Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
p. 33and 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 f, 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 ;
,mea
OORAPIIICAL SKETCH.
the obscurity which may appear in fa fair copy of the obscurity of the (ould ever revise this version, I would ise of any corrections which may be have added an index of some of the the corresponding English. If I m the best words for the Greek, I have it that I could ; and in the text I have the same translation of the same word, reflection of the Stoic philosophy that I is in Simplicius' Commentary on the ichiridion\of Epictetus. Simplicius was not a iristian, an\i such a man was not likely to be converted at a\time when Christianity was grossly corrupted. Bik he was a really religious man, and he concludes hii ccumnentary with a prayer to the Deity which noVChristran could improve. From the time of ZenoYtn^^SimEliciiia; a period of about nine hundred yelrs, the Stoic philosophy formed the characters of same of the best and greatest men. Finally it became Ixtinct, and we hear no more of it till the revival 01 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 Bale edition of the Enchiridion, A. D. 1531 (apud And. Cratandrum). Poliziauo
N/
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, 35recommends 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 {vhich 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 anaforgotten in England, his native country, buiS^o^inAmerica, where he saved the young colonyMkJ^wgmta. He was great in his heroic mind andums deeds in arms, but greater still in the noblen^|of his character. For a man's greatness lies not m wealth and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet ii\his intellectual capacity, which is often associated v|^th 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 selfexamination, 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.
THE PHILOSOPHY
OF
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
MARCUS AUBELIUS ANTONINUS. 33 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 f, 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 ;
,mea
OORAPIIICAL SKETCH.
the obscurity which may appear in fa fair copy of the obscurity of the (ould ever revise this version, I would ise of any corrections which may be have added an index of some of the the corresponding English. If I m the best words for the Greek, I have it that I could ; and in the text I have the same translation of the same word, reflection of the Stoic philosophy that I is in Simplicius' Commentary on the ichiridion\of Epictetus. Simplicius was not a iristian, an\i such a man was not likely to be converted at a\time when Christianity was grossly corrupted. Bik he was a really religious man, and he concludes hii ccumnentary with a prayer to the Deity which noVChristran could improve. From the time of ZenoYtn^^SimEliciiia; a period of about nine hundred yelrs, the Stoic philosophy formed the characters of same of the best and greatest men. Finally it became Ixtinct, and we hear no more of it till the revival 01 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 Bale edition of the Enchiridion, A. D. 1531 (apud And. Cratandrum). Poliziauo
N/
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, 35 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 {vhich 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 anaforgotten in England, his native country, buiS^o^inAmerica, where he saved the young colonyMkJ^wgmta. He was great in his heroic mind andums deeds in arms, but greater still in the noblen^|of his character. For a man's greatness lies not m wealth and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet ii\his intellectual capacity, which is often associated v|^th 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 selfexamination, 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.
THE PHILOSOPHY
OF
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
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