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WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY
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THE APOLOGY OF TERTULLIAN
AND
THE MEDITATIONS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
THE
APOLOGY OF TERTULLIAN
translated and Annotated hy WM. REEVE, A.M. ^^*^ ^
SOMETIME VICAR OF CRANFORD, MIDDLESEX
AND THE
MEDITATIONS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
translated by JEREMY COLLIER, A.M.
LONDON
GRIFFITH FARRAN & CO.
NEWBERY HOUSE, 39 CHARING CROSS ROAD
5T
Tke Rights of Translation and of Reproduction are Reserved^
CONTENTS.
i6'
PAGK BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES, ...... vii
PREFACE TO M. AURELIUS'S MEDITATIONS, . . . . xiii
CHAP.
I. THAT THE GENTILES' HATRED TO THE CHRISTIANS IS NOTORIOUSLY
UNJUST, ........ X
n. CONCERNING THE MALICE AND PERVERSENESS OF THE JUDGES, IN
THE WAY OF CONDEMNING OR ABSOLVING THE CHRISTIANS, . 6
in. CONCERNING THE ODIOUS TITLE OF CHRISTIAN, . . .II
IV. THAT HUMAN LAWS MAY ERR, AND THEREFORE MAY BE MENDED, 13
V. THAT THE WISEST OF THE EMPERORS HAVE BEEN PROTECTORS OF
THE CHRISTIANS, .......
VI. THAT THE ROMANS ARE MIGHTY PRAISERS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THEIR RELIGION, AND YET ADMIT OF NOVELTIES INTO IT EVERY DAY, ......... 20
VII. THAT COMMON FAME IS BUT AN ILL EVIDENCE, . . .24
VIII. THAT THE CRIMES CHARGED UPON THE CHRISTIANS ARE NEITHER
POSSIBLE NOR PROBABLE, ...... 27
IX. THAT THE PAGANS ARE GUILTY BOTH IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC
OF THE SAME CRIMES THEY CHARGE UPON CHRISTIANS, . 30
X. THAT THE GODS OF THE GENTILES ARE NO GODS, . . -35
XL THAT THE FANCY OF MAKING GODS OF DEAD MEN IS A VERY
FOOLISH FANCY, ....... 38
XII. CONCERNING THE VANITY OF IMAGE-WORSHIP, . . . 40
XIII. CONCERNING THE IRREVERENCE OF THE HEATHEN TO THEIR GODS, 42
XIV. THAT THE HEATHENS DO BUT MOCK THEIR GODS IN OFFERING THE
REFUSE AND THE VILEST PARTS OF THE SACRIFICE, . . 45
XV. CONCERNING THE SHAMEFUL REPRESENTATION OF THE GODS UPON
THE STAGE AND AMPHITHEATRE, ..... 47
XVL CONCERNING THE ASS'S HEAD, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE VANITIES
CHARGED UPON THE CHRISTIANS, . . . . .49
XVII. CONCERNING THE GOD OF CHRISTIANS, . . . -53
XVIIL CONCERNING THE SEPTUAGINT, OR THE WRITINGS OF THE PROPHETS TRANSLATED INTO GREEK BY THE ENDEAVOURS OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS, . . ' . • • • • SS
XIX. CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITY OF THE WRITINGS OF THE PROPHETS, 57
XX. THAT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES IN HOLY SCRIP- TURES PROVE THEM TO BE OF AUTHORITY DIVINE, . . 59 XXL CONCERNING THE BIRTH AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST, . 61 XXII. CONCERNING DEMONS, THEIR POWER, AND THEIR WAYS OF OPERA- TION, ......... 69
VI Contents,
CHAP. PAGE
XXIII. CONCERNING THE SUBJECTION OF EVIL SPIRITS TO THE COMMAND
OF CHRISTIANS, ....... 74
XXIV. THAT THE ROMANS ARE THE CRIMINALS IN POINT OF RELIGION,
AND NOT THE CHRISTIANS, ..... 80
XXV. THAT THE ROMAN GRANDEUR IS NOT OWING TO THE ROMAN
RELIGION, ........ 82
XXVI. THAT KINGDOMS ARE ONLY AT HIS DISPOSE WHO IS THE TRUE
GOD, ......... 00
XXVII. THAT THE GENTILES ARE SET AGAINST CHRISTIANS BY THE IN- STIGATION OF EVIL SPIRITS, ..... 87
XXVIII. THAT THE ROMANS HAVE THEIR EMPERORS IN GREATER VENERA- TION THAN THEIR GODS, ...... 89
XXIX. THAT THE EMPERORS MAINTAIN THE GODS RATHER THAN THE
GODS THE EMPERORS, ...... 90
XXX. CONCERNING THE GOD OF CHRISTIANS, BY WHOM KINGS REIGN, AND THE PRAYERS OF CHRISTIANS FOR THE LIFE OF THE EMPERORS, . . . . . . . .91
XXXI. THAT CHRISTIANS ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE THEIR ENEMIES, . 94
XXXIL CONCERNING ANOTHER REASON OF THE CHRISTIANS IN PRAYING
FOR THE EMPERORS, ...... 95
XXXIII. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN LOYALTY, AND THEIR REFUS- ING TO CALL THE EMPEROR BY THE TITLE OF GOD, . . 96
' XXXIV. CONCERNING AUGUSTUS CiESAR, . . . . . 98-
XXXV. CONCERNING THE DIFFERENT OBSERVATION OF PUBLIC FESTIVALS
BETWEEN THE CHRISTIANS AND THE HEATHENS, . . 99^
XXXVL CONCERNING THE CHRISTIAN DUTY OF LOVING ENEMIES, . . I02
XXXVII. A CONTINUATION OF THE UNLIMITED LOVE OF CHRISTIANS, . 103
XXXVIIL THAT CHRISTIANS CAN NEVER BE JUSTLY SUSPECTED OF DESIGNS
AGAINST THE STATE, ...... I06 .-
XXXIX. CONCERNING THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANS AND THEIR EMPLOY- MENT AND WAYS OF LIVING, ..... 107
XL. THAT THE CAUSES OF PUBLIC EVILS ARE MOST MALICIOUSLY
THROWN UPON THE CHRISTIANS, . . . . . II4
XLI. CONCERNING THE CAUSE AND REASON OF PUBLIC CALAMITIES, . I16 XLII. THAT THE CHRISTIANS ARE A VERY USEFUL SORT OF PEOPLE, . I18 XLIII. A FURTHER VINDICATION OF THE USEFULNESS OF CHRISTIANS
TO THE PUBLIC, ....... I20
XLIV. THAT THE CHRISTIANS ARE CONDEMNED MERELY UPON THE
ACCOUNT OF THEIR NAME, ..... 121
XLV. CONCERNING ONE GREAT REASON FOR THE INNOCENCE OF
CHRISTIANS ABOVE THAT OF ALL OTHER PEOPLE, . . 122
XLVI. THAT CHRISTIANS HAVE A BETTER RIGHT TO A TOLERATION
THAN PHILOSOPHERS, ...... I24
XLVII. THAT THE HEATHEN POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS STOLE MANY OF
THEIR NOTIONS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, . . . 129
XLVIII. CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY, . . . 135
XLIX. THAT THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OUGHT NOT TO BE PERSECUTED,
BECAUSE THE WORLD CANNOT BE WELL WITHOUT IT, . I39
L. THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH, ...... 14O
THE CONVERSATION OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS ANTONIUS : A
DISCOURSE WITH HIMSELF, .... - 145
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
Within the present volume we have given two of the most interesting and important works of the days of early Christianity. The one is the great Apology of the most eloquent of the early Fathers of the Church — " the father of Latin Christianity," as Dean Milman calls him; the other is the ethical treatise of the pure- souled Stoic Emperor, the first great general persecutor of the Christian Church. A few prefatory words are needed upon each, but the reader is referred to the previous volume of this series — Bishop Kaye's account of Tertullian — for fuller details about him.
The life of Tertullian is only known to us through his writings. He was born at Carthage about a.d. i6o, and died about 240; but the precise dates are uncertain. He was trained as a lawyer, but was converted to Christianity in 192, and became a priest. He was married, but childless. It was probably about ten years after his conversion that he became a Montanist, moved, as Bishop Kaye believes, by the laxity of the clergy that he saw around him, and the longing to find a stricter life. The same learned writer shows that his Montanist writings are among the most valuable, simply because, in his unsparing attacks on what he held to be faulty in the practices and discipline of the Church, he unconsciously preserves for our information what these were.
The work before us is the greatest of Tertullian's writings. The deeply religious heathen Emperor, M. Aurelius, died in 180, and was succeeded by his unworthy son, Commodus. He was followed by Septimius Severus, the first of the " Barrack Emperors," in other words, of those military adventurers who held the Roman Empire down to the days of Dioclesian, following one another rapidly, and, with hardly a single exception, dying violent deaths. The golden age of the Empire was gone, it was the iron age now\ But the Christian Church, after a period of silent growth, after worship in
TU
viii Biographical Notices,
caves and catacombs, was now a recognised power in the Empire. It had a new philosophy to offer men, and a nascent Hterature; it boldly put forth its claims to obedience, and made converts among the rich and learned. M. Aurelius had done his utmost to crush it; Commodus had not done so, some of his courtiers were Christians, and persuaded him to leave their co-religionists alone. And Sept. Severus pursued in the main the same policy.
But the African Church was an exception to the general immunity. Much depended everywhere on the disposition of the several pro- consuls towards the faith. There had been laws in existence against it ever since the days of Nero, and it depended altogether on the various governors whether these laws should stand in abey- ance or be put in vigorous exercise. There were by this time many thousands of believers in Africa ; and now heathen fanaticism, which had been long smouldering, broke out. The priestesses of the " Dea Coelestis " had raised seditious mobs-, and allied heathens and Jews had destroyed Christian churches, and rifled and desecrated their burial-places. Caricatures of Christ were paraded through the streets, and the usual ridiculous charges of incest and cannibalism were brought against his disciples. It was all this which produced Tertullian's Apology.
He first addresses himself (chaps, i.-vi.) to this general argument, that the rulers at Carthage are persecuting a body of men, who are undeserving of condemnation. Trajan's counsel to Pliny, that Christians were not to be sought out, but if brought before him were to be punished, as the apologist rightly maintains, was illogical and confused. But the present action of the governing power was yet worse ; it was persecuting a religion which confessedly was a strong agent in the reformation of popular morals. He then goes on to state what are the charges brought against Christians, and to assert their falsity (vii.-ix.), then takes them in detail. First, "sacrilege" and "treason." He meets the first by declaring that the gods of the heathen are no gods (x.-xv.), and then by demon- strating that Christians have a devout worship of their own, and profound reverence for Him whom they recognise as their God, and in doing this he refutes certain calumnies which have been brought against this worship (xvi.-xxiii.). These chapters are full of information concerning early Church customs. He goes on to say that it is the heathens and not the Christians who are really the impious, and that it is not true that Christians are enemies of the Commonwealth, seeing that the greatness of Rome owes nothing to
Biographical Notices. ix
its heathen faith. And he retorts upon them the charge of impiety, by declaring that they hold Caesar in greater dread than they do their gods, whilst the Christians pray to their God for Caesar's welfare, though they will not pay that Caesar lying honour. Then our apologist, dealing with details, argues passionately and grandly on behalf of a body of men who do not take vengeance for the wrongs that they are suffering. It has been many a time within their power to have raised the whirlwind against the government, but they have refrained ; but they are strong in the knowledge of their coming victory. And he demands that therefore they should at once be admitted amongst the licensed "sects." Gathering strength as he is carried along on the stream of his majestic eloquence, and with the consciousness that he is gaining the better of his opponents at every turn, he breaks out into a magnificent peroration, partly of the deepest feeling, partly of withering scorn, and ends in a climax of impassioned and confident appeal.
The author of the present translation, as I learn from a letter sent to me by the present Rector, was Rector of Cranford from 1694 to 1726. '. .'-*e\; 172-4, ,. i|urr i$?
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was Emperor of Rome from A.D. 1 61-180, was the noblest and purest of all who wore the purple. He came of a noble race, his two grandfathers had both been consuls. He was a favourite with the Emperor Hadrian from in- fancy j and whereas his father's surname was Verus, Hadrian familiarly called the child "Verissimus" from his disposition; and further, when he adopted Antoninus Pius as his heir, he made it a condition that he in turn should adopt the father of the young Aurelius. The boy's father dying early, his education was carried on by his grandfather, who assiduously sought out the bes teachers that were to be found ; and thus it was that M. Aurelius w is trained as a Stoic. As he grew up he justified the expectations that were formed of him, attending strictly to all duties committed to him, and never yielding to the temptation to subordinate them to the studies that he loved. Antoninus Pius, on becoming Emperor, A.D. 138, bestowed his daughter upon him, and on his death was succeeded by him, at the urgent request of the Senate, for Aurelius was unwilling.
X Biographical Notices.
It is strange to see how this gentle and thoughtful man became the most systematic persecutor which the Church had ever yet had. He had acquiesced in the toleration excerised by his two pre- decessors, but now he went to work on system to destroy the Christian faith. Under him were martyred Polycarp, Blandina, Pothinus, and the other martyrs of Lyons, and Justin Martyr. The Stoic philo- sophy under which he was nurtured, and of the better aspect of which he is the noblest example, had many points of union with Christianity (see Jerome, Comm. on Isaiah^ cxi.), but there were also strong divergences. Primarily, there was the conviction of the Stoic that man has in himself the power of becoming virtuous, to which the Christian opposed the declaration, Without Christ we can do nothing. And the practical outcome of the two philosophies proved the Christian in the right. The Stoic strove to free him- self from the general debasement, and was blessed, as every man is blessed from above who strives honestly. But he saw himself surpassed in morality and fortitude by the Christian, who succeeded where he failed. It is remarkable to notice, in the histories both of Greece and Rome, that no greatness was reached, no signal services to the State were rendered, by any disciple of the Stoic creed. Athens produced many great men, Sparta none. And as the Stoic saw himself distanced in that which he had made a sincere, though futile endeavour to win, he became embittered, and hated the Christians as his rivals. The very tranquillity with which Aurelius trained himself to regard the sorrow and pain of life, was irritated by the Christian eagerness to convert the world to the faith and the promises of the world to come. What he believed only possible to the philosopher, they declared to be offered to all ; theirs was a gospel to the poor and unlettered, and it was an offence to him. Then the unworthiness of some of its professors then, as now, caused the name of Christ to be blasphemed, and the very virtue of Aurelius embittered him the more against those who, holding aloft a high standard, were living unholy lives. Moreover, the time was one of great physical calamities. Inundations, earth- quakes, famine, pestilence afflicted the empire to a degree never before known. Added to these troubles, there were wars all along the frontier ; the Britons were in insurrection, the Parthians in- vaded the Eastern border, as did the Germans the regions of the Rhine and Danube. The Epicurean atheism, which had passed muster as the fashionable religion, was kindled by these calamities into furious fanaticism ; it was the Christian superstition which had roused the wrath of the gods. It is noticeable that the year i66, which was known as the "annus calamitosus," was the vear of the
Biographical Notices, xi
persecution under which Justin suffered. And when the Christians under persecution went fearlessly to death rather than sacrifice to the gods, when they spoke of these gods with contumely, when some in their untempered zeal exulted in the' signs of the times as indicating the judgments of God upon heathenism, all this inflamed their persecutors to yet wilder frenzy.
But, setting aside the judicial blindness of Aurelius in this matter, we can recognise fully his patriotism, his singleness of purpose. " Humanly speaking," says our own Jeremy Collier, " nothing less than such a person as he could have preserved the State in this tempestuous and distressed time."
It was in the year 174 that the Emperor and his army were saved as by a miracle from perishing of thirst. He was engaged in warfare against the Quadi, north of the Danube. Under the burn- ing sun, with no water discoverable, the army was ready to die. Suddenly a great storm arose. The rain came down in torrents, and not only were the agonies of the Romans removed, but the lightning flashes terrified their enemies, who turned and fled. To this day it is matter of controversy whether the assertions of Chris- tian writers are borne out by fact, that the deliverance was owing to the Christian prayers. " God," so the Captain of the Guards is said to have told the Emperor in the midst of the extremity, " never denied anything to the Christians, and he had a great number of them in one of his legions." Therefore the Emperor had them summoned before him, and desired them to pray to their God for him. And they did so, and were heard. Tertullian in his Apology speaks of a letter of the Emperor which he has seen which bears out this statement, and there is no reason to question his veracity, though the letter is not forthcoming among the Emperor's writings. There is one which is sometimes printed after Justin Martyr's Apology, but it is now certainly pronounced to be not genuine. We must leave the question unsolved.
The Emperor was not suff'ered to enjoy the peace and meditation which he desired ; for his fate was to make war to the very end. He died at Vienna in the midst of a campaign against the Germans.
As we have adopted Collier's translation, it seems only fair that we should give his estimate of the Author in his Preface.
The reader may remember that Collier was a conspicuous divine
xii Biographical Notices,
of the time of the later Stuarts. His first Church preferment was the Hving of Ampton, Suffolk, which he resigned to hold the Preachership at Gray's Inn. At the Revolution of 1688 he was deprived as a non-juror, and in i'696 was outlawed for giving Church absolution to two of the plotters against King William. He did not, however, trouble himself about it, but resided in London, and supported himself by his literary labours. Of these the greatest is his Church History. 'The work before us belongs to the same period of his life. He died in 1726. W. B.
PREFACE TO M. AURELIUS'S MEDITATIONS.
BY THE TRANSLATOR.
A WORD or two of preface concerning the Emperor's principles and person may not be amiss.
I. As to the Stoics, notwithstanding their advantage of other sects, they were not without their mistakes. For instance, they believed a plurality of gods, that the soul was a part of the deity, and that their wise man might dispose of himself, and make his life as short as he pleased. These, with some other less material errors, I have marked in the margin.
It is true, it is objected against the Stoics, that they allowed no degrees in ill practice, but made all faults equal; that they held compassion an infirmity, and would not suffer it in the character of an improved philosopher; that the happiness of a wise man depended purely upon himself, and that there was no necessity of addressing a superior being.
To answer this charge, Monsieur D'Acier observes that Zeno's opinion (the founder of the sect) was fair and defensible in these points : that he was misunderstood by some of his scholars, and unreasonably strained up to the letter. But there is no need to insist any further upon justifying, for I do not remember our author is at all concerned in this matter.
To proceed, therefore, to the Emperor with reference to his book.
His thoughts, then, are noble and uncommon, and his logic very true and exact. He generally flies his game home, seldom leaves his argument till he brings it to a demonstration, and has pursued it to its first principles. Seneca has a difi'erent manner, and moves more by start and sally. He flashes a hint in your face and disappears, and leaves you to carry on the reasoning and master
xm
xiv Preface to M. Aureliuss Meditations.
the subject as well as you can. This looks like an apparition of philosophy, and is sometimes more surprising than instructive. (Though this remark has no reference to the excellent English abstract, which is differently managed from the original.) But as for the Emperor, he charges through and through, and no difficulty can stand before him. His reason is no less irresistible than his arms, and he loves to conquer in his closet as well as in the field. There is a peculiar air of greatness and gravity in his discourses. He seems to think up to his station, and writes with that magnificence of notion, as if he believed himself obliged to exceed other authors, as much in the vigour of his mind as in the lustre of his fortune. i
He appears to have thought to the bottom of his argument, and to have had a comprehensive view of the world, of the interest and relations of society. Hence it is that his morality is so particularly serviceable and convincing, that his sentences are so weighty, and his reasoning so very just. By thus digging to the foundation, he is in a condition to assign everything its true grounds, and set every duty upon its proper basis. Further, the great probity of this prince, his fortitude, and the nobleness of his mind, gave freedom and spirit to his thoughts, and made him exert for the service of principle and truth. Besides, he seems to have been born with a prerogative of nature, blessed with a superior genius, and made up of richer materials for sense and virtue, than other people. These advantages, together with an improved education, raised him to that pitch of majesty and distinction, and made his pen almost equal to his sceptre.
How does he despise the pursuits of fame and the glittering objects of ambition ! And that in no empty rhodomontades and tumour of expression. No, he pulls off the paint, discovers the inward coarseness, and brings such evidence of the insignificancy of these things, that he perfectly commands the reader's assent, and forces him into his own opinion. Now an emperor's argument against a fondness for pleasure or power comes better recommended than from a private philosopher ; for in this case a man speaks from experiment, and disputes against the privilege of his condition. Here the usual pretence of envy or ignorance is out of doors, and nothing but dint of reason could drive him upon so unacceptable a conclusion.
The generosity of his principles are no less remarkable. He
Preface to M. Aureliuss Meditations. xv
shows the iniquity of a selfish temper ; that ill-nature is a contra- diction to the laws of Providence and the interest of mankind, a punishment no less than a fault to those that have it. All the great offices of humanity, justice, and acquiescence, are enforced with unusual advantage ; his turns of reason being often as surprising for their strength as for their novelty. In short, abating for some of the errors above mentioned, he seems to have drawn up an admirable scheme of natural religion; and which is still more commendable, he practised his maxims upon himself, and made his life a transcript of his doctrine. He was so great a lover of truth and clear dealing, that he would rather have lost his empire than strained a principle. Indeed, falsehood and legerdemain sink the character of a prince, and make him look like a royal juggler. Public character and common good, as they call it, are no sufficient defence in such cases. Sixtus the Fifth, who must be allowed a great man, used to say, that it was short thinking which made conscience impracticable, and politics fall foul upon morals; that if statesmen were well qualified and worked their heads, there would be no occasion for latitude and insincerity. Reason without doubt, well managed, would fence against inconvenience much better than craft. In earnest, it would be a very hard case, and a great reflection upon Providence, if men could not be happy without breaking their faith and blemishing their honour. How- ever, to say nothing more, some people are too lazy to be honest. But this custom apart, there is no necessity to make reasons of State incompatible with the laws of justice ; our Emperor is a noble instance to the contrary. For never were the functions of peace and war better performed, the subjects more easy, and the empire more flourishing than under this prince ; and yet it was none of his way to indulge his politics, and warp in the least from his notions. It was his constant practice as well as his rule — if it is not just, never do it ; if it is not truth, never speak it.
As to the Emperor's way of writing, if any one objects against his sometimes coming over again with the same thing, he may please to consider that this prince did not take philosophy for mere diversion and amusement. Instruction was his main design. Upon this view it was not improper to repeat the stroke, to make the impression go deeper. The prejudices the Emperor disputes against are inveterate, and not to be removed without difficulty. And if one dose will not cure the patient, why should not the bill be made up again ? If this rule holds in medicine, why not in morality? Are not people's understandings as valuable as their
xvi Preface to M. Atirelmss Meditations.
health ? And is not a disease in the passions much worse than one in the constitution ? And, after all, when the matter is closely examined, the ground of the objection will in a great measure vanish. For when the Emperor does come over with an old thing, it is his custom to improve upon it. He repeats, but it is for advantage to the argument, and his latter thoughts are generally supplemental to the former. He either extends the notion or re- inforces the proof, or gives a new turn of strength and beauty to the expression. And thus the reader is always a gainer by the bargain.
In translating the author, I have made use of the quarto edition published in 1697. In which, besides Gataker's annotations, I had the assistance of Monsieur D'Acier's remarks, turned into Latin by Dr. Stanhope. As for his French translation, I never saw it till some time after my own was finished, and part of it printed off. However, one thing I shall observe, which is the only use I have made of Monsieur D'Acier's translation. It is his remark upon Sect. 6, Book i., where, citing Pollux, he tells us that the Romans, in imitation of the Greeks, used to fight quails for divination as well as diversion, and had a fancy their own fortunes might be prognosticated by the success of the battle. This piece of supersti- tion, I confess, was more than I was aware of, and yet, by the context, the Emperor seems to have had it in his view.
One word more of the Emperor's style, and I have done. Now his way of expressing himself is extraordinarily brief. His words are sometimes over-burdened with thought, and have almost more sense than they can carry. Indeed, it was part of his character to write in this concise manner, for neither the Emperor nor the Stoic would allow of any length of expression. Besides, he wrote chiefly for himself, which makes him still more sparing in his language. He sometimes draws in little, writes his meaning as it were in shorthand, and does not beat out his notions to their full propor- tion. To which I may add, that sometimes the height of his subject carries him almost out of sight; for there is an obscurity in things as well as in language. For these reasons it is no wonder if we find his sense now and then a little perplexed. And therefore, where I was afraid the reason might possibly be at a loss, I have endeavoured to direct him right by a note in the margin. I have likewise in some few places ventured to throw in a word or two, to make the text more intelligible. But when this liberty was taken, I have been always careful to speak the Emperor's mind, and keep close to the meaning of the original.
TERTULLIAN'S^ APOLOGY
ON BEHALF OF THE CHRISTIANS.
CHAPTER I.
THAT THE GENTILES' HATRED TO THE CHRISTIANS IS NOTORIOUSLY
UNJUST.
If you, the guardians of the Roman empire,^ presiding in the very eye of the city, for the administration of pubUc justice; if you must not examine the Christian cause, and give it a fair hearing in open court ; if the Christian cause is the only cause which your lordships either fear or blush to be concerned for in the public ; or lastly, if
' Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus. These several appellations suffici- ently distinguish our TertuUian from Tertullus the consul, Tertylianus the civilian, and Tertullinus the martyr, with which our apologist is sometimes confounded. The prsenomen Quintus may perhaps be given upon the account of his being the fifth child of his parents. He was called Septimius, because descended from the Gens Septimia, a tribe of quality among the Romans, being first regal, afterwards plebeian, and last of all consular and patrician ; Florens, from some particular family of that house, so called ; and Tertullianus from Tertullus, perhaps his father, as Octavianus from Octavius, Septiminus from Septimius, etc.
■^ Romani Imperii Antistites in ipso fere vertice Civitatis prcesidejites ad judicandum. Baronius is of opinion. Bar. 201, that this Apology was written at Rome, and not at Carthage, wherein he is generally followed, but not by Pamelius, as the author of the notes upon Du Pni too hastily charges him, nor by Dalix, Du Pin, Dr. Cave, or Tillemont. Baronius's reason for this opinion is that TertuUian often speaks as being at Rome, and that he addresses in these words, To the Roman Senate. But these words neither prove it to be written at Rome, nor presented to the Senate of Rome, for they are with much better reason applicable to the proconsul and governors of Africa ; for he says they preside m vcriice Civitatis^ and our apologist never calls Rome by the name of Civitas but
A
2 Tertiillian s Apology for the Christians,
your odium to this sect has been too much fermented by your late severities ^ at home upon your Christian servants, and you bring this domestic ferment into the courts of judicature; — if these, I say, are the bars in our way to justice, be pleased at least to tolerate thus far, to let truth wait upon you in private, and to read the Apology we are not suffered to speak.
We enter not upon defence in the popular way,^ by begging your
Urbs. He speaks likewise of Rome and the Romans as being neither in their city nor amongst them ; cap. 9, 21, 24, 35, 45. And speaking of the cruel and sanguinary devotions of the heathen in many places, especially, says he, in Hid Religiosissimd Urbe ^neadarujn pioruni, etc., by which undoubtedly he means Rome ; and the manner of the expression plainly determines him not to be there at the time of his writing ; for had he been at Rome at this time he would have said in hac Urbe, and not vt ilia Urbe, cap. 9. And in the same chapter, recounting the bloody rites in the Scythian worship, he urges, — But I need not go so far as Scythia, for we have now at this day as barbarous ceremonies at home, that is, at Carthage. Besides, cap. 45, he speaks of the proconsul as the sovereign magistrate, and every one knows the proconsul to have been the premier magistrate of Africa, and to have had his residence at Carthage. Moreover, it is very probable that he addressed to the governors of Africa, and not to the Senate of Rome, — firstly, because there is not one word of the senate in this whole Apology ; secondly, because, cap. 45, he lashes those to whom he wrote, for endeavouring to gain the good graces of the proconsul, by signalizing their cruelty against the Christians ; and thirdly, because he con- stantly gives them the title of praesides, cap. 2, 9, 30, 50, a title very much affected by every officer under the proconsul of the province. And neither prgesides nor proconsul were titles that did belong to any magistrate of Rome ; for in danger of war in the provinces, the pr^fecti Csesariis were chosen by the emperor himself, and sent to reside in the metropolis, but the proconsuls were chosen by lot after their consulship, into the several provinces. And therefore Dio expresseth Claudius his restoring Macedonia into the hands of the senate, by ccTihoxiv r'oTi TM KXYifiM, hc put it to thc cholce of the senate again. Dio, His. lib. Ivii. So that we are not to understand Antistites Iniperii\.o be the same with Pontifices, according to Zephyrus, nor by vertice Civitatis the capitol, according to Rigaltius ; though it is likely he might mean the Byrsa of Carthage, according to that of Silius Italicus :
QucBsivitqiie diu qua tandem ponerit area Terrarum foriuna caput
^ Do7nesticis Judiciis. By these words I understand with Rigaltius the severities exercised at home by the presidents upon their domestics and children for turning Christians, which private severities contributed very much to prejudice and exasperate them, even in open court, against the Christians in general.
^ Deprecari. It is a law term, and properly signifies to intercede with the kir]g for pardon, or to plead with a judge in excuse of the criminal, according to that oiTvi^y, pro Ligario, Ignoscite Judices, erravit, lapsus est, non pntavit, etc. But here the Christian advocate pleads only for rigid justice, as the martyr Justin had done before him. He understood the Christian cause too well, to think it stood in need of oratory, and the arts of excusing. Vid. A. Cell. lib. vi. cap. 16, Concerning the signification of the word Deprecor,
Tertullians Apology for the Christians, 3
favour, and moving your compassion, because we know the state of our religion too well to wonder at our usage. The truth we profess, we know to be a stranger upon earth, and she expects not friends in a strange land ; but she came from heaven, and her abode is there, and there are all our hopes, all our friends, and all our preferments. One thing indeed this heavenly stranger warmly pleads for in arrest of judgment, and it is only this, that you would vouchsafe to understand her well before you condemn her. And what can the laws suffer in their authority by admitting her to a full hearing ? Will not their power rise in glory for the justice of a hearing ? But if you condemn her unheard, besides the odium of flaming injustice, you will deservedly incur the suspicion of being conscious of some- thing that makes you so unwilling to hear — what, when heard, you cannot condemn.
First, therefore, we lay before you ignorance as the chief root of your unjustifiable bitterness to the Christian name; and this very ignorance, which you may flatter yourselves with as a title to excuse, is the very thing that loads your charge, and binds the heavier guilt upon you. For show me a grosser piece of iniquity than for men to hate what they understand not, supposing the thing in itself deserves to be hated ; for then only can a thing deserve from us to be hated when we are apprised of its deserts. If not acquainted with the merits of the cause, what can we possibly urge in the defence of hatred which is not to be justified by the event, or because the passion may happen to be right, but by the principle of conscience upon which it is founded ?
When, therefore, men will thus be hating in the dark, why may not the blind passion fall foul upon virtue as well as vice ? So that we argue against our adversaries upon two articles, for hating us ignorantly, and, consequently, for hating us unjustly. And that you hate us ignorantly (which still, I say, does but aggravate your crime) I prove from hence, because all who hated us heretofore did it upon the same ground, being no longer able to continue our enemies than they continued ignorant of our religion j their hatred and their ignorance fell together.
Such are the men you now see Christians manifestly overcome by the piety of our profession, and who now reflect upon their lives past with abhorrence, and profess it to the world ; and the numbers of such professors are not less than they are given in ; for the common cry is, the city is infested, town and country overrun with
4 Tertulliafi s Apology for the Christimis,
Christians. And this universal revolt in all ages, sexes, and quaUties is lamented as a public loss ; and yet this prodigious progress of Christianity is not enough to surprise men into a suspicion that there must needs be some secret good, some charming advantage at the bottom, thus to drain the world and attract from every quarter. But nothing will dispose some men to juster thoughts, or to make a more intimate experiment of our religion. In this alone human curiosity seems to stagnate, and with as much com- placency to stand still in ignorance as it usually runs on in the discoveries of science.
Alas! how would poor Anacharsis^ have been struck at such proceedings, to see the very judges of religion entirely ignorant of the religion they condemn, who looked upon it so absurd for the rewards of a fiddler to be adjudged by any but the masters of the science. But such are our enemies, that they choose to indulge their ignorance merely for the growth of their hatred ; foreboding within themselves that what they hate without knowledge may chance to be a thing of so lovely a nature, that should they come to know it, they would be in danger of losing their hatred ; whereas hatred is not to be kept a moment longer than it has justice on its side : if so, spare not, not only give a present loose to your re- sentments, but also persevere in a passion thus seconded and strengthened by the authority of justice.
But it is objected that the number of Christians is no argument of the goodness of their cause. For how many change from better to worse ? How many deserters to the wrong side ? And who denies this ? But yet, are any of those men, who are pressed away to sin by the violence of appetites, are they hardy enough to appear in the defence of wickedness, or appeal to public justice for the patronage of notorious evil ? For every evil is by nature dyed in grain with shame and fear. The guilty hunt for refuge in darkness, and when apprehended, tremble ; when accused, deny ; and are hardly to be tormented into a confession ; when condemned, they sink down in sadness, and turn over their number of sins in confusions of conscience, and charge the guilt upon the stars or destiny ; ^
1 Anacharsis. See his life in Diog. Laertius.
2 Fato vel Astris impntant. Guilt is an ugly, frightful, and uneasy thing ; and this it was that put men at first upon contriving an expedient how to satisfy their conscience, in spite of their sin ; and the expedient was this, to lay the blame upon fate, or the stars, or anything but themselves. Predestination in the rigid sense is not one jot better than fate in the sense of the Stoics. And though it
Tertullian s Apology /07^ the Christians. 5
unwilling to acknowledge that as their own act which they acknow- ledge to be criminal.
But do you see anything Hke this in the deportment of Christians ? Not one Christian blushes or repents, unless it be for not having been a Christian sooner. If a Christian goes to trial, he goes like a victor, with the air of a triumph ; if he is impeached, he glories in it ; if indicted, he makes no defence at bar ; when interrogated he frankly confesses, and when condemned returns thanks to his judges.
What a monster of wickedness ^ is this, that has not one shape or
occasioned at one time so much feud and bitterness all about us, and the con- troversy ordered by authority to die, yet it is now again revived, ^ as the ramparts and bulwarks of Christianity, and the rarest contrivance in the world, to make us not only almost but altogether one kirk ; for which, no doubt, the doctor expects the thanks of the united nations. The generality of the clergy he stig- matizes apostates, for being assertors of free will ; and if so, what will become of the Fathers of the first four centuries, I cannot tell. Sure I am, poor Justin Martyr is an apostate with a witness, Apol. i. sec. 54. But if the doctor would but follow his own advice, that is, in one word, let us be moderate, and give his brethren hard reasons instead of hard names, it would make much more for union, I dare say, than his doctrine of predestination ; which should it take effect, we should not have one criminal that goes to be hanged, but, as Tertullian says, would be cursing his stars, and laying all the fault upon destiny, that is, God.
^ Quid hoc malt est, quod naiuralia viali non habet? Naturalia is the same here as Nattu'a, for he says, Qtiod hoc malum est in quo natura 7nali cessat ? ad Nat. p. 461. But that which is more remarkable is, that here we have an admirable description, and a most sensible proof, both of the truth and the power of the Christian religion ; for did ever any impostor set up a religion so iU calculated to the passions and relish of mankind ? Did he ever propose a doctrine to the world, without one worldly motive to recommend it, without one external comfort to hope for, or one arm to defend it ? Did Judas discover the secret when he betrayed his Master ? or had it been a cheat, would the traitor have hanged himself for his treason? Was there ever such a noble army of martyrs, who died so calmly and deliberately, and expressed so much innocence, so much joy and assurance in their sufferings, as they did ? So that either we must suppose Christ to have been the shallowest of impostors (which the wisdom of His precepts will not admit) to set up a religion so ungrateful to flesh and blood, without any visible force or reward to maintain it ; and withal, that good part of the world, of all sorts and sizes, happened luckily to be stark staring mad for suffering, and to continue so for above 300 years together ; or else we must suppose that Christ came down from heaven, and that the sufferers had all the reason imaginable to believe it, and therefore by help of divine grace, and the
^ John Edwards, D.D., his sermon upon the Union, May i, 1707, entitled One Nation and one King,
6 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians.
feature of wickedness belonging to it ? Nothing of fear, or shame, or artifice, or repentance, or the desponding sighs of criminals attending on it. What a strange-natured evil or reverse of wicked- ness is this ! that makes the guilty rejoice, and ambitious of accusation, and happy in punishment. Nor can you charge these odd appearances as the effects of madness, since you are altogether unacquainted with the powers of the Christian religion.
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CHAPTER IT.
CONCERNING THE MALICE AND PERVERSENESS OF THE JUDGES, IN THE WAY OF CONDEMNING OR ABSOLVING THE CHRISTIANS.
But if it is resolved we must be guilty, pray what is your reason for treating us differently from other criminals ? For it is a rule in law that where the case is the same, there the procedure of court ought to be the same also. But when we and heathens are impeached upon the same articles, the heathen shall be allowed the privilege of the council, and of pleading in person for setting off his inno- cence,^ it being against law to proceed to sentence before the defendant has put in his answer; but a Christian is permitted nothing, not to speak what is necessary, either to justify his cause, defend the truth, or prevent the injustice of his judges. On the contrary, nothing is attended to in his trial, but how to inflame the mob, and therefore the question is about his name only, and not
power of conviction, tliey despised everything here below for the joy that was set before them. This argument is likewise prosecuted by Arnobius, adv. Gent. lib. ii. p. 21, as a mighty instance of the divinity of the Christian faith, that in so short a time it should be too hard for the wisdom and pleasures of the world, and work so with men of the greatest parts and learning, and of the greatest fortunes, as to make them part with their notions and estates, and submit to any torments rather than part with the Christian faith ; and that the Gentiles did not think it advisable to venture their skin for their doctrine. That Plato, in his Academy introduced a dark and ambiguous way of delivering his opinions, for fear of going the way of Socrates. And Origen tells Celsus that Aristotle quitted Athens, and left his philosophy to shift for itself, as soon as he understood that the Athenians intended to call him to an account. So little could philosophy prevail against self-preservation.
^ Quando nee liceat indefensos et inauditos damnari. He alludes to] the law de Requir. Reis, made by Severus a little before the publication of this Apology.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 7
the nature of his crime : whereas if you sit in judgment upon another criminal, and he pleads guilty to the indictment, suppose of homicide, sacrilege, incest, or rebellion (to instance the common heads of your libels ^ against us), upon such confession, I say, it is not your method forthwith to proceed to sentence, but you have patience to examine the nature of the fact in all its circumstances, viz. — the place, the time, the manner, and the accomplices of the action : but in the trial of a Christian, all these forms of justice are overruled. But let me tell you, would you acquit yourselves with any appearance of equity, you ought on both sides to be equally severe in the examination of fact, and see to the bottom of those reports, so frequently and so falsely thrust upon us. For instance, to bring in a true list of how many infants every Christian has killed and eaten, what incests committed in the dark, what cooks we had for the dressing these children's flesh, and what pimping dogs for putting out the candles.^
Oh ! what immortal glory would a proconsul gain among the people, could he pull out a Christian by the ears that had ate up a hundred children ! But we despair of any such glorious discover}^, when we reflect upon the edict against searching after us. For Pliny the second,^ in his proconsulship of Asia, having put many Christians to death, and turned others out of their places, and being still astonished at our numbers, sends to the Emperor Trajan for orders about proceeding for the time to come ; alleging withal that for his part, after the strictest inquiry, he could find nothing more in our religion, but obstinacy against sacrificing to the gods, and that we assembled before day to sing hymns to God and Christ,
^ Ut de vestris Elogiis loquar. Elogium is a civil law term which frequently occurs in this author, particularly lib. ad Scap. de cor. Mil. cap. 5, etc., and is the same among the civilians as Epistolce, Notoria, Relationes, a libel or declara- tion, setting forth the crimes of the person indicted ; it was provided by the law de custo et exhi. Reorutn, ne q2dsquam puniatur ex Ephtolis et Adis Pedanei et minoris Judicis. And therefore Pudens, who had a mind to favour the Christians, sent back a Christian prisoner because there appeared against him no witness or proof, but the Elogium, or epistle from an inferior judge. Pudens missum ad se Christianum, hi Eloglo concussione ejus intellecta diniisit, Scisso eodem Elogio sine accusatore negans se audihirum hominem secundum mandatuni. Vid. Gab. Albaspin., not. ad Scap.
2 For a fuller explication of this passage, and the foundation of this horrid slander, see my notes upon Justin Martyr's Apology, Apol. i. sec. 35. The dogs which are said to be tied to the candlesticks, and to have crusts thrown them just beyond the reach of their string, in order to make them leap and strain and pull down the candles, are by Tertullian, cap. 7, called Ltc/ninzim Eversores et Lenones, which to follow his own biting way I translate pimping dogs,
^ Vid. Plin. Episf. lib. x. ep. 97.
8 Tertullians Apology f 07" the Christians,
and to confirm one another in that way of worship ; prohibiting homicide, adultery, fraud, perfidiousness, and all other sorts of wickedness. Upon which information Trajan writes back, that such kind of men as these were not to be searched after, but yet to be punished if brought before him. Oh perplexity between reasons of state and justice ! he declares us to be innocent, by forbidding us to be searched after, and at the same time commands us to be punished as criminals. What a mass of kindness and cruelty, connivance and punishment, is here confounded in one act ! unhappy edict, thus to circumvent and hamper yourself in your own ambiguous answer ! If you condemn us, why do you give orders against searching after us ? And if you think it not well to search after us, why do you not acquit us? Soldiers are set to patrol in every province for the apprehending of robbers, and every private person justifies taking up arms against traitors and enemies to the commonwealth ; and moreover is obliged to make inquiry after all the conspirators ; but a Christian only is a criminal of that strange kind, that no inquiry must be made to find him, and yet when found may be brought to the tribunal ; as if this inquiry was designed for any other purpose but to bring offenders to justice. You condemn him therefore when brought, whom the laws forbid to be searched after ; not that in your hearts you can think him guilty, but only to get into the good graces of the people, whose zeal has transported them to search him out against the intention of the edict.
