Yet this is to be ascribed, partly, to the studied brevity* of these memoirs, which were evidently written principally for the Emperor's own fatisfaction and moral improvement, in the momentary intervals of an hazardous campaign: though probably not without a view to his fon Commodus's inftruction.

But another cause of the obfcurity of fome of these meditations, is, his perpetually alluding to the peculiar doctrines of the Stoicks; which the

* His frequent use of compounds, particularly the neuter adjectives, to express a whole propofition, 25 απολυπραγμον, " the not impertinent interference in other people's affairs" &c. As we say, beautiful, the fublime” &c.

as

"the

reader

reader must therefore always keep in

view.†

They confidered the universe as one great community, governed by an irreverfible fyftem of laws, which they called Fate: And as the good of every individual was dependent on and in

+ It is very difficult to give a clear and confiftent account of the ftoical doctrines, as the later difciples of Zeno, their founder, differ widely from the earlier, and most of them from their mafter. I have only endeavoured to give a flight view of those principles to which our author most frequently alludes.

Those who would fee more on the subject, may confult Gataker's Preface; to whose labours every Commentator and Tranflator must acknowledge themselves greatly obliged.

See also Cudworth, or a concife account in the excellent Dr. Beattie's Evidence of Christianity; or a more diffuse account in Dr. Adam Smith's "Theory &c.

cluded

cluded in the welfare of the whole; it was the duty of every one to submit to, and chearfully acquiefce in, every event, (whether profperous or adverse to themfelves) as it made a part of that connected series of caufes and effects, which neceffarily refulted from the original contrivance and arrangement

of the whole.

From this fyftem, however, they by no means excluded an intelligent, fuper-intending Providence, the Governor of the universe. Marcus Aurelius, at least, always fpeaks of a GOD, as prefiding, not only over the universe in general, but as extending his care to every individual; who were therefore bound to worship and obey him,

and

1

and to regulate all their actions with a view to his approbation.

Whether Antoninus or the other ftoics are always confiftent in this opinion, may perhaps be queftioned. But, whatever idea they had of Fate or Neceffity, they always fpeak of Man, as a free agent; and of the First Cause, as Pope does ;

"Who, binding Nature fast in Fate,

"Left free the human will.”

They sometimes indeed feem to confound the Deity with Nature: and fpeak of GOD, as no more than the "anima mundi," or foul of the material world: a kind of plastic principle, which pervades and animates it, as the human foul does the body. But they

feem

feem to me, to have made the fame diftinction between the first intelligent cause, and this ætherial fubftance, as between the rational foul of man, and

the mere animal or vital spirit; which they held to be only a small particle, difcerpt or feparated from the foul of the world; and, after death, reforbed and reunited to it, without any diftinct, perfonal existence. This, however, must be understood in a qualified sense; as they believed that the perfectly good or heroic fouls were admitted to the fociety of the Gods.

Their idea of the periodical renovation of the world by repeated conflagrations, and the continual changes of one substance into another, (to which