
00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:00.160
he says, if it is so, we may be sure that if it

452
00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:05.240
ought to have been otherwise, the
Gods would have ordered it otherwise. His

453
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:07.319
conviction of the wisdom which we may
observe in the government of the world is

454
00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:12.680
too strong to be disturbed by any
apparent irregularities in the order of things.

455
00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:17.759
That these disorders exist is a fact, and those would conclude from them against

456
00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:22.079
the being in government of God conclude
too hastily. We all admit that there

457
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:25.039
is an order in the material world, a nature in the sense in which

458
00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:29.519
the world has been explained, a
constitution, what we call a system,

459
00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:31.559
a relation of parts to one another, and a fitness of the whole for

460
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:36.279
something. So in the constitution of
plants and animals there is an order,

461
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.119
a fitness for some end. Sometimes
the order as we conceive it is interrupted,

462
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:44.359
and the end as we conceive it
is not attained. The seed,

463
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:46.720
the plant, or the animals sometimes
perishes before it has passed through all its

464
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:52.160
changes, and done all its uses. It is according to nature that is

465
00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:54.200
a fixed order, for some to
perish early, and for others to do

466
00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:59.279
all their uses and leave successors to
take their place. So man has a

467
00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:02.519
corporeal, intellectual, and moral constitution
fit for certain uses, and on the

468
00:34:02.519 --> 00:34:07.680
whole man performs these uses, dies
and leaves other men in his place.

469
00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:12.400
So society exists, and a social
state is manifestly the natural state of man,

470
00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:15.119
the state for which his nature fits
him. And society, of its

471
00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:20.679
innumerable irregularities and disorders, still subsists. And perhaps we may say that the

472
00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:23.239
history of the past and our present
knowledge give us a reasonable hope that its

473
00:34:23.239 --> 00:34:27.639
disorders will diminish, and that order, its governing principle, may be more

474
00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:34.039
firmly established as order. Then a
fixed order, we may say, subject

475
00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:37.320
to deviations, real or apparent,
must be admitted to exist in the whole

476
00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:39.719
of nature of things. That which
we call disorder or evil, as it

477
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:43.880
seems to us, does not in
any way alter the fact of the general

478
00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:47.519
constitution of things having a nature or
fixed order. Nobody will conclude from the

479
00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:52.440
existence of disorder that order is not
the rule for the existence of order.

480
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:55.360
Both physical and moral is proved by
daily experience. In all past experience,

481
00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:00.639
we cannot conceive how the order of
the universe is maintained. We cannot even

482
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:02.960
conceive how our own life, from
day to day is continued, nor how

483
00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.199
we perform the simplest movements of the
body, nor how we grow and think

484
00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:09.679
an act. Though we know many
of the conditions which are necessary for all

485
00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:15.840
these functions, knowing nothing them the
unseen power which acts in ourselves except by

486
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:17.760
what has done. We know nothing
in the power which acts through what we

487
00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:22.320
call all time in all space.
But seeing that there is a nature or

488
00:35:22.360 --> 00:35:24.800
a fixed order in all things known
to us, it is conformable to the

489
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:29.840
nature of our minds to believe that
this universal nature has a cause which operates

490
00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:32.239
continually, and that we are totally
unable to speculate on the reason of any

491
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:37.599
of those disorders or evils which we
perceive. This, I believe is the

492
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:44.159
answer which may be collected from all
that Antoninus has said. The origin of

493
00:35:44.199 --> 00:35:47.920
evil is an old question. Achilles
tells Prium that Zeus has two casks,

494
00:35:49.559 --> 00:35:52.320
one filled with good things and the
other with bad, and that he gives

495
00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:55.800
to men out of each. According
to his pleasure, and so we must

496
00:35:55.800 --> 00:36:00.760
be content, for we cannot alter
the will of Zeus. One of the

497
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.199
Greek commentators asked how we must reconcile
this doctrine with what we find in the

498
00:36:05.239 --> 00:36:08.440
first book of the Odyssey, where
the King of the God says, men

499
00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:12.920
say evil comes to them from us, but they bring it on themselves to

500
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:17.239
their own folly. The answer is
plain enough even to the Greek commentator.

