Columbia 5Knit)er3Sftp mtl)fCitpof3Sfttig0rk LIBRARY (53 ENGLISH CONFERENCES OF ESKEST ■ RES' AW. > > ^ > J 1 > ■> > •> J > ■> ■> '> ^ > ) ' ■ 1 , ' ) t > i • ROME AND CHRISTIANHY. MARCUS AURELIUS. TRANSLATED BY CLAEA ERSKINE CLEiMENT, BOSTON : JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 1880. t r c t ' V c ct» UJ Copyright, 1880, Bt JAALe's R. OSGOOD & COMPANY. 331. C Franklin Press: Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, <5^ Co.^ Boston. COl^TEH'TS. PAGE. The Hibbert Conteeences. First Conference. The Sense in whicli Christianity is a Roman Work 9 Second Conference. The Legend of the Roman Church. — Peter and Paul 39 Third Conference. Rome, the Centre of the Forma- tion of Ecclesiastical Authority .... 73 Fourth Conference. Rome, the Capital of Catholi- cism 103 The Royal Institution Conference. Marcus Aurelius ' . . . 139 NOTE. The lectures contained in this volume were delivered by M. Eknest Eenan in London during April of the present year. The first four, upon '"Rome and Christianity," were given under the auspices of " The Hibbert Foundation," in response to an invitation under which the distinguished author visited England. The fifth, "Marcus Aurelius," was Incidental to the visit, and was given before '' The Royal Institution." The word "Conferences," though somewhat new to English usage in its present 'sense, has been retained as best expressing the author's original title, ^'Conferences d^ Angleterre," EOME AlfD OHEISTIAlSriTT. riKST CONFERENCE, London, Apeil 6, 1880. THE SENSE IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY IS A ROMAN WORK. FIEST CONFEI^ENCE. THE SENSE IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY IS A EOMAN WOEK. Ladies and Gentlemen, — I was proud and happy to receive from the curators of this noble institution an invitation to continue here an in- struction inaugurated by my illustrious confrere and friend, ^lax MilUer, the usefulness of which will be more and more appreciated. A broad and sincere thought always bears fruit. It is thirty years since the venerable Robert Hibbert made a legacy for the purpose of aiding the progress of enlightened Christianity, inseparable, according to his idea, from the progress of science and reason. Wisely carried out, this foundation has become, in the hands of intelligent administrators, the centre of conferences upon all the great chapters of the history of religion and humanity : the pro- moters of this reform have asked, with reason, why the method which has proved good in all departments of intellectual culture should not also be good in the domain of religion? why the pur- suit of truth, without regard to consequences. 10 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. should be dangerous in theology, when it is ap- proved of in the entire domain of social and natural science ? You believed the truth, gentle- men, and you were right. There is but one truth ; and we are wanting in respect to its revelation, if we allow that the critic ought to soften his severe processes when he treats of it. No, gentle- men, the truth is able to dispense with compli- ments. I come gladly at your call ; for I under- stand the duties towards the right exactly as you do. With you, I should believe that I injured a faith in admitting that it required to be treated with a certain softness. I believe with you that the worship due from man to the ideal consists in independent scientific research, without regard to results, and that the true manner of rendering homage to the truth is to pursue it without ceas- ing, with the firm resolution of sacrificing all to it. You desire that these conferences shall present a ofreat historic ensemble of the efforts which the hu- man race has made to resolve the problems which surround it, and affect its destiny. In the present state of the human mind, no one can hope to resolve these problems : we suspect all dogmatism simply because it is dogmatism. We grant will- ingl}^ that a religious or philosophical system can, indeed, or that it ought to, enclose a certain por- tion of truth ; but we deny to it, without exam- ination, the possibility of enclosing the absolute ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 11 truth. What we love is history. History well written is always good ; for, even if it should prove that man in seeking to seize the infinite has pursued a chimera, the history of these attempts, more generous than successful, will always be use- ful. It proves, that, in reality, man goes beyond the circle of his limited life through his aspira- tions. It shows what energy he has expended for the sake of his love of the good and true ; it teaches us to estimate him, — this poor disinherited one, who, in addition to the sufferings which na- ture imposes upon him, imposes still further upon himself the torture of the unknown, the torture of doubt, the severe resistances of virtue, the absti- nences of austerity, the voluntary sufferings of the ascetic. Is all this a pure loss? Is this unceasing effort to attain the unattainable as vain as the course of the child who pursues the ever flying object of his desire ? It pains me to believe it ; and the faith which eludes me when I examine in detail each of the systems scattered throughout the world, I find, in a measure, when I reflect upon all these systems together. All religions may be defective and incomplete ; religion in humanity is nothing less than divine, and a mark of superior destiny. No, they have not labored in vain — those grand founders, those reformers, those prophets of all ages — who have protested against the false evidences of gross materialism, who have beaten 12 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. themselves against the wall of the apparent fa- tality that encloses us ; who have emploj^ecl their thought, given their life, for the accomplishment oi a mission which the sj)irit of their age had imposed upon them. If the fact of the existence of the martyrs does not prove the exclusive truth of this or that sect (all sects can show a rich martyrology), this fact in general proves that religious zeal re- sponds to something mj^sterious. All, — as many as we are, — we are sons of martyrs. Those who talk the most of scepticism are frequently the most satisfied and indifferent. Those who have founded among you religious and political liberty, those who have founded in all Europe liberty of thought and research, those who have labored for the amelioration of the fate of men, those who will doubtless 'find means for*' further amelioration, have suffered, or will suffer, for their good work ; for no one is ever recompensed for what he does for the good of humanity. Nevertheless they will always have imitators. There will always be some to carry on the v/ork of the incor- rigibles ; some, possessed of the divine spirit, who will sacrifice their personal interest to truth and justice. Be it so : they have chosen the better part. I know not what assures me that he who, without knowing why, through simple nobility of nature, has chosen for himself in this world the essentially unproductive lot of doing good, is the ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 13 true sage, and has discovered the legitunate use of life with more sagacity than the selfish man. I. You have asked me to retrace before you one of those pages of religious history which places the thoughts which I come to express in their fullest aspect. The origins of Cliristianity form the most heroic episode in the history of humanity. Man never drew from his heart more devotion, more love of the ideal, than in the one hundred and fifty 3'ears which elapsed from the sweet Galilean vision, under Tiberius, to the death of Marcus Aurelius. The religious consciousness was never more eminently creative, and never laid down with more authority the law of the future. This extraordinary movement, to which no other can be compared, came forth from the bosom of Judaism. But it is doubtful if Judaism alone would have conquered the world. It was necessary that a young and bold school, coming out of its midst, should take the audacious part of renouncing the largest portion of the Mosaic ritual. It was necessary, above all, that the new movement should be transported into the midst of the Greeks and Latins, while awaiting the Barba- rians, and become like yeast in the bosom of those European i:aces-b.Y^ whi ch humanity accomplish es 14 ENGLISH CONFEBENCES. its destinies. What a beautiful subject he will discourse upon who shall one day explain to you the part which Greece took in that great common work! You have commissioned me to show to you the part of Rome. The action of Rome is the first in date. It was scarcely until the begin- ning of the third century that the Greek genius, with Clement of Alexandria and Origen, really seized upon Christianity. I hope to show you, that, since the second century, Rome has exercised a decisive influence upon the Church of Jesus. In one sense, Rome has diffused religion through the world, as she has diffused civilization, as she has founded the idea of a central government, extending itself over a considerable part of the world. But even as the civilization Avhich Rome"^ has diffused has not been the small, narrow, j austere culture of ancient Latium, but in fact ( the grand and large civilization which Greece created, so the religion to which she definitely lent her support was not the niggardl}' supersti- tion which was sufficient to the rude and primitive inhabitants of the Palatine : it was Judaism, that is to say, in fact, the religion which Rome scorned V and hated most, that which two or three times she believed herself to have finally vanquished to the profit of her own national worship. This an- cient religion of Latium, which contented a race endowed with narrow intellectual wajits and mor- EOME AND CHRISTIANITY. 