The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

232 MARCUS AURELIUS
from this
tion towards the man who confers it.
Apart
claim upon one s tenderness, however, Jeremy Collier s
version deserves respect for its genuine spirit and vigour,
the spirit and vigour of the age of Dryden. Jeremy
Collier too, like Mr. Long, regarded in Marcus Aurelius
the living moralist, and not the dead classic ;
and his
warmth of feeling gave to his style an impetuosity and
rhythm which from Mr. Long s style (I
do not blame it
on that account) are absent. Let us place the two side
by side. The impressive opening of Marcus Aurelius s
fifth book, Mr. Long translates thus :
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this
thought be present :
I am rising
to the work of a human
being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going
to do
the things for which I exist and for which I was brought
into the \vorld ? Or have I been made for this, to lie in
the bed-clothes and keep myself warm ? But this is more
pleasant. Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure,
and not at all for action or exertion ?
Jeremy Collier has :
When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the
morning, make this short speech to yourself I am
:
getting up now to do the business of a man ;
and am I
out of humour for going about that which I was made
for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world ?
Was I then designed for nothing but to doze and batten
beneath the counterpane ? I thought action had been
the end of your being.
In another striking passage, again, Mr. Long has :
No longer wander at hazard ;
for neither wilt thou
read thy own memoirs, nor the acts of the ancient Romans
and Hellenes, and the selections from books which thou
wast reserving for thy old age. Hasten then to the end
which thou hast before thee, and, throwing away idle
hopes, come to thine own aid, if thou carest at all for
thyself, while it is in thy power.