ENGLISH COMMENTARY
failure. If adopted at all, it must be upon reasonable choice, neither precipitately, in anger, nor for display. The good man is normally to stand to his post (iii. 7), as Socrates taught, waiting for God's signal of retreat.
On the whole matter Sir Thomas Browne[1] speaks wisely and fairly: 'we are happier with death than we should have been without it: there is no misery but in himself, where there is no end of misery; and so indeed, in his own sense, the Stoic is in the right. He forgets that he can die, who complains of misery; we are in the power of no calamity while death is in our own.'
Ch. 30. The first words take up the close of ch. 29. The mind of the whole is a mind of fellowship. The rest repeats in another form what was said in v. 16.
Ch. 31. The thought that Nature's purpose is to bring to pass concord among her children prompts the writer to inquire how he himself has supported life's varied relations. These relations, it will be noted, include those to one's servants and subordinates. The quotation is loosely made from the Odyssey, and he perhaps also thinks of a question suggested by Pythagoras:[2]
Where did I transgress? What have I done, what duty not fulfilled?
This profession of innocency has no parallel elsewhere in Marcus; we are reminded of St. Paul's occasional outbursts, like[3] 'You are witnesses and God how holily and righteously and without blame we behaved to you who hold the Faith'. So 'your service is accomplished' will awaken memories of the apostle's words.
The phrase 'how many fair things your eyes have seen' appears to be a reminiscence of Menander's exquisite verses:[4]
that man is blest
Who having viewed at ease this solemn show
Of sun, stars, ocean, fire, doth quickly go
Back to his home.
Ch. 32. The meaning and connexion of this chapter arc obscure, as no direct answer is given to the inquiry in the first sentence. If Marcus were a Christian writer, we should know the answer,