15 als, among which customs and social rank almost held the place of a religion during some centuries, was a sufficiently despicable thing. As M. Bois- sier has perfectly proved, a more false conception of the divinity was never seen. In the Roman worship, as in most of the ancient Italiote wor- ships, prayer was a magic formula, acting by its owti virtue, independent of the moral dispositions of him who prayed. People prayed only for a selfish end. There exist some registers called indlgita- menta, containing lists of the gods who supply all the wants of men ; thus there was no need of being deceived. If the god vv^as not addressed by his true name, by that under which it pleased him to be invoked, he was capable of misapprehension, or of interpreting capriciously. Now these gods, who are in some degree the forces of the w^orld, are innumerable. There was a little god who made the infant utter his first cry ( Vaticcmus) ; there was another who presided over liis first word (FahuUnus') ; another who taught the baby to eat {Educa) ; another who taught him to drink (^Potinci) ; another who made him keep quiet in his cradle (Cuba). In truth, the good wife of Petronius was right, when, in speaking of the Campagna, she said, " This country is so peopled with divinities, that it is easier to find a god than a man." Besides these, there were unending series of allegories, or deified abstractions. Fear, the 16 ENGLISH CONFEBENCES. Cougli, Fever, IManly Fortune, Patrician Chastity, Plebeian Chastity, the Security of the Age, the Genius of the Customs (or of the octroi'), and above all (listen, that one who, to say the truth, vras the great god of Rome), the Safety of the Roman People. It was a civil religion in the full force of the term. It was essentially the religion of the State. There was no priesthoad distinct from the functions of the State: the State wa//anMS, will be the last resistance which Christianity will encounter. The few rural Christians came to the church of the neighboring city. The Roman municipality thus enclosed the church. Among the cities, the civitas^ the grand city, was alone a veritable church, with an episcopos. The small city was in ecclesiastical dependence on the great city. This primacy of the great cities was an important fact. The great city once converted, the small city and the country followed the move- ment. The diocese was thus the unity of the conglomerate Christians. As for the ecclesiastical province, it corresponded to the Roman province : the divisions of worship of Rome and Augustus were the secret law which ruled all. Those cities which had a flamen, or archiereus, are those which later had an archbishop: the flamen civltatis became the bishop. After the third century, the flamen held the -rank in the city which was later that of the bishop in the diocese. Thus it hap- I pened that the ecclesiastical geography of a / country was very nearly the geography of the 1| same country in the Roman epoch. The picture of the bishops and the archbiiihops is that of the 114 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. ancient civitates, according to their line of subordi- nation. The empire was as the mould in which the new religion was formed. The interior frame- work, the outlines, the hierarchical divisions, were those of the empire. The ancient archives of the Roman administration, and the church-registers of the middle ages, and even those of our own day, are nearly the same thing. Thus the grand organisms which have become so essential a part of the moral and political life of European nations were all created by those naive and sincere Christians, whose faith has become inseparable from the moral culture of humanity. The Episcopate under Marcus Aurelius was fully ripe : the Papacy existed in germ. (Ecumenical councils were impossible. The Christian Empire alone could authorize great assemblies; but the provincial synod was used in the aifairs of the Montanists and of the Passover. The bishop of the capital of the province was allowed to pre- side without contest. ■ II. Rome was the place in which the grand idea of Catholicity was conceived. Rome became each day more and more the capital of Christianity, and replaced Jerusalem as the religious centre of humanity. Its church had a generally recognized precedence over others. All doubtful questions EOME AND CHRISTIANITY. 115 which disturbed the Christian conscience de- manded an arbitration, if not a solution, at Rome. This very defective reasoning was used, — that, since Christ had made Cephas the corner-stone of his church, this privilege ought to extend to his successors. By an unequalled stroke, the Church of Rome had succeeded in making itself at the same time the Church of Peter and the Church of Paul, a new mythical duality, replacing that of Romulus and Remus. The Bishop of Rome became the bishop of bishops, the one who admon- ished others. Rome proclaims its right (a dan- gerous right) to excommunicate those who do not entirely agree with her. The poor Artemonites (a sort of anticipated Arians) had much to com- plain of in the injustice of the fate which made them heretics; while, even until Victor, all the Church of Rome thought with them ; but they were not heard. From this point, the Church of Rome placed itself above history. The spirit which in 1870 could proclaim the infallibility of the Pope might see itself reflected at the end of the second century by certain clear indications. The writing made at Rome about 180, of which the Roman fragment known as the " Canon de Mur atari'' makes a part, shows us Rome already regulating the canon of the** churches, making the passion of Peter the basis of Catholicit}', and repulsing equally Montanism and Gnosticism. 116 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. Irenseris refutes all heresies by the faith of this church, " the grandest, the most ancient, the most illustrious, which possesses by continuous succes- sion the true tradition of the apostles Peter and Paul ; to which, on account of its primacy, all the rest of the Church should have recourse." One material cause contributed much to that pre-eminence which most of the churches recog- nized in the Church of Rome. This Church was extremely rich : its goods, skilfully administered, served to succor and propagate other churches. The heretics condemned to the mines received a subsidy from it : the common treasury was in a certain sense at Rome. The Sunday collection, practised continually in the Roman Church, was probably already established. A marvellous spirit of tradition animated this little communitj^, in which Judiea, Greece, and Latium seemed to have confounded their very different gifts, in view of a prodigious future. Wliile the Jewish Monotheism furnished the immovable base of the new forma- tion, while Greece continued through Gnosticism its work of free speculation, Rome attached itself with an astonishing readiness to the work of the government. All its authorities and artifices served well for that. Politics recoils not before fraud. Now, politics had already taken up its home in the most secret councils of the Church of Rome. Some veins of apocryphal literature, con- EOME AND CHRISTIANITY. 117 stantly refilled, sometimes under the name of the apostles, sometimes under that of apostolic person- ages, such, as Clement and Hermas, were received with confidence to the limits of the Christian world on account of the guaranty of Rome. This precedence of the Church of Rome con- tinued to increase up to the third century. The bishops of Rome showed a rare competency, evad- ing theological questions, but always in the first rank in matters of organization and administra- tion. The tradition of the Roman Church passes for the most ancient of all. Pope Cornelius took the lead in the matter of substitution. This was particularly seen in the dismissal of the bishops of Italy, and the appointment of their successors. Rome was also the central authority of the churches of Africa. This authority was already excessive, and showed itself above all in the affair of the Passover. This question was much more important than it appears to us. In the early times all Christians continued to make the Jewish Passover their principal feast. They celebrated this feast on the same day as the Jews, — on the 14th of Nisan, upon whatever day of the week it happened to fall. Persuaded, according to the account of all the old gospels, that Jesus, the evening before his death, had eaten the Passover with his disciples, they regarded such a solemnity as a commemoration of the last supper, 118 ENGLISH CONFEBENCES. rather than as a memorial of the resurrection. As Christianity became more and more separated from Judaism, such