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MEDITATIONS OF ANTONINUS.

OF

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS,

WITH THE

MANUAL OF EPICTETUS,

AND A

SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

Freely Translated from the Original Greek,

BY

HENRY M'CORMAC, M.D.

Οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος ἐμαυτὸν λυπεῖν· ἐδὲ γὰρ
ἄλλον πώποτε ἑκὼν ἐλύπησα.

Marci Antonini, lib. viii.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS;

DUBLIN: WM. CURRY, JUN., & CO.;

EDINBURGH: OLIVER AND BOYD.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF THE

CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

FEB 15 1938

PREFACE.

WHO was Antoninus, an emperor Epictetus who, a slave? Earnest, just, they tried, with what success, to benefit the world. They urged the purest motives in language the most forcibleenough, persuasion sat upon their lips, truth upon their tongues.

If we are not all we ought, let us be all we can; if we fail in being so good as we should, shall at least be the better for having striven. Yes, the time shall yet be, when man will sit under the shadow of the tree of life and hope to come.

The body is but an instrument for building up the soul; shall we make our real welfare subservient to its wants and weaknesses? If not wholly indifferent to its claims, to outward attractions and solicitations, let us at least not forget the higher aim, the better part.

Life quickly fleets away, the body dies, but the soul lives; we shall then see what will come of having acted as Christ taught, as Socrates was.

The particulars of the life of the philosophic and philanthropic emperor M. A. Antoninus, are well known and readily accessible. Of Epictetus little is recorded, further than that while as to his body he was a slave, as to his mind he was free. In conformity with the usual and commendable practice, the beautiful, though occasionally somewhat stern maxims of the Porch, have been contrasted with the sublime and spiritual precepts of Christianity; they are not, however, opposed. The Meditations, TON EIZ 'EATTON, are from a Leipsic edition of 1775, with Gataker's emendations; the Manual, ETXEIPIAION, by Schwebel, bears the same imprint, and nearly the same date. Notes and comments from Simplicius and others, were prepared, but rejected as superfluous. As to the translation, the spirit rather than the letter has been adhered to, and as a whole it is hoped will not prove unacceptable to the lovers of a lofty and unadulterated morality.

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