This also is very extraordinary in your proceedings against us, that you rack others to confess, but torment Christians to deny : whereas, was Christianity a wicked thing, we, no doubt, should imitate the wicked in the arts of concealment, and force you to apply your engines of confession. Nor can you conclude it need- less to torture a Christian into a confession of particulars, because you resolve that the very name must include all that is evil. For when a murderer has confessed, and you are satisfied as to the fact, yet you constrain him to lay before you the order and circumstances of the whole action. And what makes the thing look worse yet is, that notwithstanding you presume upon our wickedness, merely from our owning the name, yet at the same time you use violence to make us retract that confession, that by retracting the bare name only, we might be acquitted of the crimes fathered upon it. But perhaps I am to imagine your excessive tenderness to be such, that you are willing to acquit the very persons you conclude the greatest villains in the world ; and perhaps it may be your custom
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 9
to say to a murderer, "deny the murder," and to command the sacrilegious to be put to the rack for persevering in his confession of sacrilege.
But now, if your process against us and other criminals is notoriously different, it is a shrewd sign you believe us innocent \ and that this very belief of our innocence is the spring which sets you at work for our deliverance, by forcing us to deny our name, which though in justice you know you cannot, yet for reasons of state you must condemn. A man cries out upon the rack, I am a Christian ; you hear him proclaim to the world what really he is, and you would fain have him say what really he is not. That ever judges, who are commissioned to torture for the confession of truth, should abuse it upon Christians only, for the extortion of a lie ! You demand what I am, and I say I am a Christian ; why do you torture me to unsay it ? I confess, and you rack on ; if I confess not, what will you do? If other malefactors deny, it is with difficulty you believe them ; but if Christians deny, you acquit them at a word. Certainly you must think yourselves in the wrong for such proceedings, and be conscious of a secret bias upon your judgments, that makes you run thus counter to the forms of court, the reasons of justice, and the very intent of the laws themselves. For if I mistake not the laws are very express, that criminals should be discovered, and not concealed ; and that upon confession they should be condemned, and not acquitted. The acts of the senate and the edicts of the emperors prescribe this. These are the maxims of that government you are ministers of, and your power is defined by these laws, and not arbitrary and tyrannical.
Tyrants indeed have no respect to the proportions of justice in the distributions of punishment, but apply tortures at pleasure. But you are restrained by law; and to apply them only for the confession of truth, preserve this law in full vigour, and for the end it was made. For if the accused confess, it is absurd to put them to the question ; the law of tortures is answered, and you have nothing to do in this case but to consider the nature of the fact, and punish it accordingly. For every malefactor is a debtor to the law, and to be wiped out of the public accounts ^ upon paying his
^ Debito pcence nocejzs expungendus est. This is a very familiar phrase with our author, and the ground of it is this. The executioner had a roll of the names of the condemned, and the punishment they were to suffer ; and a criminal being a debtor, when he had paid his punishment was expunged, or crossed out of the roll : and so dare Poenas is to pay the pain an offender owes to the public.
lo Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
punishment, and not discharged merely upon the confession of his fault. No judge attempts openly to acquit a criminal barely upon his pleading guilty, nor can he justify a thought of so doing; and therefore no one can be justly served with torments to deny, when the law was designed only to make him confess.
You look upon a Christian as the sum total of iniquity, a despiser of the gods, emperors, laws, morality, and, in one word, an enemy of human nature ; and yet this is the man you rack, that you may absolve, because without racking him into a denial of his name you cannot absolve him. This, or nothing, is prevaricating with the laws ; you would have him plead not guilty, for you to pro- nounce him innocent, and discharge him from all past crimes, whether he will or no. But how can men be so perverse as to imagine that he who confesses a thing freely is not more to be credited than he who denies it by compulsion ? Or cannot a man speak truth, without the help of a rack ? And being absolved upon a forced denial of his rehgion, he must needs conclude such external applications of cruelty, very foolish things for the conversion of the mind, when in spite of all these impressions upon his body he finds himself still a Christian in his conscience.
Since therefore you treat us differently in everything from other criminals, and what you chiefly push at is the destruction of our name (and we ourselves destroy this, by doing what the heathens indulge themselves in) — since this, I say, is the main thing you con- tend for, you cannot but see that our name is the greatest crime in our indictment; in the persecution of which name, men vie hatred, and are ambitious to excel each other in malice ; and this emulation is the chief reason why they are so stedfast in ignorance ; therefore they devour all reports of us without chewing, and are so averse to any legal inquiry, for fear these reports should prove to be false, which they would have pass for true, that the hated name of Christian might be condemned upon presumption, without the danger of a proof; and that the confession of this name might serve for a sufficient conviction of the crimes charged against it. Hence it is that we are tortured against law for confessing, and tormented on for persisting in that confession ; and against law absolved for denying, because all the dispute is about our name only.
But after all, when you proceed to judgment, and read over the table or catalogue of crimes you pass sentence against, why do you
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 1 1
mention the Christian only? Why do not you mention the murder, the incest, and the rest of that train commonly imputed to us? We alone are the persons you are ashamed to condemn, without signifying the actions you condemn us for ; if a Christian is accused of no crime, the name surely must be of a strange nature to be criminal in itself only 1
CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING THE ODIOUS TITLE OF CHRISTIAN.
What an unaccountable thing is it for so many men to blindfold themselves on purpose to fall foul upon Christianity ! And to such a degree that they cannot talk about the noted probity of any Christian without allaying his character with a dash of his religion ! Cajus Sejus (says one) is a very good man, but — he is a Christian. I will tell you what (says another), I wonder that Lucius the philo- sopher is all of a sudden turned Christian. And none has sense enough in his passion to put the question right, and argue in this manner. Is not Caius so good, and Lucius so wise, merely from the influence of their religion ? Or was it not the probity of one, and the wisdom of the other, that prepared the way, and brought them over to be Christians ?
Thus indeed they praise what they know, but vilify what they know not; they blot the fairest examples of virtue shining in their very eyes, because of a religion they are entirely in the dark about ; whereas certainly, by all the rules of reason, we ought to judge of the nature of causes we see not, by the effects we see, and not pre-condemn apparent goodness for principles we understand not. Others, discoursing of some persons, whom they knew to be vagrants, and infamously lewd before they came over to our religion, drop their praises upon them in such a manner, that they stigmatize them with their very compliments ; so darkened are they with prejudice that they blunder into the commendation of the thing they would condemn. For (say they) how wanton, and how witty was such a woman ! how amorous and frolicsome was such a young gentleman ! but now they are Christians : thus undesignedly they fix the amendment of their Hves upon the alteration of their religion.
12 TertulliafU s Apology for the Christians,
Some others are arrived to that pitch of aversion to the very name of Christian, that they seem to have entered into covenant with hatred, and bargained to gratify this passion at the expense of all the satisfactions of human life, acquiescing in the grossest of injuries rather than the hated thing of Christian should come within their doors. The husband, now cured of all his former jealousy by his wife's conversion to Christianity, turns her and her new modesty out of doors together, choosing to dwell with an adulteress sooner than a Christian; the father, so tender of the undutiful son in his Gentile state, disinherits him now when he becomes obedient by becoming a Christian ; the master, heretofore so good to his unfaithful slave, discards him now upon his fideHty and his rehgion. So that the husband had rather have his wife false, the father his son a rebel, the master his servant a rogue, than Christians and good : so much is the hatred of our name above all the advantages of virtue flowing from it.
Now, therefore, if all this odium arises purely upon the account of our name, pray tell me how a poor name comes to be thus to blame, or a simple word to be a criminal ? Unless it be that the word is barbarous, or sounds ominously, reproachfully, or obscenely. But Christians is a Greek word, and means nothing more than a disciple of Christ, which by interpretation is the Anointed ; and when you misname it Chrestian ^ (for so far are you from under- standing our religion, that as yet you know not our true name), even then it implies nothing worse than a benignity and sweetness of temper ; thus outrageous are you at the sound of a name as inoffen- sive and harmless as those who bear it. But do men use to let loose their passions at this rate against any sect merely from the name of its founder ? Is it a new thing for scholars to be named from their masters? Is it not from hence that philosophers are called Platonists, Epicureans, Pythagoreans, etc.? Do not the Stoics and academics derive their names from the porch or academy,^ the places where they meet and discourse together ? And do not
1 Sed et cum perperam Chrestiamis pronunciatur a vohis. See the notes upon Justin's First Apol. sec. 3, concerning the word Chrestus ; I only add here that Marcellus Donatus conjectures this Chrestus to have been some seditious Jew called by that name, for which he produces several inscriptions wherein that name occurs, but not one wherein it is given to a Jew, which ought first to have been produced to justify his conjecture ; but the Christian apologists prove it a mistake beyond dispute. Vid. Donat. Dilucid. in Sueton. in Claud, cap.
25-
^ Stoics from 2ro«, a porch or gallery.
TerhUlians Apology for the Christians. 13
physicians glory in the title of their Erasistratus,^ and grammarians in that of Aristarchus ? ^ And are not even cooks themselves not a little proud of the name of Apicius ? ^ Nor in any of these instances are you offended with the name transmitted from the founder of the sect ; but if you could prove any sect to be vicious in principle, and consequently the author of it to be so too, there is reason enough to hate the name upon the account of both. In a word, before we give entertainment to hatred against any sect whatever, upon account of its name, we ought in the first place to have competently examined the nature of the institution, and traced out its qualities from the author, or the author from them ; but both these ways of inquiry are quite neglected, and our enemies storm and fire at a word only. Our heavenly Master and His heavenly religion are both unknown, and both condemned, without any other considera- tion but that of the bare name of Christian.
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CHAPTER IV.
THAT HUMAN LAVi^S MAY ERR, AND THEREFORE MAY
BE MENDED.
Thus far I have been something severe, as it were, by way of preface, to make men sensible if I could of the injustice of the
^ Erasistratus. This physician is mentioned by our TertulHan, lib. de an. cap. 15 ; Pliny fixes his life, An. urb. cond. 450, lib. xiv. cap. 7, and mentions his school, lib. xx. cap. 9, and again, lib. xxix. cap. 2, makes him the disciple of Chrysippus, and Aristotle's daughter's son, who for the cure of King Antiochus had of his son Ptolemy a fee of an hundred talents.
2 Aristarchus. A noted grammarian of Alexandria, Aristotle's contemporary, tutor to the son of Ptolemy Philometer, celebrated by Tully, ad Appium Pidchru7jt^ lib. iii. epist. ii, for distinguishing the genuine verses of Ilomer, and so likewise by Ovid : —
Corrigere at res est tanto magis ardzia, quanto
Magnus Aristarcho major Homerus erat. Ov. Pont.
And so again by Horace, ad Pisones,
Arguet ambigue dictuni^ jnutanda notabit, Fiet Aristarchns.
^ Apicius. An epicure of famous memory, styled by Pliny Nepotum oimiium altissimus Gurges ; and so again by Juvenal : —
Quid enim majoi-e cachinno Excipitur vtclgi, quam pauper Apicius ?
14 Terhcllimi s Apology for the Christians.
public odium against us ; and now I shall stay awhile upon the subject of our innocence. And here I shall not only refute the objections against us, but retort those very objections against the objectors themselves, to let the world see that Christians are not the men they take them to be, nor sullied with those crimes they are conscious of in themselves ; and to see also whether I can make our accusers blush, not by charging them in general, as the worst of men accusing the best, but supposing us both upon the level of iniquity. I shall touch upon all the particulars we are taxed with for committing in private, and for which we are publicly branded as immoral, superstitious, damnable, and ridiculous ; these very crimes, I say, which you grant we have not the forehead to do without the protection of darkness, we find our enemies hardy enough to commit in the face of the sun.
But because we meet you with unanswerable truth at all your turnings, your last resort is to the authority of the laws, as more inviolable than truth itself; and it being so frequently in your mouths, either that nothing ought to be revoked after once con- demned by law; or that your sworn obedience is a necessity upon your actions, weightier than that of justice. I shall first enter upon the obligation due to human laws with you who are the sworn protectors of them.
First then, when you rigidly insist upon this, that Christianity is against law, and prescribe against dispensing one jot with the letter upon any considerations of equity, this, I say, is acting iniquity by law ; and you sit rather like tyrants than judges of a court, willing a thing to be unlawful, because you will, and not because it is so. But if your will is regulated by the measures of good and evil, and you forbid a thing because it ought to be forbidden, then certainly, by this rule of right reason, you cannot license evil, nor forbid the obligations of doing good. If I find a prohibition issued out against the laws of nature, do not I conclude such a prohibition to be invalid ? Whereas, if the matter of it be lawful, I never dispute my obedience,^ nor think it strange
^ Quod si malum esset,jure prokiberet. Here we have the measures of obedience due to human laws briefly stated by Tertullian : " For," says he, " where nothing is commanded, either against the law of nature, or the positive law of God, I never dispute my obedience." Had the primitive Christians refused obedience to the civil magistrate, in matters indifferent, Christianity, humanly speaking, had never been a national religion, and if our dissenting brethren would be decided by this rule, and, according to Tertullian, comply with the magistrate's commands, in everything not unlawful in itself, or with respect to the plain
Terhdltans Apology for the Christians. 15
if your laws are sometimes in the wrong, since they are but the composures of men, and not the commands of God. Is it so strange to see mortals out of the way in making laws, and wiser upon experience, and repealing what they once approved? Did not the laws even of Lycurgus suffer amendments ? . Was not their severity sweetened by the Spartans, and better accommodated to civil use ? And did not this alteration go so near the great law- giver's heart that he quitted his country in a pet, and pined himself to death, being his own judge and his own executioner ? Does not your experience light you every day to the mistakes and rubbish of antiquity ? And have you not cut down a huge and horrid wood of old laws, and planted the new edicts and rescripts of the emperors in their stead? Did not Severus, of all the emperors least given to change, lately alter the Papian law,^ vainly solicitous about the propagation of children before the time allowed for matrimony by the Julian law without any respect to the venerableness of antiquity ? And insolvent debtors, by the laws, were to be chopped in pieces by their creditors ; ^ but these sanguinary statutes were by succeed- ing ages repealed, and the capital punishment commuted into a mark of infamy, together with the sale of their goods, it being
Word of God, they would then, and not till then, fulfil the apostle's injunction of doing all that is possible, and as much as lieth in them to live peaceably with all men. But if the magistrate cannot lawfully command in things where neither the natural nor the positive law of God interpose to the contrary, he can command in nothing, because such things only can be subject to his disposal.
^ Vanissimas Papias leges qucs mite liberos suscipi cogiint, quam Jul. Matr. contr. Concerning these laws, see Rigaltius and Pamelius upon this place. But that which I remark is, that Scaliger would infer from the following words that this Apology was not composed till a little after the death of Severus, because it is said, heri Severus, etc., exclusit ; but I confess I cannot see why lately repealing may not agree to a living prince as well as a dead one. But I shall show this opinion to be evidently a mistake of Scaliger in the sequel of this Apology.
2 Judicatos retro in partes secari a Creditoribus Leges erant. Here he evi- dently alludes to the law of the twelve tables, cap. viii. de nexis ; for thus it runs, Tertiis nundinis capite pcenas hiito, aut trans Tiberhn peregre ito, est si plures erunt rei, tertiis mindinis. Partis, secanto. si. plus minus, ve. seciierunt. se. fraude. esto. The meaning of which, as it is explained by A. Gellius, Nod. Att. lib. XX., is this : Debt was a captital crime by law, and the creditor might either have the life of the insolvent, or send him beyond Tibur to be sold for a slave ; but if the insolvent was indebted to more than one, the creditors might cut him into pieces in proportion to every one's debt. And this barbarity he justifies only by the end and design of the lawgivers, which was not so much to punish as to prevent men from running into debt by the severity of the punishment, for he tells us he never read of one debtor dissected, Quoniam scsvitia ista P(xncB contemni nan quita est ; but for bonds and imprisonment rogues value them not, and run in debt continually.
1 6 Tertulliav!s Apology for the Christians,
looked upon better to put the offender to open shame than to let out his blood for debt. And how many laws think you are still behind which want revising, that are not valuable for their number of years, or the dignity of their founder, but upon the account of justice only? And therefore if they are found not to be according to this standard are deservedly condemned, although we are con- demned by them. And if they punish for a mere name, they are not only to be exploded for their iniquity, but to be hissed off the world for their folly. But if the laws are to take cognizance of actions only, why are we punished for the name of our sect, when no others are so punished ? I am guilty of incest, or have killed a child, suppose, why don't you make inquiry after my crimes, and extort them from me by confession upon the rack? I have injured the gods or emperors, why am I not to be heard on these points ? Surely no law can forbid the discussion of what it is to condemn, because no judge can justly proceed to sentence before he is well apprised of the illegality of the fact ; nor can a citizen justify his obedience to a law, while he apprehends not the quality of the action it is to punish ; for it is by no means sufficient that a law be good in itself, but that goodness also must be made appear to him who is to put it in execution ; and that law is much to be suspected that does not care to be looked into, but is notoriously tyrannical, if after it is looked into would reign a law still in defiance of reason.
CHAPTER V.
THAT THE WISEST OF THE EMPERORS HAVE BEEN PROTECTORS
OF THE CHRISTIANS.
But to see the rashness and injustice of the laws against us, let us cast an eye back upon their original, and we shall find an old decree,^ whereby the emperor himself was disabled from consecrat-
^ Vetus erat Decretum ne qui Deus ah Iviperatore consecraretur nisi a Senatu probahis. Rigaltius mentions something like this extant in the fragments of Ulpian, and PameUus gives the decree itself from Crinitus de /ion. discipl. lib. X. cap. 3. Separatim 7iemo sit habens Deos novos sive Advenas, nisi publice adscitos privatim colunto. By virtue of this ancient decree it was that the people, notwithstanding any edicts of the emperors to the contrary, persecuted the Christians. Vid. Euseb. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2, Where upon the account given by Pontius Pilate, Tiberius applied to the senate to make him a god.
TertulliafUs Apology for the Christians, 1 7
ing a new god, without the approbation of the senate. M. iEmiUus learnt this with a witness, in the case of his god Alburnus.^ And this makes not a httle for the honour of Christianity, to see the heathens in consult about making gods; and if the god is not such a deity as they like, he is like to be no God for them. Strange ! That the god is first to pray the man to be propitious, before the man will allow of his godship. By virtue of this old decree it was that Tiberius,^ in whose reign Christianity came into the world, having received intelligence from Judea about the miracles of Christ, proposed it to the senate, and used his pre- rogative for getting Him enrolled among the number of their gods. The senate, indeed, refused the proposal, as having not maturely weighed His qualifications for a deity; but Caesar stood to his resolution, and issued out severe penalties against all who should accuse the worshippers of Christ.
Consult your annals,^ and there you will find Nero* the first emperor who dyed his sword in Christian blood, when our religion was but just arising at Rome ; but we glory in being first dedicated to destruction by such a monster : for whoever knows that enemy of all goodness will have the greater value for our religion, as knowing that Nero could hate nothing exceedingly, but what was exceedingly good. A long time after, Domitian, a limb of this bloody Nero, makes some like attempts against the Christians ; but being not all Nero, or cruelty in perfection, the remains of struggling humanity stopped the enterprize, and made him recall the Christians he banished. The Christian persecutors have been always men of this complexion, divested of justice, piety, and common shame;
1 De Deo suo Alburno. This Alburnus is mentioned, lib. adv. Marcion, cap. 18, and seems to have been consecrated in the consulship of M. ^milius, an. urb. cond. 638. He was called Alburnus from a mountain in Lucania of the same name.
Est Lticus silari circum, ilicibusq.; virentem Plurimus Alburnum volitans, etc. Virg. Geo. 3.
^ Tiberius ergo, cujus tempore nomen Christiamwi in fceculutn introivit. This is to be understood of the resurrection of Christ, when the Christian faith first began to be published to the Gentile world.
^ Consulite cofumentarios vestros. He alludes to the annals of Tacitus, lib. xv., or rather to Suetonius in the Life of Nero.
■• Ccesariano gladio priviu7n ferocisse. It is agreed upon by all writers, that the first general persecution began under Nero, as likewise that the second did under Domitian ; for that in Judea and Samaria, mentioned in the Acts, cap. viii. , was but a particular persecution in some parts only, and not set on foot by the Gentiles but the Jews.
1 8 Terhtlliafis Apology for the Christians.
upon whose government you yourselves have set a brand, and rescinded their acts,i by restoring those whom they condemned.
But of all the emperors down to this present reign, who under- stood anything of religion or humanity, name me one who perse- cuted the Christians. On the contrary, we show you the excellent M. Aurelius for our protector and patron ; for if you look into his letters,^ you will find him there testifying that his army in Germany being just upon perishing with thirst, some Christian soldiers which happened to be in his troops, did by the power of prayer fetch down a prodigious shower to the relief of the whole army ; for which the grateful prince, though he could not publicly set aside the penal laws, yet he did as well, he publicly rendered them in- effectual another way, by discouraging our accusers with the last of punishments, viz. burning alive.
Reflect a little now, I pray you, upon the nature of these laws, which only the most consummate villains in impiety, injustice,- filthiness, folly, and madness ever put in execution against us ; which laws Trajan ^ in part evacuated by his edict against searching for Christians ; and neither Hadrian ^ the inquisitive, whose genius
^ Quos et ipsi daninare consuestis. The edicts of Nero and Domitian both were rescinded by the senate, and Nerva their successor. But the old law was still in force, which forbade the worshipping of any new god, without the approbation of the senate.
2 Si Litem Marci Aurelii requirantur. This rescript of Marcus Aurelius you will find annexed to Justin's First Apology; and though it is disputable whether that rescript be genuine, yet it is evident beyond dispute, both from Justin and Tertullian, that there was such a rescript in favour of the Christians.
^ Quas Traja7ius ex parte frustratus est. It is not without good reason that Tertullian says in part evacuated, for the third persecution commenced under Trajan. It is true, indeed, he published no general edict against the Christians, but the manner of his answer to Pliny {^id. Plin. lib. x. ep. 103, p. 633, wherein, as Tertullian smartly remarks, the rescript did combat, and contradict itself, in forbidding Christians to be searched after, and yet punished when found) was abundantly sufficient to reinflame ipagistrate and people, who were ready to take fire upon the least encouragement against the Christians. Besides, he issued out solemn edicts to his officers to suppress all private cabals and associations ; and this occasioned fresh searches after Chrisiians, and prevented their ordinary assemblies. Vid. Plin. ep. 35, 99, 123 ; ep. 104, p. 632. In this reign, strict inquisition was made after all the descendants from David, and Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, was therefore taken up and murdered. Euseb. lib iii. cap. 32, p. 104. And though this was a very grievous persecution, yet was it not universal. Euseb. lib. iii. cap. 33, p. 105, cap, 32, p. 103.
* Quas mdlus Adriamis. Sulpicius Severus, and he alone, places the fourth persecution under Adrian. Vid. Sulp. lib. ii. cap. 45, p. I50._ But whatever this persecution was, it is plain from Tertullian and Melito, bishop of Sardis,
TerHcllian s Apology for the Christians. 19
no doubt led him into the curiosities of our religion, nor Vespasian,^ who must know something of it too by conquering the Jews, nor Pius,2 nor Verus ^ ever took the advantage of the laws against us ; and therefore were we Christians, in truth, the worst of men, you cannot think we should have been thus spared, and protected
vid. Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 26, p. 148, that it was not occasioned by any imperial edict. Adrian was initiated in all the Grsecian rites, and especially in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which St. Jerome remarks as the principal cause of this persecution, Adr. vit. p. II. He was extremely addicted to judicial astrology, and to all sorts of divination, even to magic, Die, lib. 69, p. 793, insomuch that he is severely censured by the heathens themselves for his extravagant supersti- tion, Amm. lib. xxv. p. 294. And if magic raised a persecution under Valeri- anus, who in the beginning of his reign was so great a friend to Christians, and whose family so abounded with men of piety, that his house seemed to be the church of God, Euseb. lib. vii. cap. 10, we need not wonder that this black art should have the same influence upon Adrian. But this persecution was happily put an end to, by the Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, Euseb. lib. iii. cap. 37, p. 209. The eloquence and reason of these two apologists was seconded by a letter from Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 8, p. 122, and many other governors followed this example, Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 13, p. 127. Adrian, unable to resist these just and pressing solicitations, wrote to Minucius Fundanus, Granianus's successor, not to punish a Christian but upon good proof of some crime against the public ; and to punish the false accuser just as the Christian should have been had he been found guilty. This rescript was very famous among the ancients; it is celebrated as very advantage- ous to the Christian cause, not only by Eusebius in his Chronic, but by S. Severus lib. ii. cap. 45, p. 150, by Orosius, lib. vii. cap. 12, and annexed by Justin to his Apology, and translated into Greek by Eusebius, lib. iv. cap. 9, p. 123.
1 Nullus Vespasianus. Vid. Joseph, de Bell. Jnd. lib. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.
^ Nullus Pius. This was Antoninus, to whom Justin Martyr addresses his First Apology, and whose rescript to the commons of Asia he annexes to it, and is translated into Greek by Euseb. lib. cap. 13. And though there was no edict of Pius out against the Christians, yet by the authority of the old decree, they suffered very much in many places, which occasioned Justin's First Apology.
^ Nullus Verus. It is a matter of some difficulty to determine who this emperor was, for the cognomen Verus was given to M. Aurelius as well as to Lucius. Vid. Jul. Capitol, in vit. M. Atcrelii. But it is most probable that M. Aurelius was the emperor, especially if Lucius Verus was dead before the per- secution, as some imagine, Nicephor. lib. iii. cap. 14. And it is observable, that Athenagoras dedicates his Apology to M. Aurelius and Lu. Commodus, and not to Lucius Verus. However this be, certain it is that this was a most bloody persecution, in which Polycarp and Justin, and the martyrs of Vienna and Lj'^ons were put to death ; the reading of the prophets, and the sibyls, and whatever else might serve the Christian cause was forbidden, says Justin, upon pain of death, Apol. i. sec. 59. This is counted the fourth persecution by all but S. Severus, who calls it the fifth. But then it is observed by Eusebius, lib. v. cap. I, that it was set on foot, not by any edict of Aurelius, but by popular tumult. If we read Severus instead of Verus, as Pamelius is most inclined to, then is it evident that when this Apology was written, Severus had issued out no edict against the Christians.
20 Tertiillian s Apology for the Christians.
against law, by the best of princes, and struck at root and branch only by our brethren in iniquity.
-0-
CHAPTER VI.
THAT THE ROMANS ARE MIGHTY PRAISERS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THEIR RELIGION, AND YET ADMIT OF NOVELTIES INTO IT EVERY DAY.
But now I would argue the case a little with these scrupulous gentlemen who are such mighty sticklers for the observation of old laws; I would know whether they themselves have rehgiously adhered to their forefathers in everything, whether they quitted no law, nor have gone one step out of the ancient way. Nay, whether they have not made ineffectual some of the most necessary and proper rules of government; if not, what is become of those excellent laws for the bridling luxury and ambition ? Those laws which allowed not above a noble ^ for an entertainment, and but one hen, and that not a crammed one, for a supper. Those laws which excluded a senator the house, as a man of ambitious designs, for having but ten pound weight of silver plate in his family ; which levelled the rising theatres ^ to the ground immediately, as semin- aries only of lewdness and immorality; and which under severe penalties forbade the commons to usurp the badges and distinctions of the nobility. But now I see the enormous entertainments, with
^ Centum (Bra non amplius. This was the Lex Licinia vel Fannia called Centussis, according to that of Lucilius, Faiini Centussiqiie misellos, Vid. A. Gell. lib. ii. cap. 24. To what Zephirus in his paraphrase, and Pamelius in his notes, have said concerning the sumptuary laws, and against canvassing for places, I add, that C. Orchius the third year before Cato was censor, preferred a law to moderate the number of guests only. Twenty-two years after, C. Fannius being consul, enacted another for moderating the expenses of ordinary feasts, allowing not more denis assibus. Licinius Crassus revived the Fannian law. The Lex Cornelia, and the Lex Antia, were to the same purposes of frugality. Whoso- ever desires to see more de Legibus Smnpiiiariis et de Ambitu, may read Stuc. conviv. lib. i. cap. 3 ; A. Gell. Hb. ii. cap. 24 ; Macrob. Saturn, lib. iii. cap. 17 ; Alex, ab Alexan. Genial. Di. lib. iii. cap. 2, p. 685, torn, i., and likewise cap.
17» P- 755- 2 Theatra stuprandis inoribus orientia st'atim destruebant. P. Cornius Nasica
after the second Punic war demolished the theatre as the school of wickedness
and effeminacy. Vid. Alexand. ab Alex. torn. i. lib. iv, cap. 25, p. 1193.
Tcrtullian's Apology for the Christians, 21
new names from their extravagance ; a centenarian supper, so called from the hundred sestertias expended on it, that is about seven hundred and eighty-one pounds five shillings for a meal ; and I see mines of silver melted into dishes, not for the table of senators only, for that would be tolerable, but for such fellows as are but just made free, and hardly out of the lash of slavery. I see also theatres in abundance,^ and all indulgingly covered over. The hardy Lacedemonians, I suppose, were the first authors of this soft invention, for fear Venus should take cold in the winter without a covering; and that odious heavy cloak of frieze, which in time of war was to screen the Spartans from the injuries of weather, was chiefly designed no doubt to defend the Romans at the enjoyment of their sports. Moreover, I see now no difference in habit between a- lady of quality and a common strumpet ; ^ all those wise institutions about women are fallen to the ground, wherein your ancestors made such provisions for modesty and temperance ; when a woman was to wear no more gold about her than the wedding-ring upon her finger ; ^ when women were so strictly prohibited to the use of wine, that a matron was starved to
^ Video Theatra nee singula satis esse. In the time of Augustus there were but three theatres, and one amphitheatre ; but as they grew in vices, they increased in theatres ; and then we read of the theatre of Marcellus, and one of Scaurus so capacious that Pliny affirms it large enough to hold 80,000 men. Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap, 15. Concerning the number of theatres, vid. Just. Lipsii Amphitkeatrtim, et Tertull. de Spectac. et Vitruv. lib. v. cap. 3.
^ Inter Matronas atque Prostibulas nulhwi de habitu discrimen. The Stola, Flammeum, Vitta, and Reticulum were the distinctions of matrons of repute, from prostitutes who had the Toga, and were not allowed the Flammeum and .Vitta. More of this you may see in Alex, ab Alexand. tom. ii. lib. v. p. 216.
^ Cum aurnm nulla nor at frceter unico digit 0 quern sponsus oppignorasset pronubo annulo. The ring in matrimony has been a very general and ancient ceremony : Digito pignus fortasse dedisti, Juven. sat. 6. This nuptial ring was put upon the finger next the least, on the left hand, out of an imagination that there was a particular vein there which went directly to the bottom of the heart. Aul. Gell. lib. x. cap. 10, Macrob. lib. vii. cap. 13. And this, I sup- pose, may be the Unicus Digitus in Tertullian. The primitive Christians made no scruple of complying with this ancient ceremony of the ring in matrimony, for, says Tertullian, de Idol, de 7iullius Idoli Jionore descendit, it did not arise from any honour given to an idol. And Clemens Alexandrinus sets forth, not only the rite, but the reason of it, Clem. Alex. Peed, lib, iii. cap. 2. St. Ambrose brings in St. Agnes, mentioning the wedding-ring, Amb. lib. iv. ep. 34. In the year 611, Isidore Hispalensis, Etymol. lib. xx. and de devin. Off. lib. ii., proves it to be in use, and all the offices of the Western Churches since that time prove the same. As to the Greek Churches, we find by the Eucologicon, that they used two rings, one of gold, which was given to the man, another of silver, which was given to the woman. Vid. ord. Sponsalior, And therefore it was not without good authority that our wise reformers did retain this innocent, ancient ceremony, approved of even by Bucer himself. Buceri Censur. p. 48.
2 2 Tertttllians Apology for the Christians,
death by her friends for breaking the seals of a cellar where the wine was kept ;^ and Mecenius in the reign of Romulus was acquitted for kilHng his wife for the same attempt ; and for the same reason parents were by law obliged to kiss their children, in order to dis- cover them by their breath. Where is now the happiness of a conjugal state, maintained of old by rugged virtue, in so long and perfect harmony, that from the foundation of the city for almost six hundred years together,^ we read not of a divorce in any family? But now, instead of wedding-rings only, women are so begolded over, that every limb labours under the burthen ; and so addicted to wine, that you shall not receive a salute without a smack of the bottle ; and divorces are now become the object of your desires, and looked upon as the constant fruit of matrimony. But this is not all, for what your fathers have bravely decreed; even about the worship of the gods, you with all your obedience have rescinded. The consuls with the authority of the senate banished father Bacchus^
^ Cum mulieres usque adeo vino abstinerentur, ut niatronam ob resignatos cellce vinarice loculos sui inedia necarint. This story, and almost the very words, are taken out of Pliny's Natural History, lib. iv. cap. 13, where he says likewise that Egnatius Metellus (here called Mecenius) killed his wife with a club for drinking wine. The drinking of wine was interdicted women under the severest penalty. Vid. Dionys. Halicarjt. lib. ii., Polyb. lib. vi., Cicer. lib. de nai. Deor. It was as capital a crime for a woman to be taken in wine as in adultery. It was by the law of Romulus made one of the conditions for a divorce. Cneus Domitius deprived a woman of her dowry for drinking more liberally than her health required. The law mentioned here by Tertullian, which obliged relations to salute women to find whether they did not smell of wine, was overruled by an edict of Tiberius Caesar. Vid. Sueton. vit. Tiber. See more to this purpose in Alexand. ab Alex. tom. i. lib. iii. cap. 2, pp. 672 and 673.
^ Per annos ferjiie sexcentos ab urbe co/iditd, nulla repitdiujii domus scripsit. P. Carvillius Ruga, or Spurius Carbilius, as he is called by Valer. Maximus, lib. ii. cap. I, was the first who divorced his wife upon pretence of barrenness, though divorces afterwards upon the most trifling occasions came to be a common practice. L. Antonius was noted by the censors, and turned out of the senate for putting away his wife upon no reason but his humour. Vid. Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 4. Tiberius Caesar degraded a censor upon the like occasion, Sueton. in z'it. Tib. Q. Antistius and C. Sulpitius divorced their wives merely upon a pet. Val. Max. lib. vi. cap. 3. And Maecenas is severely taxed by Seneca upon the like occasion. Sen. lib. de Divin. P^'ovid. So that it is not without reason that Tertullian affirms divorces in his time to be the constant fruit of matrimony. By tlje laws of Romulus a man could not divorce his wife, but either for adultery, for attempting to poison him, for false keys, or for drinking of wine. The form of divorces between parties only contracted was in these words — Conditione tud non utar. This was properly Repudium ; that between a married couple was called Divoi-tium, and ran in this form — Res tuas tibi habeto.
^ Liberuvi Patrem cum mysteriis suis. The Bacchanalia or Nyctileia grew to that excessive lewdness, that they were forbid in all parts of ItaJy under a severe penalty. Vid. Alex, ab Alex, tom, i. lib. vi. cap. 7, p. 650.
Tertulliaris Apology for the Christians. 23
and his mysteries, not out of Rome only, but all Italy, and Serapis,^ and Isis, and Harpocrates, with his dog's head of a god Cynocephalus, were excluded the capitol, the palace of your deities, during the consulship of Piso and Gabinius, who were not Christians, and all their altars levelled to the ground, in order to suppress this rabble of deities, and the abominable filthinesses attending on them ; but these gods you have recalled from banishment, and restored them to their original worship. Where now is your old religion, and the great veneration you pretend to have for your ancestors? You have degenerated from them in your habit, in your modes of living, in your furniture,^ and in the riches and revenues you allow to the different ranks of men, and in the very delicacy of your language. You are eternal praisers of antiquity, and yet every day in a new fashion ; which is a plain proof that it is your peculiar talent to be in the wrong, to forsake your ancestors where you should follow, and to follow where you should forsake them. And although you may take yourselves for zealous defenders of the traditions of your fathers, especially in those things for the neglect of which you principally accuse the Christians, namely, the worship of the gods, in which point your ancestors have been the most unhappily mistaken ; although you have rebuilt the altars of Serapis, and made him now a Roman god; although Bacchus now has his frantic sacrifices offered him in Italy ; — notwithstanding all this, I say, I will show in its proper place that you have not in truth this warm affection for the gods of your forefathers, but that you have despised, slighted, and destroyed them, in spite of all your loud pretences to the obligations of antiquity. In the meantime, I shall return an answer to those infamous objections against our actions in secret, in order to make way for the vindication of those things we do in the face of the world.
^ Serapidem et Isidem, et Harpocrafem cum suo Cynocephalo, etc. Serapis and Isis were celebrated idols of Egypt. Harpocrates is said to be born of Isis and Osiris, and coming unluckily before his time, was born mute, and for that reason made the god of silence, according to that of Ovid — Qumque preiiiit vocem, digitoq,; silentia siiadet. Cynocephalus was an Egyptian god with a dog's head, under which shape Mercury is said to have been worshipped, according to that of Virgil, yEnead. 8, Omnigenumq.; De^lvi nionstra, et Latrator Anubis. See more of this and their expulsion out of Italy in Alex, ab Alex. tom. i. lib. ii. cap. 19, p. 431.
^ Censu. I conclude this word should be written with a c, and I have translated it accordingly ; but if it is to be written with an s, as it is both in Rigaltius and Pamelius, I would translate it opinion; but Rigaltius in his Animadversions has corrected his text, and writes Censu. Vid, Rigal. Anim- adver. juxta fin.
24 Terhillian s Apology for the Christians»
CHAPTER VII.
THAT COMMON FAME IS BUT AN ILL EVIDENCE.
It is the common talk that we are the wickedest of men, that we murder and eat a child in our religious assemblies/ and when we rise from supper conclude all in the confusions of incest. It is reported likewise that for this work we have an odd sort of dogs, as officious as bawds in putting out the candles, procurers of darkness for the freer satisfactions of our impious and shameless lust. This is the common talk, and the report is of long standing, and yet not a man attempts to prove the truth of the fact. Either, therefore, if you believe report, examine the grounds, or if you will not examine, give no credit to the report. And this dissembled carelessness of yours against being better informed plainly speaks that you your- selves believe nothing of it ; you seem to care not to examine, only in truth because you dare not ; for were you of opinion that these reports were true, you would never give such orders as you do about the torturing of Christians ; which you prescribe, not to make them confess the actions of their life, but only to deny the religion they profess. But the Christian religion, as I have already intimated, began to spread in the reign of Tiberius ; and the truth pulled down a world of hatred in its very cradle ; for it had as many enemies as men without the pale of revelation, and even those within, the very Jews, the most implacable of any, out of a blind passion for the law. The soldiers from dragooning our persons, come to hate our religion, and from a baseness of spirit, our very domestics are as much bent upon our destruction as they. Thus are we continually invested on every side, and continually betrayed — nay, very often we are surprised and taken in our public meetings and assemblies ; and yet did ever any one come upon us when the infant was crying under the sacrificer's hand ? ^ Who ever catched
^ Dicimu)' sceleratissimi de Sacramento Infanticidii. That this charge of devouring a child in the sacrament was by the heathens commonly laid upon the Christians is evident, because Justin, Athenagoras, Tatian, Minutius, and the rest of the apologists insist so much upon it. The nature of the institution and the practice of Simon Magus, Menander, Basilides, Carpocrates, and other heretics, who passed under the name of Christians, most probably gave rise to this horrid story, as I have shown at large in my notes upon Justin's Apology.
2 Quis unquam taliter vagienti Infanti supervenit. The Christian sacrifice of bread and wine was never omitted in the first ages of the Church in their public
Tertulltan*s Apology /or the Christians, 25
us, like a Cyclops or Siren, with mouths besmeared in human blood, and carried us in that cruel pickle before a judge? And as for incest, who ever discovered any relic of immodesty in his wife after she became a Christian ? And who can think that a heathen would connive at wickednesses of this monstrous size in any Christian, had he eyes to spy them out ? Or that he can be bribed in our favour, who seems never so well pleased as when he is hauling us to punishment ? If you say that these abominations are always done in secret, pray when and by whom came you to this knowledge ? Not by the guilty themselves, for you know that the persons admitted into the mysteries of all religions are by the very form of admission ^ under the severest obligations to secrecy ; the Samothracian and Eleusinian ^ mysteries you know are covered in profound silence, how much more reasonable is it therefore to think that such as these will be kept in the dark, which not only treasure up divine wrath against the day of judgment, but if once discovered will whet human justice to the highest pitch of vengeance ? If, therefore, Christians betray not themselves, it follows that they must be betrayed by those of another religion ; but how shall strangers be able to inform against us, when even the most pious mysteries^ are defended from the approaches of the
worship ; they looked upon their service as not so perfectly Christian and acceptable without it, that the Holy Spirit did in an especial manner descend upon the consecrated elements, that God was better pleased with their prayers for this commemoration of His Son, and that this was the principle of union between a Christian and the ever Blessed Trinity ; and, therefore," whenever the heathens broke into their assemblies, they would be sure to find this sacrifice of a child, was there any such thing.
