Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/50

 Books that I speak to ; And here, how fulsomely does he flourish upon that heavy Emperour Claudian : And to pass his Flattery the better, makes his Compliment to that scandalous Tool of a Courtier Polybius? But these good Words, were all given while Claudius was living ; for when the Emperour was once dead, he palts his Memory to some purpose; and falls upon him with all the Violence of Satyr imaginable. To go on : How does he contradict himself about the State of the Soul after Death ? One while he makes her shoot the Gulph, and mount the Skies, without the least Damage : At another time she is little better with him than a Wax Candle : For when the Matter is once spent, the Vital Flame sinks in the Socket, and all the pretended Immortality is over. Sometimes he bears hard upon Epicurus, censures his Writings, and lashes him for his Liberty severely : Calls him a Man of an Abject, and Scandalous Temper, perfectly ridden by his Appetite, fitter for a Cook, than a Philosopher, and that his School taught nothing hut Luxury and Pleasure. But his angry Humour does not last always : For upon another occasion, (it maybe to curry Favour with his Friend Lucilius, who was an admirer of this Sect;) he comes Rh