sible here to detail even briefly all the manifold
public services rendered by Marcus Aurelius to the Empire during his
reign of twenty years. Among his good works were these: the
establishment, upon eternal foundation, of the noble fabric of the Civil
Law--the prototype and basis of Justinian's task; the founding of
schools for the education of poor children; the endowment of hospitals
and homes for orphans of both sexes; the creation of trust companies to
receive and distribute legacies and endowments; the just government of
the provinces; the complete reform of the system of collecting taxes;
the abolition of the cruelty of the criminal laws and the mitigation of
sentences unnecessarily severe; the regulation of gladiatorial
exhibitions; the diminution of the absolute power possessed by fathers
over their children and of masters over their slaves; the admission of
women to equal rights to succession to property from their children; the
rigid suppression of spies and informers; and the adoption of the
principle that merit, as distinguished from rank or political
friendship, alone justified promotion in the public service.

But the greatest reform was the reform in the Imperial Dignity itself,
as exemplified in the life and character of the Emperor. It is this fact
which gives to the 'Meditations' their distinctive value. The infinite
charm, the tenderness and sweetness of their moral teachings, and their
broad humanity, are chiefly noteworthy because the Emperor himself
practiced in his daily life the principles of which he speaks, and
because tenderness and sweetness, patience and pity, suffused his daily
conduct and permeated his actions. The horrible cruelties of the reigns
of Nero and Domitian seemed only awful dreams under the benignant rule
of Marcus Aurelius.

It is not surprising that the deification of a deceased emperor, usually
regarded by Senate and people as a hollow mockery, became a veritable
fact upon the death of Marcus Aurelius. He was not regarded in any sense
as mortal. All men said he had but returned to his heavenly place among
the immortal gods. As his body passed, in the pomp of an imperial
funeral, to its last resting-place, the tomb of Hadrian,--the modern
Castle of St. Angelo at Rome,--thousands invoked the divine blessing of
Antoninus. His memory was sacredly cherished. His portrait was preserved
as an inspiration in innumerable homes. His statue was almost
universally given an honored pla