a manner of regarding it was very much questioned. At first a new tradition was promulgated, — that Jesus, being about to die, had not eaten the Passover, but had died the very day of the Jewish feast, thus constituting himself the Pascal Lamb. Moreover, this purely Jewish feast wounded the Christian conscience, especially in the churches of Paul. The great feast of the Christians, the resurrection of Jesus, occurred in any case the Sunday after the Jewish Passover. According to this idea, the feast was celebrated the Sunday which followed the Friday after the 14th of Nisan. In Pome this custom prevailed, at least since the pontificates of Xystus and Telesphorus (about 120). In Asia there were great divisions. The conservatives, like Polycarp, Meliton, and all the- ancient school, believed that the old Jewish cus- tom conformed to the first Gospels and to the usage of the apostles John and Philip. This was the object of the voyage to Rome which Polycarp undertook about the year 154, under the Pope Anicetus. The interview between Polycarp and Anicetus was very cordial. The discussion of certain points appears to have been sharp, but they understood each other. Polycarp was not able to persuade Anicetus to renounce a practice ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 119 which had been that of the bishops of Rome before his time. Anicetus, on the other hand, hesitated when Polycarp told him that he gov- erned himself according to the rule of John and the other apostles, with whom he had lived on a familiar footing. The two religious leaders re- mained in full communion with each other ; and Anicetus showed Polycarp an almost unprece- dented honor. In fact he desired that Polycarp, in the Assembly of the Faithful at Rome, should pronounce, in his stead and in his presence, the words of the eucharistic consecration. These ardent men were full of too lofty a sentiment to rest the unity of their souls upon the uniformity of rites and exterior observances. Later, unhappily, Rome took the stand of in- sisting upon its right. About the year 196 the question was more exciting than ever. The churches of Asia persisted in their old usage. Rome, always enthusiastic for unity, wished to coerce them. Upon the invitation of Pope Victor, convocations of bishops were held : a vast corre- spondence was exchanged. But the bishops of Asia, strong in the tradition of two apostles and of so many illustrious men, would not submit. The old Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, wrote in their name a very sharp letter to Victor and to the Church of Rome. The incredible design which Victoy conceived on account of the acrimony of 120 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. this letter proves that the Papacy was already born, and well born. He pretended to excommu- nicate, to separate from the Universal Church, the most illustrious province, because it had not bent its traditions before the Roman discipline. He published a decree by virtue of which Asia was placed under the ban of the Christian community. But the other bishops opposed this violent meas- ure, and recalled Victor to charity. St. Irenseus, in particular, who, through the necessity of the country in which he lived, had accepted for him- self and his churches in Gaul the Occidental cus- tom, could not support the thought that the mother-churches of Asia, to which he felt himself bound in the dejDths of his soul, should be sep- arated from the body of the Universal Church. He energetically persuaded Victor from the ex- communication of the churches which held to the traditions of their fathers, and recalled to him the examples of his more tolerant predecessors. This act of rare good sense prevented the schism of the Orient and the Occident from occurring in the second century. Irenseus wrote to the bishops on «all sides, and the question remained open to the churches of Asia. In one sense, the process which brought about the debate was of more importance than the debate itself. By reason of this difference, the Church was brought to a clearer idea of its or- ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 121 ganization. And first it was evident that the laity were no longer any thing. The bishops alone handled qnestions, and promulgated their opinions. The bishops collected together in pro- vincial synods, over which the bishop of the capi- tal of the province presided (the archbishop of the future), or, at times, the oldest bishop. The synodal assembly came out with a letter, which was sent to other churches. This was then like an attempt at federative organization, — an attempt to resolve questions by means of provincial as- semblies, presided over by bishops agreeing among themselves. Later, questions concerning the pre- siding over synods and the hierarchy of the Church sought solution in the documents of this great debate. Among all the churches, that of Rome appeared to have a particular initiative right. But that initiative was far from being synonymous with infallibility; for Eusebius de- clares that he read the letters in which the bish- ops severely blamed the conduct of Victor. III. Authority, gentlemen, loves authority. The authoritaires, as we say to-day, in the most diverse ranks, extend the hand to each other. Men as conservative as the leaders of the Church of Rome must be strongly tempted to favor public 122 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. force, the effect of which is often for good, as they must admit. This tendency had been mani- fest since the first days of Christianity. Jesus had laid down the rule. The image of the money was for him the supreme criterion of its lawful- ness, beyond which there was nothing to seek. In the height of the reign of Nero, St. Paul wrote, " Let every soul be subject unto the higher pow- ers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- nance of God." Some years later, Peter, or the person who wrote in his name the Epistle known as the First of Peter, expresses himself in an identical manner. Clement was an equally de- voted subject of the Roman Empire. In fine, one of the traits of St. Luke (accord- ing to my idea there was a bond between St. Luke and^he spirit of the church at Rome) is his respect of the imperial authority, and the precau- tions which he took not to injure it. The author of the Acts evaded every thing which would pre- sent the Romans as the enemies of Christ. On the contrary, he seeks to show, that, under many circumstances, they defended St. Paul and the Christians against the Jews. Never a disparaging word against the civil magistrates. Luke loved to show how the Roman functionaries were favor- able to the new religion, sometimes even embra- ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 123 cing it; and how Roman justice was equitable, and superior to the passions of the local powers. He insists upon the advantages which Paul owed to his title of Roman citizen. If he ends his recital with the arrival of Paul at Rome, it is perhaps in order not to recount the monstrosities of Nero. Without doubt, there were in other parts of the empire devoted Christians who sympathized en- tirely with the anger of the Jews, and dreamed only of the destruction of the idolatrous city which they identified with Babylon. Such were the authors of apocalypses and sibylline writings. But the faithful of the great churches were of quite a different way of thinking. In 70, the Church of Jerusalem, with a sentiment more Christian than patriotic, left the revolutionary city, and sought peace beyond the Jordan. In the revolt of Barkokebas, the division was still more pronounced. Not a single Christian was willing to take part in this attempt of blind de- spair. St. Justin in his Apologies never combats the principle of empire. He desired that the empire should examine the Christian doctrine, approve and countersign it in some way, and con- demn those who calumniated it. The most learned doctor of the time of Marcus Aurelius, Meliton, Bishop of Sardis, made still more decided ad- vances, and undertook to show that there is always in Christianity something to recommend it to a 124 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. true Roman. In his Treaty upon Truth, preserved in Syriac, Meliton expresses himself in the same way as a bishop of the fourth century, explaining to one Theodosius that his first duty is to estab- lish by his authority the triumph of truth (with- out telling us, alas ! by what sign one recognizes truth). Let the empire become Christian, and the persecuted of to-day would find that the inter- ference of the state in the domain of conscience is perfg'ctly legitimate. The system of the apologists, so warmly sus- tained by TertuUian, according to which the good emj^erors favored Christianity, and the bad ones persecuted it, was already full blown. " Born to- gether," said they, " Christianity and the empire have grown up together, and prospered together." Their interests, their sufferings, their fortunes, their future, — all was in common. The apolo- gists were advocates ; and advocates in all orders resemble each other. They have arguments for every situation and all tastes. Nearly a hundred and fifty years rolled on before these sweet and half sincere invitations were understood. But the