^ Ex Forma omnibus Mysteriis silentii Fides debeatur. What silence was thought due to sacred rites we may understand by Horace's Favete Unguis ; by Ovid's Ore favent Popidi nunc cum venit aurea Ponipa ; by Virgil's Fida Silentia Sacris ; by Festus's Linqtiam, pascito, i.e. coerceto ; by the Egyptians setting up the image of Harpocrates in the entrance of their temples, and by the Romans placing the statue of Angerona on the altar of Volupia. Vid. Brisson, de Formidis, lib. i. p. 8.
2 Eleusinia reticentur. Horace protests that he would not stay in the house, or sail in the ship, with a person that should divulge the mysteries of Ceres —
Vetabo, qtii Cereris sacrum Vulgdrit arcancB, sub iisdem Sit trabibus frugilemque mecuni Solvat phaselum.
Alcibiades and his companions for exposing the rites of Ceres were not only excommunicated all religious and civil intercourse at Athens, but solemnly cursed by the priests, and priestesses — a practice not unlike to the Jewish Anathema. Vid. Plutar. Alcibiad.
"* Cum etiam pice Initiationes arceant Prophanos. I know nothing more
26 Tert7illians Apology for the Christians.
stranger and the profane ? Unless you conclude the Christian rites to be the wickedest of any, and withal conclude that the wicked are less cautious about the divulging of such rites than those of a better religion. And thus you must be forced to acknowledge you know nothing of our profession, but by common fame ; and the nature of fame is too well known by every one to be credited in haste. Your own Virgil tells you, Fama malum, quo non aliud velocius ulhwi : Fame is an ill, the swiftest ill that flies.
Why does he call fame an ill ? Because of her swiftness ? Or because she is an informer? Or because she is a common liar? For the last reason without question. For she never lets even truth come out of her mouth without being sophisticated, without detracting, adding, or brewing it with one falsehood or another. Moreover, the nature of fame is such that she cannot keep herself upon the wing without the assistance of lies ; for she lives by not proving ; when she proves, she destroys her being. She hovers no
practised all the heathen world over, than the excommunicating profane persons from all holy mysteries. Hence that of Virgil —
Procul, 6 procul este Frophani Conclajnat Vates.
And that of Horace also —
Odi Prophanmn Vulgus et arceo.
The Flamens had a' commentaculuni, a kind of rod in their hands to keep off impure persons. Vid. Brisson, de Foj'midis, lib. i. ; Selden, de Syned. lib. i. cap. lo. Among the Greeks that old form from Orpheus continued, — sxa? Ixtt? sa-rt (iifi'/ikoi. At Athens the herald cried out n; r^ih — Who is here ? To which the people answered, -ttoXXo) na) aya6o) — Many and good men. Vid. Suid. in t/j tDs. And we read in Livy, Decad. 4, lib. i., of two young men of Arcanania, who for not being initiated and crowded into the Eleusinian mysteries, were slain ; for it was a capital crime to be present without due purification ; and such purifying rites were men of all ranks and qualities obliged to perform before they could approach the altars and statues. Not Nero himself could prevail with his conscience to let him be present at these rites of Ceres, after the Herald had made the usual proclamation for the wicked to depart. Vid. Sueton. Ner. cap. 34. But Antoninus the philosopher, to show his innocence, went to the temple of Ceres, and into the very Sacrarium by himself. Vid. Capitolin. in vit. Ajitotiin. Philos. And was there but a little more of the natural reverence of heathens to holy things among Christian people, and did Christian priests exert the power that God has given them with as much vigour as the idol priests did, men even as wicked as Nero would not dare to approach our altars merely upon the invita- tion of a place. But as matters stand, it might go hard with the priest to make a notorious offender lose his preferment, by refusing him the sacrament, and the common law might go near to nail the canon.
Tertulltan s Apology for the Christians, 27
longer like fame, but being as it were out of her office, certainty succeeds in the place of report. And then it is no longer said, for example, that such a thing is famed to have been acted at Rome, or such a person to have got the government of such a province, but that such things are actually so and so. Fame is a doubtful sound, and lodges only among uncertainties ; and would ever any man of common reflection build much upon this uncertain puff? For let a story be never so general and diffusive, and never so confidently asserted, it is always to be remembered that it had a beginning, and from that time has crept into a world of ears, and out of a world of mouths ; and so the story very little at its first planting, and naughty perhaps in the very seed, comes at length to be so overgrown and darkened by variety of rumours, that men care not to be at the pains of tracing it up to the original mouth, and to see whether it came not first into the world a very lie ; which often happens, either from the disposition and genius of hatred, or the licence men usurp of improving suspicions, or which is no new thing, the very pleasure of lying, which some people seem marvel- lously turned for, even by nature.
Well is it, therefore, I am sure, for Christians, what is so proverbially in the mouth of heathens, that time brings everything to light, according to that order of nature which will permit nothing to lie long hid \ no, not even that which never came within the lips of fame. I shall leave it to you, therefore, to judge whether you have reason to proceed with this severity against Christians merely upon the testimony of fame ; for this is the only witness you produce against us, and which looks so much the worse, because of all the stories she has been sowing about the world, and been so long a-watering and nourishing up into credit, she has not to this day been able to prove one.
-0-
CHAPTER VIII.
THAT THE CRIMES CHARGED UPON THE CHRISTIANS ARE NEITHER
POSSIBLE NOR PROBABLE.
I SHALL now appeal to the testimony of nature, and argue whether it is credible that she is capable of such inhumanities as common fame charges upon Christians ; and for argument sake, I will
28 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians.
suppose a Christian promising you eternal life, and tying caution for the performance, upon consideration of your obedience. I will suppose likewise that you believe this promise, and the question now is, whether upon such a belief you could find in your hearts to be barbarous enough in spite of nature to accept of eternal life at this inhuman price. Imagine, therefore, a Christian addressing you in this manner : Come hither, friend, and plunge your dagger into the heart of this innocent, w^ho can deserve no punishment, who can be no man's foe, and who may be every man's son, considering our indiscriminate embraces. Or if another is to officiate in this bloody service, suppose yourself applied to after this sort : Come hither, and stand by only while I make the sacrifice ; behold me despatching an infant off the stage in the very first act of life ; see me sending the new soul flying out of the body before it was ^vell in ; do you gather up the rude indigent blopd, and sop your bread liberally in that wine, and indulge freely upon the flesh ; and while you are at supper be sure to cast a wishful eye upon your mother and sister ; mark exactly where they sit, that you are guilty of no mistake when the dogs have put out the candles. For it is as much as our immortality is worth if you should miss of incest ; if you are thus initiated, and continue firm in the practice of these rules, you shall live for ever. Answer me now to the question proposed, Can you purchase heaven upon these terms ? If not, if you feel nature recoil, and your soul shrink at the proposal of such things, you can never think them credible in us. Did you but believe them, I am confident you would not do them ; but did you believe them, and had an inclination to do them, I am of opinion that your very humanity would not suffer you to perpetrate such facts ; and if you find too many misgivings in yourselves for the performance of such commands, why do you not conclude the same reluctance in others ? Or if you cannot be unnatural enough for these things, why should you judge others can ?
But Christians, I suppose, are not men. What ! do you take us for monsters like the Cynopae or Sciapodes,^ with different rows of teeth for devouring, and different instruments for incest, from all other men ? Certainly, if you believe such actions possible for others, you may believe them possible for yourselves, you being men,
^ The Cynopae, or Cynopes or Cynocephali, are reported to be a sort of wild men in the mountains of India, with heads like a dog, Plin. vii. 2 ; and the Sciapodes of Ethiopia to be a people of such a monstrous make, that in hot broiling days lie upon their backs, and cover their whole bodies from the sun with the shadow of the bottoms of iheir feet, Plin. vii. I.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 29
as we Christians are ; but if you feel this impossible in nature, you ought to give no credit to the report, because Christians and heathens have the same humanity.
But you pretend that the ignorant only are decoyed and tricked into our religion, such as have not met with any of these stories against us, but are catched before they have time to consider and examine with that accuracy which every man is obliged to upon changing his religion. But allowing it possible for a man to be ignorant of common fame, yet if any one is desirous to be initiated, it is the constant custom, as I take it, for such a person to go to the chief priest, to be instructed in what is necessary for such an initiation. And then, if these stories are true, he will instruct him in this manner : Friend, in order to communicate with us you must provide a child tender and good, too young for any sense or notice of death ; such a child as will smile into my face under the fatal knife. You are likewise to provide bread to suck up the blood, and candlesticks and candles, and some dogs with some morsels to throw to those dogs just out of their reach, that by striving to come at them they may pull down the candles and candlesticks to which they are tied. Above all things, you must be sure not to come without your mother and sister. But what if they will not comply, or suppose the convert has no sister or mother, nor any relation of our religion ? Why, he cannot be admitted ; for to have a sister or a mother are necessary qualifications, no doubt, to make a Christian. But if you will suppose all this furniture got ready beforehand, without the knowledge of him who is to communicate, yet certainly after he has communicated he must needs know all ; and yet he still con- tinues firm in our communion without a word of the imposture. But he dares not discover perhaps, for fear of punishment, when such a discovery would be meritorious. Whereas a man of probity, after he had found himself thus abused, and tricked into so horrid a religion, would rather choose to die than live longer with such a conscience. After all, I will grant that such a man dares not discover for fear of punishment ; but pray then give me a reason why the same person should persevere in defiance of torments ; for I think it natural to conclude that you would not continually stick close to a religion under such disadvantages, which you would never have embraced had you but known it before you embraced it,
30 TertMllians Apology for the Christians.
CHAPTER IX.
THAT THE PAGANS ARE GUILTY BOTH IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC OF THE SAME CRIMES THEY CHARGE UPON CHRISTIANS.
But for a fuller confutation I come now to prove that the heathens are guilty both in the dark, and in the face of the sun, of acting the same abominations they charge upon Christians, and their own guiltiness, perhaps, is the very thing which disposes them to believe the like of others. Infants have been sacrificed to Saturn pubhcly in Africa,^ even to the proconsulship of Tiberius, who devoted the very trees about Saturn's temple to be gibbets for his priests, as accomplices in the murder, for contributing the protection of their shadow to such wicked practices. For the truth of this I appeal to the militia of my own country, who served the proconsul in the execution of this order. But these abominations are continued to this day in private. Thus you see that the Christians are not the only men who act in defiance of your laws ; nor can all your severity pull up this wickedness by the roots, nor will your immortal alter his abominable worship upon any consideration ; for since Saturn could find in his heart to eat up his own children, you may be sure he would continue his stomach for those of other people who are obliged to bring their own babes, and sacrifice them with their own hands, giving them the tenderest of words, when they are just upon cutting their throats, not out of any bowels of com- passion, but for fear they should unhoUow the mystery, and spoil the sacrifice with tears. And now, in my opinion, this parricide of
^ Infantes penes Africam Saturno palam mi7nolabantur, etc. The heathens had a notion {however they came by it is not to my present purpose to conjecture) that repentance alone was not sufficient to atone the Divine wrath without a bloody sacrifice, and therefore the blood of man and beast was brought in to supply the deficiency. Accordingly among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians it had been an ancient custom to choose by lot some children of the best quality for a sacrifice, and for those upon whom the lot fell there was no redemption. And they were likewise dressed according to their quality in the richest apparel to make the sacrifice more splendid. And having omitted these human sacrifices for some time, and during that omission being overcome by Agathocles, they offered two hundred sons of the nobility upon their altars to atone the deity for the neglect of human sacrifices. Vid. Plat. dial, entitled Minos Dionys. Halicar. lib. i., Diodor. Sic. lib. xx., Lactan. lib. i. cap. 21, Euseb. Frtzpar. Evang. lib. iv., and Silius Ital. at the end of the fourth book speaks thus of Carthage : —
Mos fuit in populis, quos conditit advena Dido, {hifanduni didu) Parvos imponere natos.
Tertulliaiis Apology for the Christians. 31
yours, or slaughtering your own children, outdoes the simple homicide charged upon us by many degrees of barbarity. But infants are not the only offerings, for the Gauls cut a man to pieces upon the altars of Mercury,^ in the flower of his strength. I omit the human sacrifices at Diana's Temple ^ in Taurica Chersone- sus, which are the arguments of your tragedies, and which you seem to countenance by being so often at the theatres. But behold ! in that most religious city of the pious descendants of pious ^neas, there is a certain Jupiter,^ whom at your religious games you pro- pitiate with human blood in abundance. But these, say you, are bestiarian men, criminals already condemned to die by beasts. Alas-a-day ! these are not men, I warrant ye, because they are condemned men ; and are not your gods wonderfully beholden to you for offering to them such vile fellows ? However that be, this is certain, it is human blood. O brave Christian Jove ! your father's only son and heir in cruelty, worshipped with human blood, as the God of the Christians is falsely reported to be. But because, if you kill a child, it is not a farthing difference whether you kill it for a sacrifice, or for your own will (for killing a child will be always a crime, though not always equal, parricide being worse than mere homicide), since this, I say, is so, I shall now apply myself upon this subject unto the people of all ranks and conditions. How many about me might I justly reproach upon this head, not only of the mob continually blooded with Christians, and continually
^ Major cEtas apud Gallos Mer curio prosecatur. Cicero in Orat. pro M. Fonteio^ speaking of the Gauls, has these words : — Qiiis enim igjwrat eos usqtie ad hanc diem retinere illam imnianem ac barbarani consttetudinem hominuin immo- landortim? And in his third book, de Divinat., he mentions five Mercurys and makes Mercury Theutates the fifth who slew Argos, and for that flew into Egypt, and there instructed the Egyptians in laws and letters, from which Theutates the first month of their year, that is September, was called Theuth. This was the Mercury the Gauls sacrifice to, and which Lucan in his first book refers to.
Ex quibus innnitis placahir sajiguine diro Theutates, horrensqiie feris Altaribus Hesiis.
See more in Lactantius, lib. i. sec. 21, 50, Liv. 3, dec. lib. vi., Caesar, lib. vi., de bell. Gall.
2 Remitto Tauricas Fabulas. Herodotus in his fourth book says it was a custom among the Tauri to sacrifice every year the hundredth captive to Diana ; and Lucan having spoken of Theutates and Hesus, adds : — •
Et Taraiiis Scythicce non mitior ara Diance.
See P. Orosius in his preface to his fifth book, and Lactan. lib. i. sec. 21, p. 50, concerning the bloody rite of sacrificing strangers to Diana Taurica.
^Jupiter quidani. Vid. Lactan. lib. i. sec. 21, p. 50. This was Jupiter Latiaris.
32 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
gaping for more, but also of you, presidents of cities and provinces, who have been the severest against us upon this very score? How many, I say, of both sorts might I deservedly charge with infant- murder ? And not only so, but among the different kinds of death, for choosing some of the cruellest for their own children, such as drowning, or starving with cold or hunger, or exposing to the mercy of dogs, dying by the sword being too sweet a death for children, and such as a man would choose to fall by sooner than by any other ways of violence.
But Christians now are so far from homicide, that with them it is utterly unlawful to make away a child in the womb, when nature is in deliberation about the man ; for to kill a child before it is born is to commit murder by way of advance ; and there is no difference whether you destroy a child in its formation, or after it is formed and delivered. For we Christians look upon him as a man, who is one in embryo ; for he is in being, like the fruit in blossom, and in a little time would have been a perfect man, had nature met with no disturbance.
As for the inhuman customs of banqueting upon blood, and such tragical dishes, you may read (for it is related by Herodotus,^ I think) how that certain nations having opened a vein in their arm, solemnly drank of each other's blood for the confirmation of treaties ; and something like this Catiline ^ put in practice in his conspiracy.
^ Est apud Herodotum opinor, etc. Herodotus in his first book reports that it was the solemn way among the Medes and Lydians in making of leagues to strike each other on the shoulders with a naked sword, and then for the parties mutually to lick up the blood ; and in his fourth book he tells us that the Scythian rite of entering into league was to fill a large cup of blood and wine mixed together (the blood of both the parties confederating), and having dipped their swords and arrows into it, to pledge each other in it, and so by turns drink it off. And Possidonius, and from him Athenseus. lib. ii. cap. 2, relates that the Germans at their banquets opened a vein in their face, and the parties mutu- ally drinking up each other's blood, mixed with wine, was the ratification of the treaty. So much human blood was there spilt, especially in sacrificing to devils, till Christ came and redeemed us from the powers of darkness, and put an end to all bloody sacrifices, by that of Himself once made upon the cross.
^ Nescio quid et sub Catilina degustatum est. The words of Sallust concerning Catiline are these — Fuere ed lempestate, qui dicer ent Caiilinam oratione habitd, cum adjusjurandum Populares sceleric stii addicerent, Hu7nani Corporis sangiiinem vino permistuju inpateris circumtulisse ; inde cui7i post execrationei7i omnes degustds- sent, sicuti in soleinnibus sacris fieri consiicuit, dicitur aperuisse consiIiui?i, etc. I have set down this of Sallust at large, because as it stands in the notes of Pamelius it is printed or quoted false in two places, and the last part quite omitted, which shows it to be a customary rite in some countries.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 33
It is likewise reported that in some Scythian families the surviving friends eat up the dead ones.^ But I need not go so far as Scythia, for we have now at this day as barbarous ceremonies at home ; Bellona's priests ^ lancing their thighs, and taking up their own sacred blood in the palms of their hands, and giving it their communicants to drink. Those epileptic persons also who flock to the amphi- theatres for the cure of their disease, intercept the reeking blood as it comes gushing from the gladiators' throats, and swill it off with greediness. What shall we say of those who gorge themselves with the beasts they kill upon the stage, who demand a piece of the boar, or the stag that is covered over with their own blood in the combat ? Nay, the very paunches ^ of boars stuffed with the crude indigested entrails of men are dishes much in vogue ; and so man belches up man by surfeiting upon beasts fed with men. You who eat thus, bless me, how differently do you eat from Christians ? But what can we think of men so perfectly brutish as to lick up the very first principles of life and blood, and so diet upon child and parent both at the same time ? For shame therefore blush when you meet a Christian, who will not endure a drop of the blood of any animal among his victuals, and therefore for fear any should be lodged among the entrails, we abstain from things strangled, and such as die of themselves.
Lastly, among other experiments lor the discovery of Christians this is one, to present them with blood puddings, as very well knowing our opinion about the unlawfulness of eating blood. This, I say, is the stumbling-block and offence you lay in the way of Christians ; and what a strange thing is it, that you who are confi- dent that the Christians are so religiously averse to the blood of beasts, should imagine them so sharp set upon the blood of men ?
^ Apud quosdam gentiles Scytharum. Vid. Alex, ab Alex. torn. i. lib. iii. cap. 2. And the notes of Tiraquell upon him.
2 Hodie isthic Belloncs sacratus sanguis de feniore proscisso. In alkision to which Lucan, lib. i. —
Diraque per popuhim Cumance Carmina vatis Vulgantiir, turn qiios sectis Bellona lacertis ScEva vionet, etc.
See more upon this in Beroaldus, and Lactan. lib. i. sec. 21.
^ Ursorum alvei appetiintiir crudit antes adhuc de viscerihts htimanis. To such a degree of luxury, or rather bestiality, were the Romans grown, that a bear's paunch stuffed with the reeking viscera or guts of gladiators was reckoned a rare dish, and by the sumptuary laws against luxury I find that Ven'ijza and Abdomina (which I take to be the same with these alvei) were forbidden at feasts. Vid. Plin. lib. viii. cap. 51.
B
34 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
This could never be, unless you had tasted the blood of both, and found that of men to be the sweeter temptation ; which therefore you should make like the censer of incense, to be another touch- stone of a Christian ; and so he might be detected as well by accepting the blood as refusing the sacrifice, and in like manner be put to death for tasting as he is now for sacrificing. And you the judges of life and death, need never fear the want of human blood to make the experiment. As for incest, where can you look to find such human monsters so likely as among the worshippers of an incestuous Jove ? We have the authority of Ctesias ^ for the Persians mixing with their mothers. And the Macedonians are suspected, because when they first heard the tragical lamentations of QEdipus for this sin with his mother Jocasta, they cried out in ridicule — eXawe €ts t^v [xyjTepa, — Courage, noble warrior, and go on bravely against your mother.
Recollect now with yourselves, and you will see what a licence there is for incest, from some errors which must necessarily seduce into it, by the help and fuel of lust and luxury. For, first, you expose your sons to be taken up by the next passenger who happens to come by with more bowels than yourselves, or you emancipate them from all relation to you, in order to be adopted into nobler families ; and by both these kinds of alienation it cannot well be, but that the knowledge of your children in some time must wear out and vanish ; and for want of this knowledge, when the un- natural mixture has once taken root, it spreads continually, and the original stain diffuses itself from generation to generation. And then also you have an inseparable companion of your lust in every place ; it sticks to you at home, and travels with you by land, and takes shipping with you at sea; and by this ubiquitarian lust, brothers and sisters may easily come together like the scattered seed in a wide field, and as travellers often do by the help of commerce, and mix in strange confusions, without the parties knowing anything of the relation. But as for Christians, their inviolable chastity is a hedge about them against such unhappy accidents; and by how
^ Persas cum Matribus misceri Ctesias refert. Some fragments of Ctesias were published by Henry Stephens ; but for the incest of the Persians it is notorious. See Strabo, lib. v. ad fin,, Curtius, lib. vii., and Catullus in Gellium
sings thus : —
Nascatur Magus ex Gelli Matrisque iiefando
Concubitu, et discat Persicuni aruspicium. Nam Magus ex Matre et Nato gignatur oportet^
Si vera est Pe7'sarum impia Religio.
Tertullzan's Apology for the Christians. 35
much the purer they keep themselves from fornication and adultery, by so much the more, no doubt, are they preserved secure from the chance of incest. Nay, some among us, for fear of such disorders, have put themselves beyond the possibility of this sin, by a perpetual virginity, by preserving the innocence of a child to the extremity of age. If now, therefore, you would turn your eyes inward, and see the guilt in yourselves, you would see innocence in us, for contraries are best seen together ; but you labour under a twofold blindness, which is, not to see things that are, and to seem to see things which really are not ; the truth of this I will show in its proper place by an induction of particulars, but at present I shall pass to matters of more notorious evidence.
CHAPTER X.
THAT THE GODS OF THE GENTILES ARE NO GODS.
You say we are atheists, and will not be at the expense of a sacrifice for the life of the emperors ; and if the first be true, the consequence is just, for if we will not offer to the gods for our- selves, it is not likely we should do it for others. It is upon this account, therefore, that we are convened as guilty of sacrilege and treason; this I take to be the main article, and may be looked upon as the sum of the charge against us, and therefore deserves a particular discussion; and we doubt not to acquit ourselves in this point, if prejudice and injustice be not our judges; prejudice, I say, which presumes things that are false to be true, and injustice, which rejects evident truth when heard.
We profess, then, to have laid aside the worship of your gods, from the time we knew them to be no gods ; that therefore which you are to expect from us is, that we disprove them to be gods, and consequently not to be worshipped ; for if they are gods, devotion no doubt is their due, and the Christians ought to be punished for deserting the gods, out of an opinion that they are not gods, if it can be made appear that they are. But gods they are, say you ; for the truth of this we appeal from your words to your conscience, let that be our judge, and let that condemn us, if
36 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
you can deny all those you now worship for gods once to have been men. If you can be hearty in this denial, you shall be con- vinced of the mistake from your own antiquities testifying against them to this day, from the cities where they were born, and the countries where they left impressions of frailty ; and alas ! where the very tombs of the immortals are shown.
But I will not presume to run over the whole inventory of deities, their numbers are formidable ; there are your new and old gods,^ Greeks and Barbarians, Romans, strangers, captives, adoptives, proper, common, male and female, country, city, sea and camp gods. A man must have wondrous little to do with his time to give out their titles by retail, and so I shall lump them together, and speak of them only in gross ; and this not to improve your knowledge, but only to quicken your memories, for you seem much inclined to forget many of your gods.
First, then, Saturn with you is the eldest deity in worship ; from him we are to begin our reckoning of all your gods, of the most noted especially, and most in vogue, and he being the original god, we may judge of all his posterity from him. As much therefore as we can learn from history, we find that neither Diodorus the Greek, or Thallus, or Cassius Severus, or Cornelius Nepos, or any other commentator of antiquities speak of Saturn any otherwise than as of a man. And if you would argue from things, I cannot think of a place that can supply you with arguments so well as Italy ; for there you may trace Saturn in the most expressive prints of man. After many expeditions from Greece, you will find him landed in your own country, and there by the consent of Janus or Janes (as the Salii call him) taking up his seat, the hill he inhabited called after his own name Saturninus, and the city he founded, Saturnia, to this day ; and at length all Italy succeeded to this title, after that of QEnotria. The invention of writing,^ and coining the
1 Novos Veteres, Barbaras, etc. After the most diligent collection, Varro has musiered up an army of gods to the tune of above thirty thousand. The explanation of the titles, and some instances of each of the sort of gods mentioned, you may see in Pamelius upon this place ; but for a fuller and more distinct account I refer to Alex, ab Alex. lib. ii. p. 379, and lib. vi. cap. 4, pp. 433 and 436.
^ Ab ipso priinum Tabulce, et Imagine signatus nmnmtis et inde ^rario pj-cesidet. This ^rarium or treasure-house, of which Saturn was president, was not only the public exchequer, but in it likewise were kept the Acts of the Senate, the books of records, and the Libri Elephantini, so called from their bigness, in which all the names of the citizens were registered, and from these books,
Tertulliaiis Apology for the Christians, 37
money with the king's image, you ascribe to Saturn ; and for that reason you make him patron of the pubhc treasury, which is placed in his temple. But now if Saturn was a man, and consequently the son of a man, he could not properly be the son of heaven and earth. And it was very natural for a person of an unknown race to be fathered upon these two, whose children in some sense we may be all said to be ; for, considering how much our lives are all owing to the concurrent influences of heaven and earth, who does not by way of respect honour them with the title of common parents? Or it might come to pass from a custom of saying a person dropped from the skies, when he stepped in, unknown and unexpected by those about him. And so Saturn, from his surprising appearance in Italy, might be said to come from heaven. Besides, a person of an uncertain family had usually the denomination of a son of earth ; ^ not to mention the rudeness of those times when the people were struck with the sight of a stranger as at the presence of a god ; since the refined spirits of this polished age have made improvements of the folly, and raised them up into gods whom the other day they solemnly attended to the funeral. This is enough in reason to say about Saturn, though it is but little. I shall now do as much for Jove, and show him to be a mere man, as well as
entituled Tohiilce piihlica, the treasury was called Tabularium. See Servius upon that of Virgil, lib. ii. Georg.
Aut Populi Tabularia vidit.
Imagine Signatus. Macrobius, Saturn, lib. i. cap. 7, reports that Janus having entertained Saturn, who came to him by ship, and having made him co-partner of his kingdom for the good instructions he received from him, the first money he stamped (which was brass) he impressed on one side the image of himself, and on the other the fore-deck of a ship, in memory of Saturn, according to that of Ovid. i. fast.
Mult a quidem didici ; sed cur navalis in cere Altera signata est, altera Forma biceps?
At bona Posteritas puppem formavit in cere Hospitis adventtwi testificata Dei.
Pliny in lib. xxxiii. cap. 3, says that Servius Tullius was the first who stamped brass money with the image of beasts, and so from pecude the word pecunia. Afterwards the images of the Csesars, with inscriptions and titles, were impressed upon the coin ; so Nero in the habit of a harper. Sueton. in vit. Ner. and Alex- ander Severus in the habit of Alexander the Great, etc.
■'• Terrce filios vulgus vocat, quorimi genus est incerttim. Thus is Tytius called both by Homer and Virgil, "Hyov Wo'4'Of^ivov rtruov yaiiiiov vlov. Odyss. lib. vii., and so again, lib. xi., Ka/ rtTvov sT^av yaim Ip/xv^ios vVov.
Nee non et Tytium Terrce omnipotentis Alumnum.
Id estf Filium, according to Servius. Virgil, ^tieidf lib. vi.
^8 Terhtllian s Apology for the Christians,
a
the son of a man, and consequently the whole swarm of divinities mortal, and like father like son.
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CHAPTER XL
THAT THE FANCY OF MAKING GODS OF DEAD MEN IS A VERY
FOOLISH FANCY.
And because you have not the hardiness to deny but that your gods were once men, and yet stand up for posthumous divinities, or dead men turned into gods, I shall now consider the reasons for such an imagination. In the first place, then, you will be forced to grant some superior God who auctions ^ out His divinity, and upon good consideration makes gods of men ; for men cannot naturalize themselves into gods; nor can any one else bestow the divine nature upon them, but him who is the proprietor of it. But now, if the supreme power itself cannot make gods, you then presume in vain upon made gods without a maker. Certainly if men could deify themselves, they would never have taken up with a human being, when a divine one was in their power. Upon supposition, therefore, that there is one who is able to make gods, I will examine the reasons for making them ; and upon consideration I can find none, unless it be that the supreme God has too much business upon His hands to manage as it should be, without some sub-gods to assist Him. But, first, it is the most unbecoming idea of Almighty power, to think it wants the help of a man, much less of a dead one. And it is as unbecoming infinite wisdom, which could not but foresee its wants, not to have made an assistant deity from the beginning, rather than to tarry to the end of a man's life before he can supply his necessities.
But I can see no room for any help-meet for God ; for whether you consider this great machine of the world as eternal with Pythagoras, or made in time with Plato, you will find it from its structure framed with all materials and movements necessary for the order and government of this vast body ; and He who gave this
^ Mancipem quendam Divinitatis. These mancipes were the chief among the publicans, or the principal farmers of the public revenues. Vid. Cic. de Arusp. respons.f et Alex, ab Alex. lib. ii. p. 520. *
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, 39
pertection to everything could not want it Himself, or stand in need of an assistant. He did not wait for a Saturn, or any of the Saturnian race, to work under Him in the ordering of His world. For men must be vain to the last degree to think that it did not always rain, and the stars dart their rays, and the sun and moon shine perpetually in their orbs, and the thunder bellow, and poor Jove himself, in whose hands now you put the bolts, tremble at the clap ; and likewise that the fruits of the earth were not in being before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, and even the first man was formed out of it ; because the world must be made and pro- vided with all the necessaries of life before man can come to live in it. Lastly, your gods are reputed to be the inventors, and not the creators of these supports of life ; but that which is found out must have a being before it can be found, and that which is thus in being cannot properly be said to be his who found it, but his who made it ; because it was in existence before it was found out. But if Bacchus was consecrated for the discovery of vines, IvUCuUus, methinks, had hard usage to miss of a consecration for the planta- tion of cherry-trees in Italy ; for he is celebrated as the author of this new fruit, because he first brought it over with him from Pontus.
Wherefore, if the universe was well appointed with all its furniture from the beginning, and everything was posted in its proper station, and adjusted with proper powers for the execution of its ofiice, without any foreign assistance, this reason of yours for making of gods falls to the ground ; because the places and functions you assign to them are supplied by nature, and all things would have always been just as they are, whether you had created any gods or no. But you turn over to another reason, and say that this confer- ring of godships was intended for the rewarding of virtue. From hence, I suppose, you will grant the god-making God Himself to be virtuous in perfection, and consequently not to dispense these divine honours at sixes and sevens, without having any respect to the merits of the persons. I desire you therefore to sum up the merits of those you worship for gods, and judge whether they are likely to lift men up into heaven, or not rather press them down to the very bottom of hell, which when the fit is upon you, you call the prison of the damned. This is the dungeon where you thrust the undutiful and incestuous, the adulterers, and ravishers of virgins, and abusers of themselves with mankind, the savage and the murderer, thieves and cheats, and whoever resembles some one god or other of yours ; for you cannot name one without a fault, unless you disown him to have been a man. But they have left too
40 Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
many prints of human frailty to deny them to be men, and such as not only prove them men, but such also as prove it incredible they should be made gods in another world.
If you sit upon the bench to punish such miscreants, and men of honour spit at such nasty acquaintance, and the supreme God takes up such fellows to associate with His Majesty, why then do you condemn them whose colleagues in wickedness you adore ? This justice of yours is mere lampoon and satire upon heaven. If you would get into the good graces of your deities, I would advise you to consecrate the greatest rakes you can find, for certainly a conse- cration of such rakes is doing honour to those they are like.
But not to dwell longer upon things so unbecoming the divine nature, I will suppose your gods to have been good honest men, yet how many better and more noted have you left in hell ? For there have you not left the wise Socrates, the just Aristides, the excellent General Themistocles, and Alexander the Great, Poly- crates the fortunate, Croesus the rich, and Demosthenes the eloquent ? Which of your gods had more gravity and wisdom than Cato, more justice and conduct, with courage, than Scipio, more magnanimity than Pompey, more success than Sylla, more wealth than Crassus, and more eloquence than TuUy? How much more becoming had it been for him who had a foresight of these worthier personages to have stayed till their death before his creation of gods? But he was in haste, I suppose, for company, and having taken up those you worship, he made fast the door, and so heaven lies blushing now to see braver souls repining in hell.
CHAPTER XII.
CONCERNING THE VANITY OF IMAGE-WORSHIP.
But I shall push these things no turther, and take another course to set you right in the notions of your gods ; for by demonstrating what they are not, I shall show what they are. And as much as I can learn of your gods, they have nothing of the venerable but merely their names, imposed by some old people dead and gone. I meet with no account of their lives but what is blended with
Tertulliati s Apology for the Christians. 41
fables, and I find the whole fabric of your religion built upon a pack of human inventions. As for your images, I shall only observe that they are material, and often of the same matter with your common utensils ; and it is ten to one but the holy image has some sister-vessel about the house, the pots and kettles being frequently of the same metal and piece with the gods. Nay, oftentimes the vessels themselves have the good luck to change their fate, and be turned into gods, by the help of consecration, which alters the property, and by the help of art, which alters the form, though not without great sacrilege and contumely to any of the gods in their very making. So that it is, indeed, a mighty consolation to us who are punished for these gods, to find them suffer the like with us, before they come to be worshipful ; for Christians are fastened to crosses and stumps of trees ; and have you ever an image that has not been so applied in its formation ? It is upon a frame of wood in the form of a gibbet where the body first takes its degree of divinity. Our Christian sides are torn with nails ; but how is every member of your poor gods mauled with hatchets, saws, and files ? We lose our heads, and your gods have none, before the lead, and the glue, and the nails set them on. We are drawn about by wild beasts, and so Bacchus is drawn by tigers, Cybele by lions, and Ceres by serpents. We are cast into the fire, and your gods are cast and founded there also. We are condemned to the mines, and are not your gods dug out from thence? We are banished into islands, and there is not an island but is famous for the birth or burial of some god or other. If these are the ways of deifying, then while you are plaguing Christians you are only hammering them into gods, and your punishing ought properly to be called a consecra- tion. But in truth your gods have not the sense to feel the hard- ships they undergo in making, nor the honours you pay them when made. And here I expect you should cry out, O blaspemy ! O sacrilege ! but you may gnash and foam as you please ; yet remem- ber that you yourselves are the admirers of that Seneca, who in his book of superstition has been much severer against you upon this head than I. If, therefore,^ we will not adore your statues and
■* Igitiif si Statuas et Imagines frigidas inortuorum siiortim similliinas non adoramus. This passage the Magdeburgenses, says Pamelius, have wrested against the use of images in the Church, and takes it ill of Zephyrus for conclud- ing that the Christians in Tertullian's time had only the sign of the cross above the altar, and is so unfortunate in his zeal as to take occasion even from hence to justify, not only the use of images, but the worship of them too, in a very long note upon this place. But I shall not pretend to answer a person of such hardiness, only leave it to any impartial reader, whether he can think it possible that Tertullian would have been so merrily severe for this whole chapter together
42 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
images as cold as death, and in this so very hke the bodies they represent, do not we deserve panegyric rather than punishment for leaving an acknowledged error? and which the very kites and mice and spiders know to be dead as well as we.^ Is it possible we can hurt those we are certain are not? For that which is not, is not capable of suffering, because it is not.
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CHAPTER XIIL
CONCERNING THE IRREVERENCE OF THE HEATHEN TO THEIR GODS.
But gods they are in your opinion, say you ; and it so, how comes it to pass that you use them so scurvily, with such profaneness, sacrilege, and irreverence? How dare you despise what you presume to be divine, and pull down the altars of them you fear, and ridicule the deities you defend? Examine the charge, and show where I falsify ; for if you worship, some one god, and some another, how can it be but you must offend the god you overlook ? For you cannot give the preference to one, without postponing another; for in the election and reprobation of gods, as well as men, honour and dishonour are inseparable relations. It is now, therefore, evident that you must put a slight upon the deities you reprobate, and that you cannot be afraid of offending those whom you have the boldness to reprobate. For as I sharply observed before, the fate of every god depends upon the vote of the senate, he must pass the house before he comes to be a god, and the house ungods him at pleasure. As for your domestic deities called Lares,^ you
upon the heathens for the worship of images, had the Christians of his time done the like, by virtue of the Romish distinction between Dulia and Latria, without saying one word of such a distinction.
^ Qiias Milvi et Mures et Aranece mtelligunt. Horace himself takes the liberty of jesting in the like manner.
Mentior at si quid, merdis caput inquiner albis Corvorum.
2 Domesticos Deos quos Lares dicitis. These Lares were painted in the form of a dog, as having charge of the house committed to their custody, according to that of Ovid. Fast. 5.
Pervigilantque Lares, pervigilantque Canes.
The custom in sacrificing to these domestic deities was to eat up all that was offered. Hence that phrase, Lari Sacrificat, when a fellow eats up all before him, he sacrifices to his household god.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 43
treat them I am sure but very homely ; for these household gods are pawned and sold and trucked like other household goods. Saturn is forced sometimes to serve in the kitchen, and Minerva in the laundry ; for when these images are worn out, or much battered by long worshipping, they make a great many good implements ; or if the master is in want, he strips his Lares ; for necessity is the most sacred and soonest served of any god about the house.
The gods of the public, by public order, are profaned just like these gods of the house, for they are bought and sold at market auctions, and entered into your books of account, and pay duties for their deityships ; for if the capitol and the herb-market are to be leased out to farm, they are both proclaimed by the same crier, and the prices of both adjudged under the same standard, and the farm of the god registered by the treasurer, like any other public rent. But the lands which are clogged with the greatest duties are the least valuable, and the heads which pay capitation are most ignoble, because these are marks of servitude. But among the gods I find it otherwise, for they who pay most tribute are looked upon as the most holy ; or rather they have the most devotion paid them who return the most custom. Your divine majesties are your mer- chandize, and their worships are carried about to taverns and ale- houses a-begging.i You demand money for entrance, and money for a place in your temple ; it is not possible to serve your gods gratis ; you turn the penny with them all. Besides, what honours do you confer upon your gods that you confer not upon dead men ? You give to both, chapels, and altars, and images, habited and adorned alike. The human image is dressed out to give an idea of the age, the art, and profession of the person deceased, and the divine one is apparelled with the same design, and in the same manner to exhibit the god. How does a funeral banquet ^ differ from a feast
1 Circuit caupojias Religio mendicans. Here Tertullian no doubt alludes to the practice of the Corybantes, who with the picture of their goddess Cybele in their hands went dancing about the streets with pipes and cymbals playing before them, and keeping time to the thumps upon their breasts, and in this posture they begged all they met ; and from hence were called Cybeles circti- latores, the beggars or jugglers of Cybele, and in Greek — f^'/irpayvprai^ from i^mnfi which in this place signifies Cybele, the great mother of the gods, and kyiprm, an alms-gatherer or beggar.
2 Quo differt ab epulo Jovis silicernium ? Silicernium was a funeral banquet to which the oldest sort were invited, and it being the custom to celebrate this feast upon a stone, the supper was termed Silicerniuni quasi Siliccejiium, that is, cosna super silicem ; and hence this word came to signify an old man ready for the grave, or a funeral banquet, or rather, as our own proverb has it, To give the crow a pudding.
44 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
to Jove, or the vessels you make use of to pour out wine to the gods above, from those you use for the shades below? What difference between a soothsayer and an embalmer, for they are both employed about the entrails of the dead? Nevertheless, I must own you act consistently with yourselves in performing divine honours to the dead emperors, because you did it to them living ; and no doubt but the gods will acknowledge the favour, and thank you for putting them and their masters, the emperors, upon the level.
But when I see you adore Larentina,^ a public strumpet, with the same honours as you do Juno, Ceres, and Diana, methinks I could wish you had taken into your roll the more noted Lais and Phryne ; ^ when you inaugurate Simon Magus ^ with a statue and inscription, To the most Holy God j when you canonize a certain Ganymede * (I know not who), nursed up in apartments at court, although, indeed, your old gods are not of a better family, yet they cannot but take it very ill that you should offer to make gods at this rate, now-a-days, as much as your forefathers did of old.
^ La7'entinam publicam Scortum^ etc. This Larentina I take to be the same with Larentia in Lactantius, the wife of Faustulus, the nurse of Romulus, a noted prostitute among the shepherds, afterwards worshipped by the Romans with divine honours, as Faula, the mistress of Hercules, likewise was. Vid. Lactant. lib. i. sec. 20.
- Laide77i. This same Lais was a celebrated strumpet of Corinth, of whom A. Gellius tells this story : That Demosthenes went privily to her to know her price, she asked him a thousand drachmae, or a talent, at which Demosthenes, being astonished, replied, ovk uvoZfji.ai fivpiav ^(ia,x,[y-uv fAi7a,[^iXua.'j, I will not buy repentance at so dear a rate. Vid. A. Gell. lib. i. cap. 8. And hence that of Horace —
Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.
^ Simonem Magum Staiud et Inscriptione Sancti Dei inaugiiratis. Concerning this statue and inscription to Simon Magus, for which the Fathers have suffered so unjustly from some critics, I have spoken at large in my notes upon Justin's Apology.
^ Nescio quern, etc. This nameless person struck at by Tertullian, Justin Martyr speaks out : it was Antinous, Hadrian's Ganymede and by his order consecrated for this service.
