Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (best self help books to read .txt) 📕

    Say Of Them That They Die Without Being Martyrs,  Even If They

    Are Publicly Punished; And They Give Themselves Up To A Death

    Which Avails Nothing,  As The Indian Gymnosophists Give

    Themselves Up Foolishly To Fire." Cave,  In His Primitive

    Christianity (Ii. C. 7),  Says Of The Christians: "They Did

    Flock To The Place Of Torment Faster Than Droves Of Beasts That

    Are Driven To The Shambles. They Even Longed To Be In The Arms

    Of Suffering. Ignatius,  Though Then In His Journey To Rome In

    Order To His Execution,  Yet By The Way As He Went Could Not But

    Vent His Passionate Desire Of It 'Oh That I Might Come To Those

    Wild Beasts That Are Prepared For Me; I Heartily Wish That I

    May Presently Meet With Them; I Would Invite And Encourage Them

    Speedily To Devour Me,  And Not Be Afraid To Set Upon Me As They

    Have Been To Others; Nay,  Should They Refuse It,  I Would Even

    Force Them To It;'" And More To The Same Purpose From Eusebius.

    Cave,  An Honest And Good Man,  Says All This In Praise Of The

    Christians; But I Think That He Mistook The Matter. We Admire A

    Man Who Holds To His Principles Even To Death; But These

    Fanatical Christians Are The Gymnosophists Whom Clemens Treats

    With Disdain.

    [C] Dr. F.C. Baur,  In His Work Entitled "Das Christenthum Und

    Die Christliche Kirche Der Drei Ersten Jahrhunderte," &C.,  Has

    Examined This Question With Great Good Sense And Fairness,  And

    I Believe He Has Stated The Truth As Near As Our Authorities

    Enable Us To Reach It.

    [D] In The Digest,  48,  19,  30,  There Is The Following Excerpt

    From Modestinus: "Si Quis Aliquid Fecerit,  Quo Leves Hominum

    Animi Superstitione Numinis Terrerentur,  Divus Marcus Hujusmodi

    Homines In Insulam Relegari Rescripsit."

There Is No Doubt That The Emperor's Reflections--Or His Meditations,  As

They Are Generally Named--Is A Genuine Work. In The First Book He Speaks

Of Himself,  His Family,  And His Teachers; And In Other Books He Mentions

Himself. Suidas (V.[Greek: Markos]) Notices A Work Of Antoninus In

Twelve Books,  Which He Names The "Conduct Of His Own Life;" And He Cites

The Book Under Several Words In His Dictionary,  Giving The Emperor's

Name,  But Not The Title Of The Work. There Are Also Passages Cited By

Suidas From Antoninus Without Mention Of The Emperor's Name. The True

Title Of The Work Is Unknown. Xylander,  Who Published The First Edition

Of This Book (Zürich,  1558,  8vo,  With A Latin Version),  Used A

Manuscript Which Contained The Twelve Books,  But It Is Not Known Where

The Manuscript Is Now. The Only Other Complete Manuscript Which Is Known

To Exist Is In The Vatican Library,  But It Has No Title And No

Inscriptions Of The Several Books: The Eleventh Only Has The

Inscription,  [Greek: Markou Autokratoros] Marked With An Asterisk. The

Other Vatican Manuscripts And The Three Florentine Contain Only Excerpts

From The Emperor's Book. All The Titles Of The Excerpts Nearly Agree

With That Which Xylander Prefixed To His Edition,  [Greek: Markou

Antôninou Autokratoros Tôn Eis Heauton Biblia Ib.] This Title Has Been

Used By All Subsequent Editors. We Cannot Tell Whether Antoninus Divided

His Work Into Books Or Somebody Else Did It. If The Inscriptions At The

End Of The First And Second Books Are Genuine,  He May Have Made The

Division Himself.