501
00:36:17.559 --> 00:36:22.039
The poets make both Achilles and Zeus
speak appropriately to their several characters. Indeed,

502
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:25.920
Zeus says plainly that men do attribute
their sufferings to the gods, but

503
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:30.400
they do it falsely, for they
are the cause of their own sorrows.

504
00:36:31.800 --> 00:36:36.760
Epictetus, in his Enchiridian, make
short work of the question of evil.

505
00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:39.800
He says, quote, as a
mark is not set up for the purpose

506
00:36:39.800 --> 00:36:44.320
of missing it, so neither does
the nature of evil exist in the universe

507
00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:49.079
end quote. This will peer obscure
enough to those who are not acquainted with

508
00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:52.280
Epictitis, but he always knows what
he is talking about. We do not

509
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:54.639
set up a mark in order to
miss it, though we may miss it.

510
00:36:55.639 --> 00:37:00.639
God, whose existence Epictitis assumes,
has not order all things, so

511
00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:04.159
that his purpose shall fail. Whatever
there may be of what we call evil,

512
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:06.800
the nature of evil, as he
expresses, it does not exist.

513
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:09.159
That is, evil is not part
of the constitution or nature of things.

514
00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:14.840
If there were a principle of evil
in the constitution of things, evil would

515
00:37:14.840 --> 00:37:17.719
no longer be evil, as Simplicious
argues, but evil would be good.

516
00:37:19.719 --> 00:37:23.320
Simplicius has a long and curious discourse
on this text of Epictetus, and it

517
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:30.119
is amusing and instructive. One passage
more will conclude this matter. It contains

518
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:32.519
all that the emperor could say,
quote to go from among men. If

519
00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:35.960
there are gods, it's not a
thing to be afraid of, For the

520
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.239
gods will not involve thee in evil. But if indeed they do not exist,

521
00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:42.159
or if they have no concern about
human affairs, what is it to

522
00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:45.000
me to live in a universe devoid
of gods, a devoid of providence.

523
00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:47.639
But in truth, they do exist, and they do care for human things,

524
00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:51.360
and they have put all the mean
in man's power to enable him not

525
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:53.920
to fall into real evils. And
as to the rest, if there was

526
00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:57.800
anything evil, they would have provided
for this also, that it should be

527
00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:01.519
altogether in a man's power not to
fall into it, but that which does

528
00:38:01.559 --> 00:38:05.639
not make a man worse? How
can it make a man's life worse?

529
00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:09.000
But neither through ignorance nor having the
knowledge but not the power to guard against

530
00:38:09.039 --> 00:38:13.559
or correct these things? Is it
possible that the nature of the universe has

531
00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:15.960
overlooked them? Nor is it possible
that it has made so great a mistake,

532
00:38:16.039 --> 00:38:20.000
either through want of power or want
of skill, that good and even

533
00:38:20.039 --> 00:38:23.320
shall happen indiscriminately to the good and
the bad. But death, certainly,

534
00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:28.480
and life, honor and dishonor pain
and pleasure, All these things equally happen

535
00:38:28.519 --> 00:38:31.079
to good and bad men, being
things which make us neither better nor worse.

536
00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:37.880
Therefore they are neither good nor evil
end quote. The ethical part of

537
00:38:37.960 --> 00:38:43.840
Antoninus's philosophy follows from his general principles. The end of all his philosophy is

538
00:38:43.880 --> 00:38:46.840
to live conformably to nature, both
a man's own nature and the nature of

539
00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:52.639
the universe. Bishop Butler has explained
what the Greek philosopher has meant when they

540
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:54.960
spoke of living according to nature,
and he says that when it is explained

541
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:58.920
as he has explained it, and
as they understood it, it is quote

542
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:01.920
a manner of a king, not
loose and undetermined, but clear and distinct,

543
00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:07.719
strictly just and true. End quote. To live according to nature is

544
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:10.920
to live according to a man's whole
nature, not according to a part of

545
00:39:10.920 --> 00:39:15.400
it, and to reverence the divinity
within him as the governor of all his

546
00:39:15.519 --> 00:39:20.079
actions. Quote to the rational animal, the same acts according to nature and

547
00:39:20.119 --> 00:39:24.079
according to reason end quote. That
which has done contrary to reason is also

548
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:29.440
an act contrary to nature, to
the whole nature, though it is certainly

549
00:39:29.480 --> 00:39:31.599
conformable to some part of man's nature, or it could not be done.

