Page:Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus - Volume 1 - Farquharson 1944.pdf/42

 Although the Excerpts are of little importance, if any, for the actual words of the text, since their occasional improvements of passages may well be due to ingenious emendation, they raise a general problem as to the integrity of the present disposition of the several chapters. The X Excerpts especially are not arranged in the order of the complete manuscripts; they begin, for example, with extracts from Book vii, but in the order ch. 22, ch. 18, ch. 7. The fact that our present text appears dislocated at more than one place, that the sequence of thought of the writer is often interrupted by what appears to be an intrusive aphorism, or series of aphorisms, suggests when coupled with this evidence that the order of the various sections has been at some time disturbed. This is discussed elsewhere (infra, pp. lxvii-lxxiv).

There is another remarkable feature in these Excerpts. The actual chapters excerpted differ in the various groups. Even D, which does follow our present order, has a collection of chapters which only at two places overlaps the other Excerpts. Thus, if we had only the Excerpts to go on, we could put together a considerable series of the actual Meditations, with practically no repetitions. It appears, therefore, possible that there was at an earlier date a single collection, a Florilegium of Marcus' thoughts, from which these have been derived. It will be noticed that, with very few exceptions, the extracts thus preserved would be of a general moral character; all the aphorisms which are of a personal nature would have disappeared.

To return to P and A. The resemblances between them point to a common original. But in externals they are remarkably different. P is arranged in twelve Books: A has no numerical marks of Books, although some of the Books are separated by an interval. The chapters in the several Books in P are distinguished, although they are not numbered, and the distinctions correspond generally with the xxxiv