Page:Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus - Volume 1 - Farquharson 1944.pdf/67

 moments of leisure of a busy public man, a philosophical aide-mémoire intended for his own sole use and guidance. What consecutiveness there is, is the sequence of occasion, not subject, and the occasions can only, at best, be divined.

Thus Gataker contrasts Arrian's Memoirs, which profess to be notes of lectures, with the discourses of Marcus: 'which were plainly taken from his own notebooks, as the Proverbs of the wise King of Israel were copied largely from his autographs by the amanuenses of King Hezekiah'. 'It was', he continues, 'this great man's practice, engaged as he was, whether in peace or war, with his pursuit of philosophy, to note down on paper what occurred to him, not consistently observing any continuous series of subjects, but jotting them down, for one reason or another, according to the times and places in which they occurred to his mind or memory. Consequently, they are very often disconnected; identical reflexions are frequently repeated, as they more frequently come to mind, and most of them are expressed not merely briefly, but even incompletely there is just enough to refresh and support the memory in topics so familiar. They are designed principally for his own use; thus some are grammatically imperfect, many introduced without any formal preparation.'

In this way Gataker explains the frequent obscurities, the many uncertainties as to the meaning and bearing of single sayings. The clue to the writer's immediate purpose is lost for want of sufficient knowledge of the occasion which prompted his expression. 'Thus the suspicion that some have entertained of mutilation and corruption are not justified; the text is, as a rule, pure, genuine and entire, surviving in the authentic form in which it originally flowed from the author's pen.' lix