ENGLISH COMMENTARY
qualified as it was in ii. 13, and he adds that self-scrutiny may discover in ourselves the fault we criticize in another. The word for to pardon might also mean to excuse, and its form suggests fellow feeling and understanding.[1]
Dio Cassius says of the Emperor that 'he bore the faults of others, neither inquiring closely into them, nor chastising them'.[2] Dio means no doubt injuries to himself which he might have held to be lèse-majesté. Dio also says that he felt pity for his barbarian foes.[3] One of the bas-reliefs from his triumphal arch shows him stretching out his hand to Germans and Sarmatians in pardon.
Ch. 27. The text is difficult, but the general sense clear and the maxims wise. Their object is to inculcate the Stoic tranquillity or indifference to desires the realization of which seldom, if ever, brings contentment.
Ch. 28. The retirement into the inward self which he described more fully in iv. 3, and to which he frequently alludes.[4]
Ch. 29. A summary of what is put more at large elsewhere.[5] To dwell upon one's last hour is a religious mode of speech derived from the belief in judgement to come and adopted by Stoicism for its own end. Probably Marcus means that we are to treat the present moment as though it were the last.[6]
To leave another's sin upon his shoulders implies responsibility for one's own. Guigue has said: 'Let each flee from his own vices, for the vices of another will not harm him.'[7]
Ch. 30. A repetition in other words of vi. 3 and 53, vii. 4.
Ch. 31. These are the briefest of notes upon subjects treated of elsewhere. Simplicity[8] and self-respect[9] are imprinted on the face.[10] We may contrast a favourite theme of Greek writers that you cannot detect an evil character from the face.[11] Independence is of all, except of moral good and evil.[12] 'Love mankind'[13] is coupled
- ↑ xi. 16.
- ↑ Dio Cass. lxxi. 34. 4.
- ↑ Id. lxxi. 10. 4.
- ↑ vi. 1 1; viii. 48; ix. 7 and 42.
- ↑ v. 2, viii. 29, ix. 7; ii. 2, vii. 3, ix. 7; iii. 10, viii. 32; vi. 8, viii. 49; iv. 21. 2, v. 13, viii. ii, ix. 25. 37, xii. 10, 18, 29.
- ↑ ii. 5; iii. 12.
- ↑ Guigue, l.c. 230, cf. M. Ant. ix. 20 and 38; xii. 16.
- ↑ iv. 26
- ↑ i. 2; ii. 6; iii. 7.
- ↑ iii. 5; vii. 60; x. 12; xi. 15.
- ↑ e.g. Eur. Med. 519.
- ↑ ii. 11. 4.
- ↑ iii. 9, vii. 22.