Terttdlian s Apology for the Christians. 45
CHAPTER XIV.
t
THAT THE HEATHENS DO BUT MOCK THEIR GODS IN OFFERING THE REFUSE AND THE VILEST PARTS OF THE SACRIFICE.
I SHALL now take a review of the rites of your religion, but will not insist upon the quality of your sacrifices, which you know to be the oldest and scabidest beasts you can find ; if they happen to be fat and good, you chop off the hoofs and some outside bits, and such pieces only you vouchsafe your gods, which you bestow upon your dogs and slaves. Instead of offering Hercules the tenth of your goods,^ you hardly lay one third of it upon his altar; not that I blame you for this, for believe me, I take it for a great instance of your wisdom, to save some of that which otherwise would be all lost.
But I shall turn to your writings ; and, bless me ! what strange stuff about your gods do I find, even in your institutions of prudence, and such books as are designed to polish a gentleman, and form him to all the offices of a civil life ! Here I find your gods engaged by pairs like gladiators, one against another, helter skelter, some for Greeks, and some for Trojans. Venus wounded with a human
^ De Decima He^'culis, Pliny in his Natural History, lib. xii. cap. 14, mentions a law in Arabia which obliged every merchant to offer the tenth ot his frankincense, the product of that country, to the god Sabis. We find also in Justin, lib. xviii. cap. 7, that the Carthaginians sent the tenth of their spoils, taken in the Sicilian war, to Hercules of Tyre. The Ethiopians paid the tenth to their god Assabinus. Vid, Plin. lib. xii. cap. 19. The Roman general Sylla dedicated the tenth of all his estate to Hercules, and so likewise did M. Crassus. Vid. Plutarch in Sylla et Crasso. Instances in abundance of this kind are to be seen in Selden's Hist, of Tithes, cap. 3, Mountag. diatrib. p. i, cap. 3, and in Spencer de leg. Hebr. lib. iii. cap. 10. Now from hence will arise a question, how it is possible that nations so remote, and who never seem to have had the least commerce or acquaintance with each other, should come to hit upon the same notion as to dedicate an exact tenth, no more nor no less. This proportion is certainly in itself a thing indifferent, and consequently not discover- able by the light of nature, and the practice was too constant, regular, and universal to be ascribed to humour or fancy ; nor can it with any probability be thought to have spread over the world from the Jewish nation, a nation debarred from corresponding with the Gentile world, and morally hated for the singularities of their religion, and besides the custom of dedicating a tenth, was a custom long before the Jews were an established people ; it seems therefore most reasonable to believe that this custom-like sacrifice, priesthood and marriage, was derived from Adam to Noah ; and from him continued by his posterity to the confusion at Babel, and by means of that universal dispersion spread over all the world.
46 Tertullians Apology for the Christianas.
shaft in rescuing her son ^neas ^ from Diomedes, just upon the point of kilHng him. The god of war in chains for thirteen months, and in a very lamentable pickle ; and Jove by the help of a monster narrowly escaping the like treatment from the rest of the celestial gang. One while he is represented crying for his Sarpedon, another while in the arms of his grunting sister, recounting his amours, and protesting that of all his mistresses she is the darling. Besides, which of your poets takes not the liberty to disgrace a god for a compliment to his prince ? One makes Apollo King Admetus's shepherd; another makes Neptune bricklayer to Laomedon; and the man of lyrics, Pindar, I mean, sings of ^sculapius's being thunderstruck for abusing his skill in physic out of covetousness. But I must needs say that Jove did ill, if Jove was the thunderer, in being so unnatural to his nephew, and so envious to so fine an artist. However, these things, if true, ought not to be divulged; nor invented, if false, by any who pretend so much zeal for the gods and their religion. But neither tragedians nor comedians are one bit more tender of the reputation of your deities ; for you shall not meet a prologue that is not stuffed with the disasters and excesses of the family of some god or other. I shall say nothing of the philosophers — let the instance of Socrates serve for all — who in derision of your gods swore by an oak, a goat, and a dog. But Socrates, you say, was put to death for thus denying the gods ; it must be confessed, indeed, that truth has always been on the suffer- ing side, but yet since the Athenians repented of the sentence, and revenged his death with that of his accusers, and erected to him a statue of gold in their very temple ; this, I say, is argument enough that upon second thoughts they came over to Socrates, and ap- proved his testimony against the gods. But Diogenes also rallies very merrily upon Hercules, and the Roman cynic Varro* as waggishly introduces three hundred Joves or Jupiters without heads.
1 Quod /ilium suum ^neam pene interfechim, etc. These words are not in Rigaltius's edition, but being in that of Pamelius, and an illustration of the story, I have translated them ; and the following fables, which the poets have told to the eternal disgrace of the heathen gods, are so common, and so frequently occur in all the Apologists, that I will not presume the reader ignorant.
^ Romamis Cynicus Vari'o. He reckons up forty-three Hercules, as well as three hundred headless Joves. Vid. Tiraquell upon Alex, ab Alex, lib. ii p. 379.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 47
CHAPTER XV.
CONCERNING THE SHAMEFUL REPRESENTATION OF THE GODS UPON THE STAGE AND AMPHITHEATRE.
The profane wits are continually at work to raise you pleasure at the disgrace of the gods ; when you see the farces of Lentulus or Hostilius acted, tell me whether it be the mimics or the gods you laugh at. You can sit out Anubis the adulterer/ and see Luna- masculus played, or Diana whipped, or the last will and testament of dying Jove, or the three hunger-starved Hercules. But besides these pieces of buffoonery, all your comedies and tragedies ^ are chiefly freighted with the uncleanness of your gods. It is a public pleasure to behold Sol in sadness for the fall of his son Phaeton. You can see without a blush the mother of the gods, old Cybele, sighing after a coy shepherd. You can bear to hear all the titles of Jove's adventures sung upon the theatre ; and see with patience Paris sit in judgment upon Juno, Venus, and Minerva. What a lewd and infamous head is that which is masked over to personate a god ! What a prostitute body, formed for the stage by a long
^ Mcechum Anubim^ Lunam Masculum, etc. We may easily conjecture from the several arguments of these farces, that they were a lampoon and public mockery of the gods then in worship ; but none of those mentioned are extant as I know of. The titles of all, but that of Luna Masculus, do in some measure explain them ; and if it may be forgiven in a matter of no moment, and where the commentators are silent, to put in my opinion, it is this, — There was in Assyria among the Carrae a temple dedicated to Luna, in which whoever offered his supplications to Luna was sure to be under petticoat government ; but he who sacrificed to Lunus should continue master of his wife. Vid. Al. Spartian. in Antonin. Caracalla. This no doubt was a subject comical enough for the wits of the time to make merry with the goddess Luna, and the god Lunus, which I take to be the Luna Masculus ; though there may be another meaning not fit to be mentioned.
* Sed et Histrio7tu77i literce oftmem faditatem eorum designant. An. Urb. Cond. 400, there happened a great sickness, and the Romans superstitiously conceiting that the wrath of the gods could no otherwise be propitiated than by the institu- tion of some new games, sent for certain stage-players from Hetruria, which they called Histriones, from the Hetrurian word hister^ which signifies such a player. Vid. Polydor. de Invent, lib. iii. cap. 13. These plays in time, especially the Mimicae, grew to that excessive lewdness, that the pantomimi were put down by Domitian. V^id. Sueton. in vita ejus, cap. 7. Afterwards expelled by Trajan ; and the Histriones by Tiberius. Vid. Tacit, lib. iv., and even by Nero, Tacit, lib. xiii., and Sueton. in vita ejus, cap. 13. And had Tertullian lived in our day, and seen the heathenish freedoms of the stage in a Christian commonwealth, he would have passed a severer censure upon the authors, players, and spectators, who countenance them without a blush, than he did upon those in the age in which he lived.
48 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
course of effeminacy, is that which plays Minerva or Hercules! What profanation and violence is this to divine majesty ! While you applaud the actors, do you not hiss your gods out of the world ? But may be I am to think you more religious in the amphitheatre, where the gods are brought in dancing upon human blood, and upon the dead bodies of criminals ; the gods, I say, which supply the fable, unless it be when the poor actors are forced to suffer to the life, and be the very gods themselves. P'or we have seen an actor truly suffer castration in personating the god Atys of Pessinus ; and another playing Hercules in real flames -, and among the ludi- crous barbarities ^ which are exhibited at noonday, for the entertain- ment of those who are more greedy of them than dinner. I could not forbear smiling to see Mercury going about with a rod of iron red hot, probing the bodies to fetch out the souls, and Jove's brother Pluto, in like manner, with his mallet in his hand to finish those that were not quite dead, and make them ready for the ferry-boat. But now if every one of these things, and many m.ore of the same complexion I could produce, notoriously tend to the disquiet of your gods in possession, and to lay their divine honours in the dust,
^ Inter Ludicras meridianorum crudelitates. To understand this, we must remember that in the morning men were brought forth upon the theatre to fight with wild beasts, and these morning combatants were allowed arms offensive and defensive. Another sort were brought forth about noon (called therefore Meridiani) naked, with swords only in one hand cutting, and with the other hand empty, grasping and tearing each other's flesh. Vid. Sueton. Claud. 34 ; so that Seneca, Ep. 7, comparing these two sorts of combats, sayeth, Quicquid antea pugnahun est, misericordia fuit. But that which I think more material to remark (especially since Pamelius and Rigaltius have not) is, the peculiar light that this custom of Meridian cruelties lets into the 9th verse of the 4th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. The words are these, "I think God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed unto death ; for we are a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men." This verse runs all in terms agonistical, iaxa.rov?, hath set forth us last, or as the Meridian gladiators, the word «-Tri^u^iv is properly Ostendzt, which signifies the author or exhibitor of these inhuman. sights ; and Lipsius makes Ostendere Munns in Tully to be the same with Proponere Munus in Suetonius, both signifying the setter forth or donor of these combats, Vid. Lips, in sat. lib. ii. cap. 18. God hath set forth us the apostles last, l-pri^avKriovg, as men appointed unto death, just as the last gladiators were ; and Siarpov lyir/ihf^^, we are made a spectacle. All which evidently relate to the Meridianorum crudelitates ; and Tertullian, lib. de pud. p. 566, cites the aforementioned verse thus, Puto nos Deus Apostolos 7iovissimos elegit, velut Bestiarios ; "I think God has chosen out us apostles last, as the bestiarii, or men condemned to be torn in pieces by wild beasts." These being the last and bloodiest spectacles, which for that day ap- peared upon the theatre, and for which many were so fond that they would stay out noon and lose their dinner ; for this likewise Rigaltius would have included in this expression, though I think without much reason. However, I have translated it with this intimation.
Terhtllians Apology for the Christians, 49
why then they cannot be looked upon as acted upon a pubHc stage, but merely iii ridicule of religion, both by the actors and spectators also, who delight in such plays. But these you will say are ludicrous and pastimes only; but now if I give you an appendix of some serious debaucheries, which your consciences will testify to be as true as what I have just now spoken of with relation to the theatre, how that adulteries are become a merchandise in the very temple, and women picked up at the altars, and the lust fulfilled in the apartments of the sacristans, and under the same pontific vestments, the very incense still smoking before their eyes. If these, I say, are abominations in vogue among the heathen, I do not see but the heathen gods have more reason to put in their complaints against them than against Christians.
The sacrilegious profaners of temples are only among yourselves ; for Christians never enter your temples while you are serving your idols ; if they worshipped your gods, they might serve them perhaps as you do. But if Christians do not worship the things you worship, pray what is it, say you, that they do worship ? This then is the subject now under examination, that we Christians are the wor- shippers of the true God, who do not worship your false ones, nor go any longer astray after them, when our eyes have been opened to see our error. Here then I shall present you with the whole series of our religion, having first returned an answer to some groundless objections against it
CHAPTER XVI.
1
CONCERNING THE ASS'S HEAD, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE VANITIES CHARGED UPON THE CHRISTIANS.
For some of you have dreamed yourselves into a belief that an ass's head is the Christian's God. This was insinuated first by Cornelius Tacitus,^ who in his fifth book, entering upon the Jewish
^ Cornelius Tacitus hanc suspicionem inseruit. This story concerning the ass's head, and the ground of worshipping it, is not only reported confidently by Tacitus, but also by Plutarch. Vid. Plut. Sympos. lib. iv. Quest. 5, p. 670, and so likewise by Appio the Ale'sandrian many years before, in his books against the Jews. And this fable has been as confidently taken up, and as
50 TertulliarHs Apology for the Christians, ,
war under Vespasian, begins with the history of that nation, their original, name, and reHgion, and giving a loose to his invention, reports that the Jews being delivered, or as he will have it, banished from Egypt, and being in great want of water in the deserts of Arabia, put themselves under the conduct of some wild asses they met by chance, concluding that they were going to drink after pasture, and being in the very article of necessity thus luckily revived, out of gratitude to their benefactors, consecrated a head resembhng that of the beasts who had befriended them in extremity. This account I take to have bred the opinion about the ass's head ; because we, deriving our religion from the Jews, might well be thought to be initiated in the worship of the same idol.
But yet this same author Cornelius Tacitus, in truth a great broacher of lies, in the very same history relates that Cn. Pompey having sacked Jerusalem, to gratify his curiosity in discovering the mysteries of the Jewish religion, went into the temple, and found not one statue or image therein ; whereas, had they worshipped any graven image, he had certainly found it in the most holy place ; and so much the rather because there the vanity had been in no danger of a discovery from strangers, that being a place which the high priests alone were permitted to enter, and which was covered with a veil that kept it from every other eye. As for the objection of the ass's head, I cannot but admire you should insist upon it against Christians, you who cannot deny but that you pay divine honours to all the beasts of burthen, to asses' heads and bodies both, together with their goddess Epona.^ But here, perhaps, lies the crime, that among the worshippers of every animal we should
ridiculously improved by some modern atheists, to discredit the miracle of Moses in making the waters flow out of the rock, who content themselves to solve this mighty work only by saying with an air of assurance that Moses did all he did in this by the help of a wild ass, which he made to follow him, by the sagacity of which thirsty ass he discovered a secret spring in the rock.
^ Cum sua Epona. This Epona was the goddess of stables, and is likewise taken notice of, and read by Minutius Felix just as Rigaltius reads it. Though there is a terrible dispute among the critics, a great cry, and very little wool, about the spelling and quantity of this goddess's name ; some spelling it Hippona, and making the middle syllable long ; others spelling it as Rigaltius does, and making the middle syllable short, and thus Prudentius in his Apotheosi makes it,
Nemo Cloacincb aut Eponce super astra Deabus.
Whoever thinks it worth while may see this point fully cleared by Dr. Holyday in his note upon that passage in the 8th Sat. of Juvenal.
Jurat solum Eponam.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 51
be the ass-worshippers only. I come now to another calumny, which blackens us with the adoration of a cross ; ^ and here I shall prove the calumniator himself to be a fellow-worshipper or sharer in the scandal ; for he that worships any piece of timber is guilty of the thing charged upon us ; for what signifies the difference of dress and figure, while the matter and substance is the same — they are wooden gods at best ? Yet where is the difference between a plain cross and your Athenian Pallas, and Pharian Ceres, which
' Sed et qui Crucis Religiosos nos putat. The primitive Christians (as I have already observed upon Justin Martyr), from signing themselves in baptism with the sign of the cross, and the constant use of it almost in the most common actions of life in honour of their crucified Master, were defamed by the heathens as worshippers of a cross. Tertullian therefore in this place sets himself to wipe off this scandal from the Christians, and does it as effectually, I think, as words can do it. And yet Pamelius is so very sanguine as to affirm that this passage, however understood, most certainly makes for the worship of the cross. That is, let Tertullian speak what he will against the worship of the cross, yet he most certainly speaks for it ; but let us consider the case. Our author is here not only answering but retorting the objection of worshipping a cross upon the objectors themselves, and to this purpose makes use of the argument ad homineni ; and says that they of all men had the least reason to charge the worship of a cross upon Christians, because there was not an image they erected but what resembled a cross in part ; and then with his usual smartness concludes that we who worship an entire cross, if we do worship it, methinks have much the better on it of you, who worship it only by halves. " If we do worship it," says this commentator, is only a wise and wary expression, frequent with the primitive Fathers ; for fear, had he confessed the worship of the cross freely, it might have confirmed the heathen in their old idolatry. And this is so true, says Pamelius, that in the 21 cap. Tertullian durst not speak out that the Christians worshipped Christ, but God only through Christ. But wise reserves and wary expressions, and such pious frauds, were strange things to primitive Christians. Idolatry was the reigning sin of these times, and what all the Christian apologists you will find labour most of all to expose and ridicule out of the world. Justin Martyr spends great part of his First Apology in doing so, plainly and publicly affirming that the Christians worshipped one God only in the Trinity of Persons, and argues at the same rate against worshipping of crosses as Tertullian here does. Minutius Felix does the very same likewise, and says in the person of Octavius, Criices etiani nee eolinnis, nee optamus ; "as for crosses, we neither desire nor worship them," p. 89. And our Tertullian is so bold a writer, so free and open in his confessions, and so liberal of his satire upon all occasions, that he would be the last man I should charge with reserve and caution. The useful distinction between Latria and Dulia never entered into his head ; nor did any of the first Fathers ever imagine that there was anything in the Christian religion which if discovered might confirm the heathens in their idolatry. And in the very chapter referred to by Pamelius, our author makes it his business to vindicate the Christians from the charge of idolatry, by proving Christ to be the Logos, the Son of God, and truly and properly God, and that this hypostatic union of the divine with the human nature was the foundation of that divine worship which Christians paid to Christ ; to which excellent chapter I recommend the reader.
5 2 Terhtlliaii s Apology for the Christians.
are but rude, unpolished posts exposed without a stroke or im- pression of the artist upon them ? There is not an image you erect but resembles a cross in part; so that we who worship an entire cross, if we do worship it, methinks have much the better on it of you who worship but half a cross.
I have already mentioned how all your earthen gods derive their divinity from a cross, the image-maker putting the clay upon crosslike engines before he forms it ; but you likewise adore your goddess Victoria in this form, for crosses are the inward part of this deity, your trophies being only poles laid across, and covered over with the spoils of the enemy. For indeed the Roman religion is entirely martial; they worship their standards, and swear by their standards, and pay diviner respects to their standards more than to any other god whatever. All the rich embossments and embroidery of images upon your colours are but necklaces to a cross, and the flags and streamers are but the robes of crosses ; and really I cannot but commend your care and tenderness in not letting your crosses go naked, and not consecrating them till they are in the best apparel. Others with a greater show of reason take us for worshippers of the sun.^ These send us to the religion of Persia, though we are far from adoring a painted sun, like them who carry about his image everywhere upon their bucklers. This suspicion took its rise from hence, because it was observed that Christians prayed with their faces towards the east. But some of you likewise out of an affectation of adoring some of the celestial bodies wag your lips towards the rising sun ; but if we, like them,
■'■ Alii plajie humanius et verisimilius solem credant Deum nostrum. Here again it is very observable (though PameHus thought it his best way not to observe it) that those who objected the worship of the sun to Christians, did it with greater appearance of truth than those who objected the worshipping a cross. The ground of this slander you have in the text ; but that which I think worthy our notice is this, that Tertullian in this place expressly says that the Christians in his time worshipped towards the east ; he says the same likewise in his book ad Nat. lib. i. cap. 13, and so does Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. 7. And also Origen, Horn. 5, in Ntimer. cap. 4, p. 210. Their altars were usually placed to the east, and when they worshipped they always turned to the altar. And therefore when Socrates mentions the church of Antioch, in which he says the altar stood towards the west, he withal adds that the situation of the altar was inverted. Vid. Socrat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 22. As the Jews therefore bowed themselves down towards the mercy-seat, so did the Christians in like manner bow their faces towards the holy table, praying with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner ; " as is evident from the liturgies of St. Chrysostom and St. Basil. So little knowledge of antiquity, or so much wilful disrespect to the best Christians in the purest ages, do some men show in condemning the most primitive and reverential ceremony of bowing towards the table of the Lord.
Tertttllian s Apology for the Christians, 53
celebrate Sunday as a festival and day of rejoicing, it is for a reason vastly distant from that of worshipping the sun ; for we solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath, and devote it to ease and eating, deviating from the old Jewish customs, which they are now very ignorant of.
But there is a strange edition of our God now exposed about the city; the picture was published first by a rascally gladiator, very notable for his dodging tricks in combating with beasts, and published, I say, with this inscription — Onochoetes^ the God of the Christians.-^ He had the ears of an ass, with a hoof on one foot, and holding a book in another, and clothed in a gown. We could not forbear smiling both at the name and the extravagance of the figure. But they certainly ought to fall down before this biformous deity, upon his first appearance, who are used to worship such monstrous compounds, branching out into the heads of a dog and a lion, and with horns like a buck and a ram, and with haunches like a goat, and shanks like a serpent, with wings upon their feet and backs.
But this is over and above, because the world should see that I have not omitted anything industriously, and not only answered all the objections, but turned them upon our adversaries ; and now having wiped ourselves clean of their aspersions, I shall proceed to the demonstration of the Christian religion.
CHAPTER XVIL
CONCERNING THE GOD OF CHRISTIANS.
The God we worship is one God, that Almighty Being who fetched this whole mass of matter, with all the elements, bodies and spirits which compose the universe, purely out of nothing, by the word of His power which spoke them into being, and by that wisdom which ranged them into this admirable order, for a becoming image and glorious expression of His divine majesty,
Deus Christianorum Onochoetes. Concerning the various lections of this word, see Rigaltius upon this place, and Voss. de Idol. lib. iii. cap. 5, p. 563.
54 Tertulliav! s Apology for the Christians.
which world the Greeks call by a word implying beauty. This same God is invisible, though we discern His infinite majesty in all His works, and whom we cannot touch, though represented to us by divine revelation, and united to us by His Spirit ; and incom- prehensible, though we come to some imperfect ideas of Him by the help of our senses.
These are the characters of the true God, but that God which is sensibly visible, palpable, and comprehensible is of less value than the very eyes that see Him, and the hands that handle Him, and the understanding that grasps Him ; for that which is immense is measurable by nothing but itself, the things that are, force the knowledge of Him indeed in some measure upon us, but our capacities can never hold Him. And thus by the evidence of His works, and the immensity of His being, God becomes intelligible, and at the same time passes all understanding. And this it is that renders men without excuse, because they care not to retain that God in their knowledge, whom they cannot avoid knowing. For shall I show you Him in the vast variety of wonders which encompass our beings, and preserve them, and which serve not only to fill us with delight, but awe and wonder ? Shall I show you Him from the inward testimony of your very soul; which, notwithstanding its pressure in this prison of the body ; notwith- standing it has been scribbled over by vicious institutions, or inclosed by bad examples ; notwithstanding it has been emasculated by lust and concupiscence, and in bondage to the worship of false gods. Yet nevertheless, I say, when the soul comes to herself, as from a debauch, or after sleep, or a fit of sickness, and recovers her health and reflection, she has recourse to the name of the God, and invokes Him by the single name of the God. This being the proper title, and emphatically expressive of the true God ; the great God, the good God, the God which is the giver of all good things, are forms of speech in every one's mouth upon special occasions. This God is appealed to as the Judge of the world, by saying, God sees everything, and I recommend myself to God, and God will recompense me. Oh ! what are all these sayings but the writings of God upon the heart, but the testimonies of the soul thus far by nature Christian ? And when she has these words in her mouth, she turns not her eyes to the capitol, but up to heaven, as well knowing that to be the residence of the living God, and that He is the author of her being, and heaven the place of her original.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 5 5
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONCERNING THE SEPTUAGINT, OR THE WRITINGS OF THE PROPHETS TRANSLATED INTO GREEK BY THE ENDEAVOURS OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS.
But in order to bring men to a more perfect and powerful knowledge of the divine nature, and also of the methods of His wisdom, and the laws of His will, God has added to the light of nature an instrument in writing of these things, for the instruction of those who are willing to be at the pains of inquiring after Him,^ and desirous to find Him in their inquiries, and to believe Him when found, and serve Him when believed. For this end, the most just and innocent persons, such who have lived up most faithfully to the instructions of nature, and consequently the most becoming or the best prepared subjects for larger communications of divine knowledge, such, I say, were sent out from the beginning with mighty effusions of the Holy Spirit to preach to the world that there is but one only God, that it is He who created all things and formed man out of the earth (for He indeed is the true Prometheus), who methodized the world into this variety of seasons, and in succeeding ages pubhshed His divine majesty and vengeance by a deluge of water, and fire, and brimstone from heaven, who has positively determined the laws He will be served by, if we will serve Him with acceptance ; which laws you know not and will not learn ; but to the observers of them has destined rewards, who, when He comes to judgment at the last day, having raised all the dead ^ that have been dead from the beginning of the world, and restored to every man his body, and summoned the whole world before Him to examine and render to all according to their works. He will recompense His true worshippers with life eternal, but will sentence the wicked into perpetual running streams of fire everlasting.
1 Si qui velit de Deo inquirere, etc. Revelation was added for the assistance of corrupted nature, but then it was so wisely tempered with light and darkness, that those only who search the Scriptures with an honest heart, in order to believe and obey what they find, will be the better for them. Whoever reads them with such a disposition will find himself necessitated to believe them ; according to that of our Saviour, " If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
^ Suscitatis omjtibus ab initio defunctis. Here again we find Tertullian, as well as Justin Martyr, expressly against Mr. Dodwell's notion of a limited resurrection founded upon the natural mortality of the soul.
56 Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
These things were once the subject of our wit and drollery,^ as they are now of yours ; we have been heathens, as you are, for men are not born, but made Christians. As to those excellent person- ages I mentioned, so extraordinarily assisted to preach the world into the notion of one only God, they were called prophets from their office of foretelling things to come. The oracles they delivered, and the miracles they wrought for the confirmation of divine truth, were con- signed to writing, and the books treasured up, and are preserved to this day j for the most learned of the Ptolemys, surnamed Philadelphus, and the most curious man living in all sorts of literature, and rivalling Pisistratus,^ I suppose, in the glories of a library, among other choice pieces which he hunted after, famed either for their antiquity or the rarities they contained, by the advice of his library- keeper, Demetrius Phalereus, the most approved grammarian and
^ HcBC et nos risimus aliqnando, de vestris fuimits. From these words we find that Tertullian had been a heathen, and such a one too as had made very merry with the Christian rehgion. He had as quick and pointed a wit, and as good a knack at rallying and ridicule as the best of them, and his talent this way, and his course of life (which by his own confession was none of the chastest), no doubt provoked all his satire against a doctrine so new, and so cross to his inclinations. However, upon serious consideration, and weighing matters well together, he was overpowered by the goodness and evidence of divine truth, in spite of his passions. And the libertines and unbelievers of our own age (who are by no means before- hand with our Tertullian either in point of wit or reason), would they but as impartially examine the proofs of Christianity, they would find themselves as unable to withstand them as our author confesses himself to be.
^ Pisistraium opinor, etc. The libraries of Ptolemy and Pisistratus the tyrant are both mentioned by A, Gellius, lib. vi. cap. 17, but Tertullian speaks doubt- fully whether Ptolemy Philadelphus erected his library in imitation of Pisistratus or no, and not without reason, because it is probable that the king of Pergamus, in imitation of whom Ptolemy set up his library, was Eumenes. All the ancient Fathers have believed after Josephus and Philo, that the version not only of the Pentateuch but of the whole Bible commonly called the Septuagint, was com- posed by seventy-two Jews sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus, who desired to have the Jewish books in Greek to adorn his magnificent library at Alexandria, under the care and supervisal of Demetrius Phalereus, an Athenian. What the critics have since urged against this opinion of the Fathers, and against the authority of Aristaeus and Aristobulus, upon whom (say they) the Fathers took this story in trust, would be too tedious to insert here, and therefore I refer the reader to the learned Du Pin's preliminary Dissertation about the authors of the Bible, vol. i. sec. 3, p. 35, However, I cannot but say that I do verily believe that there was a Greek version of the Bible made in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ; for to me it does not seem credible that the authors of the books which pass under the titles of Aristaeus and Aristobulus entirely forged the whole story ; much more reasonable is it to believe that these authors only dressed up a certain matter of fact with some additions of their own. F. Simon conjectures that this version was called the Septuagint, because it was approved by the Sanhedrim ; but this, like most of his conjectures, is wild, and without any foundation. See likewise B. Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. lib. i. cap. 3.
Tertulliafis Apology for the Christians, 5 7
critic of his time, sent to the Jews for their sacred writings in their own mother tongue, and which were in their hands alone ; for the prophets were raised up out of this nation, and the prophecies addressed to them, as a pecuhar people, chosen of God out of respect to their forefathers. Those who are now called Jews went heretofore by the name of Hebrews, and from hence is the title of the Hebrew tongue. The Jews gratified the king in the request, and not only sent him their Bible, but also for fear their language should not be understood, sent seventy-two interpreters to translate it into Greek. This is attested by Menedemus, the famous assertor of a providence, who joined with the Jews in this notion, and was a great admirer of their writings. We have likewise the testimony of Aristaeus for the truth of this, who composed a book in Greek upon the same subject. And in Ptolemy's library near the temple of Serapis, among other curiosities are these sacred writings shown to this day. And besides all this, the Jews frequently and publicly on every Sabbath read the same ; they are tolerated to do it, and pay a tax for the toleration. Whoever hears them will find the worship of one God, and whoever will be at the pains to under- stand them will find himself necessitated to believe them.
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITY OF THE WRITINGS OF THE PROPHETS.
One great argument for the authority of these sacred writings is the greatness of their antiquity ; ^ an argument you yourselves are pleased to make use of for the defence of your own religion. I say, therefore, that before any of your public monuments and inscrip-
i Prhnam Instrumentis istis authoritatem summa Antiqicitas vindicat. The strongest and shrewdest adversary Christianity ever met with was the philosopher Porphyrins. He was a man too well versed in antiquity to depend upon the vain pretences of the Grsecians, and therefore made it his business to search after the most ancient records, to find something to match the antiquity of Holy Scripture. And after all his search, he could find no author to vie with Moses but Sanchoni- athon ; and yet when he had made the most of him, he was forced to allow him younger than Moses, though he made him older than the Trojan wars. Nay, he goes about to prove the truth of Sanchoniathon's history by the agreement of it with that of Moses, concerning the Jews both as to their names and places, and so this Goliath fell by his own sword, and defended the cause he designed to destroy. Vid. Euseb. Pi-^^p. Evang. lib. x. cap. 8, p, 285.
58 TertulliarHs Apology for the Christians,
tions, before any of your forms of government, before the oldest of your books, and the original of many nations, and foundation of many famous cities, and the very greyest of historians ; and lastly, before the invention of letters ^ (the interpreters of things, and the most faithful repositories of action), and hitherto, methinks, I have said but little, I say therefore before the very being of your gods, your temples, oracles, and sacrifices, were the writings of one of our prophets extant, which are the treasury of the Jewish religion, and by consequence of the Christian. If you have heard of Moses the prophet, I will tell you his age; he was contemporary with Inachus, the first king of the Argives, older by three hundred and ninety-three years than Danaus, the oldest in your histories. About a thousand years before the destruction of Troy, or as others reckon, about five hundred years before Homer ; ^ the rest of the prophets, though later than Moses, yet the latest of them fall in with some of the first of your sages, lawgivers, and historians. The proof of these things is not a matter of much difficulty, but only it would swell this
1 Ipsas denique effigies literarum, etc. Before the very use or knowledge of letters. It is generally acknowledged by Herodotus, Philostratus, and the most learned of the Greeks, that the Graecians received their very letters from the Phoenicians by Cadmus ; and Parius, the author of the Greek Chronicle in the Marmora Arundeliana, makes Cadmus's coming into Greece to be in the time of Hellen, the son of Deucalion, which according to Cappellus was Anno Mun. 2995, though Mr. Selden sets it something lower, in the eleventh generation after Moses, about the time of Samuel ; and that the Greek alphabet came from the Phoenician or Hebrew, is evident from the very sound of the names of the letters, as well as their form and order. Thus the Greek aX<pa answers to the Hebrew aleph, (inra. to beth, yay.f/.a to giniel, ^sXt» to daloth, etc., all which, both as to form, order, and name, you may see in a diagram exhibited by the great Bochart. Geogr. lib. i. cap. 20. And for anything of history in Greece, we meet with nothing before the beginning of the Olympiads, when the world was above three thousand years' standing.
^ Quingentis amplius et Homeruni. Five hundred years before Plom. Josephus in his first book against Apion says that the Graecians of all nations, though they boasted so much of antiquity, had the least reasons to do it ; for they were but of yesterday in respect of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians, and that notwithstanding they boasted of the invention of letters from Cadmus, yet could they not produce any inscription or sign of letters in his time, and that Homer was the most ancient book extant among them ; nor was this left in writing, but learnt only by heart like other songs, and therefore we find so many fragments and incongruities in his works when they came to be committed to writing from bare memory. But herein Josephus is thought to have strained the point too far, because of the inscription of Amphitrio at Thebes, in the temple of Apollo Ismenius in the old Ionic letters, and two others of the same age to be seen in Herodotus, and for some other reasons. Vid. Bochart. Geog. lib. i. cap. 20. But however this be, certain it is that we find no records of history in Greece till the world was fiill three thousand years of age and more. •
Tertulliau s Apology for the Christians. 59
discourse beyond the bounds of an Ai)ology, it is more tedious than hard ; for abundance of volumes are to be carefully searched into, to make the computation by a different gesture of the fingers.^ We must unlock the archives of the most ancient people, of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians. We must appeal to the writers of those countries who obliged posterity with the knowledge of these things, namely, Manethon the Egyptian, Berosus the Chaldean, Iromus the Phoenician, King of Tyre, and their followers, Ptolemy of Mendes, and Menander the Ephesian, and Demetrius Phalereus, and King Juba, and Apion, and Thallus, and Josephus, a Jewish writer of Jewish antiquities, who either approved these authors or discovered their errors.^ We must also compare the registers of Greece to see what things were done, and when, in order to adjust the successive periods and links of time, which is necessary to clear up history, and set actions in their proper light. And yet, methinks, I have done this already in some measure, and proved, in part, what I proposed, by giving you here a sprinkling of those authors, where you may see the proofs at large. But I conclude it better not to pursue this point further, for fear that by being in haste, either I should not say enough to set the matter beyond dispute, or else by pursuing it particularly I should deviate too far from the main design of this Apology.
CHAPTER XX.
THAT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES IN HOLY SCRIP- TURES PROVE THEM TO BE OF AUTHORITY DIVINE.
If for the reasons aforesaid I have been shorter than you might expect in my proofs of the antiquity of Holy Scripture, I shall
^ Multis instrumentis cum digUorum suppatariis gesticulis adsidendum est. Abundance of volumes are to be searched into to make the computation by a different gesture of the fingers. The multiplication table performed by a different gesture of the fingers is now almost known to everybody ; but whether it was in use in Tertullian's time, and referred to here by him, I will not say ; but surely he has exactly expressed it. And the reason for calling the figures from I to 9 digits, I believe, was from this computation by the fingers.
^ Manethon ^gyptius, et Berosus Chaldceus^ et Iromus Phcenix, Sectatores quoque eorujn Mendesius Ptolemceus, et Mcenander Ephesius et Demetrius Phalerus. Concerning this passage, and the antiquity and credibility of these historians, I desire the reader to consult Bochartus, de Lingud Phoenic et Pun. lib. ii. cap. 17, and likewise B. Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac, lib. i. cap. 2, 3, etc.
6o Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
make you amends now with proofs of much greater importance ; I will show you the Majesty, the God that speaks in these writings ; I will demonstrate the divineness of their authority, if you are still in doubt about their antiquity. Nor need I be long upon this article, or send you a great way for instruction ; the world before you, this present age, and the events therein, shall be your in- structors. For there is nothing of moment now done but what has been foretold ; and what we ourselves see, our forefathers have heard from the prophets. They have heard that cities should be swallowed up of earthquakes, and islands invaded by seas, and nations torn in pieces by foreign and intestine wars, and kingdom split against kingdom, and famine and pestilence take their marches through the world, and every country swarm with proper evils j that the beasts of the mountains should lay waste the plains, that the w^eak and mighty should rise and fall by turns, that justice should grow scarce and iniquity abound, that arts and sciences should lie uncultivated, and the seasons of the year be unkindly, and the elements take an exorbitant course, and the order of nature be disturbed with monsters and prodigies ; — all these things were written beforehand for our admonition. For while we suffer, we read our sufferings j while we reflect upon the prophecies, we find them a-fulfilling \ and this I take to be a proper and most sensible proof of the divine authority of these writings, to feel their predic- tions verifying upon ourselves. Hence it is that we come to be so infallibly certain of many things not yet come to pass, from the experience we have of those that are ; because those were presignified by the same Spirit with these which we see fulfilling every day. The very words and characters of both were indited by the impulse of the very same spirit; and this prophetic spirit sees everything always and at once, though men see only by pieces and successions of time, and are forced to distinguish between the beginning of a prophecy, and the fulfilling it, to separate present from future and past from present.
ft
Wherein therefore I beseech you now, are Christians to blame for believing things to come, who have two such motives to believe, or two such mighty pillars to lean upon, as the pas^. and present accomplishment of the predictions contained in Holy Scripture ?
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 6i CHAPTER XXI.
CONCERNING THE BIRTH AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST.
But because I have already declared the Christian religion to have its foundation in the most ancient of monuments, the sacred writings of the Jews ; and yet many among you well know us to be a novel sect risen up in the reign of Tiberius, and we ourselves confess the charge; and because you Should not take umbrage that we shelter ourselves only under the venerable pretext of this old religion, which is tolerated among you, and because we differ from them, not only in point of age, but also in the observation of meats, festivals, circumcision, etc., nor communicate with them so much as in name, all which seems to look very odd if we are servants of the same God as the Jews ; — therefore I think it necessary to explain myself a little particularly upon this head, and especially because it is in every one's mouth that Christ was a man, and a man, too, condemned to death by the very Jews, which may naturally lead any one at first hearing into a mistake, that we are worshippers of a man, and not of the God of the Jews. However, this their wickedly ungrateful treatment )f Christ makes us not ashamed of our Master; so far from it, that it is the joy and triumph of our souls to be called by our Lord's name and con- demned for it ; and yet for all this we think no otherwise of God than the Jews did. To make out this, I am obliged to say something of Christ as God.
The Jews once were a people in such favour with God, upon the account of their forefathers' faith and piety, which was the root of all their greatness, both with respect to the increase of their families, and the advance of a kingdom, and their happiness was so unparalleled, that God Himself did them the honour even with His own mouth to prescribe them laws, whereby they might secure His omnipotence on their side, and never turn it against them. But how the degenerate children upon the stock of Abraham's faith, and in confidence of their forefathers' virtue, how egregiously they pro- voked God by deviating from His own positive institutions into profaneness and idolatry ; although the Jews themselves will not confess this, yet the present calamities ot that people are a sad and standing testimony against them. For they are now a dispersed,^
1 Dispersi, palabundi, et solt ac ccbU sui Extorres, etc. Justin Martyr in his First Apology, sec. 62, takes notice that it was a capital crime for a Jew so much
62 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
vagabond people, banished country and climate, strolling about the world without any show of government, either divine or human, and so completely miserable that they have not the poor privilege to visit the Holy Land like strangers, or set a foot upon their native soil ; and while the sacred writings did forethreaten these calamities, they did likewise continually inculcate that the time would come about the last days when out of every nation and country God would choose Himself a people that should serve Him more faith- fully, upon whom He would shed a greater measure of grace in proportion to the merits of the founder of this new worship. The proprietor therefore of this grace, and the master of this institution, this Son of Righteousness and tutor of mankind, was declared the Son of God; but not so that this begotten of God might blush at the name of Son, or the mode of His generation ; for it was not from any incestuous mixture of brother and sister, not from any violation of a god with his own daughter, or another man's wife, in the disguise of a serpent, or a bull, or a shower of gold. These are the modes of generation with your Jove, and the offspring of deities you worship ; but the Son of God we adore had a mother indeed, but a mother without uncleanness, without even that which the name of mother seems to imply, for she was a pure virgin. But I shall first set forth the nature of His substance in order to make you apprehend the manner of His nativity.
I have already said that God reared this fabric of the world out of nothing, by His word, wisdom, or power ; and it is evident that your sages of old were of the same opinion, that the Aoyo?, that is, the Word, or the Wisdom, was the Maker of the universe, for
as to set a foot upon the Holy Land. And Eusebius from Aristo Pellseus urges likewise that by the law and constitutions of Adrian the Jews were prohibited to cast even their eyes towards Jerusalem. Eus. lib. iv., Hist. Eccles. cap. 6. Tertullian observes the same here ; and so likewise in his book against the Jews, cap. 13, upon which you will see some remarks by Dr. Grabe in his Spicileg. Pat. sec. 2, p. 131, and certainly the distinguishing misery of this vagabond people even to this day is a strange living monument of the divine wrath ; a mark set upon them by God for the murder of His Christ, and their obdurate infidelity. But then it ought also to be observed, that as God in judgment hath scattered them through all nations, and not suffered them to have a foot of free land in all the world, yet He hath preserved their name and nation in all places, as distinct from all other people, as if they had continued in the Holy Land ; in which His providence and goodness are conspicuous, that according to the prophecies at His appointed time the veil may be taken away from their faces, that they may look upon Him whom they have pierced, and be converted to that Jesus whom they have crucified and ever since blasphemed.
'Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 63
Zeno ^ determines the Logos to be the creator and adjuster of every- thing in nature. The same Logos he affirms to be called by the name of Fate, God, Mind of Jove, and Necessity of all Things. Cleanthes '^ will have the author of the world to be a spirit which pervades every part of it. And we Christians also do affirm a spirit to be the proper substance of the Logos, by whom all things were made, in which He subsisted before He was spoken out,^ and was the wisdom that assisted at the creation, and the power that presided over the whole work. The Logos or Word issuing forth from that spiritual substance at the creation of the world, and generated by that issuing or progression, is for this reason called the Son of God, and the God, from His unity of substance with God the Father, for God is a Spirit. An imperfect image of this you have in the derivation of a ray from the body of the sun ; for this ray is a part without any diminution of the whole, but the sun is always in the ray, because the ray is always from the sun ; nor is the substance separated, but only extended. Thus is it in some measure in the eternal genera- tion of the Logos ; He is a spirit of a spirit, a God of God,^ as one
1 Hunc enim Zeno determinat Factitatorem. Lactantius, lib. iv. sec. 9, p. 186, justly says that the term "k'oyoi is much more expressive of the Maker of the world, than the Latin Verbum or Sermo, as signifying both the Word and Wisdom of God. And had we still continued the Logos instead of the Word in our English translation, it had, methinks, been a term more majestic and more expressive of the personality of Christ than the Word. This Logos was preached up by Zeno as the disposer of nature and the framer of the world, and was called sometimes Fate, God, Mind of Jove, etc., says Lactantius in the place above cited, just as our author speaks here. Concerning this Zeno, the praeceptor of Antigonus and founder of the Stoics, see Diog. Laer. lib. vii.
^ Hac Cleanthes in Spiritum congerit. Concerning the doctrine of Cleanthes, Zeno's disciple, vid. Lactant. lib. i. sec. 5, p. 12.
^ Cid et Sermo insit Fronuncianti, etc. There is a threefold generation of the Son of God frequently mentioned by the primitive writers. The first is the true and proper generation of the Son, which was from the Father before all worlds. The second is the progression of the Logos from His Father at the creation, which they call ^poiXsvtri?, tptvlis, etc. The third was at His incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin overshadowed by the power of the Most High. The second kind of generation is that which TertuUian hints at in the words cited. For the fuller satisfaction in this point I advise the reader to consult Bishop Bull's incomparable Defence of the Nicene Faith, cap. v., concerning the co-eternity of the Son. And so likewise, cap. 7, sec. 5, where he will find several things in this place cleared, and our author vindicated beyond exception as to the doctrine of the consubstantiality of the Son.
* De Deo Detis, ut Lumen de Lumine. This similitude of a ray from the sun, or a light from a light, is not to be looked upon as a full and adequate illustration of the mode how the Son of God was generated by the Father, nor will anything in nature give us a perfect representation of it. It is what Justin Martyr and others have chosen to represent it by ; nor do I know a better to make this incomprehensible mystery apprehended, which is all they drive at ; and it serves
64 TertulliafUs Apology for the Christians.
light is generated by another ; the original parent light remaining entire and undiminished, notwithstanding the communication of itself to many other Kghts. Thus it is that the Logos which came forth from God is both God and the Son of God, and those two are one. Hence it is that a spirit of a spirit, or a God of God, makes another in mode of subsistence, but not in number ; in order of nature, but not in numericalness or identity of essence ; and so the Son is subordinate to the Father as He comes from Him as the principle, but is never separated. This ray of God then descended, as it was foretold, upon a certain Virgin, and in her womb was incarnated, and being there fully formed the God-man, was born into the world; the divine and human nature making up this person, as soul and body does one man. The flesh being wrought and perfected by a divine Spirit, was nursed and grew up to the stature of a man, and then addressed the Jews, and preached and worked miracles among them ; and this is the Christ, the God of Christians. If you please now you may receive this great truth in the nature of a fable like one of yours, till I have given you my proofs ; though it is a truth that could not be unknown to those among you who maHciously dressed up their own inventions on purpose to destroy it. The Jews likewise full well knew from their prophets that Christ was to come, and they are now in expectation of Him ; and the great clashing between us and them is chiefly upon this very account, that they do not believe Him already come. For there being two advents of Christ described in the prophets, the first which is discharged and over, namely His state of humiliation and suflering in human flesh. The second, which is at hand, too, in the conclusion of the world, in which He will exert His majesty, and come in a full explication of divine glory. By not understanding the first, they fixed only upon the second advent, which is described in the most pompous and glaring metaphors, and which struck the carnal fancy with the most agree- able impressions. And it was the just judgment of God upon them for their sins that withheld their understandings from seeing this first coming, which had they understood, they had believed, and by believing had obtained salvation. And this judicial blindness they
sufficiently to declare their sense and notion of it, namely, that Christ from all eternity did co-exist with the Father, as light does with the sun, that He was God of God, without any diminution of the divine substance, as one light is kindled from another, etc. It is evident likewise from this expression of God of God, as Light of Light, what the notion of the Fathers was about the divinity of Christ before the establishment of the Nicene Fathers, who make use of this expression in their creed.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, 65
read of in their prophets/ that their understandings should be darkened, and their eyes and ears of no advantage for their conversion.
Him therefore they could not see to be a God in the humble disguise of a man ; yet seeing the miracles He did, they cried Him down for a conjurer, for dealing with the devil, when He was turning the devils out of all their possessions at a word speaking ; and with the same word bid sight return to the blind, and it returned, and cleansed the lepers, and new braced the paralytic joints, and spoke the dead to Hfe, and made the elements obey, stilling the storms, and walking upon the seas, and demonstrating Himself to be the Logos of God, that is, the ancient first-begotten Word, invested with power and wisdom, and supported by the Spirit, at whose doctrine the very doctors of the law stood aghast, and the chief among the Jews were so exasperated against Him, especially at seeing such numbers of people thronging after Him, that at length, by mere violence and importunity of remonstrating, they extorted sentence against Him to be crucified from Pontius Pilate, then governor of Syria under Tiberius. And all this Christ Him- self foretold they would do, which I will grant you to be an argument not so considerable for the authority of His mission, had not all the prophets long before concurred in every particular. At length being fastened to the cross, and having cried out and commended His spirit into the hands of His Father, He gave up the ghost of His own accord, and so prevented the executioner's breaking His bones, by dying in His own time, and fulfilled a prophecy by so doing. Moreover, in the same moment He dismissed life, the light departed from the sun,^ and the world was benighted at noonday, and those men who acknowledged this eclipse, but were unac- quainted with the prophecies that foretold it upon Christ's death, and finding it impossible to be solved by the laws of nature, at last roundly denied the fact ; and yet this wonder of the world you have related, and the relation preserved in your archives to this day.
^ " Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." Isa. vi. lo.
2 Deliqiduni utique ptitaverunt. An eclipse of the sun at a full moon (as this was) is by the known laws of nature demonstratively impossible, and this it was made it so much taken notice of by the ancient astronomers ; by Dionysius the Areopagite, Apollophanes the Sophist, by Phlegon in his Olympiads, etc. Vid. paraphrase of Zephyrus, and the notes of Pamelius, and especially the annota- tions of Grotius upon Matt, xxvii. 45, where this passage of Tertullian is taken notice of.
C
66 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
Christ then being taken down from the cross, and laid in a sepulchre, the Jews beset it round with a strong guard of soldiers, forearming them with the strictest caution that His disciples should not come and steal away the body unawares, because He had foretold that He would rise again from the dead on the third day. But lo ! on the third day, a sudden earthquake arose, and the huge stone was rolled from the mouth of the sepulchre, and the guard struck with fear and confusion ; not one disciple appearing at the action, and nothing found in the sepulchre, but the spoils of death, the linen .clothes He was buried in. Nevertheless, the chief priests, whose interest it was to set such a wicked lie on foot, in order to reclaim the people from a faith which must end in the utter ruin of their incomes and authority among them, gave out that His disciples came privily and stole Him away. For after the resurrection Christ thought not fit to make a public entry among the people,^ because He would not violently redeem such obstinate wretches from error, and that a faith which proposes infinite rewards should labour under some difficulties, that believing might be a virtue, and not a necessity. But with some of His disciples He did eat and drink forty days in Galilee, a province of Judea, instructing them in all they should teach, ^ and then having ordained them to the office of preaching those instructions all over the world, He was parted from them by a cloud, and so received up before them into heaven, much more truly than what your Proculus's report of Romulus, and some others of your deified kings. Pilate, who in his conscience
1 Nee ille se in Tjulgus eduxit, etc. These and the following words give the true reason why Christ after His resurrection would not show Himself publicly to all His crucifiers. Because He would not bestow upon such obstinate offenders, who had abused all His former miracles, such an evidence as must in a manner have forced them to believe, whether they would or no ; and therefore it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, x. 40, " Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly ; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He arose from the dead."
2 Docens eos qucz docerent, dehine Ordinatis eis ad Offieium Prcedieandi, etc. It is very evident in this place that our author makes a notorious distinction between Christ teaching His apostles in what they should instruct the world, and His ordaining them to the office and authority of preaching those instructions ; and as Christ was sent by His Father, so by the same authority did He commis- sion His apostles to ordain others, and promises to be with them to the end of the world. And therefore to say that the people have a natural right to ordain their own ministers, is in effect to say they have a natural right to do a thing when Christ has determined to the contrary. And because the apostles gave the people a liberty to choose whom they would have for deacons, therefore they had a right to ordain them to that office by prayer and imposition of their own hands.
Tertulltan's Apology for the Christians, 6y
was a Christian, sent Tiberius Caesar an account of all these proceedings relating to Christ ; and the Caesars had been Christians too, could the ages have borne it, if either such Caesars had not been necessary and unavoidable in such times, or could Christians have come to be Caesars. The apostles, in obedience to their Master's command, went about preaching through the world, persecuted by the Jews to the last degree, but suffering victoriously, in full assurance of the truth ; but at length the infidels taking the advan- tage of the barbarous Nero's reign, they were forced to sow the Christian religion in their own Christian blood. But I shall take an occasion, by and by, to produce such witnesses as you yourselves must think authentic for the truth of the Christian religion ; for I shall produce the gods you worship vouching for the God of Christians. This must needs be surprising, you will say, that I should bring in those to convert you to the faith, for whose sake it is that you are infidels. In the meantime you are to look upon this as the series and economy of the Christian religion. I have laid before you an account of the original of our sect, of our name, and of the author of it ; let no man therefore now throw such dirt and infamy upon Christians, nor harbour an opinion that this account is not according to truth ; for it is not reasonable to believe that any one should think it allowable to lie for his religion ; ^ for every man by saying he adores one, while in his mind he adores another, denies the very deity he adores, and translates divine honour from his own god to that other, and by such a translation un worships the god he worships. But we say we are Christians, and say it to the whole world, under the hands of the executioner,^ and in the
^ Quia nee fas est ulli de sua Religione mentiri. Pamelius brings forth this passage in great state, as if it made notably for the papists against certain heretics of his time, who justified lying for their religion. I do not know what heretics he means, and if there be any that do so, they certainly do very ill, and against the apostle's rule of not doing evil that good may come of it ; but had he con- sidered some certain casuists of their own, he might have spared this reflection.
- Dicimus etpalam dicimus, et vobis torquentibus lacerati et cruenti vociferatnur, Deum colimus per Christum. The primitive Christians were not ashamed or afraid to proclaim, to proclaim it to the whole world, and under the hands of the executioner, and weltering in their own blood, that they worshipped God through Christ. Do we ever read of any generation of men so greedy of martyrdom before, who thought it long till they were upon the rack, and so cheerful and stedfast under the most intolerable torments ? What a restless posture of mind does Socrates betray, the wisest and best of heathens ! With what misgivings and fits of hope and fear does he deliver himself in that most famous discourse, supposed to be made by him a little before his death, about a future state ! Vid. Plat. Fhced. Do we find that Phsedo, Cebes, Crito, and Simmias, or any of his greatest friends, who were present at his death, condemning his murder in the Areopagus, and asserting the worship of one god as the Christians did ? Did
68 Tertnllians Apology for the Christians.
midst of all the tortures you exercise us with to unsay it. Torn and mangled and covered over in our own blood, we cry out as loud as we are able to cry that we are worshippers of God through Christ. Believe this Christ, if you please, to be a man, but let me tell you He is the only man by whom and in whom God will be known and worshipped to advantage. But to stop the mouth of Jews, I have this to answer, that they received every tittle of their religion from God by the meditation and ministry of the man Moses ; and as to the Greeks, did not Orpheus upon Mount Pieria, and his disciple Musseus at Athens, and Melampus at Argos, and Trophonius in Boeotia, were not all these men who initiated these several countries in their religion? And to turn my eyes upon you, who are the masters of the world, was it not the man Numa Pompilius, who bound on these heavy burdens of ceremony and superstition upon the Romans ? Why then, I pray you, must not Christ be tolerated to give the world a commentary of that divinity ^ which is His own, properly His and His alone ? He who did not begin His govern- ment upon a wild uncultivated people, and astonish them into subjection and civility by a multitude of imaginary gods, after the example of your Numa, but addresses the most polished and
not Plato afterwards dodge about, and disguise himself under feigned names, and say and unsay the most excellent truths for the security of his skin ? And did not all the academics afterwards keep much upon the reserve, for fear that dogmatizing should send them after their master Socrates ? How then comes it to pass that Christians, and Christians only, should dare to suffer at this rate above all the philosophers in the world, and that the same generation of men should hold on suffering for four hundred years together, till they had subdued the world by dying for their religion ? Had not Christians the same flesh and blood, the same sense and feeling as other men ? and did they not desire happiness as much as other men ? If so, then nothing but the clearest, the most powerful and convincing arguments could possibly engage such numbers of men in a particular worship, and support them under it in defiance of death in the most shocking circumstances. And with what face could a Christian offer to persuade a heathen to embrace such a persecuted religion, without the clearest convictions imagin- able? This argument from the primitive sufferings, and from the manner of them, for the truth of Christianity I insist upon the longer, not only because it is strong in itself, and so often appealed to in these Apologies, but because to me it is more moving, and apter to take hold of the heart, than all the speculative proofs in nature.
1 Licuerit et Christo commentari Divinitatem, rem prop7'iam. Here it is observable that Tertullian calls the divinity of Christ, Rem propriam, an expres- sion which denotes our Saviour to be as truly and really God, as man can be said to be the proprietor of anything in the sense of the law. Thus when our Saviour said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," the Jews sought to kill Him, because vaTipoc 'i%ov 'ixiys <rov &iov, He said God was His own proper Father in a sense incommunicable to any creature, making Himself equal to God, John V. 17, 18.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 69
brightest people in the world, a people blinded and lost in their own philosophy and wisdom, and helps them to eyes to see their folly and the way of truth.
Inform yourselves carefully, therefore, whether the divinity of Christ is not the true divinity you ought to worship, and which, if once entertained, new makes the old man, and forms him to every virtue, and consequently all divinities but Christ ought to be renounced as false, and those especially, in the first place, which lie lurking under the names and images of dead men, and by lying signs and wonders and oracles pass for gods, when in truth they are but devils, as I am now going to prove.
-0-
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCERNING DEMONS, THEIR POWER, AND THEIR WAYS OF
OPERATION.
We say then that there are a certain kind of spiritual substances existing in nature, which go by the name of demons, and the name is not of a modern stamp; the name and the thing being both well known to the philosophers, for Socrates undertook nothing without the privy council of his demon. And no wonder, when this familiar is said to have kept him close company from his childhood to the conclusion of his life, continually, no doubt, injecting dissuasives from virtue.^ The poets likewise talk of demons, and even the illiterate vulgar
^ DeJwriatorium plane a bono. The words immediately before concerning this demon of Socrates are almost exactly transcribed by Lactantius, lib. ii. p. 105. However, I cannot but say that this character contradicts all the accounts we have concerning the practice of this demon, from such persons as were best able to understand the matter of fact, who represent it quite contrary to this character of Tertullian. Nothing occasioned more speculations and amusement in the time of Socrates than his demon, insomuch that one of his friends went to consult the oracle about it. Vid. TlutRX ch o{ the demon of Socra/es. Nor would Socrates make Simias any answer upon the question, and therefore the rest of his friends desisted for the future from asking him any more about it. But Xenophon and Plato, who certainly were two of his nearest friends, and best understood this matter, were far from imagining, as some since have done, that this demon was nothing more than his natural sagacity or understanding. The sum of the story, as we have it in the Dialogue entitled Theages, and elsewhere, is this : the directions of this demon were only dehortatory, but not from good, as Tertullian thinks, but from evil. The demon never advised him to do, but
70 Tertulliafis Apology for the Christians.
frequently apply to them when they are in the cursing mood ; for by a secret instigation on their minds when they invoke these demons in their imprecations, they do in effect invoke Satan,^ who is the prince of the evil spirits. Plato himself is express for the being of angels, and the magicians are ready to attest the same when they have recourse to the names of angels and demons both, in their enchantments. But how from a corrupted stock of angels, corrupted by their own wills, another worse and more degenerate race^ of
only to forbear an action ; when it would be of ill consequence either to Socrates or his friends, he heard a voice, which was the sign to forbear ; when he heard it not, it was always his warrant to proceed ; so that one would be apt from hence to conclude that the voice was not articulate, but a bare sign only. And Xenophon reports that of all the numberless predictions (of which, according to Tully, Antipater collected a large volume) of disasters that would befall his friends, not one of them failed in the event. But Plato's Apology of Socrates, Camb. Edit. sec. 21, is very remarkable, where we have a veiy plain and strange account of the operations and nature of this demon. *' It is very strange " (says Socrates, addressing his judges with incomparable calmness just before his execution) "that the prophetic voice of the demon, which never failed before of dissuading me in matters of the smallest moment, where the consequence would be ill, il rt fji.ixxot[jct fin opdus <rpa,'^uv, etc., should now in the worst of evils, according to your opinion, be silent, and neither when I left my house in the morning, nor when I went to the bar, nor all the time I have been pleading here, should ever give me the wonted signal, ob yap 'iffS o-xui ou» hvavriuCn a,v fji,oi to ilu6o$ ir'/]fii7ov, il [j(.'n n 'if^iXXov lyu uyaSov •z'pa.^iiv ; for it could not be but that I should hear his usual dissuasive was I not upon doing my duty, or that which would turn to my advantage." Now when I read the character of Socrates from those who certainly were best acquainted with him, when I find him employing all his reason to bring men off from barren speculations to the knowledge of themselves, and the practice of substantial virtue, when I find him the greatest master of his passions, the most judicious despiser of riches within his reach, the most temperate, humble, courteous, inoffensive man living in the Gentile world, when I find him encouraged by his demon to die for the profession of the one true God ; when Justin Martyr in his First Apology, sec. 5, says that the evil demons contrived his death for his attempts to rescue mankind from the worship of devils ; that he, by his share of reason, did among the Greeks what the Logos Himself did among the Barbarians, and that both were condemned for the same good designs ; — who, after this, I say, can think Socrates possessed and governed by an evil spirit ? Why not rather divinely assisted to preach down idolatry, and bring moral righteousness into practice, and by such means to prepare and qualify the heathen world for the revelation of the Messiah ?
^ Nam et Satanam — exen-amenti voce pronunciat, etc. I do not find that the Romans ever cursed expressly by the name of Satan, but by making use of the word Malum or a mischief, take you, as we say ; and Satan being the prince of mischief and virtually included in every such curse, they might be said in this sense to pronounce Satan in their imprecations.
- Sed quomodo de Angelis quibusdam sua spojtte corruptis, corruptior Gens Dmnonum evaserii, etc. This odd opinion we find in both the Apologies of Justin Martyr, as well as in this of Tertullian, and so likewise in Athenagoras, etc. The ground of it I take to be this : the Fathers were generally of opinion
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 7 1
demons arose, condemned by God, together with those they descended from, and Satan the prince of them, whom I just now mentioned, for the history of this, I say, I must refer you to the Holy Scriptures.
But not to insist upon their generation, it will be sufficient to my purpose to explain their operations, or their ways of acting upon the sons of men. I say, then, that the ruin of mankind is their whole employment ; these malicious spirits were bent upon mischief from the beginning, and fatally auspicious in their first attempt, in undoing man as soon as he was made ; and in like manner they practise the same destructive methods upon all his posterity, by inflicting diseases upon their bodies, and throwing them into sad disasters, and stirring up sudden tempests and preternatural emotions in the soulj and they are fitted by nature for both these kinds of evil, the subtilty and fineness of their substance giving them an easy access to body and soul both. These spirits certainly have great abilities for mischief, and that they do it is apparent, though the manner of effecting it is invisible, and out of the reach of human senses ; as, for instance, when a secret blast nips the fruit in the blossom or the bud, or smites it with an untimely fall just upon its maturity, or when the air is infected by unknown causes, and scatters the deadly potions about the world; just so, and by a contagion that walketh in the like darkness, do demons and evil angels blast the minds of men, and agitate them with furies and
that evil spirits were clothed with a finer sort of body, which was fed and refreshed from the nidours and steams of the sacrifices. They found these spirits had a prodigious power over the bodies they possessed, and could not certainly tell but this power might extend even to generation. And finding in Josephus, lib. i. cap. 4, 'roXkoi ayyiXoi SioZ, etc., that many angels of God mixing with women begot a devihsh wicked offspring, and perhaps meeting likewise an ancient edition of the Septuagint, which read ayyskoi where we read ol ulo) rod Qiov, the angels of God, instead of the sons of God, went in to the daughters of men, Gen. vi. 4. And meeting perhaps with something of the same nature in that supposititious piece which went under the name of Enoch's prophecy, they might by these means be led into this mistake. However, St. Chrysostom, J/om. 22 uJ>on Gen., St. Ambrose, lib. de Noe et Area, cap. 4, have set this matter right, by interpreting the sons of God to be the posterity of Seth. And though some men, who think themselves well employed in raking this, and all they can, to invalidate the authority of the Fathers, in order to serve their cause, may think it reasonable not to depend upon such mistaken men, yet such mistakes, in my opinion, do not in the least affect their authority in such cases, for which we chiefly depend upon them ; for is there any consequence in this way of reason- ing? Because the Fathers have sometimes been mistaken in matters of pure reasoning, as the wisest and best of men may sometimes be, therefore they are not to be credited in plain matters of fact, wherein they cannot be mistaken.
72 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
extravagant uncleannesses, and dart in outrageous lusts with a mixture of various errors ; the most capital of which errors is that, having taken possession of a soul, and secured it on every side from the powers of truth, they recommend to it the worship of false gods, that by the nidours of those sacrifices they may procure a banquet for themselves, the stench of the flesh and the fumes of the blood being the proper pabulum or repast of those unclean spirits ; and what more savoury meat to them than to juggle men out of the notion of the true God with delusions of divination, which delusions I come now to unfold.
Every spirit, angel, and demon, upon the account of its swiftness, may be said to be winged, for they can be here and there and everywhere in a moment ; the whole world to them is but as one place, and any transactions in it they can know with the same ease they can tell it ; and this velocity passes for divinity among such as are unacquainted with the nature of spirits ; and by this means they would be concluded the authors of those things sometimes of which they are only the relators ; and verily sometimes they are the authors of the evil, but never of the good. They have collected some designs of providence from the mouths of the prophets ; and to those sermons, whose sound is gone into all the earth, do they apply at present to pick out something whereby to form their conjectures about events to come ; and so, by filching from hence some revolutions which have succeeded in time, they rival the divinity, and set up for gods, by stealing his prophecies. But in their oracles,^ what dexterity they have showed in tempering their
^ In oraculis autem, quo ingenio amhiguitates temperent in eventus, sciunt Crcesi, sciunt Pp-rhi. The notorious ambiguity of the heathen oracles in general, and particularly in the cases of Croesus and Pyrrhus,
Aio te y^acide Romanos vincere posse, Intrepidus si CrcesMS Hylam, etc.
This ambiguity, I say, together with the folly and flattery of the responses and the like, made some of the heathens, who were most inclined to atheism, to conclude it all pure priestcraft ; and for no better reasons have some moderns, no well-wishers to the doctrine of spirits, concluded the same also, and treated the Fathers as a parcel of good-natured, easy men, who took everything upon trust. But now I would ask these men of criticism and infidelity, what kind of proofs will content them in matters of fact ; was ever any fact better and more univer- sally attested even by the heathens themselves, than oracles and the cessation of them ? Was ever anything more notorious in the time of our Saviour than the possessions of private persons ? Was anything more commonly appealed to than the dispossession of evil spirits, for some hundreds of years after, by the first Christians? Does not Tertullian challensie the senate upon this article, and
TertulliafU s Apology for the Christians. 73
responses with a convenient ambiguity for any question, the Croesuses and the Pyrrhuses know with a witness. It was by virtue of the forementioned velocity that Pythian Apollo, cutting through the air in a moment to Lydia, brought back word that Croesus was boiling a tortoise with the flesh of a lamb.^ Moreover, these demons, by having their residence in the air, and by reason of their neighbourhood and commerce with the stars and clouds, come to know the dispositions of the heavens, and promise rain, which they see falling when they promise. These demons likewise are very beneficent no doubt in the cure of diseases, for they first inflict the malady, and then prescribe the remedy, but remedies marvellously strange, and contrary to the distemper ; and after the patient has used the recipe, the demon omits to afflict him, and that omission passes for a cure. But why should I give more instances of their wiles and strength in delusion, or mention the phantoms of Castor and Pollux,^ or a sieve holding water,^ or a ship drawn by a girdle,
stake his life and the truth of his religion upon this proof, that upon a Christian's adjuring a person possessed, the evil spirit shall not only come out of him, but confess himself a devil in the presence of them all, as truly as before he had falsely owned himself to be a god ; if so, I would fain see a good reason why an evil spirit should not possess a Pythian priestess as well as any other person. Sure I am that the kingdom of darkness was mainly supported by keeping up the oracles ; nothing therefore could hinder the devil from this but want of power ; and why he should have so much power over private persons, and not over his own priestesses, is hard to tell. That there was oftentimes much tricking and human fraud in the management of oracles, I doubt not ; but that it was all pure priestcraft therefore is a consequence I can never allow, until men can prove there is no good money because there is much counterfeit ; whereas there would be no counterfeit was there no reality for the ground of imitation. Had but the heathen world known that our first parents were seduced by the devil ; had they but known the distinction of good and evil spirits, and that these latter had been always intent upon the destruction and delusion of mankind, and that one great reason of Christ's coming into the world was to destroy the worship of devils, they would never have questioned the existence of oracles ; nor would the Fathers have been thus discredited in a matter of fact, for which they had the testimony of their senses. But finding abundance of false and foolish things reported of the oracles, and from thence justly concluding they could not come from an all-wise and good being, and not considering that they might proceed from ignorant and malicious spirits, and having no mind perhaps to such strong proofs of another state, they ran into a common extreme from believing everything to believe nothing, and to conclude the whole business of oracles to be mere trick and imposture.
^ This story about the tortoise is told at large by Herodotus in his Clio.
^ The phantoms of Castor and Pollux are said to have acquainted the Romans of the victory of the Macedonic war the same hour it was obtained.
^ Tucia is the vestal virgin, who is reported to have done this feat with a sieve ; and Claudia the other, who dragged along a ship foundered on the Tyber by the strength of her girdle.
74 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
or a beard turned red with a touch ? ^ For all these are impostures only of demons to keep idolatry in countenance, to make men take stones for deities, and to detain them from any further inquiries after the true God.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CONCERNING THE SUBJECTION OF EVIL SPIRITS TO THE COMMAND
OF CHRISTIANS.
Moreover, if magicians do set before your eyes a scene of spectres, and, by their black arts, or direful forms in necromancy, call up the souls of the dead ; ^ if they throw children into convulsions,^
•^ It was Domitian's black beard, which is here said to be turned red with a touch of Castor and Pollux, to make him give credit to the news of the victory they told him of, and from hence he was surnamed ^nobarbus or Rusty Beard. One thing the reader can hardly forbear taking notice of in the conclusion of this chapter, and that is, between the tricks and amusements of evil spirits and the substantial miracles of mercy wrought by Christ and His apostles, between discolouring a beard and curing the sick or raising the dead.
^ Defunctorum animas infamant, aliter inclamant. These several species of magic you find mentioned by Justin Martyr, ApoL i. sec. 24. See more of this in our author, de Anima, cap. 57, etc. Vid. Maxim. Tyr. Dissert. 22. This kind of divination by the dead, called necromancy, was very ancient and very familiar in the Gentile world. A memorable example of which we find, i Sam. xxviii., where Saul being about to war with the Philistines, and God denying to answer him either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets, he repairs to the witch of Endor, and demands that Samuel might be raised up from the dead, to tell him the issue of the war. This was performed sometimes by the magical use of a bone of a dead body, with other black solemnities ; sometimes by pouring hot blood into the carcase to make it answer a question, as Erictho does in Lucan.
Dum vocem defuncto in corpore qucsrit, Protinus astrictiis caluil Cruor, atraq. ; fovit Vulnera.
Hence that of Horace —
Animas responsa daturas. And in allusion to the same practice is that of Virgil —
Nee jam exaudire voeatos.
* Si pueros in eloquium Oractdi elidunt. Concerning this kind of divination, see Apuleius, Apol. i., and Spartian. in vit. Jul. Hence that of Propertius, —
Reetulit in triviis omnia eerta Puer.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians, 75
and a while after make them vent the fury in oracles ; if by their juggling wiles they delude the senses with abundance of mock miracles, and inject dreams in the dead of sleep,^ by first invoking the assistance of their angels and demons, by whose sophistry even goats and groaning boards ^ are wont to divine: if then these evil
^ Si et Somnia itnittunt. These are the same with those called by Justin, in the section aforesaid, IvupoTofATo). As the God of Israel was pleased some- times to communicate Himself to His prophets by dreams, so likewise the devil, in imitation, had his dreamer of dreams among the Gentiles. The Lacedse- monians kept men on purpose to sleep in the temple of Pasithea to watch for dreams. The vanity of these sort of diviners Juvenal takes occasion to lash in these words —
Mon Delubra De^m, nee ab athere Numina mittunt, >
Sed sibi quisque facit. "
Whoever has a mind to amuse himself more upon this subject, may consult Tully, de Divinat. hb. i., Valer. Max. lib. v. cap. 7, Plin. lib. vii. cap. 50, Macrob. de Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 3 ; Plutarch in Pompeio, concerning a dream of Mithri- dates, and Fulgent. Mitholog. lib. i.
2 Per qiios et CaprcB, et Menscz divinare consueverunt. Of goats trained up to divination we find mention in Eusebius, from a quotation out of Clemens Alex., eiiyii It} /btavrixriv yiffx,tif/,ivai, Euseb. PrcBpar. Evang. lib. ii. cap. 3, p. 62. "Whiy goats are particularly here specified for brutes of divination, I conjecture the reason to be this : Before the oracle of Apollo came to be fixed at Delphos, the place was nothing more than a common, and the goats which were grazing about there coming to a den, large before with a little mouth at top, and looking in, fell a-skipping and making an odd noise, not unhke perhaps the possessed swine mentioned in the gospel, though not so fatal. The goat-herd (Coretas by name, as Plutarch calls him) ran to the place to see what was the matter with his flock, and fell into the same frolic, and likewise into a fit of prophesying ; and so it fared with many others, who went afterwards to visit the place, and many were strangled (says Tully) with terrce anhelitu, with the fumes of the earth. Vid. Diodor. lib. xvi. Upon this hole of the earth therefore was the tripos, or a three-footed stool placed, and a maid upon it consecrated for a priestess, who received her inspiration from below, as the Scholiast upon Aristophanes in Avid, describes, ixu^>jf/.iv'/i rZ rpi-Ttoit, etc. These belly-prophets, who delivered themselves in a tone like a speaking trumpet, were called iyyua-Tpi/u.tj^oi, and thus Isaiah viii. 19, " Seek unto them which have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter ; " which the Septuagint, more to my purpose, renders thus, Z,riTV(Ta,Tt tov$ lyyx/rrpif/.u^ovs, xk) rolls octo rn? yTi? (pcuvouvrag, tovs xivokoyovvTci;, ol \k rtig xoiXioc; (puvriifoviriv. And more expressly yet, xxix. 4, "Thou shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, and thy voice shall whisper out of the dust." Which words are still more expressive of the Pythoness in the Septuagint, koH refTfuvuSyiffovrai s/j rh yh ol X'oyoi aov, xa.) li; ryjv yyjv ot Xoyoi ffov outrovreci, koc) 'iffrcti us ol (pouvovvTsg Ix, 7>i; yvis h (puvvt ffov, xou Tpos ro iha(pos h <peovrt ffou affhvnffit. Now the Mensas in this place of Tertullian I take to be the Tripodess, called by Virgil Mensae, 2 ^n.
Htic undiqtie Troia Gaza,
•Incensis erepta adytis, Mensceq. ; DcBormii.
Sozomen in his sixth book, cap. 35, tells us that the Gentile philosophers, being
76 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
spirits will do so much at the impulse of men, what will they not do by their own impulse, and for their own interest ? They will surely collect the whole stock of malicious power into one effort for the defence of themselves and the kingdom of darkness. Or if angels and demons act the same with 570ur gods, pray where is the difference between them and Him you look upon as the Sovereign and supremest of powers ? Is it not therefore more becoming to presume those to be gods, who do the things which make others pass for gods, than to bring down the gods to a level with demons? But perhaps I am to think that it is the difference of places only which causes the distinction of titles, and that your gods are to be looked upon as gods only in their own temples, and he who flies through a sacred turret is begodded ; but he who passes through a common house, bedeviled. Or that the priest who cuts off his privities, or lances his arms, is inspired ; but he who cuts his throat, possessed ; however, the fury of both has a like event, and the instigation is the same.
Hitherto I have argued upon point of reason, and contented myself with words only ; I come now to things, and shall give you a demonstration from fact to convince you that your gods and demons both are but the same beings, though of different denomina- tions. Let a demoniac ^ therefore be brought into court, and the
extremely concerned at the increase of Christianity, made and consecrated a tripod of laurel, with all the letters of the alphabet fastened to it, to know who should be the man that was to succeed Valens in the empire ; a contrivance perhaps in imitation of Urim and Thummim, which (as some say) consisted of all the letters of the alphabet, which upon a question proposed did arise after a strange manner, and joined themselves into words or syllables, and so returned a complete answer.
^ Edatiir hie aliquis sub Tribunalibus vestris, etc. This is the famous challenge I just now referred to, and which I would not have the reader to pass over without reflection ; for never was anything appealed to in more daring words, or more easy to be detected, if an imposture. He challenges their senses, their eyes, and their ears to be judges in the case ; he defies them to deny it if they can ; he stands ready to answer for the experiment with his own blood, that their celestial virgin, their ^sculapius, and all the rest of those they worship for gods, shall not only quit the bodies they possess, but publicly in the hearing of them all confess themselves to be devils, upon the demand of any Christian. Hear what his scholar St. Cyprian says to Demetrianus, proconsul of Africa, upon the same subject : O si audire eos velles, et videre quattdo a nobis adjurantur, et torquentur Spiritualibus flagris, et verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejicitintur, quando ejulantes et gementes voce humand, et potestate Divindflagella et verbera sentietites, venturum Judicium conjitentur ; veni, et cognosce vera esse quce dicimus. And a little after, Videbis sub manu nostrd stare vinctos, et tremere captivos quos tu suspicis, et veneraris ut De77iinos. Not to mention Lactantius, who speaks to the same purpose, dejiist.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. yj
spirit which possesses him be commanded by any Christian to declare what he is, he shall confess himself as truly to be a devil as he did falsely before profess himself a god. In like manner, let one of those be produced, who is thought to labour with a god, whom he conceived from the steams of the altar, and of which after many a belch and many a pang he is delivered in oracles. Let the celestial virgin, the great procurer of rain, or -^sculapius, the great improver of medicine, who by the help of scordian, and other sovereign and cordial medicines, recovered those who could not have lived a day longer. If all these, I say, do not declare them- selves in court to be devils, not daring to lie in the presence of a Christian, that Christian is willing to be taken for the cheat, and stands ready to answer for it with his own blood. What now can be more glaringly evident than this demonstration from fact ? What proof more unexceptionable 7 Here you have truth shining full upon you in her native simplicity, without the colouring of words, or any assistance but from her own proper virtue ; suspicion itself here will find no entrance. You may say this is done by magic or some such sophistry, if your eyes and ears will give you leave to say it ; but what can be objected against that which is exposed in its pure naturals, against mere naked truth ? Moreover, if on one hand they are really gods, why should they be such silly liars as to say they are devils ? What, in obedience to us ? Your gods then are in subjection to Christians ; but that surely is a very sorry god which is subject to a man, and to a man too who is his professed enemy, and when such a subjection makes so much to his disgrace.
lib. V. cap. 21. All the primitive Fathers assert the same fact, with the same assurance. Let me ask then a few questions. Did ever any heathen priest or magician make such a challenge at the hazard of their lives? Did the evil spirits ever stand in awe of them, or any of the philosophers ? Will the critics say that these long quotations are foisted into the text, w^hen they are in every primitive writer? And are not these matters of fact, not of reason, wherein Christians and heathens could not be imposed upon ? If so, what can be urged against this demonstration of the truth of the Christian religion ? What stronger evidence, what more sensible conviction, could the heathens have, than to see and hear the gods they worshipped, howl and wail and fly, at the name of Christ, and confess themselves to be all devils in the presence of their worshippers? This kingdom of darkness was permitted to grow to its full height, and the ruin of it then providentially reserved for the coming and conquest of the Son of God ; and though the dispositions and confessions of evil spirits recorded of Him and His apostles in the New Testament do sufficiently prove Him to be sent from God, yet the exercise of the same power in their Master's name before proconsuls and tribunals for many ages, makes the argument still the stronger and more unexceptionable. For it is not possible for a miracle of three or four hundred years' continuance in public to be suspected for a cheat.
"j^ Tertulliafis Apology for the Christians.
On the other hand, if they are demons or angels, how comes it to pass that they personate gods, when they give their responses to any but Christians ? For as those who have the reputation of gods would not say they are devils if they are truly gods, because they would not divest themselves of their majesty, so those you know to be demons durst never aspire to the titles of gods if there were any gods of those titles they usurp, because no doubt they would be afraid of smarting for that usurpation from those superior deities they have thus affronted.
The consequence therefore is undeniable, that the deities you worship are no deities ; for if they were, the devils would never presume to lay claim to the title of gods, or the gods disclaim it. Since therefore both one and the other concur to the acknowledg- ment of this truth, that the gods in worship are no gods, you must confess them to be all of the same kind, that is devils. Bethink yourselves now, and examine the gods on every side. For those you presumed to be gods you plainly see to be devils ; and by the help of Christians, and by the help of your very gods, not only confessing themselves, but all the rest also not to be gods, you will presently learn which is the true God ; whether it is He, and He alone whom the Christians profess, and whether He is to be believed and worshipped, according to the Christian rule of faith and wor- ship. When we conjure these evil spirits in the name of Christ, let them reply if they dare. Who is this Christ with His fable of a gospel ? Let them say that He is of the common order of men ; or will they call Him a magician ? Or say that after He was buried. His disciples came and stole away His body out of the sepulchre, or that He is yet among the dead ? Or rather will they not own Him to be in heaven, and that He will come down from thence, and put the whole universe in a tremor at His coming, and all mankind, but Christians, into horror and lamentation? Shining in His native glory, as He is the power of God, and the Spirit of God, and the Logos, and the Wisdom, and the Reason, and the Son of God. Let the devils keep their votaries company in derision, and join you with their wit and drollery upon these things. Let them deny that Christ will come in judgment upon every soul from the creation, having first restored its body. Let them declare, and in open court if they think fit, that they are of a mind with Plato and the poets, that it is the lot of Minos and Rhadamanthus to be judges of the world. Let them wipe off the brand of their own ignominy and damnation. Let them renounce themselves to be unclean spirits, though this is evident from the nature of their food, from the
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 79
blood, and stenches, and putrid sacrifices of animals, and the abominable forms made use of in divination. And lastly, let them disown themselves to be in a damned state, and under dreadful expectations of the final judgment, where they shall receive the recompense of sins, together with their worshippers, and all such workers of iniquity.
But now this power and dominion of ours over these wicked spirits has all its efficacy from the name of Christ, and from our reminding them of those judgments which are dropping upon their heads from the hand of God through Christ, whom He has made Judge of the world ; and the dread they have of Christ in God, and God in Christ, is the thing which subjects them to the servants of God and Christ. Thus therefore by a touch of our hand, or the breath of our mouth, scorched as it were with the prospect and repre- sentation of future flames, they go out of the bodies they possess at our command, but sore against their will, and gnashing and red- hot with shame, to quit their possessions in the presence of their adorers.
Now then let me advise you to believe the devils when they speak true of themselves, you who are used to credit them in their lies ; for no man is a fool to such a degree as to be at the pains of lying to his disgrace, but only to his reputation ; and one is a thousand times apter to believe men when they confess to their disadvantage than when they deny for interest
These testimonies then of your gods against themselves often conduce to the making of Christians, because there is no believing them, without believing in our Master Christ. The very devils kindle in us the belief of Holy Scripture ; the very devils are edifying, and raise our hope to assurance. But you worship them, and with the blood of Christians too, I well know ; and therefore they would by no means lose such good clients and devoted servants as you are, not only for the sake of their honours and offerings, but for fear, should any of you turn Christians, you should dispossess and serve them as we do. They would never, I say, baulk a lie, in so grand a concern, was it in their power to lie, when a Christian interrogates them in order to give you a proof of his religion by their own confession.
8o Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
CHAPTER XXIV.
THAT THE ROMANS ARE THE CRIMINALS IN POINT OF RELIGION, AND NOT THE CHRISTIANS.
