Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/110

 lviii ; Especially since Patience is one part of Justice; And that 'tis much better to suffer the Long Robe to plead twenty things Foreign and wide of the Case, than hinder them from saying one that's Material, and to the Purpose. He used the same Care and Exactness in smaller Causes, as in those of the greatest Concern, it being his Maxim that Justice ought to be uniform, and hold out to the whole length of her Administration, and that nothing relating to Right and Wrong was little. And thus he would sometimes spend ten or twelve Days upon a Tryal, and keep the Council at the Board till Night ; neither would he ever leave the Senate, till the Consul had dismiss'd the House in this Customary Form, My Lords, we have no more trouble to give you : And which made all this Patience and Application the more Remarkable, his Constitution was but weak, he could not bear the least Cold, nor venture himself with any more than a slender Meal, which he always eat at Night, and took nothing in the Daytime but a little Treacle to secure his Stomach. But none of these Disadvantages could make him indulge, or neglect any of those Publick Functions, which as he us'd to speak, the Character of a Prince, and Legislator, oblig'd him to.