It Is Plain That The Emperor Wrote Down His Thoughts Or Reflections As

The Occasions Arose; And Since They Were Intended For His Own Use,  It Is

No Improbable Conjecture That He Left A Complete Copy Behind Him Written

With His Own Hand; For It Is Not Likely That So Diligent A Man Would Use

The Labor Of A Transcriber For Such A Purpose,  And Expose His Most

Secret Thoughts To Any Other Eye. He May Have Also Intended The Book For

His Son Commodus,  Who However Had No Taste For His Father's Philosophy.

Some Careful Hand Preserved The Precious Volume; And A Work By Antoninus

Is Mentioned By Other Late Writers Besides Suidas.

Many Critics Have Labored On The Text Of Antoninus. The Most Complete

Edition Is That By Thomas Gataker,  1652,  4to. The Second Edition Of

Gataker Was Superintended By George Stanhope,  1697,  4to. There Is Also

An Edition Of 1704. Gataker Made And Suggested Many Good Corrections,

And He Also Made A New Latin Version,  Which Is Not A Very Good Specimen

Of Latin,  But It Generally Expresses The Sense Of The Original,  And

Often Better Than Some Of The More Recent Translations. He Added In The

Margin Opposite To Each Paragraph References To The Other Parallel

Passages; And He Wrote A Commentary,  One Of The Most Complete That Has

Been Written On Any Ancient Author. This Commentary Contains The

Editor's Exposition Of The More Difficult Passages,  And Quotations From

All The Greek And Roman Writers For The Illustration Of The Text. It Is

A Wonderful Monument Of Learning And Labor,  And Certainly No Englishman

Has Yet Done Anything Like It. At The End Of His Preface The Editor Says

That He Wrote It At Rotherhithe Near London,  In A Severe Winter,  When He

Was In The Seventy-Eighth Year Of His Age,  1651--A Time When Milton,

Selden,  And Other Great Men Of The Commonwealth Time Were Living; And

The Great French Scholar Saumaise (Salmasius),  With Whom Gataker

Corresponded And Received Help From Him For His Edition Of Antoninus.

The Greek Test Has Also Been Edited By J. M. Schultz,  Leipzig,  1802,

8vo; And By The Learned Greek Adamantinus Corais,  Paris,  1816,  8vo. The

Text Of Schultz Was Republished By Tauchnitz,  1821.

There Are English,  German,  French,  Italian,  And Spanish Translations Of

M. Antoninus,  And There May Be Others. I Have Not Seen All The English

Translations. There Is One By Jeremy Collier,  1702,  8vo,  A Most Coarse

And Vulgar Copy Of The Original. The Latest French Translation By

Alexis Pierron In The Collection Of Charpentier Is Better Than Dacier's,

Which Has Been Honored With An Italian Version (Udine,  1772). There Is

An Italian Version (1675),  Which I Have Not Seen. It Is By A Cardinal.

"A Man Illustrious In The Church,  The Cardinal Francis Barberini The

Elder,  Nephew Of Pope Urban Viii.,  Occupied The Last Years Of His Life

In Translating Into His Native Language The Thoughts Of The Roman

Emperor,  In Order To Diffuse Among The Faithful The Fertilizing And

Vivifying Seeds. He Dedicated This Translation To His Soul,  To Make It,

As He Says In His Energetic Style,  Redder Than His Purple At The Sight

Of The Virtues Of This Gentile" (Pierron,  Preface).

