Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/483

Rh a charitable view may be taken of the evil doings of others. He says, for example: "When a man has presented the appearance of having done wrong, say, how can I be certain that this is a wrongful act? And even if he has done wrong, how do I know that he has not condemned himself?"

His definition of the way in which injuries should be met shows the true Christian spirit. He urges as invincible the continuance of a benevolent disposition toward even the most violent, and recommends that you "quietly admonish him and calmly correct his errors at the very time when he is trying to do you harm; saying, 'Not so, my child, we are constituted by Nature for something else;' and show him his error, with gentle tact, not with any double meaning or in the way of reproach, but affectionately and without any rancor in your soul, not as if you were lecturing him, nor yet that any by-stander may admire, but either when he is alone, or with caution as if he were alone."

His style is not particularly elegant, certainly not poetic or imaginative, but it has an intensely masculine quality, and its virile power of grasp is sufficient to insure to the thoughts of Marcus Antoninus a long future.

When an ethical principle is to be inculcated about which (we will assume) there is no difference of opinion, the appeal will be made to one kind of intelligence by thinkers of the calibre of (let us say) George Herbert, and to another kind by studious inquirers of a type which may be represented by Emerson and Antoninus, about whom all that one can say in the way of definition is that his appeal in each separate instance seems to be directly made without qualification or limitation, to himself, to you, to me, to every being capable of understanding the meaning of ordinary words. It is never special, but always general and in the direction of character which belongs, like the air, to every human being, and not in the direction of genius or acquirement, which is owned like the earth by human beings very unequally. Take, for instance, the following quotations: "You say, men cannot admire the sharpness of your wit. Be it so. But there are many other things of which you can hardly say you are not formed for them by Nature. Show those qualities then which are altogether in your power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, contentment with your portion, benevolence, frankness, freedom from trifling, magnanimity. Do you not see how many qualities you are immediately able to exhibit in which there is no excuse for natural incapacity and unfitness?"

The most potent charm of the Christian doctrine is in this direction. It is adapted to the rich and poor, but chiefly to the poor; to the educated and uneducated, but very decidedly to the uneducated. Probably the philosophy of Antoninus, emanating, as it does, from a rich, unhampered experience, bears the marks of the habitual