Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/62

 x who had Business with him : To do him Justice; his good Qualities ne'er run out into Excess ; his Prudence in Conversation was without Pride, and his Complaisance without Meanness.

Adrian having lost Ceionius Commodus, whom he had Adopted for the Empire, and being in quest of one to supply his Place, Marcus Aurelius came into his Mind, but finding him too Young, for then he was scarcely Eighteen, the Emperour adopted Antoninus Pius, but with this Proviso, that he should adopt Marcus Aurelius, and L. Verus, Son of Commodus lately deceas'd. And thus Marcus Aurelius was Adopted at Eighteen Years old. The Night before this Honour, he dream'd his Hands and Shoulders were made of Ivory ; and upon trial whether they would bear any great Burthen, he found them much stronger than formerly.

The News of his being Adopted did but disturb him; And when his Domesticks ask'd him how he could receive an Honour of that Bulk, with such an Air of Dissatisfaction ; He made them a long Discourse concerning the Misfortunes, which perpetually attend a Royal Station.

Some few Days after his Adoption, Adrian went into the Senate, and moved that his want of Age for the Office of Rh