550
00:39:32.519 --> 00:39:37.119
Man is made for action, not
for idleness or pleasure. As plants and

551
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:40.800
animals do the uses of their nature, so man must do his Man must

552
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:45.079
also live conformably to the universal nature, conformable to the nature of all things

553
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:49.840
of which he is won. And
as a citizen of a political community,

554
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:52.920
he must direct his life in actions
with reference to those among whom and for

555
00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:59.920
whom, among other purposes he lives. A man must not retire into solitude

556
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.199
and cut himself off from his fellow
men. He must be ever active to

557
00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:06.480
do his part in a great whole. All men are his kin, not

558
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:09.440
only in blood, but still more, by participating in the same intelligence,

559
00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:14.559
and by being a portion of the
same divinity, a man cannot really be

560
00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:16.679
injured by his brethren, for no
act of theirs can make him bad,

561
00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:22.480
and he must not be angry with
them nor hate them. Quote for we

562
00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:24.800
are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like

563
00:40:24.840 --> 00:40:29.519
the rows of the upper and lower
teeth. To act against one another than

564
00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:32.800
his contrary to nature. And it
is acting against one another to be vexed

565
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:39.800
and to turn away end quote.
Further, he says, quote, take

566
00:40:39.880 --> 00:40:44.559
pleasure in one thing and rest in
it in passing from one social act to

567
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:50.519
another social act, thinking of God. End Quote again quote love mankind follow

568
00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:54.320
God endquote. It is the characteristic
of the rational soul for man to love

569
00:40:54.360 --> 00:41:00.400
his neighbor. Antoninus teaches in various
passages the forgiveness of injuries, and we

570
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:04.960
know that he also practiced what he
taught. Bishop Butler remarks that quote this

571
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:08.360
divine precept to forgive injuries and to
love our enemies, though to be met

572
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:13.719
with genteel moralists, yet is in
a particular sense a precept of Christianity,

573
00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:17.199
as our Savior has insisted more upon
it than on any other single virtue end

574
00:41:17.239 --> 00:41:22.559
quote. The practice of this precept
is the most difficult of all virtues.

575
00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:27.960
Antonina's often enforces it and gives us
aid towards following it. When we are

576
00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:30.159
injured, we feel anger and resentment, and the feeling is natural, just,

577
00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:35.400
and useful for the conservation of society. It is useful that wrongdoers should

578
00:41:35.400 --> 00:41:39.079
feel the natural consequences of their actions, among which is the disapprobation of society

579
00:41:39.159 --> 00:41:44.320
and the resentment of him who is
wronged. But revenge in the proper sense

580
00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:47.719
of that word, must not be
practiced. Quote. The best way of

581
00:41:47.719 --> 00:41:52.760
avenging thyself end quote, says the
emperor quote is not to become like the

582
00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:57.039
wrongdoer end quote. It is plain
by this that he does not mean that

583
00:41:57.079 --> 00:42:00.400
we should in any case practice revenge. But he says to those to talk

584
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:04.599
of revenging wrongs, be not like
him who has done the wrong. Socrates

585
00:42:04.639 --> 00:42:07.199
and the Credos as the same.
In other words, in Saint Paul,

586
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:09.960
quote, when a man has done
thee any wrong, immediately consider with what

587
00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:14.800
opinion about good or evil he has
done wrong. For when thou hast seen

588
00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:17.679
this, thou will pity him and
wilt neither wonder nor be angry. End

589
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:22.920
quote. Antoninus would not deny that
wrong naturally produces the feeling of anger and

590
00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:27.400
resentment, for this is implied in
the recommendation to reflect on the nature of

591
00:42:27.400 --> 00:42:30.679
the man's mind who has done the
wrong, and then you will have pity