only impression they made in the time of Marcus Aurelius upon the mind of one of the most en- lightened leaders of the Church was as a prog- nostic of the future. Christianity and the empire will become reconciled. They are made for each other. The shade of Meliton will tremble with ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. ' 125 joy when the empire becomes Christian, and the emperor takes in hand the cause of truth. Thus the Church already took more than one step toward empire. Through politeness, without doubt, but only as a very legitimate consequence of his principles, JNleliton does not allow that an emperor can give an unjust order. It was easy to believe that certain emperors had not been abso- lutely opposed to Christianity. It is pleasant to relate that Tiberius had proposed to place Jesus in the rank of the gods : it was the senate which objected. The decided preference of Christianity for power where it hopes for favors is already very transparent. It is slxown, contrary to all truth, that Hadrian and Antonine sought to repair the evil done by Nero and Domitian. Tertullian and his generation say the same thing of Marcus Aure- lius. Tertullian doubted, it is true, whether one could be at the same time a Caesar and a Chris- tian ; but this incompatibility a century later struck no one, and Constantine proved that Meli- ton of Sardis was a very sagacious man when he discerned so well — a century and a half in ad- vance, seeing through the proconsular persecutions — the possibility of a Christian Empire. The hatred of Christianity and of the empire was that of men who must one day love them. Under the Severi, the language of the Church re- mained plaintive and tender, as it had been under 126 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. tlie Antonines. The apologists affixed a species of legitimism, a pretension that the Church had always from the first saluted the emj)eror. "• There •«tvere never among us," said Tertullian, " partisans of Cassius, partisans of Albinus, partisans of Ni- ger." Foolish illusion ! Certainly the revolt of Avidius Cassius against Marcus Aurelius was a political crime, and the Christians did well not to be involved in it. As for Severus, Albinus, and Niger, it was success that decided between them ; and the Church had no other merit in attaching itself to Severus than that of seeing clearly who would the be strongest. This pretended worship of legitimacy was in truth only the worship of a fixed fact. The principle of St. Paul bore fruit : '' All power comes from God: he who holds the sword holds it from God for good." This correct attitude in regard to power clung to exterior necessities as much as to the principles which the Church had received from its founders. The Church was alread}^ a powerful association. It was essentially conservative. It needed order and legal guaranties. This was admirably shown in the act of Paul of Samos, Bishop of Antioch, under Aurelian. The Bishop of Antioch had become a powerful personage at this epoch. The goods of the Church were in his keeping : a crowd of men lived on his favors. Paul was a brilliant man, somewhat mystical, worldly, a great secular lord, EO]\rE AND CHRISTIANITY. 127 seeking to render Christianity acceptable to men of the world and authority. The Pietists, as might be expected, considered him heretical, "and dismissed him. Paul resisted, and refused to quit the Episcopal house. See into what the most ex- alted sects are led ! They were in possession, and who could decide a question of proprietorship and possession, if not the civil authority. Aurelian, about this time, passed on his way towards Antioch; and the question was referred to him. Here was seen tliis original spectacle of an infidel sovereign and persecutor deputed to decide which was the true bishop. Aurelian showed under these circumstances remarkably good sense for a layman. He examined the correspondence of the two bishops, took note as to which was in relation with Rome and Italy, and decided that he was the true Bishop of Antioch. Aurelian made some objections to the theologi- cal reasoning used on this occasion ; but one fact was evident : it was, that Christianity could not live without the empire, and that the empire, on the other hand, could not do better than adopt Christianity as its religion. The world desired a religion of congregations, of churches, or of syna- gogues and chapels, — a religion in which the es- sence of the worship should be re-union, associa- tion, and fraternity. Christianity answered to all these conditions. Its admirable worship, its well- organized clergy, assured its future. 128 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. Several times in the third century this histori- cal necessity fell short of realization. This is seen most plainly under those Syrian emperors whom their quality of foreigners and base origin placed beyond prejudices, and who, in spite of their vices, inaugurated a largeness of ideas and a toler- ance hitherto unknown. Those Syrian women of Emesa, — Julia Domna, Julia Msesa, Julia Mam- msea, Julia Soemia, — beautiful, intelligent, per- fectly fearless, and held by no tradition or social law, hesitated at nothing. They did what Roman women would never have dared. They entered the Senate, deliberated there, and governed the empire effectively, dreaming of Semiramis and Nitocris. The Roman worshijD seemed cold and insignificant to them. Not being bound by any family reasons, and their imagination being more in harmony with Christianity than with Italian Paganism, these women amused themselves with the recitals of the deed of the gods upon earth. Philostratus enchanted them with his "Life of Apollonius Tyane." Perhaps they had more than one secret affinity with Christianity. Certainly Heliogabalus was mad ; and yet his chimera of a central. Monotheistic worship, established at Rome, and absorbing all the other worships, proved that the narrow circle of ideas of the Antonines was broken. Alexander Severus went still farther. He was sympathetic with the Christians : not con- EOME AND CHRISTIANITY. 129 tent with according tliem liberty, he placed Jesus in his lararium with a touching eclecticism. Peace seemed to be made, not, as under Constantine, by the defection of one of the parties, but by a large reconciliation. The same thing was seen again under Philip the Arab, in the East under Zenobia, and generally under those emperors whose foreign origin placed them beyond Roman patriotism. The struof^rle redoubled in rage when those grand reformers, Diocletian and IVIaximian, ani- mated by the ancient spirit, believed themselves able to give new life for the empire by holding it to the narrow circle of Roman ideas. The Church triumphed through its martyrs. Roman pride was humbled. Constantine saw the interior strength of the Church. The population of Asia Minor, Syria, Thrace, and Macedonia, in a word the eastern part of the empire, was already more than half Christian. His mother, who had been a servant in an inn at Kicomedia, dazzled his eyes with the picture of an Eastern empire having its centre near Nicsea or Mcomedia, whose nerves should be the bishops and those multitudes of poor matriculates of the Church who controlled opinion in large cities. Constantine made the empire Christian. From the Occidental point of view, that was as- tonishing; for the Christians were still but a feeble minority in the West: in the Orient, the politics of Constantine was not only natural, but commanded. 130 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. Wonderful tiling ! The city of Rome received from that politics the heaviest blow it had ever suffered. Christianity was successful under Con- stantine ; but it was Oriental Christianity. In building a new Rome on the Bosphorus, Constan- tine made the old Rome the capital of the West alone. The cataclysms which followed, the in- vasions of the barbarians who spared Constan- tinople, and fell upon Rome with all their weight, reduced the ancient capital of the world to a limited and often humble condition. That eccle- siastical primacy of Rome which burst with so much effect upon the second and third centuries flourished no longer when the Orient had an ex- istence and a separate capital. Constantine was the real author of the schism of the Latin Church and the Church of the Orient. Rome took its revenge, principally by the serious- ness and depth of its spirit of organization. What men were St. Sylvester, St. Damasus, and Gregory the Great ! With an admirable courage they la- bored for the conversion of the barbarians, attached them to themselves, and made them their friends and subjects. The master-work of its politics was its alliance with the Carlovingian house, and the bold stroke by which it re-established in that house the empire which had been dead three hundred years. The Church of Rome rose again more powerful than ever, and became again the EOME AND CHRISTIANITY. 