Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/53

Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 17 The Thoughts of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, a 3. The collection of notes which he made for his own private O f Marcus use, is one of the most famous and stimulating books Aurellus - which Roman writers have handed down to us. It is easily obtainable and every one should possess a copy. A single extract will serve to illustrate its character : Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. These are so by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good, that it is beautiful, and of the bad, that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that he is akin to me, not only of the same blood and origin, but that he participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of those I meet, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kins- man, nor hate him. For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away. . . . If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldest be bound to give it back immedi- ately ; if thou boldest to this, expecting nothing, fearing noth- ing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to nature, and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. It should not be forgotten, however, that there were a great many fundamental differences between the pagan religions and Christianity. These have been admirably stated by Mr. Lecky in his well-known History of European Morals.