MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS Touching a loyal hand, making a noble friend The dispassionate gravity, the noble forgetfulness of self, the tenderness of others, that are there expressed and were practised on so great a scale in the life of its writer, make this book (The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius) a book quite by itself. No one can read it and not be moved. Yet it scarcely or rarely appeals to the feelings -- those very mobile, those not very trusty parts of man. Its address lies further back: its lesson comes more deeply home; when you have read, you carry away with you a memory of the man himself; it is as though you had touched a loyal hand, looked into brave eyes, and made a noble friend; there is another bond on you thenceforward, binding you to life and to the love of virtue. -- Robert Louis Stevenson Excerpts: In a mind that is disciplined and purified, there is no taint of corruption, no unclean spot or festering sore. Such a man's life, fate can never snatch away unfulfilled, like an actor walking away from the stage during mid-performance. There is nothing of the lackey in him, yet nothing of the coxcomb. He neither leans on others nor holds aloof from them. He remains unanswerable to no one, yet guitless of all evasion. (III 8) more to come . . . |
