The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-08-28
A paran'sB Bi1e.

Marcus AureIlus was emperor of
Rome, intrusted with vast power vet
he lived Il singularly hbly life, huinbly
and patiently doing his duty in his i'm
perial state. At the age of eleven he
assumed the coarse drebs and plain life
OF the Stoics, adopting;spare diet and
ssorning luxury. Niebuhr says: "If
there is any sublime human virtue it is
his" Lecky says tlht he was las
nearly a perfectly virt2ous man as has
ever appeared upon our world" There
Is little book-a sort ,of dia1y-which
Marcus Aurelius kept, in which he lott
ed down, III severely simple style, his
thoughts from day to day. His out
ward life, as emperor, soldier, citizen,
husband, father, was blameless; but it
was his inward or spiritual life revealed
in these ''medit;tionssssfpSat Sat makes him
so remarkable. He believed that there
is "diyinity" in man, Il something
that calls HIM to holiness for it's own
sake. lie carried patif.Nce, gentleness
and forgiveness of enemies to the ut
most limit. While he Mas away from
Rome, defending it's frontiers against
the barbarians, and camping amid the
malariOus marshes of the Danube, he
found time at night, when the camp
was still, to set down such thoughts as
these: "Begin the morning 10y saying
to thyself, L shall meet with the busy
body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceit
full, envious, unsocial. Allthese things
happen to them by reason of their ig-
norance OF what is good and evil. But
|, 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 it is akin to me, not
only Of the same blood or seed, but that
it participates in the same intelligence
and the same portion of the divinity,
can neither be injured by any Of them,
nor can be angry with my kinsman
nor hate him." There is a vast depth
Of spiritual beauty here, if one will pom
der it well; and yet this man rejected
Christianity, and, actuated by his sense
of duty to pagan Rome, prosecuted
Christians. Again he writes: Since
1t is possible that you may depart from
lie tins very moment regulate every
act and thought accordingly; but to go
away from among men, if there be
gods, is not thing to be afraid of, for
gods VIII not involve thee in evil. But
If, indeed, the gods do not exist, or if
olCJ nave llO COllCoiu dU0llC human al
fairs, what is it to me to live in world
devoid of gods or devoid of fprovidence?"
at another time he says: "What, then,
is that which is able to conduct a man?
One thing, and only one-philosophy.
But this consists in keeping the diyin-
ity within a man free from violence and
mharmcd, superior to pains and plea
sures, doing nothing without purpose,
nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy and
waiting for death with acheerful mind
that being nothing th!.:.SiA dissolution
Of tho elements of which every human
being is compounded" 1t would be
easy to multiply quotations, showing
the purity and serenity of this pagan
soul, its lofty ideals of duty, and its
faith in the divinity within the human
soul, even while it doubts the existence
OF the gods or the life beyond the grave.
But it may be seen that what he calls
philosophy Is what other men have
called by the higher name Of faith.
The ''divinity within us'' is q thing..t
be felt, but whose existence cannot be
proven.