The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

260 L^ELIUS; OR,
to remember that the public eye is particularly turned
towards you upon the present occasion, and extremely
attentive to observe how Lselius, the sage Laelius (as, by
a very singular distinction you are universally both called
and acknowledged) behaves under the great loss he has
sustained. When I say by a very singular distinction/
I am not ignorant that the late Marcus Cato, in our own
times, and Lucius Attilius, in the days of our forefathers,
were generally mentioned with the same honourable
addition ;
but I know, too, that it was for attainments
somewhat different from those which have so justly
occasioned it to be conferred on you. To the latter it
was given in allusion to his eminent skill
in the laws of
his country, as it was to the former on account of the
wonderful compass and variety of his knowledge, together
with his great experience in the affairs of the world.
Indeed, the many signal proofs that Cato gave, both in
the forum and the senate, of his judgment, his spirit,
and his penetration, produced such frequent occasions
to speak of his wisdom with admiration, that the epithet
seems, by continually recurring, to have been considered
in his latter days as his original and proper name. But
the same appellation (and I cannot forbear repeating
it
again) has been conferred on you for qualifications not
altogether of the same nature not
; merely in respect to
the superior excellency of your political accomplishments
and those intellectual endowments which adorn your
mind, but principally in consequence of the singular
advancement you have made in the study and practice
of moral wisdom. In short, if Lselius is never named
without the designation I am speaking of, it is not so
much in the popular as in the philosophical sense of the
term that this characteristic is applied to him, and in
that sense I will venture to say there is not a single
instance throughout
all the states of Greece of its ever
having been thus attributed to any man by the unanimous