592
00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:34.400
instead of resentment. And so it
comes to the same as Saint Paul's advice

593
00:42:34.440 --> 00:42:37.679
to be angry and sin not,
which, as Butler will explains, it

594
00:42:37.719 --> 00:42:40.000
is not a recommendation to be angry, which nobody needs, for anger is

595
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.840
a natural passion, but it is
a warning against allowing anger to lead us

596
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:49.840
into sin. In short, the
Emperor's doctrine about wrongful acts is this,

597
00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:54.159
wrongdoers do not know what good and
bad are. They offend out of ignorance,

598
00:42:54.519 --> 00:42:59.519
and in the sense of the Stoics, this is true. Though this

599
00:42:59.639 --> 00:43:02.079
kind of ignorance will never be admitted
as a legal excuse, and ought not

600
00:43:02.159 --> 00:43:06.800
to be admitted as a full excuse
in any way by society. There may

601
00:43:06.840 --> 00:43:09.360
be grievous injuries, such as it
is in a man's power to forgive without

602
00:43:09.360 --> 00:43:14.480
harm to society, and if he
forgives because he sees that his enemies know

603
00:43:14.599 --> 00:43:17.000
not what they do. He is
acting in the spirit of the sublime prayer.

604
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:21.960
Quote Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do end

605
00:43:22.039 --> 00:43:28.119
quote. The Emperor's moral philosophy was
not a feeble, narrow system which teaches

606
00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:31.199
man to look directly to his own
happiness. Though a man's happiness or tranquility

607
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:36.199
is indirectly promoted by living as he
ought to do, a man must live

608
00:43:36.199 --> 00:43:39.480
conformably to the universal nature, which
means, as the Emperor explains it in

609
00:43:39.519 --> 00:43:44.639
many passages, that a man's action
must be conformable to his true relations to

610
00:43:44.679 --> 00:43:47.679
all other human beings, both as
a citizen of a political community and as

611
00:43:47.679 --> 00:43:52.800
a member of the whole human family. This implies, and he often expresses

612
00:43:52.800 --> 00:43:54.920
it in the most forcible language,
that a man's words and actions, so

613
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.280
far as they affect others, must
be measured by a fixed rule which is

614
00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:02.639
there consistent and see with the conservation
and the interests of the particular society of

615
00:44:02.679 --> 00:44:07.480
which he is a member, and
of the whole human race. To live

616
00:44:07.480 --> 00:44:10.159
conformably to such a rule, a
man must use his rational faculties in order

617
00:44:10.199 --> 00:44:15.320
to discern clearly the consequences and full
effect of all his actions and of the

618
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:19.440
actions of others. He must not
live a life of contemplation and reflection,

619
00:44:19.559 --> 00:44:22.159
only, though he must often retire
within himself to calm and purify his soul

620
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:24.920
by thought. But he must mingle
in the work of man and be a

621
00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:30.679
fellow laborer for the general good.
A man should have an object or purpose

622
00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:34.960
in life, that he may direct
all his energies to it. Of course

623
00:44:34.960 --> 00:44:37.960
a good object. He who has
not one object or purpose of life cannot

624
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:42.719
be one and the same all through
his life. Bacon has remarked to the

625
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:45.719
same effect on the best means of
quote, reducing of the mind unto virtue

626
00:44:45.719 --> 00:44:50.800
and good estate, which is the
electing and propounding unto a man's self good

627
00:44:51.079 --> 00:44:53.400
and virtuous ends of his life,
such as may be in a reasonable sort

628
00:44:53.440 --> 00:45:00.840
within his compass to attain end quote. He is a happy man who has

629
00:45:00.840 --> 00:45:02.719
been wise enough to do this when
he was young, and has had the

630
00:45:02.760 --> 00:45:07.320
opportunities. But the Emperor, seeing
well that man cannot always be so wise

631
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:10.800
in his youth, encourages him to
do it when he can, and not

632
00:45:10.840 --> 00:45:15.440
to let his life slip away before
he has begun. He who can propose

633
00:45:15.480 --> 00:45:19.760
to himself good and virtuous ends of
life, and be true to them,

