The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANTONINUS
obtain happiness, tranquillity of mind and contentment
(in, 12 ; vni, 1, and other places). As a means of living
conformably to nature he must study the four chief
virtues, each of which has its proper sphere wisdom, or
:
the knowledge of good and evil ; justice, or the giving
to every man his due ; fortitude, or the enduring of
labour and pain ;
and temperance, which is moderation
in all things. By thus living conformably to nature the
Stoic obtained all that he wished or expected. His
reward was in his virtuous life, and he was satisfied with
that. Some Greek poet long ago wrote :
For virtue only of all human things
Takes her reward not from the hands of others.
Virtue herself rewards the toils of virtue.
Some of the Stoics indeed expressed themselves in very
arrogant, absurd terms, about the wise man s self-suffici
ency ; they elevated him to the rank of a deity. 1 But
these were only talkers and lecturers, such as those in all
of human affairs,
ages who utter fine words, know little
and care only for notoriety. Epictetus and Antoninus
both by precept and example laboured to improve them
selves and others ;
and if we discover imperfections in
their teaching, we must still honour these great men who
attempted to show that there is in man s nature and in
the constitution of things sufficient reason for living a
virtuous life. It is difficult enough to live as we ought
to live, difficult even for any man to live in such a way
as to satisfy himself, if he exercises only in a moderate
degree the power of reflecting upon and reviewing his own
conduct ;
and if all men cannot be brought to the same
opinions in morals and religion, it is at least orth while
wr
to give them good reasons for as much as they can be
persuaded to accept.
1
J. Smith in his Select Discourses on the Excellency and Noble
ness of True Religion (c. vi) has remarked on this Stoical arrogance.
He finds in it Seneca and others. In Seneca certainly, and perhaps
something of it in Epictetus ;
but it is not in Antoninus.