ENGLISH COMMENTARY
heavens, as they appear all through the night, following in the path of the sun, and may have been derived by Plato from the Pythagoreans.
Ch. 12. The path of duty is plain, and he who follows reason enjoys a tranquil activity. So Wordsworth says The Happy Warrior
Is happy as a lover, and attired
With sudden brightness, like a man inspired.
Marcus handles slightly differently the topics of v. 20; vi. 50; vii. 5; and viii. 32.
Ch. 13. The right attitude in regard to adverse criticism (ch. 4). Here he contrasts the fruits of a right use of reason with the results of its misuse.
Chs. 14–15. The beautiful expression of resignation to Nature's will is like that in iv. 23. This is followed by an adjuration to the self to live life on earth as if on a mountain. Similarly in ch. 23 he insists that the life of retirement may be lived anywhere equally well, a lesson stated fully in iv. 3 and repeated in vi. 11 and 12.
Ch. 16. A lesson enjoined by his tutor Rusticus, i. 7.
Chs. 17–18. The familiar thought of the pettiness of this world and of finite time against the background of Cosmic space and time, and how all things are in perpetual mutation.
Ch. 19. An expression of withering scorn and contempt of wickedness in high places. The word 'slavery' may be literal, in which case he would be thinking of men who had risen from low estate or even slavery to a station where they abused their temporary authority by brutality to those beneath them; or he may be using 'slavery' to contrast immoral servitude, as he often does, with moral freedom.
Ch. 20. An aphorism on a favourite theme, with a play upon words which we have had before.
Ch. 21. This beautiful thought is founded upon a passage in Euripides,[1] which was often quoted in antiquity. The poet gave expression to the very primitive myth that the birth of all things came from a union between the sky god and the earth mother.
- ↑ Euripides, Chrysippus, Fr. 898.
