edicts against our brethren, he destroyed the
effect of them by the severe penalties he instituted against their
accusers." This statement would seem to dispose effectually of the
charge of cruel persecution brought so often against the kindly and
tender-hearted Emperor.

Of the appointment of Commodus as his successor, it may be said that the
paternal heart hoped against hope for filial excellence. Marcus Aurelius
believed, as clearly appears from many passages in the 'Meditations,'
that men did not do evil willingly but through ignorance; and that when
the exceeding beauty of goodness had been fully disclosed to them, the
depravity of evil conduct would appear no less clearly. The Emperor who,
when the head of his rebellious general was brought to him, grieved
because that general had not lived to be forgiven; the ruler who burned
unread all treasonable correspondence, would not, nay, could not believe
in the existence of such an inhuman monster as Commodus proved himself
to be. The appointment of Commodus was a calamity of the most terrific
character; but it testifies in trumpet tones to the nobility of the
Emperor's heart, the sincerity of his own belief in the triumph of right
and justice.

The volume of the 'Meditations' is the best mirror of the Emperor's
soul. Therein will be found expressed delicately but unmistakably much
of the sorrow that darkened his life. As the book proceeds the shadows
deepen, and in the latter portion his loneliness is painfully apparent.
Yet he never lost hope or faith, or failed for one moment in his duty as
a man, a philosopher, and an Emperor. In the deadly marshes and in the
great forests which stretched beside the Danube, in his mortal sickness,
in the long nights when weakness and pain rendered sleep impossible, it
is not difficult to imagine him in his tent, writing, by the light of
his solitary lamp, the immortal thoughts which alone soothed his soul;
thoughts which have out-lived the centuries--not perhaps wholly by
chance--to reveal to men in nations then unborn, on continents whose
very existence was then unknown, the Godlike qualities of one of the
noblest of the sons of men.

* * * * *

The best literal translation of the work into English thus far made is
that of George Long. It is published by Little, Brown & Co. of Boston. A
most admirable work, 'The Life of Marcus Aurelius,' by Paul Barron
Watson, published by Harper & Brothers, New