634
00:45:19.960 --> 00:45:23.280
cannot fail to live conformably to his
own interest and universal interest. For in

635
00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:27.920
the nature of things they are one. If a thing is not good for

636
00:45:27.960 --> 00:45:32.199
the hive, it is not good
for the bee. One passage may end

637
00:45:32.199 --> 00:45:37.039
this matter. Quote. If the
gods have determined about me and about the

638
00:45:37.079 --> 00:45:39.480
things which must happen to me,
they have determined well. For it is

639
00:45:39.519 --> 00:45:44.800
not easy even to imagine a deity
without forethought, and as to doing me

640
00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:47.599
harm, Why should they have any
desire towards that? For what advantage would

641
00:45:47.639 --> 00:45:52.440
result to them for this or to
the whole, which is the special object

642
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:55.320
to their providence. But if they
have not determined about me individually, they

643
00:45:55.320 --> 00:46:00.599
have certainly determined about the whole at
least, and the things which happened by

644
00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:04.280
a way of sequence in this general
arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and

645
00:46:04.360 --> 00:46:08.239
to be content with them. But
if they determine about nothing, which it

646
00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:10.800
is wicked to believe, or if
we do believe it, let us neither

647
00:46:10.840 --> 00:46:14.920
sacrifice, nor pray, nor swear
by them, nor do anything else which

648
00:46:14.920 --> 00:46:16.480
we do as if the gods were
present and live with us. But if,

649
00:46:16.480 --> 00:46:20.360
however, the God's determined about none
of these things which concern us.

650
00:46:20.400 --> 00:46:22.760
I am able to determine about myself, and I can inquire about that which

651
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:27.159
is useful, and that is useful
to every man, which is conformable to

652
00:46:27.199 --> 00:46:31.360
his own constitution and nature. But
my nature is rational and social, and

653
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:35.519
my city and country, so far
as I am Antoninus, is Rome.

654
00:46:36.519 --> 00:46:39.119
But so far as I am a
man, it is the world. The

655
00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:43.480
things, then, which are useful
to these cities, are alone useful to

656
00:46:43.559 --> 00:46:49.480
me. It would be tedious,
and it is not necessary to state that

657
00:46:49.519 --> 00:46:52.760
the Emperor's opinions on all the ways
in which a man may profitably use his

658
00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:57.599
understanding towards perfecting himself in practical virtue. The passages to this purpose are in

659
00:46:57.679 --> 00:47:00.519
all parts of his book, But
as they are in no order connection,

660
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:02.760
a man must use the book a
long time before he will find out all

661
00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:07.320
that is in it. A few
words may be added here. If we

662
00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:10.320
analyze all other things, we find
how insufficient they are for human life,

663
00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:15.360
and how truly worthless many of them
are. Virtue alone is indivisible, one

664
00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:21.800
and perfectly satisfying. The notion of
virtue cannot be considered vague or unsettled,

665
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:24.840
because a man may find it difficult
to explain the notion fully to himself or

666
00:47:24.920 --> 00:47:29.360
to expound it to others in such
a way as to bread canvealing virtue as

667
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:32.440
a whole and no more consistent parts
than man's intelligence does. And yet we

668
00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:37.000
speak of various intellectual faculties as a
convenient way of expressing the various powers which

669
00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:42.079
man's intellect shows by his works.
In the same way, we may speak

670
00:47:42.119 --> 00:47:45.960
of various virtues or parts of virtue
in a practical sense, for the purpose

671
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.920
of showing what particular virtues we ought
to practice in order to exercise of the

672
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:53.079
whole of virtue. That is,
as much as man's nature is capable of

673
00:47:55.559 --> 00:48:00.840
the prime principle, and man's constitution
is social. The next orders is not

674
00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:04.119
to yield to the persuasions of the
body when they are not conformable to the

675
00:48:04.199 --> 00:48:08.119
rational principle which must govern. The
third is freedom from error and from deception.