This universal confession of the evil spirits, whereby they disclaim the title of gods, and whereby they declare that there is no other God but one, whose servants we profess to be ; this confession, I say, is argument enough with a witness to discharge Christians from the crime of irreligion, especially towards the Roman gods ; for if the Roman gods for a certain arq no gods, then their religion for a certain is no religion ; and if theirs be no religion, because theirs be no gods, then certainly we cannot be justly charged upon the article of irreligion, with respect to the worship of the Roman deities. But this reproach rebounds upon yourselves, for you who worship a lie, and not only neglect the true religion of the true God, but moreover join all your forces to fight it out of the world, are in truth guilty of that which is most properly irreligion. For should I grant those you worship to be gods, do not you likewise subscribe to the common opinion that there is one most high and powerful Deity, who is the Author and Sovereign of the world, of infinite majesty and perfection ? For thus many among you have ranged the gods, so as to vest the supreme power in one only, and make the rest subaltern gods, and under-officers merely of this Almightiest of deities ; and thus Plato ^ describes great Jove as attended above by an heavenly host of inferior gods and demons. Can you say, then, that we must pay the same honours to his procurators and prefects and presidents, as to the emperor himself? And pray now, where is the crime to be ambitious of getting into the good graces of Caesar only? and to acknowledge the title of God like that of the emperor. His due alone who has the sovereign authority ? since by your laws it is capital to call any one Caesar who is not supreme, or to hear him so called by any other. I will grant you there is a difference in the modes of worship between a worshipper of God and a worshipper of Jove. Let us then suppose that one
•^ Ut Plato Jovem magnum in coelo comitum. exercitu describit Deorum pariter et Dmmonum. This passage we have in Greek in Athenagoras, thus — *0 ^\ fjbiya.? Ttyifiuv lu ovpavu Zivg ikauveav ^njvov £p/Lca Tpurog ^ofivirai^ ^iaK0fff4,uv crecvra, KCt) Wif^iXovf^ivos ; rZ Ti 'i'fftrai ffTparia, Qiuvn »ai ^xi/zovav. Athenat. Legal, pro Christian. The supremacy of one deity is what you will find by Minutius Felix proARd at large from all the philosophers.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, 8i
man worships the true supreme God, another Jove ; one prays with suppliant hands lifted up to heaven, another lays them upon the altar of Fide.s,^ another (if you will think them deities) prays looking upon the clouds,^ others upon the stately roofs of the temple ; one devotes his own life to his god, another the life of a goat. But you had best see to it whether this does not concur to the making up of another article of irreligion against you — namely, to deprive men of the liberty of worshipping after their own way, and to inter- dict them the option of their deity ; so that I must not worship the god I would, but am forced to worship the god I would not ; and yet it is agreed upon on all hands, that forced or unwilling services are not grateful either to God or man ; and for this reason even the Egyptians are tolerated in their superstition, which is the very vanity of vanities : they are permitted to make gods of birds and beasts, and to make it capital to be the death of any of these kinds of deities. Every province and city has its proper gods, as Syria the god Ashtaroth,^ Arabia has Disares, Bavaria Belinus, Africa the Celestial Virgin,^ and Mauritania their kings. Now these pro-
^ Aram Fidei. Tully in his Offices, lib. iii., has these words — Fidem in Capitolio vicinam Jovi Opt, Max. Majores nostri esse voluerunt. Hence that of Silius —
Ille etiam quaprisca Fides stat Regia, nobis Aurea Tarpeia ponet Capitolia rupe.
There was likewise one Fidius, a Sabine god, whose temple was upon the Mons Quirinalis. He was the god who took care of oaths, hence that of Plautus in Asinar, Per Divum Fidium quceris. This oath was afterwards contracted into one word, MediusfidiuSy though Festus Pompeius expounds it otherwise, quasi liii filius, lib. xi.
*^ Nubes numeret orans. The wise and good Socrates was lashed by Aristo- phanes in his Ntibibus for a worshipper of the clouds, because he worshipped the one true God with eyes lifted up to heaven like the Christians, who having in a Gentile sense neither temple, image, nor altar, as the heathen in Minutius objects, were charged, as Tertullian intimates, for adoring clouds ; but how that in Minutius is to be understood, I refer the reader to my notes upon that passage. Scaliger understands this of Juvenal of the Christians, and reads it thus —
Nil prater Nubes, et Cceli Numen adorant.
3 SyricB Astartes. Eusebius from Sanchoniathon will have it to be Venus, Euseb. Frcep. Evang. lib. i. cap. lo, p. 38. Suidas says this — 'Aa-reipTn h era/ "EXXjjo-iv *A(pi)oVi7n Xiyefjbivn, Btog ii^uviu*. This was the goddess of the Sidonians whom Solomon himself went after, and to whom he built an house, i Kings xi, 5 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. And in the house of Ashtaroth called by the LXX. AffTxpTfj did the Philistines hang up Saul's armour after his death. I Sam. xxxi. 10.
* Calesiis. This celestial virgin was peculiarly honoured at Carthage, and is supposed by some to be Juno, though there is huge controversy about it. And the rest of the idols here mentioned are so obscure, and so much disputed, that I believe the reader will thank me if I say no more about them.
S2 Tertulliaf^s Apology for the Christians.
vinces (if I mistake not) are under the Roman jurisdiction, and yet I do not find any of the Roman gods in worship among them ; because the gods of these countries are as httle known at Rome as many of the municipal deities in several towns in Italy, as Del- ventinus of Casinum, Visidianus of Narni, Ancaria of Ascoli, Nursia of Volsinium, Valentia of Ocricoly, Nortia of Sutri, and Juno of Monte Fiasco, who was worshipped by the name of Curetis in honour of her father Cures. But we Christians, we alone are the people who are not tolerated to enjoy a separate religion proper to ourselves ; we offend the Romans, and are not to be looked upon as Romans, because we do not worship the God of the Romans ; however, we have this advantage, that God is the God of all, whose we are all, whether we will or no ; but there is a universal toleration among you to pay divine honours to any but the true God, as if this was not emphatically the God of all, whose creatures we all are.
-0-
CHAPTER XXV.
THAT THE ROMAN GRANDEUR IS NOT OWING TO THE
ROMAN RELIGION.
I HAVE now, in my opinion, given sufficient proofs of the false and the true divinity ; having not only disputed and demonstrated this point from arguments drawn from reason, but also from the very confessions of those you acknowledge for gods ; so that nothing more seems necessary to be reinforced upon that head. But because the Roman greatness is an objection that comes properly in my way, I will not decline the combat I am challenged to, by the presumption of those who say that the Romans^ arrived to such a pitch of grandeur as to be masters of the world, by the pure
^ Romanos pro nierito Religiositatis diligentissimcs in tantutn Sublimitatis elatos. That the Roman greatness was not owing to the Roman religion, Prudentius proves at large, lib. ii. adver. Symmach.
Sed multi duxere Dii per prospera Romam, Quos colit ob meritum magnis donata TriumphiSy Ergo age, Bellatrix, qucz vis subjecerity ede.
And Minutius is very particular upon the same head, but because he has borrowed so many hints from Tertullian, and is subjoined to this Apology, I will not fore- stall the reader. However, that the Romans valued themselves as extraordinary
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 83
dint and merits of their religion ; and consequently that theirs were the right gods, inasmuch as they who served them out-flourished all others in glory, as much as they surpassed them in devotion to these deities ; and this surpassing figure, no doubt, was the return your own Roman gods made you for their worship ; and these proper gods, who have thus enlarged your borders must be Ster- culus, and Mutunus, and Larentina; for it is not to be imagined that strange gods should find in their hearts to be greater friends to a strange nation than to their own ; and that they should make over their own native soil, in which they were bred, and born, and buried, and deified, to an outlandish people. Let Cybele see to it, whether she transplanted her affections to Rome for the sake of her beloved countrymen the Trojans, screened from the Grecian arms I warrant by her divine protection ; let her say whether she went over to the Romans upon this view, as foreseeing them the people that would revenge her upon her enemies, and one day triumph over Greece, as Greece had done over Troy ; and to prove that she did go over to the Romans upon this prospect, she has given a most glorious instance of her foresight in our age, for M. Aurelius being taken off at Sirmium the seventeenth day of March,^ her chief priest and eunuch on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, having lanced his arms, and let out his impure blood upon the altar, offered up his usual vows for the life of the emperor, who was dead some days before. O leaden-heeled couriers ! O drowsy dispatches ! not to give Cybele notice before the emperor was dead ; in good troth, Christians must make a little merry with such a goddess.
But had kingdoms been at Jove's disposal, Jove surely had never suffered his own Crete to have come under the Roman rod ; unmindful of the Idean cave and the never-to-be-forgotten noise the Corybantes made to drown his infant cries, and of the agreeable sweets of his fragrant nurse the Goat Amalthaea. What ! would not he have preferred his own tomb before any capitol, and made the country which contained Jove's ashes ^ the mistress of the
favourites of heaven upon the account of their grandeur, is evident from that of Valerius, hb. i. Non Mirum igitur si pro eo imperio augendo custodiendoq.; fcrtinax Deorum indulgentia semper exciibuit.
^ M. Aurelio — exevipto, die deci??w sexto Kalend. Aprilitim. Thus Dion Cassius of the same emperor says — tJJ lirra Koi hxarri tov Mapriov furyiXXa^iv.
2 Qua: cineres Jovis texit. There is hardly any one thing more talked of than Crete by the poets and historians, and the Christians apologists, where Jove was born, bred, and buried. Thus Virgil —
DictcEo Cceli Regem pavere sub antro.
Thus St. Cyprian, de Idol. van. Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur. And in the
84 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
world? Would Juno, do you think, could she have helped it, suffered her beloved Carthage, more beloved than Samos, to have been sacked and ruined by the detested race of Trojans; for I know her passion for this city from your own Virgil :
-Here, here, this darling place,
Immortal Juno's arms, and chariot grace ; And here to fix the universal reign The mighty goddess strove, but strove in vain, By mightier fate o'ercome.-^
Poor unhappy Juno, wife and sister both to Jove, and yet not a match for fate ! For, as another poet has it.
Even Jove himself must bend to fate.^
And yet the Romans cannot afford the fates who made them masters of Carthage in spite of all the intrigues of Juno, half so much honour as they pay to the most infamous of prostitutes, Larentina. But it is certain that many of your gods reigned once upon earth : if therefore kingdoms are now at their disposal, pray tell me from whom did they themselves receive their crowns ? Who was the god that Saturn or Jove worshipped ? Some dunghill-god, Sterculus I suppose ; but this could not well be, for Saturn and Jupiter were both dead long before Sterculus got his immortal honour at Rome for teaching his countrymen the art of dunging their ground. But though some of your gods never arrived to the honour of being kings, yet others who were kings have not had the honour to be gods. The disposal of kingdoms therefore must be lodged else- where, and not in the kings themselves; because they are kings before they have the good luck to be gods, or the disposers of kingdoms. But how ridiculous a thing is it to ascribe the Roman grandeur to the merits of the Roman religion, when the grandeur is older than the religion ; or rather the religion increased and multi- plied in proportion to the state. For though your superstitious
Alexandrian Chronic, we have this inscription, — ENeAAE KEITAI 0ANfiN niK02 KAI O ZET2 ON. KAI AI AKAfiOT2IN— HIC SITUS JACET PICUS
MORTUUS, QUI ET JUPITER, QUEM JOVEM VOCANT.
^ Hie illius arma. Hie currus fuit, hoc Regnuni Dea Gentibus esse. Si qua Futa sinant, jam turn tenditq, ; fovetq. ;
S^ Fafo stat Jupiter ipse.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 85
curiosities had their first conception in Numa's brain,i and yet during his reign the Roman worship was without either statue or temple, their old religion was a thrifty plain religion,^ without any pompous rites, or any capitol vying with heaven ; ^ their altars were rude and hasty, and of turf only; their sacred vessels of Samian clay. And from hence the moderate steams of a slender sacrifice ascended, and not the image of any god to be seen amongst them ; for as yet the Grecian and Tuscan artists had not overflowed the city with the invention of images ; and therefore it is certain that the Romans were not so exceeding religious before they were so exceeding great; and consequently their greatness cannot be owing to their religion.
But with what forehead can men entitle their greatness to religion, when their greatness stands upon the ruins of religion?
^ A Numd concepta est Ciiriositas Superstitiosa. It has been objected that the consent of nations, if it argues anything, argues for Polytheism, that being more universal, and consequently more natural than the worship of one god ; but this is a very foolish objection ; for there is in all mankind a propensity to religion in general, as there is an inclination to eat and drink in all ; and as it is left to the direction of our appetites what we should choose to eat and drink in particular, so is it left to our reason what we should worship ; but to eat and drink and worship something, we are all inclined, though often abused as to the object. It is this natural propensity to religion designing men strike in with ; and they would never apply to it so universally did they not find all mankind readily disposed for divine worship ; for an atheist has been looked upon as a monster in all ages. Thus it was that Numa Pompilius worked upon his subjects, and procured an implicit veneration to all his institutions, by pre- tending an acquaintance with the goddess ^geria. Nu??ia Pompilms, tit Populu7n Romanurn saa'is obligaret, volebat videri sibi cum Dea y^geria congressus esse noctiirnos, ejtisque nionitu accepta Diis Immortalibtis sacra instituere. Valer. Max. lib. i. cap. 2.
^ Frugi Keligio, etc. Varro says that the Romans worshipped their gods one hundred and seventy years without any image, and thinks they had been better served had there been no images made ; and this frugality in religion lasted to the conquest of Asia, usque ad devictam Asiam, says Pliny, lib. xxxiv. Thus Ovid, speaking of the ancient simplicity, says —
Jupiter exiguA vix totus stabat in ^de, Inque Jovis dextrd fictile Fulmen erat.
In Fast. 3, and in like manner Juvenal —
Hanc rebus Latiis curam prcestare solebat Fictilis, et nullo violatus Jupiter auro.
Vid. Cicer. Paradox, i.
^ Capitolia certantia coelo. Capitols vying with heaven. Agreeable to which Martial thus describes it —
Nee Capitolini sumnnim penetrate Tonanfis, Qiueque nitent Coelo proxima Temp I a sua.
86 Tertulliaris Apology for the Christians,
For, if I mistake not, kingdoms or empires are got by wars, and propagated by victories, and wars and victories for the most part conclude in the captivity and desolation of cities. And this sort of business is not likely to be despatched without treading upon religion ; for the walls of a town and those of a temple are battered both alike — priests and people slain without distinction ; and the plundering soldier will no more pardon the riches of the gods than those of men. The Romans therefore may compute their sacrileges by their trophies, and tell how many gods they have triumphed over, by the nations they have conquered ; and withal remember that all the statues of the captive deities now in the temple are but so many spoils of war. And yet these gods will endure to be worshipped by such enemies, and decree them a perpetual empire ^ for so doing, when in honour they ought to be revenged upon their outrages, rather than be cajoled by their adoration ; but gods who have neither sensation nor knowledge may be injured with as much impunity as they are served with vanity. Certainly it cannot enter into any one's head to imagine that the Romans grew to this bulk of greatness by the influence of religion, who (as I have suggested) one way or other always mounted to their greatness by treading upon religion ; for even those whose kingdoms are melted down, as it were, into one mass of Roman empire, those, I say, when they lost these kingdoms were no more without religion than they who got them.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THAT KINGDOMS ARE ONLY AT HIS DISPOSAL WHO IS THE TRUE GOD.
Consider therefore with yourselves, and see whether it must not needs be Him who is the disposer of kingdoms, who is the maker and proprietor of the world which is governed, and of the man who governs it ; whether it must not be Him who orders the revolutions of empire in succeeding ages of time, who was before time itself, and who of the several parts or links of ages composed the whole body or chain of time; whether it is not He who raises up and
1 Illis Imperium sine fine decernunt. Tertullian frequently quotes Virgil expressly, which makes it probable that in these words he alludes to a like passage in that poet —
Imperium sine fine dedi.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 8 7
pulls down cities, under whom mankind once sojourned without any cities at all. Why will you thus persist in error ? For ancient uncultivated Rome ^ is ancienter than many of your gods. She had her kings before she had such a circumference of her ground taken up with a capitol. The Babylonians, and Medes, and Egyptians, and Assyrians, and Amazons had all their kingdoms before your Pontiffs, and Quindecemviri, and Salii, and Luperci were thought of. After all, had the Roman gods been the dispensers of king- doms, the ancient Jews had never risen to such an ascendant as to reign in defiance of all the common deities all the world over; to which god of the Jews you yourself have offered sacrifices, and to whose temple you have presented gifts ; and which nation for a long time you honoured with your alliance ; ^ and which, let me tell you, you had never reigned over had they not finally filled up the measure of their sins with their sin against Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THAT THE GENTILES ARE SET AGAINST CHRISTIANS BY THE INSTIGATION OF EVIL SPIRITS.
This I take for a sufficient answer to that article which charges us with treason against the gods, having demonstrated them to be no gods, and consequently no harm done them. When therefore we are called forth to sacrifice, we set conscience before to support us against the order, which tells us what kind of beings those are which these sacrifices are made to, that are made to the images prostituted for worship, and to the consecrated names of men. But some look upon it as madness, that when we might sacrifice occasionally, and depart in a whole skin, or without hurting our conscience, by virtue of an inward reserve to continue firm to our
1 Sylvestris Roma. Wild uncultivated Rome ; in which state Virgil thus describes it, j^Sn. 8 —
Hinc ad Tarpeiam Sedem, et Capitolia ducit, Aurea nunc, olim Sylvestribus horrida dumis.
^ Fcederibus. Concerning the alliance and frequent leagues of the Romans with the Jews, vid. Machab. lib. i. cap. 8, lib. ii. cap. ii, etc. ; and Joseph. lib. xiv. p. 486, lib. xvi. cap. 10, p. 562. But for offering sacrifice to the god of the Jews I cannot find, though Heraldus affirms it, and from Josephus.
88 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
religion, that we should be such blockheads as to prefer our opiniatrete to our lives. Thus, forsooth, you give the counsel by what means we are to abuse you ; but well we know from whence the suggestions come ; who it is that is behind the scene and prompts all this ; and how he works sometimes by persuasive wiles, and sometimes by dint of cruelty, and all to throw us off from our constancy. It is verily the devil of an angel, a spirit divorced from God, and for that reason our immortal enemy, and one who gnashes with envy at the divine graces we enjoy, and plays all his engines of destruction against us from your minds, as it were from a citadel. Which minds of yours are by his secret injections modified and suborned to that perverseness of judgment, and savage injustice against us, which I mentioned in the beginning of my Apology. For although the whole force of demons and such kind of spirits is subjected to us, yet, like other rebellious slaves, their fear is mixed with contumacy, and it is their meat and drink to be hurting those whom otherwise they are afraid of, for servile fear inspires hatred.
Besides, in this stage of rage and despair, they look upon mischief as their whole comfort ; and all the lucid interval \ they have for this devilish enjoyment is but until the day of judgment ; and yet when we apprehend them, they surrender and submit to their condition ; and whom they battle at a distance they beseech at hand. Therefore when by their instinct you treat us like rebels, and condemn us to workhouses, or prisons, or the mines, and such like servile punishment j when thus, I say, by you their instruments they break out against us, in whose power they are (for they know their imparity full well, and their malice is but the more enraged at their impotency), then we take another course, and engage these odious spirits, as it were, upon equal terms, and resist with patience impregnable ; that being the quarter they attack us upon with all their fury, and we never come off so triumphantly as when we suffer victoriously, and resist unto death.
1 Fruendcs iterum malignitati de Poence mord. " And all the lucid interval they have for this devilish enjoyment is but until the day of judgment." In these words our author plainly alludes to the Second Epistle of St. Peter ii. 4 — " For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. " And this allusion, in a point of doctrine, in some measure proves that this Epistle went for genuine in our author's time.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 89
CHAPTER XXVIII.
*
THAT THE ROMANS HAVE THEIR EMPERORS IN GREATER VENERATION THAN THEIR GODS.
But because it seems manifestly wrong to drag men to sacrifice against the natural freedom of their wills, since, as I have else- where declared, religion must be a pure act of the will, it must needs be very foolish to press men to the service of the gods, whom for their own sakes they ought to serve freely ; and that it should not be in a man's choice, which he has a right to by the liberty of his will, to say, I will not have Jove for my god. Who are you, pray, sir, that pretend to have my will in keeping? I care not a farthing for Janus, let him turn his brows upon me from which forehead he pleases. What have you to do with me in the choice of religion ? But they which put you upon forcing us to sacrifice to the gods are the same spirits which inform you to make us sacrifice^ for the safety^ of the emperor; and so Caesar's safety being twisted with the honour of the gods, you are by this stratagem necessitated to compel, and we to suffer.
I come now to the second article of lese majesty, but majesty more august with you than that of your gods ; for you are more sincerely afraid and circumspect in your devotions to Caesar than to Olympian Jove; and deservedly too if you understood it; for what man alive is not preferable to a dead one ? But this difference in your devotions is not grounded so much upon reason, or the knowledge you have of your deities, as upon the consideration of the emperor's present sensible power upon you ; and it is upon this account here I tax you with irrehgion, because you stand more heartily in awe of Caesar than of all your gods ; for, in fine, you will sooner invoke all your gods round to bear witness to a lie than swear falsely by the single genius of Caesar.^
1 Pro salute Iviperatoris sacrificare. When Herod and his father Nicetes took up Polycarp into their coach, they attempted to persuade him off of his resolu- tion to suffer, in this form of words, t/ ya.f xcckov la-Ttv tiTuv, xvpn Ktnla^up, xui iZacti jccci ^ntffuZ^iffSiti. "Where is the harm to say, O Lord Csesar, and to sacrifice, and so save yourself? " And when the martyr was brought before the tribunal, the proconsul charges him to swear by the genius of Csesar, o^jlosd'» toZ Kalffccpos Tvx,nv, fjuravcviiTov, u<ffov aipi tov; a.6iov;, that is, swear by Caesar's genius, repent, say take off the atheists, that is, the Christians. These and such like were the forms upon which they tried Christians. Vid. Euseb. Ecc. Hist. lib. iv. cap, 15, p. 131.
^ Citius denique apud vos. Ttitius fer Jovis Genhwi fejerarc, quam Regis It
90 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THAT THE EMPERORS MAINTAIN THE GODS RATHER THAN THE
GODS THE EMPERORS.
First therefore make it appear that those you sacrifice to can protect either kings or subjects, and then charge us with treason against gods and men ; for if angels or demons, spirits essentially wicked or of the most destructive nature, can be the authors of any good ; if spirits lost and undone themselves can save others, if the damned can give freedom, and lastly if the dead (as you know in your conscience your gods to be) can defend the living, pray why do they not defend in the first place their own statues and images and temples, which in my opinion are defended by Caesar's guards, who keep watch and ward for their security. But the materials of these I think come from Csesar's mines; and the temples depend on Caesar's nod \ and lastly, many of the gods have felt Caesar's displeasure ; and if he has been propitious to the gods, and liberal, and bestowed privileges upon them, it still makes for our cause. Thus then how is it likely that they who are at Caesar's nod, as they all entirely are, should be the guardians of Caesar's life? Is it not more likely that the gods should be in Caesar's keeping, than Caesar in theirs? What! are we traitors to the emperors because we do not set them below their own possessions ? because we will not make mock addresses for their safety, con- cluding it cannot be in the keeping of hands of lead. But you are the only persons of religion who pray for their safety where it cannot be had, and overlook Him who alone has it in His power. But those who know how to ask it, and can obtain it too, because they know how to ask it j those, I say, you are persecuting out of the world. •
is much safer, says Minutius, to swear falsely by the genius of Jove than Caesar.
Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras^ says Horace.
For he who swore falsely by the gods was noted only by the censors, and exposed to shame. Vid. Ciceron. lib. iv. de Repub. But one perjured by the genius of Caesar was severely bastinadoed, and exposed into the bargain. For thus says Ulpian, lib. xiii., de Jure-jurando. Siquis juraverit m re peainiariA per Genium Ccesaris, et pejeraverif, etc. Iniperator noster cum Patre rescripsis, fusti- bus eiim. castiga7idum dimittere, et ita ei superdki^ vrpoTrsrug iu,r huwi, peiulanter ne Jurat 0,
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, g i
CHAPTER XXX.
CONCERNING THE GOD OF CHRISTIANS BY WHOM KINGS REIGN, AND THE PRAYERS OF CHRISTIANS FOR THE LIFE OF THE EMPERORS.
The God we pray to for the life of emperors is the eternal God, the true God, the God of life, and whom above all the emperors themselves principally desire to propitiate ; they know by whom they reign as kings and live as men. They are sensible that He is the only God, and in whose power alone they are ; and that they themselves are, next under Him, supreme ; and after Him the first in honour above all men, and all your other gods too into the bargain. And why not ? since they are above all men living, and the living surely are above the dead. They consider how far their power will go, and find it infinitely below the reach of heaven, and so come to be sensible of a God above them ; and consequently that the powers they have must be from God. Let an emperor make war upon heaven, and pride himself with the thoughts of leading captive heaven in triumph ; let him set guards upon heaven, and try to reduce it to a Roman province, and he will find his weakness. He is therefore great, because he is but less than heaven ; for he is a creature of His who made heaven and every creature that ever had a being. He made him an emperor who made him a man ; the author of his life is the author of his power.
To this Almighty Maker and Disposer of all Things it is that we Christians offer up our prayers, with eyes lifted up to heaven, un- folded hands in token of our simplicity,^ and with uncovered heads,
1 /Hue suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis, etc. The primitive Christians at their devotion did not only lift up their hands to heaven, for so we find the heathens did, according to that of Virgil —
Et duplices tendens ad sidera palmas,
but they laid their expanded hands transverse in the form of a cross ; and so we are to understand our author here by his manibus expansis, and so likewise in his book de Orat. cap. ii — Nos vero non attollimus tantum, sed etiaf?i expandi- mus, et Dominicd Passione modulamur. Vid. Not. Vales, in Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 14, p. 242. I cannot but take notice here of a most extraordinary objection against set forms of prayer, urged by David Clarkson in his discourse concerning liturgies, from this passage : " That the Christians then lifted up their hands and eyes to heaven in prayer, which shows they had no books." It shows it indeed just as much as our lifting up our hands and eyes shows now that we have no Common Prayer-Book in our Church ; but certainly both ministers and people being constantly used to one form may have so much memory as to find time to look off from their books, and look up to heaven at proper seasons.
92 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
because we have nothing to blush for in our devotion ; and without a prompter/ because we pray with our hearts rather than our tongues; and in all our prayers are ever mindful of all our emperors and kings wheresoever we live, beseeching God for every one of them without distinction, that He would bless them with length of days and a quiet reign, a well-established family, a stout
^ Denique sine Monitore, quia de Pectore 07-a??ms. This is just such another obscure passage as the ol»? A6vafji,t5 in Justin Martyr already mentioned ; but as dark as it is, yet with some men it is as clear as the day for the use of extempore prayer in Tertullian's time. But before I enter upon this contro- verted place, I desire the reader to take notice first, that though our author does not give us the very form, because he wrote to unbelievers, yet in this chapter he gives the heads of a stated prayer for the emperor, namely, a long life, a quiet empire, a well-established family, a valiant army, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, etc. Now he could not deliver in these particulars as a proof of the Christian loyalty, unless they prayed constantly for these things, and that must be by a constant settled form ; for extempore prayer is as uncertain as the wind, and could have been no evidence in this or any other case. Secondly, by this phrase, " without a monitor," cannot possibly be meant without any one to dictate a form of words to them, because in all their public prayers the minister was always the mouth of the congregation, and whether he prayed by a form, or extempore, his words must be a form of words to the people who prayed after him. Whatever therefore this dubious expression may mean, it cannot possibly mean without a form, unless it means without a minister ; because, as I have said, the prayers of the minister must be a form to the people. And now for the phrase itself ; we pray Sine Monitore, without a prompter or monitor, because de Pectore, from the heart, that is extempore, as Mr. Clarkson and the anti- formulists expound it. Bishop Bilson, in his Christian Stibject, with great modesty says, "This seems to be meant of the miraculous gift of prayer, which dured in the Church unto his time." Vid. Christian Subj. part iv. p. 411. But then he supposes withal that this extraordinary gift ceased soon after, and that liturgies came into practice long before the time of St. Basil or Chrysostom ; so that, allowing this conjecture, it will by no means follow that because ministers, while divinely inspired, prayed without a form, therefore they ought to keep on praying extempore when the days of inspiration are over. But with all respect to this learned prelate, he seems not to reach the design and meaning of Tertullian in this place ; and in order hereunto, it is to be remembered that the heathen had abundance of deities, and every deity to be invoked in a several form, for such blessings as lay within his particular province. Thus, for instance, Bacchus was invoked in this wise, O Bacchus ! son of Semele, the giver of riches, etc. Vid. Casaub. Exercit. lib. xvi. p. 42. And so again for Janus, O Father Janus ! with this cake I offer thee my good wishes, etc. Vid. Test. in verb. Signif. And so again for Jupiter, Mars, and all the rest. Now in such a swarm of deities and different invocations, a god might easily be passed over, or the invocation ill worded, or ill pronounced (which was looked upon very ominous, and hence perhaps that phrase of Bona Verba). For fear, I say, that there should be any omission or blunder in these divine addresses, these se\^eral forms of invocation were not only read out of the ritual by one priest, but there was another priest also appointed, as a public monitor, to oversee and set them right in their repetitions. And that this was the case seems very probable from that of Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 2 — Inprecationibus , ne quid Verborum prcetereatur,
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 93
army, a faithful senate, an honest people, and a peaceful world, and whatever else either prince or people can wish for.
But these are blessings I cannot persuade myself to ask of any, but Him who I know can give them, and that is my God, and my God only, who has them in His disposal ; and I am one to whom He has obliged Himself by promise to grant what I ask, if I ask as I should do ; for I am His servant, and serve Him only, and for
aut prceposterum dicatur de Scripto prcEire aliquem, rursusque alhi?n Custodein dari, qui attendat. " In certain prayers, lest any of the words should be omitted, or preposterously repeated, there is one to dictate to the people out of a book, and another appointed as overseer, to attend how they pronounce." Now this last, whom Pliny calls the cusios, or overseer, seems not unlikely to be the monitor alluded to by Tertullian. We pray then without a monitor, because de Peciore, from the heart ; which may either signify that we repeat not our prayers aloud after the priest, as you do, but join with him in our soul ; or else, that we can say our prayers by heart, and so have no occasion for such a monitor, and then de Pectore answers exactly to k'Troam^lXnv, and such Graecisms are much affected by this writer, Vid. Thornd, Relig. Assentb. p. 237. Another learned person understands this phrase de Pectore of those prayers which every private Christian used in the solemn assemblies on the stationary days, in the intervals between the public offices of the Church, while the congregation kept silence ; and considering that they stayed at these stations for nine hours together, and that all this time was not taken up in reading, expounding, singing, and in common prayers, it is not improbable but the interspaces were allowed for the exercise of mental devotion. And then this phrase de Pectore can argue nothing against set forms in public prayers. Besides, it was a custom, and taken notice of by Plutarch, that while the priest was officiating, for another to go behind him with this admonition. Hoc age quod agis, " Be sure to mind what you are about ; " and this perhaps might be the monitor. But Christians who prayed de Pectore, with all their hearts and souls, had no need of such an officer. Lastly, if we consider that Tertullian is here proving the sincerity of the Christian loyalty above that of the heathens, it seems most agreeable to his design in my opinion, and what the words will very well bear, to understand him thus : the heathens were obliged to offer up their vows and sacrifices in public for the life of the emperor ; and for fear they should omit to name him, either out of negligence or malice, or name him only by way of imprecation, there was a custos, or monitor, appointed to see that they rightly pronounced the form of words dictated by another priest from writing. And to this Seneca no doubt alludes in these remarkable words, lib. de Clement, cap. 19 — Quid pulchrius est, quani vivere optantibtcs cunctis, et vota non sub Custode nuncupantibus ? "What more lovely or desirable than to live in the hearts of his subjects, and to have them all praying for him without the help of a monitor ? " And therefore, says our author, we pray sine Monitore, without an overseer, because de Pectore, that is, ex animo, because we pray for emperors from our very heart and soul. Thus then we see how many ways there are of expounding this obscure passage, each of which is much more probable than that which is urged for the justifica- tion of extempore prayer. And thus likewise we see how the authority of the ancients is valued like an oracle, when they deliver themselves in agreeable ambiguity ; but when they cannot be made to speak for the party, why then the Fathers are very ordinary people.
94 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
whose service I am killed all the day long, and to whom I offer that noble and greatest of sacrifices which He has commanded, a prayer which comes from a chaste body, an innocent soul, and a sanctified spirit; not a farthing's worth of frankincense, not the tears of an Arabian tree, or two drops of wine ; not the blood of a discarded bull worn out with age ; and after all these defilements, a conscience the most defiling thing of all. So that in truth, when I reflect upon the pollutions of the sacrificers who are to examine the qualifications of the sacrifice, I cannot but wonder why the entrails of the beasts should be rather inspected than the inwards of the priests.
Thus, then, while we are stretching forth our hands to our God, let your tormenting irons harrow our flesh ; let your gibbets exalt us, or your fires lick up our bodies, or your swords cut ofl" our heads, or your beasts tread us to earth. For a Christian upon his knees to his God is in a posture of defence against all the evils you can crowd upon him.
Consider this,^ O you impartial judges, and go on with your justice, and while our soul is pouring out herself to God in the behalf of the emperor, do you be letting out her blood.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
THAT CHRISTIANS ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE THEIR ENEMIES.
But perhaps our vows and intercessions with heaven for the life of the emperor are to be looked upon merely as the spices of flattery, and a trick only to elude the severity of the laws ; but if you will have it a trick, it has had this advantage, to procure us the liberty
^ Hoc agite, boni Prcesides, extorquete animam Deo supplicaniem pro Impera- tore. There is a most bitter sarcasm implied in these words, Hoc agite, that is, "be intent upon your sacrifice, and wrack out the soul of a Christian while it is praying to God for the life of the emperor ; " wherein our author manifestly alludes to the custom just now mentioned from Plutarch, that while the priest was sacrificing, the crier or prc£co went behind with these words, Hoc age, mind what you are about ; for thus Plutarch tells us in Coriolano, orxv yup a.pxo^'^^s 9i hpu; TpciTTUffi r) tuv Siluv, o Kyjpu^ ^potrrutri f^iyxXt] <f>ci)v» (houv, ok ccyi, a'y)f/,a,vu yctp <peovri, T0U70 Tpoim, TTpoffi^uv xikivovira, roTs hpo7;, xai f^^i^iv 'ipyov l/^ficiXiTv f^-ra^v,
' Terhillian s Apology for the Christians. 95
of proving what we proposed to do in our justification. Thou therefore that thinkest that the Christian rehgion expresses no concern for the Hfe of Caesar, look into the word of God, the word we go by, and which we do not suppress in private, and which many accidents have thrown into the hands of strangers, and there you may see with what superabundant charity we are commanded to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for them which despitefully use us, and persecute us. Matt. v. 44. And who such cruel persecutors of Christians as the emperors for whom they are persecuted ? And yet these are the persons we are commanded by the word of God expressly, and by name, to pray for; for thus it runs — "I exhort therefore, that first of all supplications and prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority ; that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," i Tim. ii. i. For when the government is shaken, the members of it feel the shock, and we (though we are not looked upon as members by the people), yet we must be found somewhere in the calamity of the public.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CONCERNING ANOTHER REASON OF THE CHRISTIANS IN PRAYING
FOR THE EMPERORS.
But there is another and more prevailing reason which determines us to intercede with heaven for the emperors, and for the whole estate of the empire, and their prosperity. And it is this, that we are of opinion that the conflagration of the universe which is now at hand, and is likely to flame out in the conclusion of this century, and to be such a horrid scene of misery, is retarded by this inter- position of the Roman prosperity ; ^ and therefore we desire not to
' Quod vim inaximam tmiverso orbi imminentum^ etc. Tertullian in this passage alludes to that of St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. — " And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time," etc. And so likewise in his book de Resiir. Carnis, cap. 24 — Jam enim arcamim iniqidtatis agitiir ; tantwn ut qtii tenet, teneat, donee de medio Jiat. Quis nisi Roinantis Status? etc. And it was the current opinion of the Fathers that Antichrist should not come until the Roman Empire was destroyed. To this purpose Theod. Chrysost. : Tivej to xccrip^ov rriv PeofictiKriv Ivontr^at (latriXiictv, r/v£j ?£ riiv X^P'^ "^"^ 'mvfji.ce.TOiy ol fJiXv rod <;rviVfiuros Tm ^a.fiv (pair)v, ol Ti rh* 'V&ifiai'xyiv ap^i]v o'l; sytwyt jtAoiKiffrcx, ri^ificti. And
g6 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
be spectators of dissolving nature \ and while we pray for it to be deferred, we pray for the subsistence of the Roman Empire.
But then as to your other objection concerning oaths ; to this I answer, that swear we do,^ and if not by the geniuses of the Caesars, yet by their Hfe, which is of more veneration to us than all the genii put together. But you seem to be ignorant that the genii are called demons, and from thence by a diminutive word demonia, that is, little devils. We reverence the providence of God in the persons of the emperors, who has made choice of them for the government of the world. We know that the power they have, they have by the will of God ; and therefore we wish well to that which God has willed to be ; and we look upon, .that as a very sacred oath which is made by so sacred a person ; but as for demons, that is genii, we are used to exercise them, and not to swear by them, for fear of giving that honour to devils which is due only to God.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN LOYALTY, AND THEIR REFUSING TO CALL THE EMPEROR BY THE TITLE OF GOD.
But what need I say more to show the sacred tie which binds on the duty of allegiance upon Christian subjects ? It is enough to
so again St. Jerome — Nisi, inqznt,fuerit Roi7ianuni Imferium ante desolahwi^ et Antichristus prcBcessarit, Christus non veniet. Hieron. Epist. ad Algas. Qu. II, f. 60.
•'■ Sed etjuramus, sicut non per Genios Ccesariim, ita per Salutem eorum, etc. Here we have the lawfulness of an oath expressly asserted by our Tertullian, though now gainsaid by some new-fashioned Christians (if the Quakers may be called Christians), and an oath too by the life of the emperors ; and a very sacred oath too it is, says our author, when so sacred a person is sworn by. They would not swear by their genii indeed, because they looked upon that as swearing by the devil and his angels ; and thus we find that Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh. Some are of opinion that this custom of swearing by the safety of the emperor was introduced by Augustus, from that of Horace,
Prasenti tibi ?naturos largimur honores, Jurandasq. ; tuum per nu?nen poninius aras.
However this be, it is certain from Suetonius in Vita Tiberii, and from Cornelius Tacitus, lib. i., that Tiberius forbade all such swearing either by his Hfe or genius. Vid. Dion. Rom. Hist. lib. Ivii,
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 97
say that we look upon ourselves under a necessity to honour the emperor as a person of God's election ; so that I may very deservedly say that we have much the greatest share in Caesar, as being made emperor by our God. And therefore it is I who more effectually recommend him to God,^ because I not only earnestly ask it of Him who can give it, or because I am such a petitioner as have the most reason to obtain it, but also because by setting Caesar below his god, I set him higher in his affection, to which God alone I subject him ; and I subject him to God, by not making him his equal.
I will not give the title of god to the emperor,^ either because I dare not speak against my conscience, nor ridicule him ; or because he himself will not endure the title. If he be a man, it is the interest of a man to give place to God ; let him content himself with the name of emperor, for this is the most majestic name upon earth, and it is the gift of God. He lays aside the emperor who takes upon him the God ; he must be a man to be an emperor. When he is in the very prime of his glory sitting in his triumphal chariot, even then he is admonished to know himself a man, by one speaking from behind in these words, " Look back, and remember yourself to be but man ; " ^ and he is then the more contented to find
^ Plus ego illi operor in Saluteui. " It is I who more effectually recommend him to God." This word operor I take to be very significative and emphatical in this place ; for z.'&facere often is used for Re7?i sacramfacere, to sacrifice ; so operari, when applied to religious matters, is the same with the Greek hipyuvy by sacrifice or prayer to work upon God with energy, or efficaciously.
^ Non enifn Deum Imperatorem dicain. "I will not call the emperor God." Antiochus, king of Syria, arrived to the extravagant blasphemy of taking upon him this title of God. Vid, Appian. in Syr. So likewise among the Romans, Caligula commanded himself to be called Optimus Maximus and Jupiter Latialis. See Sueton. in vita ipsius, cap. 22, and Philo in his Legatione ad Caium. And thus Tacitus, lib. iii., speaks of Domitian, Mox imperiiim adepius, Jovi Custodi templum ingens, seq. ; in sinu Dei sacravtt. Vide eHa?n Sueton. cap. 13. Hence that of Martial, lib. v. Epigr. 8 —
Edictum Domini, Deiq. ; nostri.
And so again, lib, viii. Epigr. 2 —
Terrarum Domino, Deoq. ; rerum.
^ Suggeriter enim ei a tergo, Respice post te, Ho7ninem memento te. In the same chariot, behind him who triumphed, was the public servant carried, who held up a huge heavy crown above the head of the triumpher, both to express his merits and his weakness by a glorious weight he could not bear, and with the mortifying words just now mentioned. In allusion to this is that of Juvenal, Sat. 10 —
Qiiippe tenet sudajis hanc Publicus, et sibi Consul.
Ne placeat, eurru Servus portatur eodeni.
D
98 Terhillians Apology for the Christians.
himself on such a dazzling height of glory as to make it necessary for him to be advised of his humanity. He is the weakest of princes who can feel himself a man, and would be flattered as Almighty ; and he the Caesar truly great, that will bear the truth that is designed to keep him within the bounds of mortality.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CONCERNING AUGUSTUS C^SAR.
