ENGLISH COMMENTARY
i. The argument is obscure. The meaning is apparently that our bond to others rests ultimately upon an order of Providence, which arranges the whole and its parts. Although, then, all men are equals because all share in Reason, yet some have primacy over the rest, like the ram over his flock, to which Homer has compared Agamemnon, King of men.
ii. The unenlightened must be governed and their censure ignored, because both their opinions and acts argue ignorance of the right end of society.
iii. Do not resent admonishment which you see to be just. If it be mistaken, remember that the error arises from involuntary ignorance. The fact that evil men resent the name appropriate to the wrong they commit proves that they do in fact recognize goodness. It is the homage vice pays to virtue.
iv. We often err in intention, although we may from wrong motives, fear of public opinion, or cowardice avoid overt evil acts.
v. Men's motives are hidden, therefore we cannot infer evil principles from evil appearances.
(The words translated 'to serve a given purpose' mean literally 'according to economy'. The Greek word 'economy' has a remarkable history. It meant originally subordination of lower to higher, of parts to whole, in a household. Then it was used of an artist's employment of his means to his work. Later it was used for dispensation to evil that good may result, and so it passed into the sense of dissimulation, what we call economy of truth. The word was sometimes used to cover the presence of evil in the world, which was said to be 'according to economy', and it is possible that Marcus has this in mind here.)
vi. A maxim equivalent to the vulgar saying: 'it will be all the same a hundred years hence.'
vii. The favourite principle that apprehension is determined by imagination, and this should be schooled by deliberate judgement. The origin of anger is not ultimately the conduct of another but the effect his conduct excites in our imagination. The remedy for anger, then, is to reflect that moral good and evil consist in states of our understanding and their effect in the consequent acts of will. Anger is out of place, for another's action cannot involve us in evil; and, if we forget this, our own act becomes evil by injuring ourselves.