676
00:48:08.480 --> 00:48:13.880
Quote. Let then the ruling principle
holding fast that these things go straight

677
00:48:13.920 --> 00:48:17.480
on, and it has what is
its own end. Quote. The Empress

678
00:48:17.559 --> 00:48:22.199
lects justice as the virtue which is
the basis of all the rest. And

679
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:27.639
this has been said long before his
time. It is true that all people

680
00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:30.239
have some notion of what is meant
by justice as a disposition of the mind,

681
00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:37.239
and some notion about acting in conformity
to this disposition. But experience shows

682
00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:40.480
that men's notions about justice are as
confused as their actions are inconsistent with the

683
00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:45.760
true notion of justice. The Emperor's
notion of justice is clear enough, but

684
00:48:45.920 --> 00:48:51.920
not practical enough for all mankind.
Quote, Let there be freedom from perturbations

685
00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:54.159
with respect to the things which come
from the external cause. And let there

686
00:48:54.199 --> 00:48:58.920
be justice and the things done by
virtue of the internal cause. That is,

687
00:48:59.119 --> 00:49:01.840
let there be a movement in action
terminating in this and social acts,

688
00:49:02.159 --> 00:49:07.000
for this is according to thy nature. End. Quote. In another place

689
00:49:07.039 --> 00:49:13.559
he says they quote he who acts
unjustly acts impiously quote, which follows,

690
00:49:13.559 --> 00:49:16.519
of course, from all that he
says. In various places. He insists

691
00:49:16.519 --> 00:49:20.679
on the practice of truth as a
virtue and as a means to virtue,

692
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:23.800
which it no doubt is for lying
even an indifferent things weakens the understanding,

693
00:49:24.159 --> 00:49:29.360
and lying maliciously is as great a
moral offense as man can be guilty of.

694
00:49:29.599 --> 00:49:34.039
Viewed both as showing an habitual disposition
and viewed with respect to consequences.

695
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:37.960
He couples the notion of justice with
action. A man must not pride himself

696
00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:42.360
on having some fine notion of justice
in his head, but he must exhibit

697
00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:46.360
his justice and act like Saint James's
notion of faith. But this is enough.

698
00:49:49.119 --> 00:49:52.360
The Stoics, and Antoninus among them, call some things beautiful and some

699
00:49:52.519 --> 00:49:57.000
ugly. And as they are beautiful, so they are good. And as

700
00:49:57.039 --> 00:50:00.000
they are ugly, so they are
evil or bad. All these things good

701
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:05.280
and even are in our power.
Absolutely, some of the stricter Stokes would

702
00:50:05.320 --> 00:50:08.239
say in a manner only as those
who would not depart altogether from common sense

703
00:50:08.239 --> 00:50:12.119
would say. Practically, they are
to a great degree in the power of

704
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:15.159
some persons and in some circumstances,
but in a small degree only in other

705
00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:21.800
persons and in other circumstances. The
Stoics maintain man's free will as to the

706
00:50:21.840 --> 00:50:23.519
things which are in his power.
For as to the things which are out

707
00:50:23.559 --> 00:50:28.199
of his power, free will terminating
an action is of course excluded by the

708
00:50:28.280 --> 00:50:32.000
very terms of the expression. I
hardly know if we can discover exactly Antonina's

709
00:50:32.079 --> 00:50:36.880
notion of the free will of man. Nor is the question worth the inquiry.

710
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:40.719
What he does mean and does say
is intelligible. All the things which

711
00:50:40.719 --> 00:50:45.599
are not in our power are indifferent. They are neither good nor bad morally.

712
00:50:46.039 --> 00:50:50.000
Such are life, health, wealth, power, disease, poverty,

713
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:53.639
and death. Life and death are
all men's portion. Health, wealth,

714
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:58.159
power, disease, and poverty happen
to men indifferently, to the good and

715
00:50:58.280 --> 00:51:00.880
to the bad, to those of
according to nature, and to those who

716
00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:07.039
do not. Quote, life says
the emperor is a warfare and a stranger's

717
00:51:07.039 --> 00:51:13.239
show journe And after fame is oblivion
end quote. After speaking of those men

718
00:51:13.320 --> 00:51:15.440
who have disturbed the world and then
died, and of the death of philosophers