Augustus,^ the founder of the Roman Empire, would by no means admit of the style of Dominus, or lord, for this is the surname of God. Nevertheless, I should not scruple to call the emperor lord ; 2 but then it must be when I am not compelled to do it in a sense peculiarly appropriated to God ; for I am Caesar's free-born subject, and we have but one Lord, the Almighty and Eternal God, who is his Lord as well as mine.
But why should you call him lord, who is styled the father of his country ? Surely that name of affection sounds sweeter much than that of power ; and they had rather be called fathers of great families, than lords of slaves. But if Augustus would never assume the title of lord, he would much less have thought it Caesar's due
^ Augustus, ne Dominum quideni did se volebat, Suetonius in the life of Augustus writes thus of his refusiug the title of Dominus, or lord, cap. 53 — " Domini appellationem, ut maledictum et opprobrium semper exhorruit. Cum spectante eo ludos, pronunciatum esset in mimo, O Dominum sequum et bonum : et universi quasi de ipso dictum exultantes comprobassent : statim manu vultuque indecoras adulationes repressit, et insequenti die gravissimo corripuit edicto, Dominumque se posthac appellari, ne a liberis quidem aut nepotibus suis, vel serio vel joco, passus est; atque hujusmodi blanditias etiam inter ipsos prohibuit."
^ Dicam plane Imperatorem Dominum^ sed more communi, etc. If the Quakers would, be determined by Tertullian, a person of great mortification, a mighty stickler for anything which had the least appearance of extraordinary piety, and withal an exceeding admirer of Montanus, and the false pretenders to the spirit of that age, they might hear him in this place frankly declaring that he should make no scruple to call the emperor Dominus, or lord, to own him supreme, or as he in the foregoing chapter expresses it, subject to God only, provided this term Dominus might be taken in the common sense, and noways intrench upon the prerogative of God. And this proviso he had reason to make, because the adoration of emperors was then grown into fashion,
TerhilliafUs Apology for the Christians. 99
to have been styled god ; a flattery not only most fulsome, but of a most destructive influence to both parties. It is just as if you should pass by the rightful emperor, and give his titlejo another ; would not this be an unpardonable offence in you who give the title, and fatal to him who takes it ? Lef rrie advise you therefore, as you tender Csesar's safety, not to rob God of His attributes, to bestow them upon Csesar ; forbear to believe that there is any other god, and to style him god who stands in need of God every moment of his being. But if you are proof against all shame, and can daub the emperor with such a lie of a title as you do by calling such a mortal, god ; at least, methinks, you should be afraid of having such an ill-boding name in your mouths, for it is a kind of imprecation against Csesar's life, to call him a god before the time of his apotheosis.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CONCERNING THE DIFFERENT OBSERVATION OF PUBLIC FESTIVALS BETWEEN THE CHRISTIANS AND THE HEATHENS.
Christians therefore lie under the odium of public enemies, because they join not in the public flatteries, in the false fantastic honours which are dedicated to emperors upon public festivals ; because the professors of the true religion celebrated such solem- nities with sobriety of conscience, and not with the liberties of a dissolute joy.^ A mighty instance of loyalty, no doubt ! to make bonfires, to bring out tables and feasts in the streets, and meta- morphose the whole city into a tavern ; ^ to make the conduits run wine, and see the mob suck up dirt and Hquor together, and run
^ VercE Religionis Homines etiam solemnia eoj'um, conscientid potius quam lascivid celebrant. Here you have another instance of the primitive Christians complying with heathen solemnities, so far as was consistent with innocence. The festival here mentioned seems to be a day of rejoicing for the suppressing the faction of Niger and his adherents. The Christians made no scruple to observe the day with a conscientious mirth, though they would not join in the public debauchery.
^ Civitatem tabernce habitu abolefacere. * ' To metamorphose the city into a tavern." Agreeable to this description is that of Martial, lib. vii. —
Tonsor, Caupo, Coquus, Lanius, sua limina servant, Nunc Roma est, niiper magna Taberna fuit.
lOO Terlullian s Apology for the Christians.
about in troops like mad into all the confusions of injury, im- pudence and lust, their heated imagination prompts them to. Is such a scene of public shame a proper expression of public joy ? And are these becoming practices upon an holy day, which upon any day are abominable? Shall they who seem so mighty devout for Caesar's safety be so mighty drunk for Caesar's safety too? Shall licentiousness pass for loyalty, and luxury for religion ? Oh the just condemnation of Christians ! For why should we dare to be so singularly sober, chaste, and honest upon Cesar's birthday, and be so unfashionably religious in discharging our vows and rejoicings for him ? When all the world has given such a loose to joy, why do we not do so too, and darken our gates with laurels,^ and put out the day with illuminations ? For certainly it is a very fine figure to see your houses upon holy days dressed up in the fashion of the stews.
But touching the religion upon these sacred festivals to Caesar, who is the second majesty next to God, and upon whose account we N are convened as guilty of a second sacrilege, for not celebrating these days according to your modes of worship, which temperance, modesty, and chastity will not permit us to do. I would set this matter, I say, in a better light, and lay before you your own allegi- ance and sincerity, that we may judge whether they are not more to blame in this point than Christians, who will not have us treated as Romans, but as enemies of the State.
For the truth of this I convene the populace of Rome, the natives of the Seven Hills, and let them answer whether their tongues, as much Roman as it is, have spared any of their own Caesars ? Let the pasquils fixed upon the statue of Tiberius speak, and the Circus too, that academy where beasts are sent to learn the art of killing men with a better grace.
Had nature covered our breasts with transparent matter, so that we might look into the people's heart, what heart should we see
' Cur diu Iceto non Laurels Pastes obicmbramjis ? Juvenal, speaking in the person of the people applauding the emperor's happiness upon the overthrow of his enemy, says, Fone doi7ii Latiros. Sat. lo. And so again. Sat. 6 —
Omentur Posies, et grandi Janua Lauro.
But this also (says our author in the words following) was the habit of the stews ; and lib. ii. ad Uxor. — Procedit de Janud Laureat d et lucernatd, ut de novo Consistorio libidinum Puhlicarum.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. loi
that was not inscribed with a scene of Caesar's fresh and fresh distributing the doles to the people, which are usual at their first coming to the throne ? We should see these wishes, I say, in their hearts for Caesar's death, even in the moment that their mouths are full of cry for Caesar's life, according to that of the poet : ^
»
Shorten my thread of life, good Jove ! from mine Take many years to lengthen Caesar's line.
But a Christian dares no more take their words in his mouth than their wishes in his heart ; but this you will say is mob, and to be considered as mob only. But let me tell you, this mob are Romans, and the worst too of enemies we have ; the Romans then of better rank are certainly better subjects, and their fidelity greater in proportion to their quality; not a man of the senatorian or equestrian order but is all subjection ; and not a breath of re- bellion ever comes from camp or court. If so, whence came the Cassiuses, the Nigers and Albinuses ? ^ Whence those who set upon the Emperor Commodus between the two laurel groves at Lauretum ? and those who got him strangled at his exercise with his wrestling- master Narcissus ? Whence those who broke into the palace, sword in hand, and murdered Pertinax, in a more audacious manner than Domitian was by the Sigeriuses and Partheniuses ? Now these parricides (if I mistake not) were men of rank, and Romans ; and not a Christian among them. And these traitors just before the perpetration of this horrid impiety offered sacrifice for Caesar's Hfe, and swore by Caesar's genius, with religion in their faces, and murder in their hearts, and branded the Christians with the character of public enemies. But the principals and abettors of this wicked conspiracy against Severus which are daily detected, and picked up as the gleanings after a vintage of rebellion.^ Bless me ! with what loads of laurel did they signalize their gates on
1 De nostris annis Jupiter augeat annos.
^ Unde Cassii^ et Nigri, et Albini? Whoever has a mind to see a particular account of these Tyranni, and those that adhered to them, may read the life of Avidius Cassius in Vulcatius, the life of Niger in Spartianus, and that of Albinus in Capitolinus. See also the preface of Baldwinus before Minutius Felix.
2 Post Vmdemiam Parricidarum Race^natio Superstes. How this passage determines the time of this Apology, I have already mentioned ; and that relates not to the death of Plautianus, according to Baronius, tom. ii., Annal. p. 264, and according to Mr. Dodwell, Cyp. diss. xi. cap. 51, p. 282, but to the death of Pertinax, is to me most probable from the history of Zosimus, lib. i., where he gives this account — xa) -rpoyt aTtavTuv, etc., Ante ovinia (Severus) de Militibus qui Pertinacem necaverant, et Jtdiano tradiderant Imperium, acerba Stipplicia sumpsit.
I02 Tertullians Apology for the Ckristiaits.
Caesar's birthday ! With what extraordinary illuminations did their porches overcast the sun ! ^ With what exquisite and stately tables did they take up the forum ! Not in truth to celebrate the public joy, but to take omens from hence of their own future empire, and to inaugurate this image of their hopes, even upon Cesar's festival, by calling themselves in their hearts by the name of Caesar. They likewise pay the same observances who are so officious in consulting astrologers, and soothsayers, and augurs, and magicians about the life of the emperors ;2 for these fortune-telling arts delivered by fallen angels, and interdicted by God, the Christians never apply to in any cause of theirs. For what business has a man to be so curious about Caesar's life, who has no design against it, or expecta- tions from it? For we seldom ask questions about our dearest friends, with the same intent as we do about our masters ; and the solicitude of relations, and the curiosity of slaves, are generally upon very different principles.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CONCERNING THE CHRISTIAN DUTY OF LOVING ENEMIES.
If the case be thus, that such as are found traitors in the very fact shall be indulged the title of Romans, why are we denied the benefit of that title who are only thought traitors ? Can we not be Romans without being rebels, because so many Romans have been found guilty of rebellion? That piety, veneration, and loyalty
^ Lucernis vestibula enuhilabant. It was the manner of the Grecians to express the celebration of festival days by (^uir) kou ffri(pa,)>a>[ji,a.ffi, by illuminations and coronets of flowers. And Persius, speaking of Herod's birthday, has these words —
Unctdq. ; fenestrd Dispositce pingue7n nebiilam vomuere Lucerna.
But the Christians would not express their joy by lights and laurels ; and for candles, we find an express prohibition against them in the Apostolical Canons, can. 70 — Si quis Christianus oleum tulerit ad sacra Gentilium, vel Synagogam TudcEorum, Festis ipsorwn diebus, aiit lucernas accenderit, de Societate pellatur.
2 Qui Astrologos et Aruspices, et AugU7'es, et Magos de Cczsarunz capita consultant. Our author mentions these several sorts of conjurors, because many of them had been put to death upon this account by Severus. For thus Spartianus in his life of Severus, Multos etiam, quasi Chaldceos^ aut vates, de sua salute consulissent, interemit.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians, 103
therefore which is due to emperors, does not consist in the fore- mentioned shows of duty, which even rebellion cloaks herself in to pass undiscovered, but in such virtues as civil society finds necessary to be practised sincerely towards prince and people. Nor are these actions of a virtuous mind looked upon by us as a tribute due to Caesar only ; for we have no respect of persons in doing good, because by so doing we do good to ourselves, who catch at no applause or reward from men, but from God only, who keeps a faithful register of our good works, and has ample rewards in store for this universal charity ; for we have the same good wishes for emperors as for our nearest friends. To wish ill, to do ill, to speak ill, or to think ill of any one, we are equally forbidden with- out exception. What is injustice to an emperor is injustice to his slave; and that which is unlawful against the meanest is much more so against the greatest of men ; and him too especially who came to this greatness by the appointment of God.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A CONTINUATION OF THE UNLIMITED LOVE OF CHRISTIANS,
If then (as I have elsewhere declared) we Christians are expressly commanded by our Master to love our enemies, whom then have we left to hate? And if when hurt we must not return the evil, for fear of being like the rest of the world, where shall we find a man to hurt ? How well we practise this command of our Master, you yourselves can tell with a witness ; for how many times, partly in compliance with a brutish passion, partly in obedience to the laws, have you judges showed a most savage cruelty to Christians ! How often without your authority has the hostile mob of their own mere motion invaded us with showers of stones and fire ! The mob, I say, who acted with the furies of a Bacchanal spare not even a dead Christian, but tear him from the quiet of a tomb, the sacred refuge of death, and mangle the body, hideously deformed already, and rotting to pieces ; and in this rueful condition drag it about the streets. But now in all this conspiracy of evils against us, in the midst of these mortal provocations, what one evil have you observed to have been returned by Christians? Whereas we could in a night's time with links and firebrands in our hands have
I04 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
made ourselves ample satisfaction by returning evil for evil, had we not thought it unlawful to quit the score of one injury with another. But God forbid that any of this divine sect should seek revenge by fire, after the manner of men, or grudge to suffer what is sent to refine them.
But if we would not revenge ourselves in the dark, but as professed enemies engage you in the open field, do you think we could want forces ? The Moors, and Marcomans, and Parthians, which you have lately conquered, or any other people within the bounds of a country, are more numerous perhaps than those who know no other bounds than the limits of the world. We are but of yesterday, and by to-day are grown up, and overspread your empire ; your cities, your islands, your forts, towns, assemblies, and your very camps, wards, companies, palace, senate, forum, all swarm with Christians. Your temples indeed we leave to yourselves, and they are the only places you can name without Christians. What war can we now be unprepared for ? ^ And supposing us unequal
^ Cut bello non Idoncei, etc. ? In the preliminary discourse to this Apology, I have shown at large from this and the foregoing chapters that it was not for want either of strength or courage that the primitive Christians sat still and suffered ; but purely the reverence they bore to the character of God in the emperor, tied their hands, and secured their passions, and perfectly got the better of self-preservation. It was the doctrine and example of their suffering Master which made them content to go this rugged way to heaven ; and I cannot but think this extraordinary, supernatural patience, a mighty, strong, and moving argument for the truth of Christianity, to see its professors in such numbers, and for some ages, so willingly comply wath a religion which, as Tertullian says, taught men they must choose rather to be killed than to kill. But because the measures of Christian obedience to the supreme powers are no- where better argued and more clearly stated both from Scripture and antiquity, and from these passages, than by the Right Reverend and learned Bishop of Sarum himself in his four Conferences, printed at Glasgow in the year 1673, I recommend the reader for fuller satisfaction on this head to those excellent dialogues. However, for fear they should be out of print, 1 shall give him a taste for his encouragement to read the whole. Thus then he expresses his zeal with a justifiable primitive warmth, p. 17 — "Whatever other cases allow of, certainly the defence of religion by arms is never to be admitted ; for the nature of the Christian religion is such that it excludes all carnal weapons from its defence. And when I consider how expressly Christ forbids His disciples to resist evil. Matt. XXV. 39, how severely that resistance is condemned by St. Paul, and that condemnation is declared the punishment of it, I am forced to cry out, Oh ! what times are we fallen in, in which men dare against the express laws of the gospel defend that practice upon which God hath passed this condemnation — ' If whosoever break the least of these commandments, and teach men so to do, shall be called the least in the kingdom of God,' what shall their portion be who teach men to break one of the greatest of these commandments, such as are the laws of peace and subjection ? And what may we not look for from such
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 105
in strength, yet considering our usage, what should we not attempt readily ? we whom you see so ready to meet death in all its forms of cruelty, was it not agreeable to our religion to be killed rather than to kill.
We could also make a terrible war upon you without arms, or fighting a stroke, by being so passively revengeful as only to leave you ; for if such a numerous host of Christians should but retire from the empire into some remote region of the world, the loss of so many men of all ranks and degrees would leave a hideous gap, and a shameful scar upon the government ; and the very evacuation would be abundant revenge. You would stand aghast at your desolation, and be struck dumb at the general silence and horror of nature, as if the whole world was departed. You would be at a loss for men to govern, and in the pitiful remains you would find more enemies than citizens ; but now you exceed in friends, be- cause you exceed in Christians.
Besides, whom would you have left to deHver you from the incursions of your invisible enemies, who lay waste both body and soul ? From the devils I mean, from whose depredations we defend you gratis; and had we a spirit of revenge, it would make the passion full amends only to abandon you freely to the mercy of those impure beings ; but without the least touch of gratitude for the benefit of so great a protection, you declare a sect of men, which are not only not burdensome, but necessary, to be public enemies ; as we are indeed, but not in your sense, enemies not of human kind but of human errors only.
teachers, who dare tax that glorious doctrine of patient suffering, as brutish and irrational ; and though it be expressly said, i Pet. ii. 21, that Christ by suffering for us left us His example how to follow His steps, which was followed by a glorious cloud of witnesses, yet in these last days, what a brood hath sprung up ' of men who are lovers of their own selves, traitors, heady, high- minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a fornr. jf godliness, but denying the power thereof, who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins ! ' It is our sins that provoked God to open the bottom- less pit, and let loose such locusts ; but were we turning to God, and repenting of the works of our own hands, we might hope that their power should be taken from them, and that their folly should be made known unto all men." Thus that great prelate.
a
To6 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THAT CHRISTIANS CAN NEVER BE JUSTLY SUSPECTED OF DESIGNS
AGAINST THE STATE.
The Christian sect therefore for a certain ought to meet with kinder treatment than it does, and to be tolerated among other lawful societies/ because it is a sect from whom nothing hostile ever comes, like the dreadful issue of other unlawful factions. For, if I mistake not, such a multiplicity of sects is suppressed upon reasons of State, that the city should not be split into parties, for such breaches would let in a general disorder into all your popular elections, councils, courts, assemblies, and public sights, by the ambitious clashings of the contending factions; and never more reason to provide against such disorders than now, when the parties are sure not to want violent hands for any design ; if they want not money to pay them.
But for us who are stark cold and dead to all the glories upon earth, what occasion can we have for caballings? And in good truth nothing is further from our soul than the thoughts of mixing in State affairs, or in any private designs ; for we look upon ourselves as citizens of the world.
We renounce your sports as much as we condemn their original,^
^ Inter licitas Factiones. The politicians and statesmen troubled not their heads much about any religion, but only to support that which was by law established, and there being a law against the Heterise already mentioned, they prosecuted the Christians under the notion of a society dangerous to the State, among the rest without distinction. These Christian meetings, ubi congregabantur oraturi, et verbi divini interpretationeni accepturi, ac sacras Synaxes, habituri, they called Conventicula, saith Heraldus. Vid. Observat. in. Arnob. lib. iv.
^ Spectaculis vestris in tantum renunciamus^ etc. This charge of sequestering themselves from the public sports and pleasures is urged against the Christians by the heathen in Minutius ; and it is certain they thought themselves obliged so to do by their baptismal vow, which was an engagement upon their admission to renounce the devil and all his works, pomps, and pleasures, that is, saith St. Cyril, Cat. Myst. i, p. 510, the sights and sports of the theatre, and such like vanities. They looked in good truth upon these public pastimes, not only as scenes of folly and lewdness, but of idolatry ; as places where the devil eminently ruled, and reckoned all his own who came there ; and accordingly Tertullian, de Sped. cap. 26, p. 83, tells us of a Christian woman who, going to the theatre, was there possessed by an evil spirit, who upon his ejectment being demanded how he durst set upon a Christian, immediately replied, "I did but what was just and fitting, for I found her upon my own ground."
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 107
which we know is owing to superstition and idolatry, and never are present at any of your diversions. We have nothing to do with the madness of the Cirque, with the obsceneness of the stage, and the cruelty of the amphitheatre, and the vanity of the Xystus.^ The Epicurean sect is tolerated in the exercise of their pleasures, and why are we such intolerable offenders for non - conforming with you in point of pleasure? Nay, if mortification is the Christian pleasure, where is the harm to you ? if it be a harm, it is to ourselves only. But thus it is, your pleasures are our aversion, and ours affect not you.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CONCERNING THE DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIANS, AND THEIR EMPLOYMENT AND V^AYS OF LIVING.
Having vindicated our sect from the calumnies of rebellion, etc., I come now to lay before you the Christian way and fashion of living.
We Christians then are a corporation or society of men 2 most strictly united by the same religion, by the same rites of worship,
^ Cum Xisti vanitate. The Xystus was a gallery or portico of great length and breadth, and planted about with trees, where in the winter time the athletae performed. Vid. Alex, ab Alex. tom. ii. cap. 9, p. 659. It was certainly a place too where philosophers and men of learning met, for here it was Justin Martyr met and disputed with Trypho the Jew.
2 Corptis suinus de conscientid Religionis, et DiscipliiKE Unitate. ' ' We are one body by our agreement in religion and our unity of discipline." I know nothing less understood, or less regarded, than unity of discipline, as if that was no part of Church unity ; forms of worship and government are now to be passed over with moderation, though the ancient and best of Christians reckoned unity of discipline, as well as faith, necessary to make them members of the same body. Dr. Barrow, a truly moderate and good man, in his excellent discourse concern- ing the unity of the Church, says, " That all Christians are one by a specifical unity of discipline, resembling one another in ecclesiastical administrations, which are regulated by the indispensable sanctions and institutions of their sovereign. That they are all bound to use the same sacraments, according to the forms appointed by our Lord, not admitting any substantial alteration. They must uphold that sort of order, government, and ministry, on all its substantial parts, which God did appoint in His Church." And a little after he says, " That no power ought to abrogate, destroy, infringe, or violate the main form
io8 Terhillians Apology for the Christians,
and animated with one and the same hope. When we come to the pubHc service of God, we come in as formidable a body as if we were to storm heaven by force of prayer, and such a force is a most grateful violence to God. When this holy army of supplicants is met and disposed in godly array, we all send up our prayers for the life of the emperors,- for their ministers, for magistrates, for the good of the State, for the peace of the empire, and for retarding the final doom.
We meet together likewise for the reading of Holy Scriptures,^ and we take such lessons out of them as we judge suit best with the condition of the times, to confirm our faith either by
of discipline constituted by divine appointment. Hence the Meletians rejected by the Church for introducing ordinations. Hence was ^rius accounted a heretic for meaning to innovate in so grand a point of discipline as the subordina- tion of bishops and presbyters. Upon which grounds " (says he at the conclusion of his discourse) " I do not scruple to affirm the recusants in England to be no less schismatics than any other separatists ; they are indeed somewhat worse, for most others do only forbear communion, these do rudely condemn the Church to which they owe obedience, they strive to destroy it, they are most desperate rebels against it." Another person too of known learning, the Right Reverend author of the Conferences abovesaid, thus argues for unity of discipline, Conf. iii, p. 275 — " If therefore the worship of God among us continue undefiled, even in the confession of all ; if the sacraments be administered as before ; if the persons who officiate be ministers of the gospel, then certainly such as separate from our public meetings do forsake the assemblies of the saints, and so break the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace." And page 280 he goes on — "But if separation be a sin, it must have a guilt of a high nature, and such as all who would be thought zealous watchmen ought to warn their people of. And what shall be said of those (even Churchmen) who, at a time when the laws are sharply looked to, do join in our worship ; but if there be an unbending in these, they not only withdraw and become thereby a scandal to others, but draw about them divided meetings ; are not those time-servers ? For if concurrence in our worship be lawful, and to be done at any time, it must be a duty which should be done at all times ; and therefore such masters of conscience ought to express an equality in their ways, and that they make the rules of their concurrence in worship to be the laws of God, and not the fear of civil punishment." Whoever would see more concerning the nature of Church unity, and the sin of occasional conformity, let him read the whole Conference.
'^ Oramus etiatn pro Imperatoribiis, pro Ministris eortwt, etc. This, not without good reason, is thought to be the "common prayer" mentioned by St. Justin just before the communion, and much the same with that in our Communion Service for the Church Militant ; the form whereof in the Apostolical Constitutions is described at large. Const. Apost. lib. ii. cap. 57, p, 881, and so lib. viii, cap. 10, p. loii, which is still a further proof that the passage sine nionitore ought not to be understood of extempore prayer.
^ Cogitnur ad Divinaru77i literarum Commemorationem^ etc. This is just the same almost with what you had in the conclusion of Justin's Apology, and there- fore the same note may serve for both.
Tertiillian s Apology for the Christians. 109
forewarning us what we are to expect, or by bringing to our minds the predictions already fulfilled. And certainly our spiritual life is wonderfully nourished with reading the Holy Scriptures, our hopes thereby are erected, and our trust fixed and settled upon God. However, besides the bare reading, we continually preach and press the duties of the gospel with all the power and argument we are able ; for it is in these assemblies that we exhort, reprove, and pass the divine censure or sentence of excommunication ;^ for the judgments in this place are delivered with all solemnity, and after the maturest deliberation imaginable, as being delivered by men who know they are pronouncing God's sentence, and act with the same caution as if God stood visibly among them ; and the censures here pronounced are looked upon as an anticipation of the judgment to come, and the sinner precondemned by God, who has sinned to such a degree as to be shut out by his ministers from the fellowship of the faithful, the communion of prayers and sacraments, and the rest of that sacred commerce.
^ Ibidem etiam exhortation es, castigaiiones, et censura Divina, — Summumqtie fufuri /udicii Prejudicium est, si quis ita deliqiierit lit a Communicatione Orationis et conventtls et 07nnis Sancti commercii relegetur. The Church subsisted now purely as a spiritual society independent of the State, and while it did so, and its censures were managed magno cum pondere, as our author speaks, with great gravity and judgment, they were looked upon as divine, and an anticipation of the judgment to come. And had this inherent power of the Church acted still independently of the civil power, and the people been made sensible of the necessity of the communion of the Church in order to salvation, I cannot see why excommunication should not have as good an effect, and be as much dreaded now, as in the primitive times, upon the same principles. However, thus much is observable from this passage, that men were first admonished and then reproved more severely, before the sentence of excommunication was passed. Secondly, that this sentence excluded them from all religious intercourse. And thirdly, that it was looked upon as the forerunner of future condemnation in the world to come. To the same purpose St. Cyprian speaks — ad Pomponitwi, Spiritali Gladio superbi, et conttajiaces necantur, dum de Ecclesid ejiciuntur : neque enim vivere /oris possent, cum Domus Dei una sit ; et neminl sahis esse, nisi ijt Ecclesid possit. " The proud and contumacious are slain with the spiritual sword, by being cast out of the Church ; for they cannot live without (or be admitted into any other Church), since the house of God is but one, and there can be no salvation to any, but only in the Church." And thus again, de Orat. Domin. p. 192 — Eucharistiam quotidie ad cibui7i Sal litis accipimns, inte^redente aliquo graviore delicto, dum abstenti et non comniunicantes a Ccelesti PaJie prohibemur ; a Christi corpore separamur. "We receive the Eucharist every day, as the food that nou^rishes to salvation ; and while for any more grievous offence we do not communicate, but are debarred from the heavenly bread, we are separated from the body of Christ. " So far was this martyr from thinking that excommunication was little more than the loss of a grace-cup, or the Church ministers refusing him that bread and wine which was not bought with his, but other men's money.
no Terhtllian s Apology for the Christians.
The presidents or bishops ^ among us are men of the most venerable age and piety, raised to this honour not by the powers of money, but the brightness of their lives \ for nothing sacred is to be had for money. That kind of treasury we have is not filled with any dishonourable sum, as the price of a purchased religion ; every one puts a little to the pubHc stock, commonly once a month,^ or when he pleases, and only upon condition that he is both willing and able ; for there is no compulsion upon any. All here is a free- will offering, and all these collections are deposited in a common bank for charitable uses, not for the support of merry meetings, for drinking and gormandizing, but for feeding the poor and burying the dead, and providing for girls and boys who have neither parents nor provisions left to support them, for relieving old people worn out in the service of the saints, or those who have suffered by shipwreck, or are condemned to the mines, or islands, or prisons, only for the faith of Christ ; these may be said to live upon their profession, for while they suffer for professing the name of Christ, they are fed with the collections of His Church.
But strange! that such lovely expressions of Christian charity cannot pass with some men without a censure ; for l6ok ye, say they, how these Christians seem to love each other, when in their hearts they hate each other to death ! How forward are they to
^ PrcEsident prohati quique Seniores.^ honoretn istum non pretio sed testimonio adepti. The presiding elders here are undoubtedly the same with the -^poicTUTis in Justin Martyr's foregoing Apology, that is, the bishops ; for our author, speaking of the power of excommunicating where it is lodged, tells us it was in the president, ut extra Ecclesiam detur, inerat in PrcBsidentis officio^ lib. de Pud. cap. 14. And thus his scholar St. Cyprian, de Unitate Ecclesice, Tenere Jirjjiiter, et vindica7'e debemus, maxime Episcopi qui in Ecclesia prcesidemus. They were Probati Seniores, men of age, and publicly approved for their life and conversa- tion. For thus again, St. Cyprian in Epist. ad Felicem — Quod ad ipsum •videmus divind Auctoritate desce?idere, uti Sacerdos plebe present e sub 07}inium octilis deligatur, et digmis atque idoneus publico judicio et testimonio comprobetur. Agreeable to the practice of the apostles, who left it to the congregation as the most competent judges to choose fitting men, and then they ordained them to the office of deacon by prayer and laying on of hands.
^ Modicam umisquisque Stipem rnenstrua die, etc. We have St. Paul, I Cor. xvi. I, 2, giving order to the Churches of Galatia and Corinth for weekly offerings for the saints, " That upon the first day of the week " (when they never failed to receive the sacrament) *' they should every one of them lay by him in store according as God had prospered him." But I have already given an account of these charities, and therefore only remark here, that according to St. Paul's order, the collections were weekly to the time of Justin Martyr, but in the age following, that of Tertullian, we find these offerings sunk to monthly, Menstrua die, etc.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, 1 1 1
stake down their lives for one another, when inwardly they could cut one another's throats ! But the true reason of this defamation, upon the account of styling ourselves brethren, I take to be this, because the name of brother is found with these men to be only a gilded expression of a counterfeit friendship. But you need not wonder at this loving title among Christians, when we own even you your- selves for brethren by the right of one common nature ; although indeed you have cancelled this relation, and by being inhuman brethren have forfeited the title of men ; but by what diviner ties are we Christians brethren ! We who all acknowledge but one and the same God as our universal Father, who have all drunk of one and the same Holy Spirit, and who are all delivered as it were from one common womb of ignorance, and called out of darkness info His marvellous light. But maybe we cannot pass for right brothers with you, because you want a tragedy about the bloody feuds of the Christian fraternity ; or because our brotherly love continues even to the division of our estates, which is a test few brotherhoods will bear, and which commonly divides the dearest unions among you.
But we Christians look upon ourselves as one body, informed as it were by one soul ; and being thus incorporated by love, we can never dispute what we are to bestow upon our own members. Accordingly among us all things are in common,^ excepting wives ; in this alone we reject communion, and this is the only thing you enjoy in common \ for you not only make no conscience in violat- ing the wife of your friend, but with amazing patience and gratitude lend him your own. This doctrine, I suppose, came from the school of the Grecian Socrates, or the Roman Cato, those wisest of sages, who accommodated their friends with their own wives, wives which they espoused for the sake of children of their own begetting, as I imagine, and not of other folks.
Whether the wives are thus prostituted with their own consent, in truth I cannot tell, but I see no great reason why they should be
1 Omnia indiscreta sunt apud nos, etc. Dr. Potter observes from hence that among many other reasons why a certain proportion for the maintenance of the clergy was not fixed by the apostles, this was one, that there could be no occasion to determine the portion then, when men laid all they had at their feet ; and the same reason held good to our Tertullian's time, for he says here that Christians had all things in common but their wives. Vid. Dr. Potter's Discourse of Church Government, p. 434. I only observe further, what great veneration is due to the writers of those ages, when men valued nothing but religion, and followed Christ in the highest expression of charity, in selling all they had for the support of Christians.
112 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
much concerned about that chastity which their husbands think not worth keeping. Oh, never-to-be-forgotten example of Athenian wisdom ! Socrates the great Grecian philosopher, and Cato the great Roman censor, are both pimps.
But is it any great wonder that such charitable brethren as enjoy all things in common should have such frequent love-feasts ? For this it is you blacken us, and reflect upon our little frugal suppers, not only as infamously wicked, but as scandalously excessive. Diogenes, for aught I know, might have us Christians in his eye when he said that the Megarensians feast as if they were never to eat more, and build as if they were to live for ever ; but every one sees a straw in another's eye sooner than a beam in his own ; or else you must be sensible of your own beastliness in this case ; for the very air in the streets is soured with the belches of the people coming from their feasts in their several wards. The Salii cannot sup without the advance of a loan, and upon the feast of tithes to Hercules the entertainment is so very costly that you are forced to have a bookkeeper on purpose for expenses. At Athens likewise when the Apaturia, or feasts in honour of Bacchus for a serviceable piece of treachery he did, are to be celebrated, there is a proclama- tion for all the choice cooks to come in and assist at the banquet ; and when the kitchen of Serapis smokes, what baskets of provisions come tumbling in from every quarter ! But my business at present is to justify the Christian supper; and the nature of this supper you may understand by its name ; for it is the Greek word for love. We Christians think we can never be too expensive, because we think all is gain that is laid out in doing good ; when therefore we are at the charge of an entertainment, it is to refresh the bowels of the needy, but not as you gorge those parasites among you who glory in selling their liberty for stuffing their guts, and can find in their hearts to cram their bellies in spite of all the affronts you can lay upon them ; but we feed the hungry, because we know God takes a peculiar delight in seeing us do it. If therefore we feast only with such brave and excellent designs, I leave you from hence to guess at the rest of our discipline in matters of pure religion ; nothing earthly, nothing unclean, has ever admittance here ; our souls ascend in prayer to God before we sit down to meat \ we eat only what suffices nature, and drink no more than what is strictly becoming chaste and regular persons. We sup as servants that know we must wake in the night to the service of our Master, and discourse as those who remember that they are in the hearing of God. When supper is ended, and we have washed our hands, and the candles aie
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 113
lighted up, every one is invited forth to sing praises to God, either such as he collects from the Holy Scriptures, or such as are of his own composing ; ^ and by this you may judge of the measures of drinking at a Christian feast. And as we began, so we conclude all in prayer, and depart not like a parcel of heated bullies, for scouring the streets and killing and ravishing the next we meet, but with the same tenor of temperance and modesty we came, as men who have not so properly been a-drinking as imbibing religion. This as- sembly of Christians therefore is deservedly ranked among unlawful ones, if it holds any resemblance with them ; and I will not say a word against condemning it, if any man will make good any one article against it which is charged upon other factions. Did we ever come together to the ruin of any one person ? We are the same in our assemblies as at home, and as harmless in a body as apart ; in neither capacity injuring or afflicting any person whatever. When therefore so many honest and good, pious and chaste people
^ Post aquam viamcaleni et hwzina, ut quisq. ; de Scripturis Sanctis^ vel de propria Ijigenio potest, provocatiir in medium Deo canere. Pliny, lib. x. ep. 97, reports it as a main part of the Christian worship, that they met together before day to join in singing hymns to Christ as God. These hymns were taken either out of the Holy Scriptures (and the compiler of the Apostolical Constitutions mentions the 33rd Psalm, lib. viii. cap. 13, p. 1023), or else such as were de proprio Ingenio, of their own head, of their own composing ; for it was usual at this time for any persons to compose divine songs in honour of Christ, and sing them in the public assemblies, till the Council of Laodicea ordered that no songs composed by private persons should be recited in the church, Can. 59. The dispute between us and the dissenters is about the sense of this phrase, de proprio Ingenio, which they will have to signify extempore raptures, in vindica- tion of their own effusions ; against which the Reverend Mr. Bennet argues thus : That allowing this hymn to be extempore, yet it made nothing to the purpose, unless it could be proved that the congregation joined in it. Secondly, he denies the fact that the psalm was extempore, because no such thing as an extempore psalm was ever heard of; those of David, though inspired, were notwithstanding precomposed. Nor does singing de proprio Iiigenio psalms of their own composing, imply that they were extempore psalms, for psalms de proprio Ingenio are in this place opposed to psalms de Scripttiris Sanctis, taken out of Scripture, and not to precomposed ones. Thus, that judicious person in his very laborious and very valuable History of Set Forms of Prayer, p. 243, which I had not the satisfaction to see till it was too late to add any improve- ments from him to my own remarks upon that passage, Sine motiitore quia de Pectore, and therefore I recommend the reader to his eighth chapter, p. 95, where he will find this phrase largely and substantially treated. But after all, supposing these hymns to have been extempore, yet it is granted on all hands that the season of miracles and inspiration was not over in Tertullian's time, and therefore it is great contempt of authority and presumption in them to pray the same way, till they can prove they have the same gifts, especially since they find all such effusions censured and forbid by the Council of Laodicea already cited.
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are met together, and regulated with so much discipline and order, such a meeting, I say, is not to be called factious, but as orderly an assembly as any of your courts.
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CHAPTER XL.
THAT THE CAUSES OF PUBLIC EVILS ARE MOST MALICIOUSLY THROWN UPON THE CHRISTIANS.
On the contrary, faction is a name which belongs to those only who conspire in the hatred of the good and virtuous, and remonstrate full cry for innocent blood, sheltering their malice under this vain pretence, that they are of opinion, forsooth, that the Christians are the occasion of all the mischief in the world. If Tiber overflows,^ and Nile does not; if heaven stands still and withholds its rain, and the earth quakes ; if famine or pestilence take their marches through the country, the word is, Away with these Christians to the lion ! Bless me ! what, so many people to one lion ! Pray tell me what havoc, what a mighty fall of people has been made in the world and Rome before the reign of Tiberius, that is, before the advent of Christ ? We read of Hierannape, and Delos, and Rhodes, and Co, islands swept away with many thousands of their inhabit- ants. Plato tells of a tract of land bigger than Asia and Africa together, devoured by the Atlantic Ocean. Besides, an earthquake drank up the Corinthian Sea, and an impetuous force of water tore off Lucania from Italy, and banished it into an island, which goes now by the name of Sicily. Now these devastations of whole countries I hardly believe you will deny to be pubhc calamities.
^ Si Tiberius ascendit in Mcenia, station Christianos ad Leones. The overflow- ing of Tiber was looked upon as an ill omen, as we see by that of Horace,
Vidimus fiavum Tiberim retortis, etc.
That it was the hard fate of the Christians to be continually charged as the cause of all the public calamities, we find by St. Cypr. ad DeiJtetr. p. 197 ; and in the very first page of Arnobius adv. Gent. Nay, so hot and lasting was this calumny, that when the Goths and Vandals broke in upon the Roman empire, St. Austin was obliged to write his books de Civit. Dei, to silence this objection. And so likewise for the same reason did Orosius at St. Austin's request write his seven books of history. And Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in that fragment of his oration which we have in Eusebius, pursues the same design. Vid. Eus. II. Eccl. iv. cap. 26, pp. 119, 120. Whoever has a mind to be more particularly acquainted with the history of the following calamities will meet with references in abun- dance in Pamelius, and therefore I shall say nothing to them.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 1 1 5
But where now, I do not ask, were the Christians, the professed despisers of your gods ? But where, I trow, were your gods them- selves when the deluge blotted out the whole world, or, as Plato will have it, the plains only ? For that your gods were not in being in the time of the deluge, the cities wherein they breathed their first and their last, as well as those they founded, are a proof with a witness; for had they existed before the flood, they had not continued to this day, but been overwhelmed in the general ruin. As yet, the Jews, the original of the Christian sect, were not gone from Egypt into Palestine when the adjacent countries of Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by a storm of fire ; the land smells of burning to this day, and the apples that grow there are agreeable to the eye only, but turn to ashes upon the touch. Besides, we have not a word of complaint against the Christians from Tuscany or Campania, when Heaven shot his flames upon Volsinium, and Vesuvius discharged his upon Pompeium. Was there any worshipper of the true God at Rome when Hannibal made such havoc of the Romans at Cannae, and computed the numbers of the slaughtered gentry by bushels of rings picked up after the battle ? Were not all your gods everywhere in worship when the Gauls surprised the capitol? And it is really worth observing that in all these public evils the towns and temples both are involved in the same misfortune ; which would not be, methinks, had your gods anything to do in the matter, because they would hardly have a hand in doing themselves a mischief.
But would you know the true reason of such judgments, you must know that mankind has always served God very ill ; first by a stupid neglect of Him \ for when they might have understood the divine nature in some measure, they would not pursue after it with their understanding, but let their vain imaginations go after gods of their own invention ; and secondly, because that when God had been at the expense of revelation, they would not be at the pains of inquiring after it, nor be ruled by that Master He had sent to teach them righteousness ; and to take vengeance on their sins, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to work all unclean ness with greedi- ness. But had they went on as far as the light of nature, that candle of the Lord, would have led them, they had certainly found the God they looked for, and consequently would have served Him only, whom they found to be the only God ; and by this means have experienced His mercies rather than His judgments. But now they lie under His just judgments, and which too they have felt long before the name of Christian had a being in the world, and whose goods man enjoyed long before he had made himself any
1 16 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
gods. Why will he not be persuaded to think that the Being who has done him the good without any thanks for his blessings, is the same Being that does him the evil for his ingratitude, since every person is so far guilty as he is unthankful ?
However, if we enter into a comparison of past and present calamities, we shall find the account much abated since the coming of Christianity ; for since that time the innocence of Christians has tempered the iniquities of the age, and there have been a set of men who knew the right way of deprecating the vengeance of God. Lastly, when we are in great want of rain, and the year in anxiety about the succeeding fruits, then you are at your baths and debauches, and offering your water sacrifices to Jupiter,^ and ordering processions on barefoot for the people. You look for heaven in the capitol, and gape to the clouds upon the ceiling to dissolve in rain, without ever turning your eyes to the true heaven, and applying to the true God, who is the only help in time of need. But then in this great drought, we Christians sympathize with the world and dry up ourselves as it were with fasting, and are exceed- ingly temperate in all respects, differing the most frugal meals of life, and rolling in sackcloth and ashes ; and in this pitiable posture we knock aloud for admission of our prayers with as much im- portunity as if we would bring odium upon heaven for denying our petition ; and when we have, as it were, extorted pity from our God by the violence of prayer, then, forsooth, your Jove must have the honour of the grant.
