ENGLISH COMMENTARY
power, and how it may be perfected; that so men may be moved, not by fear or abhorrence, but only by the affection of joy, to endeavour, as far as in them lies, to live by the rule of reason.'
Ch. 50. A restatement of his favourite doctrines[1] that opposition to endeavour may be used to elicit other virtues, and that we must set out to action with the mental reservation that it may not be able to be realized.
Ch. 51. The three human ends, pleasure, fame, and virtue, recall early Greek moralizing. Marcus makes his familiar point that either of the first two aims leads to loss of that self-government which is the true end. 'Nous cherchons notre bonheur hors de nous-mêmes, et dans l'opinion des hommes que nous connaissons flatteurs, peu sincères, sans équité, pleins d'envie, de caprices et de préventions. Quelle bizarrerie!'[2]
Ch. 55. Two favourite Socratic illustrations of the necessity for political subordination.
Ch. 58. This appears to be the moral of the main argument of the Book.[3]
Ch. 59. The form and matter of the sentence have many parallels.[4] The fragment itself is clearly not in place at the close of a Book. It appears to be an antidote to love of glory.
BOOK VII
This Book is a collection of maxims, like vi. 51–end, partly his own, partly derived from commonplace books. They appear to be intended for everyday use, to bring the quiet and contentment which come from understanding and trust. The mind gets its colour from its frequent imagination and thoughts,[5] and the doctrines are kept alive by reviving the imaginations upon which they rest;[6] therefore to quicken these doctrines, he runs over the cognate illustrations. Chapters 32–52 are, with two exceptions, well-known citations and may, quite possibly, have intruded into the text from the Emperor's other note-books. There are signs of dislocation; thus chs. 5 and 7 belong together, so also chs. 14 and
