and it is strange indeed that this most Christian
of emperors has nothing good to say of the Christians.
To him they are only sectaries 'violently and passionately
set upon opposition.

Profound as philosophy these Meditations certainly are not;
but Marcus Aurelius was too sincere not to see the essence
of such things as came within his experience. Ancient religions
were for the most part concerned with outward things.
Do the necessary rites, and you propitiate the gods; and these rites
were often trivial, sometimes violated right feeling or even morality.
Even when the gods stood on the side of righteousness,
they were concerned with the act more than with the intent.
But Marcus Aurelius knows that what the heart is full of, the man
will do. 'Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are,'
he says, 'such will thy mind be in time.' And every page of
the book shows us that he knew thought was sure to issue in act.
He drills his soul, as it were, in right principles, that when the
time comes, it may be guided by them. To wait until the emergency
is to be too late. He sees also the true essence of happiness.
'If happiness did consist in pleasure, how came notorious robbers,
impure abominable livers, parricides, and tyrants,
in so large a measure to have their part of pleasures?'
He who had all the world's pleasures at command can write thus
'A happy lot and portion is, good inclinations of the soul,
good desires, good actions.'

By the irony of fate this man, so gentle and good, so desirous
of quiet joys and a mind free from care, was set at the head of
the Roman Empire when great dangers threatened from east and west.