131 centre of all the grand affairs of tlie Occident during eight centuries. , Here my task is ended, gentlemen. You will confide to others the care of recounting the pro- digious history of the feudal church, its grandeurs and its abuses. Another still will show you the re-action acrainst these abuses, — Protestantism re- turning to the primitive idea of Christianity, and dividing, in its turn, the Latin Church. Each one of these grand historical pages will have its charm and its instruction. What I have recounted to you is full of grandeur. One is impartial only to the dead. Since Catholicism was an inimical power, a danger to the liberty of the human mind, it was right to oppose it. Our age is the age of history, because it is the age of doubt upon dog- matic matters: it is the age in which, without entering into the discussion of systems, an enlight- ened mind says to itself, '•' If, since right exists, and so many thousand symbols have made the preten- sion of presenting the complete truth, and if this pretension is always found vaio, is it indeed prob- able that I shall be more happy than so many others, and that the truth has awaited my coming here below in order to make its definite revela- tion ? " There is no definite revelation. It is the touching effort of man to render his destiny supportable. But its reward is not disdain, it is 132 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. gratitude. Whoever believes that he has some- thing to teach us concerning our destiny and our end shoukl be Avetcome. Recall the account in your old histories of the judicious and discreet words of the Saxon chief of Northumbria, in the assembly where the question was discussed con- cerning the adoption of the doctrine of the Roman missionaries. '' Perhaps thou rememberest, O king ! something which happens sometimes in the winter daj^s, when thou art seated at table with thy captains and thy men-at-arms ; that a good fire is lighted, that thy chamber is very warm, while it rains, snows, and blows without. There comes a little bird, which crosses the chamber on the wing, entering at one door, and going out by the other. The moment of this passage is full of sweetness for him : he no more feels the rain nor the storm. The bird is gone in an instant, and from the winter he passes again into the w^inter. Such seems to me the life of men on this earth, and its course of a moment, compared to the length of time which precedes and follows it. The time before birth and after death is gloomy. It tor- ments us hj its impossibility of comprehension : if, then, the new doctrine can teach us any thing a little certain, it deserves to be considered." Alas ! the Roman missionaries did not bear this minin^ura of certainty, with which the old ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. 133 Northumbrian chief, sage as he was, declared him- self content. Life always appears to us a short passage between two long nights. Ilappy those who can sleep in the empty noise of menaces which trouble at times the human conscience, and should no more than cradle it ! One thing is cer- tain : it is the paternal smile which at certain hours pierces nature, attesting that one eye re- gards us, and one heart follows us. Let us guard ourselves from all absolute formula which might become one day an obstacle to the free expansion of our spirits. There is no religious communion which does not still possess some gifts of life and pardon ; but it is on the condition ouly that an humble docility succeeds sympathetic adhesion. The comparison of the regmient, invented by Clement Romanus, and since so many tunes re- peated, ought to be utterly abandoned. You wished that I should recall to you the gran- deurs of Catholicism in its finest epoch. I thank you for it. Some associations of childhood, the most profound of all, attach me to Catholicism ; and, although I am separated from it, I am often tempted to say, as Job said (at least in our Latin version), "" Etiam si occlderet me^ m ipso sperabo.^^ This great Catholic family is too numerous not to have still a grand future. The strange excesses which it has supported during fifty years, this un- equalled pontificate of Pius IX., the most aston- 134 ENGLISH CONFEHENCES. isliing in history, cannot be terminated in any ordinary way. There will be thnnders and light- nings snch as accompany all the great jndgment- days of God. And will she have much to do in order to still remain acceptable to those who love her, — this old mother, who will not die so soon ? Perhaps she will find, in order to arrest the arms of her conqneror, which is modern reason, some magician's arts, some words such as Balder mur- mured. The Catholic Church is a woman : let us dis- trust the charming words of her agony. Let us imagine that she says to us, "My children, every thing here below is but a symbol and a dream. In this world there is only one little ray of light which pierces the darkness, and seems to be the reflection of a benevolent will. Come into my bosom, where one finds forgetfulness- For those who wish fetishes, 1 have them ; to those who wish works, I offer them ; for those who wish in- toxication of heart, I have the milk of my breast, which will make drunk ; for those who desire love, I have an abundance ; to those who crave irony, I pour out freely. Come all : the time of dog- matic sadness is past. I have music and incense for your funerals, flowers for your marriages, the joyous welcome of bells for your new-born ones." Ah, well ! if she should say that, our embarrass- ment would be extreme. But she never will. KOTklE AND CHRISTIANITY. 135 Your great and glorious England lias resolved, gentlemen, the practical part of the question. It is as easy to trace the line of conduct which the state and individuals should follow in the same matter, as it is impossible to arrive at a theoretic solution of the religious problem. All this may be conveyed in a single word, gentlemen, — lib- erty. What could be more simple ? Faith does not control itself. We believe what we believe true. No one is bound to believe what he thinks false, whether it is false or not. To deny liberty of thought is a sort of contradiction. From liberty of -thought to the right to express one's thought, there is but one step ; for right is the same for all. I have no right to prevent a person from express- ing his mind; but no one has the right to prevent me from expressing mine. Here is a theory which will appear very humble to the learned doctors who believe themselves to be in possession of absolute truth. We have a great advantage over them, gentlemen. They are obliged to be perse- cutors iii order to be consistent ; to us it is per- mitted to be tolerant, — tolerant for all, even for those, who, if they could, would not be so to us. Yes, let us even make this paradox: liberty is the" best weapon against the enemies of liberty. Some fanatics say to us with sincerity, " We take your liberty, because you owe it to us according to your principles ; but you shall not have ours, because 136 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. we do not owe it to you." All, well ! let us give them liberty all the same, and we do not imagine that in this exchange Ave shall be duped. No : liberty is the great dissolvent of all fanaticisms. In giving back liberty to my eneni}^, who would sup23ress me if he had the power, I shall really make him the worst gift. I oblige him to drink a strong beverage which shall turn his head, while I shall keep my own. Science supports the strange regime of liberty : fanaticism and superstition do not support it. We do more harm to dogmatism by treating it with an implacable sweetness than by persecuting it. By this sweetness we even in- culcate the principle which destroys all dogmatism at its root, by understanding that all metaphysical controversy is sterile, and that, for this reason, the truth for each one is as he believes it. The essen- tial, then, is not to silence dangerous teaching, and hush the discordant voice : the essential is to place the human mind in a state in which the mass can see the uselessness of its rage. When this spirit becomes the atmosphere of society, the fanatic can no longer live. He is conquered by a pervading gentleness. If, instead of conducting Polyeuctus to punishment, the Roman magistrate had dis- missed him smiling, and taken him amicably by the hand, Polyeuctus would not have continued : perhaps even in his old age he would have laughed at his escapade, and would have become a man of good sense. OONFEREE'OE, EoYAL Academy, London, April 16, 1880. MARCUS AURELIUS. CONFERENCE AT THE ROYAL INSTI- TUTION. MARCUS AUEELIUS. Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have accepted with great pleasure the mvitation to address you in this illustrious institution devoted to the noblest researches of science and of true philosophy. I have dreamed since my childhood of this island, where I have so many friends, and which I visit so tardily. I am a Briton of France. In our old books, England is always called the Island of the Saints ; and, in truth, all our saints of Armorican Brittany, those saints of doubtful orthodoxy, who, if they were again alive, would be more in harmony with us than with the Jesuits, came from the Island of Britain. I have seen in their chapel the trough of stone in which they crossed the sea. Of all races, the Britain race is that which has ever taken reli- gion the most seriously. Even when the progress of reflection has shown us that some articles among the catalogues of things which we have always regarded as fixed should be modified, we never 139 140 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. break away from the symbol under which we have from the first approved the ideah For our faith is not contained in obscure meta- physical propositions: it is in the affirmations of the heart. I have therefore chosen for my dis- course to you, not one of those subtleties which divide, but one of those themes, dear to the soul, which bring nearer, and reconcile. I shall speak to you of that book resplendent with the divine 'spirit, that manual of submissive life which the most godly of men has left us, — the Csesar, Mar- 3^"Aurelius Antonine. It is the glory of sover- eigns that the most irreproachable model of virtue may be found in their ranks, and that the most beautiful lessons of patience and of self-control may come from a condition which one naturally believes to be subject to all the seductions of pleas- ure and of vanity. ^ I. The inheritance of wisdom with a throne is always rare : I find in history but two striking examples of it, — in India, the succession of the three Mongol emperors, Baber, Hoomayoon, and Akbar ; at Rome, at the head of the greatest em- pire that ever existed, the two admirable reigns of Antonine the Pious and Marcus Aurelius. Of the last two, I consider Antonine the greatest. His goodness did not lead him into faults : he was not / V ■ M,'^ MARCUS AURELIUS. 141 tormented with that mternal trouble which dis- turbed without ceasing the heart of his adopted son. This strange mahad}^ this restless study of himself, this demon of scrupulousness, this fever of perfection, are signs of a less strong and distin- guished nature. As the finest thoughts are those which are not written, Antonine had in this respect also a superiorit}^ over Marcus Aurelius. But let us add that we should be ignorant of Antonine, if Marcus Aurelius had not transmitted to us that exquisite portrait of his adopted father, in which he seems to have applied himself, through humility, to painting the picture of a better man than him- self. It is he who has sketched in the first book of his " Thoughts," — that admirable background where the noble and pure forms of his father, mother, grandfather, and tutors, move in a celes- tial lis-ht. Thanks to Marcus Aurelius, we are able to understand how these old Roman fami- lies, who had seen the reign of the wicked em- perors, still retained honesty, dignity, justice, the civil, and, if I may dare to sa}^ it, the republican spirit. They lived there in admiratiun of Cato, of Brutus, of Thrasea, and of tlie great stoics whose souls had never bowed under tyranny. The reign of Domitian was abhorred by them. The sages who had endured it without subniission were honored as heroes. The accession of the 142 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. Antonines was only the coming to power of the society of sages, of whose just anger Tacitus has informed us, — a society of wise men formed by the league of all those who had revolted against the despotism of the first Csesars. The salutary principle of adoption made the imperial court of the second century a true cradle of virtue. The noble and learned Nerva, in estab- lishiDg this principle, assured the happiness of the human race during almost a hundred years, and gave to the world the best century of progress of which any knowledge has been preserved. The sovereignty thus possessed in common by a group of choice men who delegated it or shared it, ac- cording to the needs of the moment, lost a part of that attraction which renders it so dangerous. Men came to the throne without seeking it, but also without the right of birth, or in any sense the divine right: men came there understanding themselves, experienced, having been long pre- pared. The empire was a civil burden which each accepted in his turn, without dreaming of hastening the hour. Marcus Aurelius was made emperor so young, that the idea of ruling had scarcely occurred to him,, and had not for a mo- ment exercised its charm upon his mind. At eight years, when he was already prcesul of the Salian priests, Hadrian remarked this sad child, and loved him for his good-nature, his MARCUS AURELIUS. 143 docility, and his incapability of falsehood. At eighteen years the empire was assured to hhn. He awaited it patiently for twenty-two years. The evening when Antonine, feeling himself about to die, after having given to the tribune the watchword, JEquanimitas, commanded the golden statue of Fortune, which was always in the apartment of the emperor, to be borne into that of his adopted son, he experienced neither surprise nor joy. He had long been sated with all joys, without having tasted them : he had seen the absolute vanity of them by the profoundness of his phi- losophy. The great inconvenience of practical life, and that which renders it insupportable to a superior man, is, that, if one carries into it the principles of the ideal, talents become defects ; so that very often the accomplished man is less successful in it than one who is fitted by egotism or ordinary routine. Three or four times the virtue of Marcus Aurelius came near being his ruin. The first fault into which it led him was that of sharing the empire with Lucius Verus, to whom he was under no obligation. Verus was a frivolous and worthless man. Prodigies of goodness and deli- cacy were necessary in order to prevent his com- mitting disastrous follies. The wise emperor, earnest and industrious, took with him in his 144 ENGLISH CONFEEENCES. lectica (sedan) the senseless colleague whom he had given hhnself. He persisted in treating him seriously : he never once revolted against this sorry companionship. Like all well-bred men, Marcus Aurelius discommoded himself continu- ally : his manners came from a general habit of firmness and dignitj^ Souls of tliis kind, either from respect for human nature, or in order not to wound others, resign themselves to the appear- ance of seeing no evil. Their life is a perpetual dissimulation. According to some, he even deceived himself, since, in his intimate intercourse with the gods, on the borders of the Granicus, speaking of his unworthy wife, he thanked them for having given him a wife " so amiable, so affectionate, so pure." I have shown elsewhere that the patience, or, if one chooses, the weakness, on this point, of Marcus Aurelius, has been somewhat exaggerated. Faus- tina had faults : the greatest one was that she dis- liked the friends of her husband ; and, as these friends wrote history, she has paid the penalty before posterity. But a discriminating critic has no trouble in showing the exaggerations of the legend. Every thing indicates that Faustina at first found happiness and love in that villa at Lorium, or in that beautiful retreat at Lanuvium upon the highest points of the Alban mount, which Marcus Aurelius described to his tutor MAKCUS ATJRELITJS. 145 Fronto as an abode full of the purest joys. Then she became weary of too much wisdom. Let us tell all : the beautiful sentences of Marcus Aurelius, his austere virtue, his perpetual mel- ancholy, might have become tiresome to a young and capricious woman possessed of an ardent tem- perament and marvellous beauty. He understood it, suffered it, and spoke not. Faustina remained always his " very good and very faithful wife." No one succeeded, even after her death, in per- suading him to give up this pious lie. In a bas- relief which is still seen in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome, while Faustina is borne to heaven by a messenger of the gods, the excellent emperor regards her with a look full of love. It seems that at last he had deceived himself, and forgotten all. But through what a struggle he must have passed in order to do this! During long years, a sickness at heart slowly consumed him. The desperate effort which was the essence of his philosophy, t^s frenzy of renunciation, carried sometimes even to sophism, concealed an immense wound at the bottom. How necessary it must have been to bid adieu to happiness in order to reach such an excess ! No one will ever under- stand all that this poor wounded heart suffered, the bitterness which that pale face concealed, always calm, always smiling. It is true that the farewell to happiness is the beginning of wisdom 146 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. \ and the surest means of finding peace. There is \ nothing so sweet as the return of joy which fol- lows the renunciation of joy; nothing so keen, so profound, so charming, as the enchantment of the disenchanted. Some historians, more or less imbued with that policy which believes itself to be superior, because it is not suspected of any philosophy, have natu- rally sought to prove that so accomjDlished a man was a bad administrator and a mediocre sovereign. It appears, in fact, that Marcus Aurelius sinned more than once by too much lenity. But never was there a reign more fruitful in reforms and progress. The public charity founded by Nerva and Trajan was admirably developed by him. New schools were established for poor children; the superintendents of provisions became function- aries of the first rank, and were chosen with extreme care ; while the wants of poor young girls were cared for by the Institute of Jeunes Fausti- niennes. The principle that the state has duties in some degree paternal towards its members (a prin- ciple which should be remembered with gratitude, even when it has been dispensed with), — this prin- ciple, I say, was proclaimed for the first time in the world by Trajan and his successors. Neither the puerile pomp of Oriental kingdoms, founded on the baseness and stupidity of men, nor the pedantic pride of the kingdoms of the middle MAECUS AURELIUS. 