719
00:51:15.440 --> 00:51:21.159
such as Heraclitus and Democritus, who
is destroyed by lice, and of Socrates,

720
00:51:21.159 --> 00:51:24.400
whom other life his enemies destroyed,
he says, quote what means all

721
00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:28.679
this? Thou hast embarked, Thou
hast made the voyage. Thou art come

722
00:51:28.719 --> 00:51:31.199
to shore, get out, If
indeed to another life there is no want

723
00:51:31.199 --> 00:51:36.519
of gods, not even there.
But if to a state without sensation,

724
00:51:36.679 --> 00:51:38.880
thou wilt cease to be held by
pains and pleasures, and to be a

725
00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:42.960
slave to the vessel, which is
as much inferior to that which serves it

726
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:46.000
as superior. For the one is
intelligence and deity, the other is earth

727
00:51:46.039 --> 00:51:51.639
and corruption. Endote. It is
not death that man should fear, but

728
00:51:51.719 --> 00:51:55.039
he should fear never beginning to live
according to his nature. Every man should

729
00:51:55.079 --> 00:51:59.639
live in such a way as to
discharge his duty and to trouble himself about

730
00:51:59.719 --> 00:52:02.400
nothing else. He should live such
a life that he shall always be ready

731
00:52:02.440 --> 00:52:07.840
for death, and shall depart content
when the summon comes. For what is

732
00:52:07.880 --> 00:52:12.679
death? Quote a cessation of the
impressions through the senses, and of the

733
00:52:12.679 --> 00:52:15.800
pulling of the strings which move the
appetites, and of the discursive movements of

734
00:52:15.800 --> 00:52:22.039
the thoughts, and of the service
to the flesh. Death is such as

735
00:52:22.079 --> 00:52:27.880
generation is a mystery of nature in
another past. It's the exact meaning of

736
00:52:27.920 --> 00:52:30.559
which is perhaps doubtful. He speaks
of the child which leaves the womb,

737
00:52:30.760 --> 00:52:35.480
And so he says, the soul
of death leaves its envelope as the child

738
00:52:35.599 --> 00:52:38.280
is born or comes into life by
leaving the womb. So the soul may,

739
00:52:38.320 --> 00:52:44.199
on leaving the body, pass into
another existence which is perfect. I'm

740
00:52:44.239 --> 00:52:49.039
not sure if this is the emperor's
meaning. Antononinus's opinion of a future life

741
00:52:49.079 --> 00:52:52.440
is nowhere clearly expressed. His doctrine
of the nature of the soul of necessity

742
00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:57.159
implies that it does not perish,
absolutely, for a portion of divinity cannot

743
00:52:57.159 --> 00:53:00.840
perish. The opinion is at least
as old as the time of Epicharmis and

744
00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:05.360
Euripides. What comes from the earth
goes back to the earth, and what

745
00:53:05.480 --> 00:53:09.199
comes from heaven the divinity returns to
him who gave it. But I find

746
00:53:09.239 --> 00:53:14.000
nothing clear in Antoninus as to the
notion of the man existing after death so

747
00:53:14.039 --> 00:53:16.719
as to be conscious of his sameness
with the soul which occupied his vessel of

748
00:53:16.760 --> 00:53:22.559
clay. He seemed to be perplexed
on this matter, and finally to have

749
00:53:22.639 --> 00:53:25.960
rested in this that God or the
gods will do whatever is best and consistent

750
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:32.280
with the university of things. Nor
I think does he speak conclusively on another

751
00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:37.760
Stoic doctrine which some Stoics practice,
the anticipating the regular course of nature by

752
00:53:37.800 --> 00:53:44.639
man's own act. The reader will
find some passages in which this is touched

753
00:53:44.679 --> 00:53:46.639
on, and he may make of
them what he can. But there are

754
00:53:46.639 --> 00:53:51.760
passages in which the emperor encourages himself
to wait for the end patiently and with

755
00:53:51.800 --> 00:53:54.840
tranquility. And certainly it is consistent
with all his best teaching that a man

756
00:53:54.880 --> 00:53:59.480
should bear all that falls to his
lot and do useful acts as long as

