Sentence:  Again , Henley 's attitude of defiance which colors his ideal of self mastery is far from characteristic of a Stoic thinker like Marcus Aurelius , whose gentle acquiescence is <WSD>almost</WSD> Christian , comparable to the patience expressed in Milton 's sonnet on his own blindness . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but