147 ages, founded on an exaggerated sentiment for hereditary succession, and on a simple faith in the rights of blood, could give an idea of the utterly republican sovereignty of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonine, and Marcus Aurelius. Nothing of the prince by hereditary or divine right, nothing of the military chieftain : it was a sort of grand civil magistracy, without resembling a court in any way, or depriving the emperor of his private character. Marcus Aurelius, in par- ticular, was neither much nor little a king in the true sense of the word. His fortune was immense, but all employed for good : his aversion for " the Csesars," whom he considered as a species of Sar- danapali, magnificent, debauched, and cruel, burst out at each instant. The civility of his manners was extreme. He gave to the Senate all its an- cient importance : when he was at Rome, he never missed a session, and left his place only when the Consul had pronounced the formula, '''Nihil vos mormnar^ patres conscripti.'''' Almost every year of his reign he made war, and he made it well, although he found in it only ennui. His listless campaigns against the Quadi and Marcomanni were very well conducted: the disgust which he felt for them did not prevent his most conscien- tious attention to them. It was in the course of one of these expeditions, that, encamped on the banks of the Granicus, in the midst of the monoto 148 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. nous plains of Hungary, he wrote tlie most beau- tiful pages of the exquisite book which has re- vealed his whole soul to us. It is probable, that, when verj young, he kept a journal of his secret thoughts. He inscribed there the maxims to which he had recourse in order to fortify himself, the reminiscences of his favorite authors, the pas- sages of the moralists which appealed most to him, the principles which had sustained him through the day, sometimes the reproaches which his scru- pulous conscience addressed to him. " One seeks for himself solitary retreats, rustic cottages, sea- shore, or mountains : like others, thou lovest to dream of these good things. To what end, since it is permitted to thee to retire within thy soul each hour? Man has nowhere a more tranquil retreat, above all, if he has within himself those things, the contemplation of which will calm him. Learn, then, how to enjoy this retreat, and there renew thy strength. Let there be there those short fundamental maxims, which above all will give again serenity to thy soul, and restore thee to a state in which to support with resignation the world to which thou shouldest return." During the sad winters of the North, this conso- lation became still more necessary to him. He was nearly sixty years old: old age was prema- ture with him. One evening all the pictures of his pious youth returned to his remembrance, and MARCUS AURELIUS. 149 he passed some delicious hours in calculating how much he owed to each one of the virtuous beings who had surrounded him. "Examples of my grandfather Yerus, — sweet- ness of manners, unchangeable patience." " Qualities which one valued in my father, the souvenir which he has left me, — modesty, manly character." "To imitate the piety of my mother, her be- nevolence; to abstain, like her, not only from doing evil, but from conceiving the thought of it ; to lead her frugal life, which so little resembled the habitual luxury of the rich." Tlien appeared to him, in turn, Diagnotus, who had inspired him with a taste for philosophy, and made agreeable to his eyes the pallet, the covering made of a simple skin, and all the apparel of Hel- lenic discipline ; Junius Rusticus, who taught him to avoid all affectation of elegance in style, and loaned him the Conversations of Epictetus; ApoUonius of Ch'alcis, who realized the Stoic ideal of extreme firmness and perfect sweetness ; Sextus of Chaeroneia, so grave and so good ; Alexander the grammarian, who censured with such refined politeness ; Fronto, " who taught him the envy, duplicity, and hypocrisy of a tyrant, and the hard- ness which may exist in the heart of a patrician ; " his brother Severus, " who made him understand Thrasia, Helvidius, Cato, Brutus, who gave him 150 ENGLISH CONFEKENCES. the idea of what a free government is, where the rule is the natural equality of the citizens and the equality of their rights ; of a royalty which places before all else the respect for the liberty of the ctizens ; " and, rising above all others in his im- maculate grandeur, Antonine, his father by adop- tion, whose picture he traces for us with redoubled gratitude and love. " I thank the gods," said he finally, " for having given me good ancestors, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, and in my surroundings, in my relations, in my friends, men almost all filled with goodness. I never allowed myself to be wanting in deference towards them : from my natural disposition, I could sometimes have shown irreverence ; but the benevolence of the gods never permitted the occasion to present itself. I am also indebted to the gods, who pre- served pure the flower of my youth, for having been reared under the rule of a prince, and a father who strove to free my soul from all trace of pride, to make me understand that it is possible, while living in a palace, to dispense with guards, with splendid clothes, with torches, with statues, to teach me, in short, that a prince can almost contract his life within the limits of that of a simple, citizen, without, on that account, showing less nobility and vigor when he comes to be an emperor, and transact the affairs of state. The}^ gave me a brother, whose manners were a con- MAKCUS AURELTUS. 151 tinual exhortation to watch over myself, while his deference and attachment should have made the joy of my heart. "■ Thanks to the gods again, that I have made haste to raise those who have cared for my educa- tion, to the honors which they seemed to desire. They have enabled me to understand ApoUonius, Rusticus, Maximus, and have held out to me, sur- rounded with brilliant light, the picture of a life conformed to nature. I have fallen short of it in the end, it is true ; but it is my fault. If my body has long supported the rude life which I lead ; if, in spite of my frequent neglect of Rusticus, I have never overstepped the bounds, or done any thing of which I should repent ; if my mother, who died young, was able, nevertheless, to pass her last years near me ; if, whenever I have wished to suc- cor the poor or afflicted, money has never been wanting; if I have never needed to accept any thing from others ; if I have a wife of an amiable, affectionate, and pure character ; if I have found many capable men for the education of my chil- - dren ; if, at the beginning of my passion for phi- losophy, I did not become the prey of a sophist, — it is to the gods that I owe it all. Yes, so many blessings could only be the result of the aid of the gods and a happy fortune." This divine candor breathes in every page. No one has ever written more simply than did he for 152 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. the sole purpose of nnburdening his heart to God, his only witness. There is not a shadow of system in it. Marcus Aurelius, to speak exactly, had no philosophy : although he owed almost every thing ' to stoicism transformed by the Roman spirit, it is of no school. According to our idea, he has too ' little curiosity ; for he knows not all that a con- temporary of Ptolemy and Galen should know : he Jias some opinions on the system of the world, which were not up to the highest science of his time. But his moral thought, thus detached from all alliance with a system, reaches a singular height. The author of the book, "The Imita- tion," himself, although free from the quarrels of the schools, does not rise to this, for his manner of feeling is essentially Cliristian. Take away his Christian dogmas, and his book retains only a por- tion of its charm. The book of Marcus Aurelius, \ having no dogmatic base, preserves its freshness eternally. Every one, from the atheist, or he who believes himself one, to the man who is the most devoted co the especial creeds of each worship, can find in it some fruits of edificatiojc L_ It is the most purely human book which exists. It deals with no question of controversy. In theology, Marcus Aurelius floats between pure Deism, Polytheism interpreted in a physical sense according to the manner of the Stoics, and a sort of cosmic Pantheism. He holds not much more firmly to MARCUS AURELTUS. 