Meditations | Page 9

says little, though
there are many allusions to death as the natural end; doubtless he
expected his soul one day to be absorbed into the universal soul, since

nothing comes out of nothing, and nothing can be annihilated. His
mood is one of strenuous weariness; he does his duty as a good soldier,
waiting for the sound of the trumpet which shall sound the retreat; he
has not that cheerful confidence which led Socrates through a life no
less noble, to a death which was to bring him into the company of gods
he had worshipped and men whom he had revered.
But although Marcus Aurelius may have held intellectually that his soul
was destined to be absorbed, and to lose consciousness of itself, there
were times when he felt, as all who hold it must sometimes feel, how
unsatisfying is such a creed. Then he gropes blindly after something
less empty and vain. 'Thou hast taken ship,' he says, 'thou hast sailed,
thou art come to land, go out, if to another life, there also shalt thou
find gods, who are everywhere.' There is more in this than the
assumption of a rival theory for argument's sake. If worldly things 'be
but as a dream, the thought is not far off that there may be an
awakening to what is real. When he speaks of death as a necessary
change, and points out that nothing useful and profitable can be brought
about without change, did he perhaps think of the change in a corn of
wheat, which is not quickened except it die? Nature's marvellous power
of recreating out of Corruption is surely not confined to bodily things.
Many of his thoughts sound like far-off echoes of St. Paul; and it is
strange indeed that this most Christian of emperors has nothing good to
say of the Christians. To him they are only sectaries 'violently and
passionately set upon opposition.
Profound as philosophy these Meditations certainly are not; but Marcus
Aurelius was too sincere not to see the essence of such things as came
within his experience. Ancient religions were for the most part
concerned with outward things. Do the necessary rites, and you
propitiate the gods; and these rites were often trivial, sometimes
violated right feeling or even morality. Even when the gods stood on
the side of righteousness, they were concerned with the act more than
with the intent. But Marcus Aurelius knows that what the heart is full
of, the man will do. 'Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are,'
he says, 'such will thy mind be in time.' And every page of the book
shows us that he knew thought was sure to issue in act. He drills his

soul, as it were, in right principles, that when the time comes, it may be
guided by them. To wait until the emergency is to be too late. He sees
also the true essence of happiness. 'If happiness did consist in pleasure,
how came notorious robbers, impure abominable livers, parricides, and
tyrants, in so large a measure to have their part of pleasures?' He who
had all the world's pleasures at command can write thus 'A happy lot
and portion is, good inclinations of the soul, good desires, good
actions.'
By the irony of fate this man, so gentle and good, so desirous of quiet
joys and a mind free from care, was set at the head of the Roman
Empire when great dangers threatened from east and west. For several
years he himself commanded his armies in chief. In camp before the
Quadi he dates the first book of his Meditations, and shows how he
could retire within himself amid the coarse clangour of arms. The
pomps and glories which he despised were all his; what to most men is
an ambition or a dream, to him was a round of weary tasks which
nothing but the stern sense of duty could carry him through. And he did
his work well. His wars were slow and tedious, but successful. With a
statesman's wisdom he foresaw the danger to Rome of the barbarian
hordes from the north, and took measures to meet it. As it was, his
settlement gave two centuries of respite to the Roman Empire; had he
fulfilled the plan of pushing the imperial frontiers to the Elbe, which
seems to have been in his mind, much more might have been
accomplished. But death cut short his designs.
Truly a rare opportunity was given to Marcus Aurelius of showing
what the mind can do in despite of circumstances. Most peaceful of
warriors, a magnificent monarch whose ideal was quiet happiness in
home life, bent to obscurity yet born to greatness, the loving father of
children who died young or turned out hateful, his life was