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Page 75
[A] The word [Greek: presbytera], which is here translated
"prior," may also mean "superior;" but Antoninus seems to say
that piety and reverence of the gods precede all virtues, and
that other virtues are derived from them, even justice, which
in another passage (xi. 10) he makes the foundation of all
virtues. The ancient notion of justice is that of giving to
every one his due. It is not a legal definition, as some have
supposed, but a moral rule which law cannot in all cases
enforce. Besides, law has its own rules, which are sometimes
moral and sometimes immoral; but it enforces them all simply
because they are general rules, and if it did not or could not
enforce them, so far Law would not be Law. Justice, or the
doing what is just, implies a universal rule and obedience to
it; and as we all live under universal Law, which commands both
our body and our intelligence, and is the law of our nature,
that is, the law of the whole constitution of a man, we must
endeavor to discover what this supreme Law is. It is the will
of the power that rules all. By acting in obedience to this
will, we do justice, and by consequence everything else that we
ought to do.
21. He who has not one and always the same object in life, cannot be one
and the same all through his life. But what I have said is not enough,
unless this also is added, what this object ought to be. For as there is
not the same opinion about all the things which in some way or other are
considered by the majority to be good, but only about some certain
things, that is, things which concern the common interest, so also ought
we to propose to ourselves an object which shall be of a common kind
[social] and political. For he who directs all his own efforts to this
object, will make all his acts alike, and thus will always be the same.
22. Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm
and trepidation of the town mouse.[A]
23. Socrates used to call the opinions of the many by the name of
Lamiae,--bugbears to frighten children.
24. The Lacedaemonians at their public spectacles used to set seats in
the shade for strangers, but themselves sat down anywhere.
25. Socrates excused himself to Perdiccas[B] for not going to him,
saying, It is because I would not perish by the worst of all ends; that
is, I would not receive a favor and then be unable to return it.
26. In the writings of the [Ephesians][C] there was this precept,
constantly to think of some one of the men of former times who practiced
virtue.
[A] The story is told by Horace in his Satires (ii. 6), and by
others since but not better.
[B] Perhaps the emperor made a mistake here, for other writers
say that it was Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas, who invited
Socrates to Macedonia.
[C] Gataker suggested [Greek: Epekourei�n] for [Greek:
Ephesi�n].
27. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens that we
may be reminded of those bodies which continually do the same things
and in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their
purity and nudity. For there is no veil over a star.
28. Consider what a man Socrates was when he dressed himself in a skin,
after Xanthippe had taken his cloak and gone out, and what Socrates said
to his friends who were ashamed of him and drew back from him when they
saw him dressed thus.
29. Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down
rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules
thyself. Much more is this so in life.
30. A slave thou art: free speech is not for thee.
31. And my heart laughed within.
_Odyssey_, ix. 413.
32. And virtue they will curse, speaking harsh words.
HESIOD, _Works and Days_, 184.
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