153 one hypothesis than to the other, and he uses in- discrimmately the three vocabularies of the Deist, Polytheist, and Pantheist. His considerations have always two sides, according as God and the soul have, or have not, reality. It is the reason- ing which we do each hour ; for, if the most com- plete Materialism is right, we who have believed in truth and goodness shall be no more duped than others. If Idealism is right, we have been the true sages, and we have been wise in the only manner which becomes us, that is to say, with no selfish waiting, without having looked for a re- muneration. IT. We here touch a great secret of moral philoso- phy and religion. Marcus Aurelius has no specu- lative philosophy; his theology is utterly contra- dictory ; he has no idea founded upon the soul and immortality. How could he be so moral without the beliefs that are now regarded as the foundations of morality ? how so profoundly reli- gious, without having professed one of the dogmas of what is called natural religion? It is unpor- tant to make this inquiry. The doubts, which, to the view of speculative reason, hover above the truths of natural religion, are not, as Kant has admirably shown, accidental doubts, capable of being removed, belonging, as is 154 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. sometimes imagined, to certain conditions of the human mind. These doubts are inherent to the nature even of these truths, if one may say it with- out a paradox ; and, if these doubts were removed, the truths with which they quarrel would disap- pear at the same time. Let us suppose, in short, a direct, positive proof, evident to all, of future sufferings and rewards : where will be the merit of doing good? They would be but fools whom gayety of heart should hasten to damnation. A crowd of base souls would secure their salvation without concealment; they would, in a sense, force the divine power. Who does not see, that, in such a system, there is neither morality nor religion? In the moral and religious order it is indispensable to believe without demonstration. It deals "not with certainty : it acts by faith. This is what Deism forgets, with its habits of intemper- ate afQrmation. It forgets that creeds too precise concerning human destiny would destroy all moral merit. For us, they would say that we should do as did St. Louis when he was told of the miracu- lous wafer, — we should refuse to see it. What need have we of these brutal proofs which tram- mel our liberty ? We should fear to become assimilated to those speculators in virtue, or those vulgar cowards, who mingle with spiritual things the gross selfish- ness of practical life. In the days which followed MARCUS AURELIUS. 155 the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, this senti- ment was manifested in the most touching man- ner. The faithful in heart, the sensitive ones, preferred to believe without seeing. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have be- lieved," became the word for the time. Charming words ! Eternal symbol of tender and generous Idealism, which has a horror of touching with the hands that which should only be seen with the heart ! Our good Marcus Aurelius, on this point as on all others, was in advance of the ages. He never cared to argue with himself concerning God and the soul. As if he had read the " Criticism of Practical Reason," he saw clearly, that, where the ,Jnfimte_J^XOjQcerned, nO- formula is absolute ; and that, in such matters, one has no chance of seeing the truth during his life, without much self-contradiction. He distinctly separates moral Keauty from all theoretical theology. He allows duty to depend on no metaphysical opinion of the First Cause. The intimate union with an unseen god was never carried to a more unheard-of deli- cacy. " To offer to the government of God that which is withiu thee, — a strong being ripened by age, a friend of the public good, a Roman, an em- peror, a soldier at his post awaiting the signal of the trumpet, a man ready to quit life without regret." " There are many grains of incense des- 156 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. tined to the same altar : one falls sooner, the other later, in the fire ; but the difference is nothing." " Man should live according to nature during the few days that are given him on the earth, and, when the moment of leaving it comes, should submit himself sweetly, as an olive, which, in falling, blesses the tree which has produced it, and renders thanks to the branch which has borne it." " All that which thou arrangest is suited to me, O Cosmos ! Nothing of that which comes from thee is premature or backward to me. I find my fruit in that which thy seasons bear, O Nature I From thee comes all ; in thee is all j to thee all returns." " O man ! thou hast been a citizen in the great city: what matters it to thee to have remained three or five years? That which is governed by laws is unjust for no one. What is there, then, so sorrowful in being sent from the city, not by a tyrant, not by an unjust judge, but by the same nature which allowed thee to enter there? It is as if a comedian is dis- charged from the theatre by the same prsetor who_ engaged him. But wilt thou say, ' I have not played the five acts ; I have played but three ? ' Thou say est well ; but in life three acts suffice to complete the entire piece. . . . Go, then, con- tent, since he who dismisses thee is content." Is this to say that he never revolted against the strange fate which leaves man alone face to face MAECUS AUEELIUS. 157 with the needs of devotion, of sacrifice, of hero- ism, and nature with its transcendent immorality, its supreme disdain for virtue? No. Once at least the absurdity, the colossal iniquity, of death, strikes him. But soon his temperament, com- pletely mortified, resumes its power, and he be- comes calm. '' How happens it that the gods, who have ordered all things so well, and with so much love for men, should have forgotten one thing only; that is, that men of tried virtue, who during their lives have had a sort of interchange of relations with divinity, who have made them- selves loved by it on account of their pious acts and their sacrifices, live not after death, but may be extinguished forever ? "Since it is so, be sure, that, if it should be otherwise, they (the gods) would not have failed ; for, if it had been just, it would have been pos- sible ; if it had been suitable to nature, nature would have permitted it. Consequently, when it is not thus, strengthen thyself in this con- sideration, that it was not necessary that it should be thus. Thou thyself seest plainly that to make such a demand is to dispute his right with God. Now, we would not thus contend with the gods if they were not absolutely good and absolutely just: if they are so, they have allowed nothing to make a part of the order of the world which is contrary to justice and right." 158 ENGLISH CONFERENCES. AH ! is it too much resignation, ladies and gentlemen ? If it is veritably thus, we have the right to complain. To say, that, if this world has not its counterpart, the man who is sacrificed to truth or right ought to leave it content, and absolve the gods, — that is too naive. No, he has a right to blaspheme them. For, in short, why has his credulity been thus abused ? Why should he have been endowed with deceitful instincts, of which he has been the honest dupe ? Wherefore is this premium given to the frivolous or wicked man? Is it, then, he who is not deceived who is the wise man? Then cursed be the gods who so adjudge their preferences ! I desire that the future may be an enigma ; but, if there is no future, then this world is a frightful ambuscade. Take notice that our wish is not that of the vulgar clown. We wish not to see the chastise- ment of the culpable, nor to meddle with the interests of our virtue. Our wish has no selfish- ness : it is simply to be, to remain in accord with light, to continue the thought we have begun, to know more of it, to enjoy some day that truth which Ave seek with so much labor, to see the triumph of the good which we have loved. Noth- ing is more legitimate. The worthy emperor, moreover, was also sensible of it : " What ! the light of a lamp burns until the moment in which it is extinguished, and loses nothing of its bril- MAECUS AURELTUS. 159 liancy, and the truth, justice, temperance, which are in thee shall be extinguished with thee I " All his life was passed in this noble hesitation. If he sinned, it was through t6o much piety. Less resigned, he would have been more just; for surely to demand that there should be an inti- mate and sympathetic witness of the struggles which we endure for goodness and truth is not to ask too much. It is possible, also, that if liis philosophy had been less exclusively moral, if it had implied a more curious study of history and of the universe, it would have escaped a certain excessive rigor. Like the ascetic Christians, Marcus Aurelius some- times carried renunciation to dryness and subtlety. One feels that this calmness, which never belies itself, is obtained through an immense effort. Certainly, evil had never an attraction for him ; he had no passion to struggle against. " Whatever one may do or say," writes he, " it is necessary that I should be a good man; as the emerald might say, ' Whatever one may say or do, I must remain an emerald, and retain my color.' " But, ii order to hold one's self always upon the icy sum^ mit of stoicism, it is necessary to do cruel violenc^ to nature, and to cut away from it more than on( noble element. This perpetual repetition of the! !