Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/424

400 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE and concreteness of the teacher's conceptions, his sub- limity of thought, and his humour, win the affection of most readers. Yet picturesque as the external circum- stances of Epictetus are, they are dimmed by comparison with those which make the figure of Marcus Aurelius so uniquely fascinating. And the clear, strong style of the professional lecturer does not attain that extraordi- nary power of appeal which underlies the emperor's awkward Cojiii/mnings with Hiinsclf. With Marcus, as with so many great souls, everything depends on whether you love him or not. If the first three chapters win you, every word he writes seems precious ; but many people, not necessarily narrow-minded or vicious in taste, will find the whole book dreary and un- meaning. It would be hard to deny, however, that the ethical teaching of the old Stoa, as expounded by these two men, is one of the very highest, the most spiritual, and the most rational ever reached by the human intellect. Marcus died in i8o; the great philo- sopher of the next century was born in 204, Plotinus, the chief of the Neo-Platonists. Though he professes for the most part merely to interpret Plato, he is probably the boldest thinker, and his philosophy the most complete and comprehensive system, of Roman times. His doctrine is an uncompromising idealism : the world all comes from one Original Force, which first differentiates itself into Mind, i.e. into the duality of Thought and Being. Nature is the result of Thoughts contemplating themselves, and the facts of nature, again, are her self-contemplations. There is a religious ele- ment in this system which was developed, first by the master's biographer and editor. Porphyry, and then by lamblichus, into what ultimately became a reasoned