757
00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:04.079
he lives. He should not therefore
abridge the time of his usefulness by his

758
00:54:04.159 --> 00:54:08.360
own act. Whether it contemplates any
possible cases in which a man should die

759
00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:12.840
by his own hand, I cannot
tell, and the matter is not worth

760
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:15.400
a curious inquiry, for I believe
it would not lead to any certain result

761
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:21.119
as to his opinion on this point, I do not think that Antoninus,

762
00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:23.960
who never mentioned Seneca, though he
must have known all about him, would

763
00:54:23.960 --> 00:54:28.199
have agreed with Seneca when he gives
us a reason for suicide, that the

764
00:54:28.239 --> 00:54:30.360
eternal law, whatever he means,
has made nothing better for us than this,

765
00:54:31.079 --> 00:54:35.000
that it has given us only one
way of entering life, and many

766
00:54:35.039 --> 00:54:38.079
ways of going out of it.
The ways of going out, indeed are

767
00:54:38.119 --> 00:54:42.360
many, and that is a good
reason for a man taking care of himself.

768
00:54:43.639 --> 00:54:47.159
Happiness was not the direct object of
a Stoic's life. There is no

769
00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:51.800
rule of life contained in the precept
that a man should pursue his own happiness.

770
00:54:52.079 --> 00:54:55.440
Many men think that they are seeking
happiness when they are only seeking the

771
00:54:55.480 --> 00:55:00.960
gratification of some particular passion. The
strongest that they have. The end of

772
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:06.039
a man is, as already explained, to live conformably to nature, and

773
00:55:06.119 --> 00:55:09.639
he will thus obtain happiness, tranquility
of mind, and contentment. As a

774
00:55:09.679 --> 00:55:14.400
means of living conformably to nature,
he must study the fourth chief virtues.

775
00:55:14.840 --> 00:55:19.000
Each of us has its proper sphere, wisdom, or the knowledge of good

776
00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:23.639
and evil, justice, or the
giving to every man his due fortitude,

777
00:55:23.920 --> 00:55:29.519
or the enduring of labor and pain
and temperance, which is moderation in all

778
00:55:29.559 --> 00:55:34.480
things. By thus loving come formerly
to nature, the Stoic obtained all that

779
00:55:34.480 --> 00:55:37.599
he wished or expect it. His
reward was in his virtuous life, and

780
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:45.400
he was satisfied with that. Some
Greek poet long ago wrote quote, for

781
00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:49.400
virtue only of all human things,
takes reward, not from the hands of

782
00:55:49.400 --> 00:55:57.920
others. Virtue herself rewards the toils
of virtue. Some of the Stoics indeed

783
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:01.880
expressed themselves in very arrogant, absurd
terms about the wise man's self sufficiency.

784
00:56:02.519 --> 00:56:07.679
They elevated him to the rank of
a deity. But these were only talkers

785
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:10.840
and lecturers such as those in all
agers who utter fine words, knowing little

786
00:56:10.840 --> 00:56:16.400
of human affairs, and caring only
for notoriety. At Bactidus and Antoninus,

787
00:56:16.400 --> 00:56:22.159
both by precept and example, labor
to improve themselves and others. And if

788
00:56:22.159 --> 00:56:25.440
we discover imperfections in their teaching,
we must still honor these great men who

789
00:56:25.480 --> 00:56:30.360
attempted to show that there is in
a man's nature and in a constitution of

790
00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:35.920
things sufficient reason for living a virtuous
life. It is difficult enough to live

791
00:56:35.920 --> 00:56:38.519
as we ought to live, difficult
even for any man to live in such

792
00:56:38.559 --> 00:56:43.960
a way as to satisfy himself if
he exercises only in a moderate degree the

793
00:56:44.039 --> 00:56:49.519
power of reflecting upon and reviewing his
own conduct. And if all men cannot

794
00:56:49.519 --> 00:56:52.239
be brought to the same opinions and
morals and religion, it is at least

795
00:56:52.239 --> 00:56:57.559
worthwhile to give them good reasons,
for as much as they can be persuaded to accept