I Have Made This Translation At Intervals After Having Used The Book For

Many Years. It Is Made From The Greek,  But I Have Not Always Followed

One Text; And I Have Occasionally Compared Other Versions With My Own. I

Made This Translation For My Own Use,  Because I Found That It Was Worth

The Labor; But It May Be Useful To Others Also; And Therefore I

Determined To Print It. As The Original Is Sometimes Very Difficult To

Understand And Still More Difficult To Translate,  It Is Not Possible

That I Have Always Avoided Error. But I Believe That I Have Not Often

Missed The Meaning,  And Those Who Will Take The Trouble To Compare The

Translation With The Original Should Not Hastily Conclude That I Am

Wrong,  If They Do Not Agree With Me. Some Passages Do Give The Meaning,

Though At First Sight They May Not Appear To Do So; And When I Differ

From The Translators,  I Think That In Some Places They Are Wrong,  And In

Other Places I Am Sure That They Are. I Have Placed In Some Passages A

+,  Which Indicates Corruption In The Text Or Great Uncertainty In The

Meaning. I Could Have Made The Language More Easy And Flowing,  But I

Have Preferred A Ruder Style As Being Better Suited To Express The

Character Of The Original; And Sometimes The Obscurity Which May Appear

In The Version Is A Fair Copy Of The Obscurity Of The Greek. If I Should

Ever Revise This Version,  I Would Gladly Make Use Of Any Corrections

Which May Be Suggested. I Have Added An Index Of Some Of The Greek Terms

With The Corresponding English. If I Have Not Given The Best Words For

The Greek,  I Have Done The Best That I Could; And In The Text I Have

Always Given The Same Translation Of The Same Word.

The Last Reflection Of The Stoic Philosophy That I Have Observed Is In

Simplicius' Commentary On The Enchiridion Of Epictetus. Simplicius Was

Not A Christian,  And Such A Man Was Not Likely To Be Converted At A Time

When Christianity Was Grossly Corrupted. But He Was A Really Religious

Man,  And He Concludes His Commentary With A Prayer To The Deity Which No

Christian Could Improve. From The Time Of Zeno To Simplicius,  A Period

Of About Nine Hundred Years,  The Stoic Philosophy Formed The Characters

Of Some Of The Best And Greatest Men. Finally It Became Extinct,  And We

Hear No More Of It Till The Revival Of Letters In Italy. Angelo

Poliziano Met With Two Very Inaccurate And Incomplete Manuscripts Of

Epictetus' Enchiridion,  Which He Translated Into Latin And Dedicated To

His Great Patron Lorenzo De' Medici,  In Whose Collection He Had Found

The Book. Poliziano's Version Was Printed In The First Bâle Edition Of

The Enchiridion,  A.D. 1531 (Apud And. Cratandrum). Poliziano Recommends

The Enchiridion To Lorenzo As A Work Well Suited To His Temper,  And

Useful In The Difficulties By Which He Was Surrounded.

Epictetus And Antoninus Have Had Readers Ever Since They Were First

Printed. The Little Book Of Antoninus Has Been The Companion Of Some

Great Men. Machiavelli's Art Of War And Marcus Antoninus Were The Two

Books Which Were Used When He Was A Young Man By Captain John Smith,  And

He Could Not Have Found Two Writers Better Fitted To Form The Character

Of A Soldier And A Man. Smith Is Almost Unknown And Forgotten In

England,  His Native Country,  But Not In America,  Where He Saved The

Young Colony Of Virginia. He Was Great In His Heroic Mind And His Deeds

In Arms,  But Greater Still In The Nobleness Of His Character. For A

Man's Greatness Lies Not In Wealth And Station,  As The Vulgar Believe,

Nor Yet In His Intellectual Capacity,  Which Is Often Associated With

The Meanest Moral Character,  The Most Abject Servility To Those In High

Places,  And Arrogance To The Poor And Lowly; But A Man's True Greatness

Lies In The Consciousness Of An Honest Purpose In Life,  Founded On A

Just Estimate Of Himself And Everything Else,  On Frequent

Self-Examination,  And A Steady Obedience To The Rule Which He Knows To

Be Right,  Without Troubling Himself,  As The Emperor Says He Should Not,

About What Others May Think Or Say,  Or Whether They Do Or Do Not Do That

Which He Thinks And Says And Does.

It Has Been Said That The Stoic Philosophy First Showed Its Real Value

When It Passed From Greece