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CHAPTER XLI.
CONCERNING THE CAUSE AND REASON OF PUBLIC CALAMITIES.
It is not Christians therefore but yourselves who are the bane of human affairs ; you are the men who are continually drawing down judgments upon the world, you who set aside the true God, and set up images in His stead. For certainly it is more reasonable to
^ Aquilicia Jovi immolamus. These Aquilecia were the sacrifices offered to Jupiter under great scarcity of water, propter aquam elicimdani ; and thence called Jupiter Elicius, according to that of Ovid. Fast. lib. 3.
Eliciunt ccelo tejtipiter^ tinde minores
Nunc quoq. ; te celebrant, Eliciunq. ; vacant.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians, 117
believe that ours is the God provoked, who is in contempt among you, and not those you have in worship. Or verily yours are very unjust kinds of deities, who revenge themselves upon their worshippers for the sake of Christians who will not worship them, and make no distinction between friends and foes. But this, say you, reflects equally upon the God of Christians, for He makes no difference between them and heathens. But would you understand the economy of His providence, you would forbear this reflection ; for He who has once determined at the end of the world to give every man his everlasting doom according to his works, will not anticipate His own appointed season, and make that difference now, which He has said He will not make till the conclusion of the world. In the meanwhile, therefore, the divine providence smiles and frowns upon all mankind without distinction, and scatters good and evil with an indiff'erent hand, that the pious and the impious might have both a taste of happiness and misery during this present state of things ; and because we know the reason of these proceedings from God Himself, therefore we have a due sense both of His kindness and severity, but both to you are contemptible ; and therefore it follows that all the evils which are sent by God upon the world are sent for our admonition and your punishment. But we are no ways concerned with what befalls us here, because in the first place our great concern is to get out of the world as fast as we can ; and because in the next place what misfortunes do fall, we know that they are your provocations which have pulled them down ; and when they do fall upon us, as without a miracle they must, considering how we are blended together in this world, we rejoice and are exceeding glad to find the miseries foretold verified in ourselves ; and this sensible fulfilling of divine prophecies gives new life to our faith, and wing to our hope.
But if it be as you say, that they be the gods you worship who do you all this mischief, and for our sakes too, why do you con- tinue such ungrateful and unjust gods in worship, who are so much obhged to vindicate and assist you to the utmost of their almightiness against the Christians ?
1 1 8 Tertullia7is Apology for the Christians,
CHAPTER XLII.
THAT THE CHRISTIANS ARE A VERY USEFUL SORT OF PEOPLE.
Another article we are indicted upon is this, that we are a good- for-nothing, useless sort of people to the world ; but how can this possibly be, since we converse with you as men, we use the same diet, habit, and necessary furniture? We are no Brahmins, or Indian gymnosophists, who live in woods, and as it were in exile from other men ; and we act as men under the warmest sense of gratitude to God our Lord, the Creator of all things ; and we reject nothing He has made for the use of man. We are indeed very temperate in our enjoyments, and cautious in transgressing the bounds of reason, and abusing the favours of His indulging pro- vidence, therefore we come to your forum,i we frequent your shambles, your baths, your shops, your stalls, your inns, and your marts, and all other kinds of commerce ; we cohabit, we sail, we war, we till, we traffic with you \ we likewise communicate our arts and work for the public; and notwithstanding all this, how we should be of no service to the public is a thing quite past my understanding.
But what if I do not frequent your festivals, I hope I may be a man, and have hands and feet for the public at that time as well as any other. If I do not bathe about night at your Saturn's feasts,^
■•■ Itaque non sine foro, non sine macello, non sine balneis, etc. You may observe from hence that the Christians of old, as devout and religious as they M^ere, yet they conversed and traded with the heathen world, v^^ere active and diligent in their secular professions, and refused no calling whatever that was innocent in itself and useful to the public ; for had they been never so good, and lived only to God and themselves, in woods and cloisters, they had not been shining lights, but candles under a bushel. Fishers of men must converse with multitudes, to spread their nets to greater advantage and for larger draughts ; and we find by all the apologists that they caught as many by their examples, and preached as powerfully with their lives, as their sermons. And as the Jews were hated for their reservedness, selfishness, and ill-nature, and therefore made little progress, so, on the other hand, the Christians were as much admired even by their enemies, for the sweetness of their temper, their patience and unbounded charity, and therefore spread the more prodigiously.
^ Nojz lavor diluculo Satumalibus, etc. The Saturnalia were noted feasts in the month December, blessed times of liberty, wherein the servants all sat at table and the masters waited. See more of this in Macrobius, Sattirnal. lib. i. cap. 7. And December being a cold season, our author jeeringly tells them that he did not much like bathing so early, and that it was time enough for washing
Teriullian s Apology for the Christians. 1 19
it is because I am a better husband for the pubhc than to wash away day and night to so Httle purpose \ however, I bathe at proper hours for my health's sake ; it is time enough in conscience to grow stiif and pale with washing when I am dead. I do not care for feasting with you in public, upon the festivals of Bacchus, because methinks I look hke one of those condemned wretches who at these feasts is supping his last, and when you have given him his bellyful you throw him to your beasts. But however at this time, somewhere or other I do eat, and of some such victuals too as you eat. I lay out no money in chaplets of flowers to crown my temples, and pray how is your interest concerned which way I dispose of my flowers ? It is more agreeable to me to see them free and loose and scattered about in a grateful confusion ; but yet when they are wreathed into a garland, even then it is my way to apply them to my nose ; let them if they please apply them to their head, who smell with their hair.^ We come not to your sights, but if we want anything which is brought thither, we freely go and buy it at those places where it is ordinarily sold. We buy no frankincense, and if the Arabians complain, let the Sabaean merchants know that we take off greater quantities of more costly spices for the embalming our dead,^ than others do for incensing
and being made stiff with cold when he was dead, alluding to the custom of washing the dead which was very ancient ; according to that of Ennius —
Jarqiiinii Corpus bonafoemina lavit et unxit.
The Xevrpa. •pravvtrrxTo, (as Electra in Euripides calls it), extreme washings, or wasLv ing the dead bodies, was counted so necessary a thing, that towards the conclusion of Plato's Phcedo, sec. 47, Edit. Cantab. Select. Dial.^ we find that Socrates, when he intended to drink his poison, thought it best to set about washing himself beforehand to save the women the labour. — axihov ti fjcot upa, TpaTi^a-t Trpo; TO XvTpov. AoKit yap '/ion (iikriov I'lvai Xovffafjcivov tiuv (pdpf^oixov^ xa.i /u,ri Tpu'yf/,u'7-a TocTs yvvai^i 7ra,p'ix,uv vixph Xovuv. And we find this custom of washing the dead in the Acts of the Apostles, ix. 37 — "And it came to pass in those days, that she (Tabitha) was sick and died ; whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber."
■■■ I\/bn emo capiti coronam — Viderhit, qui per capillum odorantur. In reference to this, but in a more intelligible expression, is that of Minutius, — Sa7ie quod caput nan coronamus ; ignoscite, Aurani boni Flares naribtis ducere, non occipitio capillisve solemics haurire.
^ Sciant Sabcei, pluris et carioris suas mercis Christianis sepeliendis, etc. Thus again we have it in Minutius, Reservatis unguento Funeribus. The primitive Christians were very careful about funerals, and very costly in their spices and odours for embalming their dead ; and therefore when St. Polycarp was put to death they burnt his body in spite to the Christians, who had begged it of the proconsul, in order to embalm it and give it a solemn interment, where- upon they gathered up the bones and decently committed them to the earth, and there used to meet and celebrate the memory of that holy martyr. Vid.
I20 Terhdliau's Apology for the Christians.
their gods. Certainly, say you, the rates for the temple now come to nothing, and who can brag of any collections for the gods ? And really we cannot help it ; for in good truth we are not able to relieve such a parcel of beggars, both of gods and men ; we think it very well if we can give to those that ask ; and I will pass my word that if Jupiter will but hold out his hand, he shall fare as well as any other beggar. For we bestow more in the streets than you with all your religion do in your temples. However, if your temple wardens have reason to complain against Christians, the public, I am sure, has not, but on the contrary very great reason to thank us for the customs we pay with the same conscience as we abstain from stealing. So that was the account fairly stated how much the public is cheated in its revenues by the tricks and lies of those of your religion, who bring in an inventory of their goods in order to be taxed accordingly ; you would soon find, I say, at the foot of the account that what the temple may lose in her offerings by the Christian religion, the State sufficiently gets in her taxes by the Christian fidelity in their public payments.
CHAPTER XLIII.
A FURTHER VINDICATION OF THE USEFULNESS OF CHRISTIANS TO
THE PUBLIC.
But shall I tell you who the gentlemen be, if there be any in good truth, who make these heavy complaints of the unprofitableness of
Euseb. B. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 15, p. 135. "This cost" (says Dr. Cave, Prim. Christian, part iii. cap. 2, p. 275) "the Christians doubtless bestowed upon the bodies of the dead, because they looked upon death as the entrance into a better life, and laid up the body as the canditate and expectant of a joyful and happy resurrection. Besides, hereby they gave some encouragement to suffering, when men saw how much care was taken to honour and secure the relics of their mortality, and that their bodies should not be persecuted after death." And I take leave to add, that considering how very careful the first Christians were to follow the Scriptures even in ceremonies indifferent, I question not, but finding how Joseph was embalmed, Gen. 1. v. ult., and especially considering how the alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, was approved by our Lord Himself for His own burial, in that of St. Mark xiv. 8, " She has done what she could ; she is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying ; " — I doubt not, I say, but this prevailed very much with the first Christians to be so expensive in their spices upon the dead.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 121
Christians to the public? Why, first they are your panders, and pimps,^ and filthy pliers about your baths ; ^ next, your cut-throats, poisoners, and magicians; lastly, your soothsayers, wizards, and astrologers ! These the gentlemen we Christians are so useless to, and I think it is very well for the public we are so ; hov/ever, if you are sufferers in anything by Christians, they make you ample recompense another way ; for what a valuable blessing is it you are in possession of, in having such a people among you who are not only your defence against devils, and always upon their knees to the true God in your behalf; not to insist upon this, I say, what a treasure is it barely to have such people to serve you as you are sure will never do you any harm !
CHAPTER XLIV.
THAT THE CHRISTIANS ARE CONDEMNED MERELY UPON THE
ACCOUNT OF THEIR NAME.
But your reason is so entirely blinded with prejudice that you have not an eye left to see the public damage, a damage as visibly great as true. Not a man weighs what the common injury amounts to by thus depopulating the empire of the most just and innocent subjects in it ; it is hardly credible to imagine how many Christian prisoners your judges destroy at every gaol delivery, but only their trials are upon record. Among all this number of criminals, and this variety of indictments, what Christians do you find arraigned for assassinating, or for a pickpocket,^ or for sacrilege, or for pilfering at the bath? Do you hear at the trials any article
^ These Preductores are much the same with Lenones, according to that of Horace —
Ptitasne
Perihici poterit^ tamfriigitaniq.; piidica?
^ Aqiiarioli. Filthy pliers about baths. Aqtiarioli, saith Festus, dicebantnr Mulieram impudicarum AsseclcB. And are what Martial calls Balneatores —
Certe Lticernd Balneator extindd Admittat inter busUiarias moehas.
3 ManticMlarius. A pickpocket. Of this word Festus speaks thus : Manti- cidaruvi usus pauperibus in numniis recondendis etiam nostra saculo fuit, vnde Manticularii dicebantttr qni fiirandi gratia mantictdas attrectabant.
122 Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.
against Christians, like that which other malefactors are charged withal? Does not the prison sweat with your heathen criminals continually ? Do not the mines continually groan with the load of heathens ? Are not your wild beasts ^.fatted with heathens ? And is not the whole herd of condemned wretches which some public benefactors ^ keep alive for the entertainment of the amphitheatre, are not they all of your religion? Now, among all these male- factors, there is not a Christian to be found for any crime but that of his name only, or if there be, we disown him for a Christian.
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CHAPTER XLV.
CONCERNING ONE GREAT REASON FOR THE INNOCENCE OF CHRISTIANS ABOVE THAT OF ALL OTHER PEOPLE.
We then are the only harmless people among you, and where is the wonder, if it cannot well be otherwise ? As in truth it cannot, con- sidering our education ; for the innocence we are taught, we are taught from God, and we know our lesson perfectly well, as being revealed to us by the Master of all perfection, and we observe it faithfully as the command of an all-seeing Lawgiver, who we know is not to be despised but at the hazard of eternal happiness. Whereas your systems of virtue are but the conjectures of human philosophy, and the power which commands obedience merely human; and so neither the rule nor the power indisputable, and consequently the one too imperfect to instruct us fully, and the other too weak to command us effectually, both which are abun- dantly provided for by a revelation from God. Where is the philosopher ^ who can so clearly demonstrate the true good as to
1 Muiierarii. Such sports and plays which were exhibited by private men at their own charges in order to ingratiate with the people, were called Ltidi honorarii ; and those of this nature were for the most part either fencing or stage-plays. Fencing is that which is here meant, and because freely bestowed, called Mimtis, and the bestowers of them Ahinerarii. In allusion to this is that of St. Jerome, Munerarius Paupe7'um, et Egentium Candidatus Epist. ad Pa77imach.
- Tajita est Prudentia Hominis ad demonstrandum bonum, quanta Aiictoritas ad exigendum, tarn ilia falli facilis, quant ista contenmi. " Where is the philo- sopher who can so clearly demonstrate the true good as to fix the notion beyond dispute ? and what human power is able to reach the conscience, and bring down
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 123
fix the notion beyond dispute ? and what human power is able to reach the conscience, and bring down that notion into practice? For human wisdom is as subject to error as human power is to contempt. And therefore let us enter a little into a comparison between your laws and ours. Tell me then, which do you take to be the fullest and completest law, that which says, Thou shalt do no murder, or that which restrains the very passion of anger? Which expresses greatest purity and perfection, the law which prohibits the outward act of adultery, or that which condemns the bare lust of the eye ? Which is the wisest provision for innocence, to forbid evil-doing, or not to permit so much as evil-speaking? Which is the most instructing lesson for the good of mankind, to debar men from doing injury, or not so much as to allow the injured person the common privilege of returning evil for evil ?
•
But this is not all, for I must give you to understand that these very laws of yours, which are but in the way to perfection, are no more in good truth than a transcript of the old law of God, older by much than any law of your making, but I have already laid before you the antiquity of Moses.
But as our law is more perfect in its precepts, so is it more cogent in its penalties ; for pray tell me what is the force of human
the notion into practice? For human wisdom is as subject to error as human power is to contempt." It is plain, in fact, from the sad state of darkness which overspread the world at the coming of our Saviour, that human reason unassisted was not sufficient for the establishment of true moral righteousness, or to make one entire and perfect system of the law of nature. But supposing such a body of ethics possible to be collected from the writings of the philosophers as we find in the gospel, how far must such a collection fall short from a complete, steady, indisputable rule of morality ! It is all at most but human wisdom, and that (as Tertullian says) is as subject to error as human power is to contempt, and both consequently subject to dispute. Had the sayings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. , any authority ? They were only the sayings and opinions of mere men, and so might be rejected or embraced as men thought fit ; or if any part of the doctrine of a philosopher must go for law, the whole must pass for such too, or else his authority ceases. Such a system therefore of morality as was not only perfectly agreeable to right reason, but also of divine indisputable authority in every point, was wanting to the world before the coming of our Saviour, allowing mere human philosophy as perfect as you please in point of truth. Such a system, I say, was wanting which was not only right in every rule, but of infallible wisdom and authority in every precept, and easy and intelligible in all things necessary to every understanding ; and the gospel, and only the gospel, is such a system, dictated by divine wisdom, and confirmed by divine authority, by such a wisdom as is not subject to error, and by such a power as cannot be disputed.
124 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
laws ? Which an offender has oftentimes a chance to escape either by lying hid in his wickedness, or else by pleading inadvertency or compulsion. Reflect likewise upon the shortness of human punish- ment, which always ends with life ; for this reason you see how little Epicurus valued any kind of torment, by laying down this for his maxim of comfort, that a little pain is contemptible, and a great one is not lasting. But we who know we must account to a God who sees the secrets of all hearts ; we who have a prospect of that eternal punishment He has in store for the transgressors of His laws ; we, I say, may well be looked upon under so much revela- tion, to be the only men who always take innocence in their way ; and considering the omniscience of our Law-giver, and that dark- ness and light to Him are both alike, and withal weighing the heaviness of future torment, torment not lasting only, but everlast- ing, we proportion our fear and obedience accordingly, fearing Him whom those judges ought to be afraid of, who condemn Christians for standing more in awe of God than the proconsul.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THAT CHRISTIANS HAVE A BETTER RIGHT TO A TOLERATION
THAN PHILOSOPHERS.
I HAVE now, as I think, stood the whole charge, and replied to every article, for which men have been so deadly clamorous for the blood of Christians. I have likewise laid before you our whole state, and the ground of our faith, namely, the antiquity of the divine Scriptures most credibly attested, together with the testimony and confession of the very devils themselves ; he therefore that will take upon him to refute me ought to disprove these facts in the same method and simplicity as I have proposed them, and not to fold himself in quirks of logic or the disguise of eloquence.
In the meantime, I cannot but take notice of the strange in- credulity of some men, who notwithstanding they are convinced of the excellency of our sect, which they are notoriously sensible of by their conversation and dealings with us, yet they will not be convinced that Christianity is of diviner original than mere human philosophy. For, say they, philosophers prescribe and profess the
Terhtllians Apology for the Ckrislians, 125
same doctrine as Christians, namely, innocence, justice, patience, temperance, and chastity. But now if this comparison be just, and Christianity and philosophy be the same things, pray, what is the reason that we have not the same philosophic treatment? Why are we not equalled to those in points of privilege and impunity, to whom we are compared in points of discipline ? Why are not they who are of the like profession with us put upon the same offices with us, and which we for refusing run the risk of our lives ? But what philosopher is compelled to sacrifice or swear by your gods, or to hang out a parcel of insignificant lights at noonday upon your festivals ? And yet these philosophers destroy your gods openly,^ and write against your superstitions, and with your approbation into the bargain. Nay, many of them not only snarl, but bark aloud against the emperors, and you bear it very contentedly ; and not only so, but give them statues and pensions instead of throwing them to the beasts for so doing; and all this, no doubt, with great reason, because they go by the name of philosophers, and not Christians, — a name ^ which gives no disturbance to the demons, and how should it? since the philosophers do these demons the honour as to place them next the gods. For it was a constant form in the mouth of Socrates, By my demon's leave I will do so or so. Yet even this same philosopher after he had given such an instance of his true wisdom in denying the divinity of your gods, yet notwithstanding this (such was the inconstancy of the man) he
^ Qidn into et Deos vestros palam destrimnt, — laudantibtis vobis. These and the following words are plainly an imitation, or rather a translation of those in Justin Martyr, Apol, l. sec. 4 — naKHtuv t« otha^yi/^aTu, o\ uinp^o/nivoi OVK i'lpyovren •Jipo; vfjt,uv^ aCXa. o\ x.a) Ttf/.K; toTs iiKpcovi; vfipi^ovffi Touroi; rJiXB.
^ Nomen hoc Philosophorum Dceinonia nonfugaL When the more sober and inquisitive heathens took a stricter view of the lives of the preachers of the gospel, and of the genuine followers, instead of the common and rude name of impostors, they gave them the more civil title of philosophers, as we find from the beginning of this chapter : Sed du7Ji unicuiq. ; inanifestahir Veritas nostra, quod ustijani et de comtnercio iiinotuit, non titiq. ; Diviftiim negociuni exist imant, sed magis Philosophice getttcs. They could not but own Christianity to be a more exalted kind of philosophy, when they saw the Christians live above the very notions of the philosophers. But the difference between the life of a Christian and a philosopher was not the only characteristic ; for, says our Tertullian, Nomen hoc Philosophorum Dcemonia 71071 fitgat. Philosopher is a name the devils value not ; they stand in no awe of a philosopher's beard, nor will the hem of his pallium cure any diseases. But Christians did not only outlive them in virtue, but outdid them in power. For Christ was a name that made the very devils tremble ; a thing which the philosophers with all their mighty wisdom were so far from pretending to, that they worshipped those very demons next to their gods. So that Christianity and philosophy differ just as much as heaven and earth, as a name that can do everything, and a mere empty title.
126 Tertullians Apology f 07^ the Christians.
ordered a cock to be sacrificed to -^sculapius ^ just upon the point of expiring, in gratitude, I suppose, to his father Apollo, who had given him out for the wisest of mortals. O inconsiderate Apollo ! was you bewitched thus to ungod yourself, by crying up such a one for the wisest of men, who cried down the whole race of heathen gods ?
But forasmuch as men of corrupted minds have always a burning hatred to truth, so her strictest followers must expect to meet with the severest usage; but he who adulterates truth will be sure to have the thanks of her enemies for his service. Accordingly, philo- sophers affect truth only in appearance, and this affectation puts them upon corrupting her, for the glorious vanity of a name j but Christians are heartily and violently set upon pure truth, and perform her commands sincerely, as men who have nothing to care for here, but in order to their salvation hereafter; and therefore Christians, both in respect of conscience and discipline, notwith- standing your comparison, are very different persons. And for a further proof of this difference, consider what was the answer that Thales the prince of naturalists made Croesus, when he was pressed by him plainly to declare his positive notions of the divine nature. Did not the philosopher put off the prince from time to time with his "I will consider on it"? But the meanest mechanic among- Christians apprehends God, and can answer the question, and can assign substantial reasons, and very sensibly explain himself upon all these disquisitions about the divine nature; though Plato affirms it to be so difficult to find out the Creator of the universe, and when found, to express himself intelligibly upon that subject. But if you make a challenge between Christians and heathens, in point of morals, let us enter the lists, and begin with chastity ; and in the trial of Socrates I read one article of the Athenians against him for sodomy; but a Christian keeps inviolably to one sex and one woman. I find also that Diogenes could not lie con- tentedly in his tub without his mistress Phryne ; and I hear of one Speusippus of Plato's school, slain in the very act of adultery ; but a Christian is a man only to his own wife. Democritus by putting out his eyes, because he could not look upon a woman with innocence, and was not easy within the bounds of chastity, suffici- ently published his incontinence by his cure ; but a Christian can
■*■ ^scitlapio tamen gallinacetim prosecari in fine judebat. The last dying words of Socrates we have in the conclusion of Plato's Phado, and they are these — '^ xpirojVf yi<P'/if Tw 'AffKkyi^iZ o(piiXofiiv ocXtXTpvova^ a,XXa, ocTrohoTi kcci f^vi
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 127
look upon a woman securely, because his mind is blind to all impressions of that nature. If the question is about probity or sweetness of temper, behold Diogenes with his dirty feet treading upon Plato's stately carpets, and crying he trampled upon Plato's pride, though the sloven did it with a greater pride of his own ; but the Christian expresses not the least air of haughtiness to the poorest man on earth. If we contend about moderation with respect to worldly greatness, behold Pythagoras affecting tyranny at Thurium, and Zeno at Priene ! But a Christian has not the ambition to aspire even to the office of an sedile. If we compare equanimity, remember Lycurgus made away with himself because he was unable to bear the thought of the Lacedaemonians correcting the severity of his laws ; but a Christian after condemnation is able to return thanks to those who have condemned him. If you vie with us in fidelity, there is your Anaxagoras who had not fidelity enough to restore the strangers the goods they had deposited in his trust ; but a Christian has the name of faithful, even among the enemies of his faith. If we dispute humility, I must tell you that Aristotle could not sit easy until he proudly made his friend Hermias sit below him ; but a Christian never bears hard, so much as upon his enemy. The same Aristotle was as gross a dauber of Alexander, to keep that huge pupil under his management, as Plato was of Dionysius for the benefit of his belly. Aristippus in his purple, and under the greatest show of gravity, was an arrant debauchee ; and Hippias ^ was killed while he was actually in ambush against the city, a thing which no Christian ever attempted for the deliverance of his brethren, though under the most barbarous usage. But perhaps it may be replied that some Christians are far from living up to their profession, to which I reply again, that then they are as far from having the reputation of Christians among those who truly are so ; but yet philosophers shall enjoy the name and honour of philosophy among you in spite of the wickedness of
^ Hippias du7n Civitati insidias disponit, occiditur ; hoc pro suis omni atrocitate dissipatis nemo unquam Christiajitis tentavit. Concerning the several crimes charged upon the philosophers in this catalogue, the reader may find them sufficiently dilated on by the commentators ; but that which I think mostly remarkable in this comparison between a philosopher and a Christian is, that he concludes the whole with the instance of rebellion in Hippias, " a thing," says he, "which no Christian was ever heard to have attempted for the rescue of his brethren, though under the most provoking and barbarous usage." This upon all occasions he shows to be the distinguishing character of Christians, this he triumphs upon, and therefore concludes the period with non-resistance like an orator who gradually rises higher and higher, and clinches all with that he thinks most likely to leave the deepest impression.
128 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians.
their lives. And where is now the similitude between a philosopher and a Christian ? between a disciple of Greece and of heaven ? a trader^ in fame and a saver of souls? between a man of words and a man of deeds ? between a builder up of virtue and a destroyer of it? between a dresser up of lies and a restorer of truth? between a thief and a guardian of this sacred depositum ?
^ Fames Negotiator, et Vita. " A trader in fame, and a saver of souls." Philo- sophus GloricB Animal, et popularis atirce vile mancipitim, says Jerome ad Julianum. "A philosopher is an animal of fame, one who basely drudges for the breath of the people." Lactantius is not a little severe with Cicero upon this very score, for thus he delivers himself in his second book de Origine Erroris, sec. 3, p. 67, Cantab. Edit., intelligebat Cicero falsa esse, etc. " Cicero," says he, "was very sensible of the vanities in worship, and when he had said enough in all reason utterly to overthrow the established religions, yet he concludes that these were the truths not to be told the people for fear of unhinging the religions of the State. Now what is to be done with a man who knows himself in an error, and yet knowingly dashes upon a rock, that the people may do so too ? who pulls out his own eyes to secure others in darkness ; who neither deserves well of those he permits to wander, nor of himself, whom he associates with practices he condemns ; who makes no use of his wisdom for the regulation of his life, but wilfully entangles himself to ensnare others, whom as the wiser person he was obliged to rescue from error. But, O Cicero ! if you have any regard for virtue, attempt rather to deliver the people out of ignorance ; it is a noble enterprise, and worthy all your powers of eloquence ; never fear but your oratory will hold out in so good a cause, which never failed you in the defence of so many bad ones. But Socrates' prison is the thing you dread, and therefore truth must want a patron. But certainly, as a wise man, you ought to despise death in competition with truth ; and you had fallen more honourably by much for speaking well of truth, than for speaking ill of Antony. Nor will you ever rise to that height of glory by your Philippics, as you would have done by labouring to undeceive the world, and dispute the people into their senses." This I take to be a just character, Socrates excepted, of all the heathen philosophers ; they were traders for fame, and enriched their heads only to fill their pockets ; they never loved truth well enough to suffer for her, nor would plead her cause before the Areopagus or Senate, at the hazard of their lives ; their notions were inactive, and lay floating only on their fancies, nor were the people nor themselves the better men for their philosophy ; Socrates' prison spoiled all. How unlike to this was the carriage of the apostles and their genuine followers ! How did they engage in the defence of truth ! With what zeal did they preach their crucified Master before Sanhedrim and Senate, in the face of all the dis- couraging tortures witty malice could invent ! They accounted no hazards comparable to the advantage the world would enjoy by the propagation of Christian philosophy ; they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. This showed a truly noble and generous spirit, that would not be discouraged from doing the world good, though the benefactors met with such hard usage for their pains. This likewise showed the divine power of the Christian religion, that it was able to raise its professors above all considerations present, for the joy that was set before them. Such was the differ- ence between a philosopher and a Christian, between a disciple of Greece and a disciple of heaven.
TerhUlian s Apology for the Christians. 129
CHAPTER XLVII.
THAT THE HEATHEN POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS STOLE MANY OF THEIR NOTIONS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
The antiquity 1 of the divine writings which I have already estabhshed would be a proper topic to insist upon here, in order to convince you that those writings have been the treasury of all succeeding wisdom ; and this topic I would pursue at large, was it not for fear of swelling this Apology to a volume. But, to be short, which of your poets,- which of your sophisters have not drank from
^ Antiquior omnibus, etc. Was it not for fear of swelling this tract beyond the bounds of an Apology, Tertullian says, he would enter into a particular proof of the antiquity of the Holy Scriptures. The reader will find this largely treated by Eusebius in his Prcepar. Evang., where in the fifth chapter, lib. x., you will see that the Grecians had not so much as the use of letters till Cadmus the Phoenician introduced them, which the Phoenicians had from the Syrians, that is, the Plebrews, which bordered upon them. In this chapter you will see also, not only the affinity between the Hebrew and Greek alphabet, which I have already mentioned, but how all the two-and-twenty letters in the Hebrew have their proper signification, which in the Greek have no meaning at all ; which plainly proves the one to be but an imperfect copy of the other, especially when the letters are just almost the same in both, as Alph, Alpha, etc.
^ Qiiis Foetaricm, qui non om?mio de Prophetartnji fonte potaverit? The Grecian bards of old were the instructors of the people, and priests generally as well as poets ; they travelled much into Egypt and other parts most noted for antiquity and learning ; and from thence freighted themselves with ancient traditions, which they set their fancies to work upon, and so hacked and hewed and disguised the originals, that it was hard to say from what country they came. Grcecia Mendax was a true motto. I will not go about to show particularly how the poets have plundered the prophets, since Bochartus, Vossius de Idol., and Bishop Stillingfleet, Orig. Sac, have so nicely traced the plagiaries and discovered the foundation of almost the whole fabulous superstructure, in spite of all their artifice to conceal it. However, it may not be amiss just to mention some of the ways they took to conceal and colour the impostures. And one way was, to alter the Hebrew name and put a Greek one in the place of like importance. Thus Cham or Ham, who either for his minority or undutifulness had his share of government allotted him in the barren sands of Africa, and was there for many ages worshipped under the name of Jupiter Hamon, which the Egyptians by leaving out the aspirate call 'A^^awx or 'Afjt.ovv, according to that of Herodotus in his Euterpe, Afjt.u.ovv yap AlyvTTtot xccXiovtrt tvv Ata, Thus I say, for Qn Ham, which signifies fervidus from the radix D^n fervere, they put Ziv,, from Z,iw, which signifies the same in Greek with Ham in Hebrew. This Ammon had a temple in the city of No, as we find from that of Jeremiah xlvi. 25 : "Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods." That which we render the multitude of No, is in the original Amon de No,
E
1 30 Tertullians Apology for the Christians,
the fountain of the prophets? It is from these sacred sources hkewise that your philosophers have refreshed their thirsty, in- quisitive spirits. From hence also it is that philosophy has iDeen proscribed some countries, as Thebes, Sparta, and Argos, for the monstrous issue she produced from the adulterous mixture of divine truths with human inventions \ and no wonder, since (as I have said) these philosophers were men of glory only, and driven on with the lust of eloquence. Accordingly, if they found any- thing in our divine digests ^ which hit their fancies, or might serve
the God Amon, whose temple was in the city No. Vid. Bochar. Phaleg. lib. i. pp. 5, 6. Another way of disguising their thefts was by taking the Hebrew in its literal and proper sense, thus finding Noah (whom Bochartus has demonstrated to be the same with Saturn) to be called, Gen. xi. 20, nilD"l5<n 5J>"'i5> "vir Terrce^ a husbandman, as Vir Sanguinis^ Vir Pecoris^ a bloody man, a shepherd, 2 Sam. xvi. 7, Gen. xlvi. 32. A most familiar phrase among the Hebrews, they take vir Terrce or husbandman in a literal sense for a,\ihf tyu yr^, the husband of the earth ; and so Saturn, which was Noah, is reported to have married Rhea, that is, the earth. Vid. Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. cap. i, p. 3. And so likewise where the Oriental languages were ambiguous or equivocal, by omitting the obvious sense and following the obscure, they spun out strange stories. Thus again the great Bochartus, lib. iv. cap. 31, has traced the fable of the Golden Fleece, which was nothing but the robbing the treasury of the king of Colchis, framed from the equivocal Syriac word 5^13, which signifies both a fleece and a treasury ; and so the bulls and dragons which kept it were nothing but the walls and brazen gates, for *T)E^ signifies both a bull and a wall, and tJ^PlJ, brass and a dragon. I shall mention but one Grecian artifice more, which was by ascribing to some of their own nation what is recorded in the sacred history. Thus the Thessalians make Deucalion to be the person who escaped the flood, and from whom the world was peopled after it ; and whoever compares the relation of Deucalion's flood in Apollodorus, Biblioth. lib. i. p. 19, with that of Moses, may easily turn Apollodorus's Greek into the language of Scripture by only turning Greece into the whole earth, and Deucalion into Noah, Parnassus into Ararat, and Jupiter into Jehovah. Vid. Bishop Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. lib. iii. cap. 5.
•'■ Si quid in Sanctis Scripturis offenderunt, pro instituto Curiositatis ad propria opera verterunt. In the foregoing Apology, Justin Martyr gives several instances wherein Plato had stolen from Moses ; and Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom, i, calls Plato, Tflv 'Efipci'iuv (ptXoffo(pov. See St. Austin, de Doctr. Christ, lib. ii. cap. 28, de civit. Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 41, and lib. viii. cap. 1 1. But above all, see this philosopher hunted through all his coverts, and traced home to the prophets by Eusebius in his Prcepar. Evang. lib. xi. xii. xiii., and there you will find with what good reason the Fathers charged the philosophers in general, and Plato in particular, for shirking from the Holy Scriptures, according to that of Eusebius, Pr(2par. Evang. lib. xi. cap. 10, t/ yap \(tti nxxraiv, n Mtua-yj? xttizi^uv ; Quid est aliud Plato, quam Moses Atticl loquens? Origen is of opinion that Plato by conversing with the Jews in Egypt came acquainted with the history of the fall of man, which after his enigmatical way he describes in his Symposiacs, where he introduces Porus the god of plenty feasting with the rest of the gods ; after supper Penia comes to the door a-begging ; Porus being drunk with nectar, goes into Jupiter's garden, and there falls fast asleep ; Penia observing it steals to
Terhillians Apology for the Christians. 131
their hypothesis, they took it and turned it and bent it to a com- phance with their own curiosity; not considering these writings to be sacred and unalterable, nor understanding their sense, which was then under a cloud to those carnal minds, as it is at this day to the very Jews, to whom they were appropriated. For if in any place truth appeared in its native simplicity without the disguise of type or metaphor, worldly wisdom, instead of submitting her faith, blended the certainties of revelation with her own philosophic uncertainties ; for having dipped in the Holy Scripture, and found there is no other God but one, they presently divided into various speculations about the divine nature, some asserting it to be incor- poreal, others corporeal, as the Platonics and Stoics ; some com- posing him of atoms, and others of numbers, as Epicurus and
him, and by this cunning conceived by him. In this fable of Plato, Origen observes the resemblance between Jupiter's garden and Paradise, and between Penia and the serpent, etc. . And he is the rather confirmed in his conjecture, because he knew it to be Plato's custom to wrap up his subHmest notions in fable, for fear of disobliging the fabulous Greeks, who hated the Jews, and who would have themselves pass for the wisest, if not the most ancient people ; and I may add, too, that nobody else might know from whence Plato had his notions. Vidi. Orig. cont. lib. iv. And as Plato purloined his divinest discoveries from the prophets, and perplexed them on purpose to hide the theft, so is it very remark- able that the latter Platonists, such as Jamblichus, Hierocles, Simplicius, etc., talk in a kind of evangelical strain, and as much above Plato as the apostles do above the prophets ; and at the same time vilify the Christians for a blind to make believe that there was nothing in the Christian doctrine worth borrowing, just as their master Plato had done before them. For it is to be remembered that Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, and Hierocles were brought up under the great Ammonius of Alexandria, as well as Herennius and Origen. This Ammo- nius both lived and died a Christian, as Eusebius and Jerome testify, Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. 19, Hieron. de Script. EccL, and so instructed his scholars in the Christian mysteries, as well as the pagan philosophy at the same time. The not observing therefore that the admirable discourses of these latter Platonists had their rise from a Christian master, has been the ground of two scurvy mistakes amongst some learned critics, namely, of overvaluing the Platonic philosophy, as if in their notions of the origin of evil, and the degeneracy of our souls from their primitive purity, etc., they outdid revelation, though it is evident that their noblest flights took wing from the gospel. Secondly, of charging the primitive Fathers with Platonizing, a charge (as I have proved) they utterly deny, and on the contrary tax the philosophers with Christianizing, or stealing from the doctrine of Christ ; which they wrested only to serve their hypothesis, and without telling a word whence they had the notion ; and not only the philosophers, but the heretics (says Tertullian) had got a trade of blending philosophy and Christianity together. And our author complains not only here of this tampering with Scripture among Christians, but cries out in his Prescription against Heretics^ cap. 7 — Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum et Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt. And it is notorious of late years what attempts have been made to reform religion by philosophy, instead of making philosophy bend to revelation.
132 TertiUlians Apology for the Christians,
Pythagoras, and some of fire, as was the opinion of Heraclitus. The Platonists Hkewise maintain his care and providence over his creation; on the contrary, the Epicureans make him a careless, inactive God, and, as I may say, nobody in the world. Again, the Stoics place him without the world, and turning the globe about, like a porter sitting without his wheel. The Platonists place him within the world like a pilot of a ship steering the universal vessel that contains him. In like manner we find these sages at variance about the world itself, whether it was made or unmade, and whether it would dissolve or last for ever. The same disputes we find about the state of the soul, some contending for it to be of a divine immortal nature, and others of a nature corruptible; every one inferring and reforming as the maggot bit. Nor do I wonder to find the philosophic wits play such foul pranks with the Old Testament, when I find some of the same generation among our- selves who have made as bold with the New, and composed a deadly mixture of gospel and opinion, as the same philosophizing vanity led them ; and out of one plain road have cut a world of labyrinths and inextricable mazes to confound men in the way of salvation ; which therefore I thought proper to advertise you of, that this noted diversity of opinions among Christians should not justify a parallel between us and philosophers, and make men condemn truth itself from the contentions about it. But this in short is my prescription ^ against these adulterers of the faith, to try all their doctrines by the gospel, that rule of truth which came from Christ, and was transmitted by His apostles, that, I say, is the
^ Expedite enini prescribimus Adulteris nostris, illam esse Regulam veritaiis qucBveniata Christo transf?iissa per comites ipsius. I shall not here enter into the necessary qualifications of a perfect rule of faith, and prove such qualifications to be in Holy Scripture, but observe only, that supposing philosophers to be in the right, yet all their reasonings were but the reasonings of mere men, and therefore fallible. No one system of philosophy then could be collected from their writings (granting all necessary truths to lie scattered amongst them) for a standing authoritative rule in matters of controversy, for such a collection can be of no more authority than the collector, and must want a sanction more than human ; for all men have a natural right to reason for themselves, till God determines it by a rule divine : the want of such rule therefore was a great desideratum in the Gentile world ; and this was one of the great wants provided for by Christ's coming into the world, who is emphatically said to have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. The heathens then of old, and the deists at present, vainly object against Christianity the many difi^erences about it ; for, says Tertullian, there is an infallible rule transmitted by Christ through His apostles, which we apply to upon all occasions to measure doctrines by, and which is wanting to the philosophers ; and therefore all the fundamental differ- ences which arise among Christians do not rise for any fault in the rule but in themselves.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 133
touchstone by which all the different opinions of succeeding teachers is to be proved.
All the arrows ^ that are shot at truth are taken from her own quiver, for the heresies are to look with a gospel face in emulation of divine truth, and the spirits of error have a great stroke in the picture. These are they which suborn men to discolour the doctrines of salvation, and stain them with their own inventions. By the same spiritual wickednesses are fables foisted in, to invali- date the credibility of our religion, or rather to procure this credi- bility for themselves, that the doctrines of devils being dressed up like truth might have the same veneration with the word of God; so that either a man might disbelieve a Christian, because he disbelieves a poet or a philosopher, or rather conclude he has the greater reason to give credit to a philosopher or a poet, because he cannot find in his heart to believe a Christian. From this sacri- legious mixture it is that we are so ridiculed when we preach about the day of judgment, for in imitation of this the poets and philosophers have their tribunal in the infernal region ; and if we threaten them with hell, which is a subterranean treasure of secret fire reserved for the punishment of the wicked, we are hooted at; for thus they ape us too with their Puriphlegeton ^ or burning river among the shades below ; and if we mention Paradise,^ a place of
' Omnia adversus veritatem de ipsd veritate constj'uda sunt, operantibus amulationem istam spiritihus Erroris. The Holy Scriptures being confessedly of divine authority, the most effectual way of doing mischief is not to descry them, but to put a crown on their head, and a reed in their hands, and to bow before them, and cry, " Hail King of the Jews ! " to pretend a mighty deal of reverence to the Scriptures, and then crucify them to their own sense. This was always the way of heretics and designing men, set on foot, says our author, and carried on by the agency of the spirits of darkness. And it is observable that the old serpent took the same course in tempting the second Adam with a text from Scripture ; and I know not any author that ever copied closer after the devil in this very thing than the author of the Rights of the Christian Church, who, with all the strength of delusion, has done his best to set up the kingdom of darkness, and to unchurch Christendom from Scripture.
^ Sic enini Pyriphlegeton apud mortuos amnis est. From the 7th of Daniel and the loth verse, where it is said that "a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and the judgment was set, and the books were opened ; " from this passage, I say, Eusebius shows the affinity between Plato and the prophet as to the future judgment, and particularly that the Puriphlegeton or burnmg river in Plato, 'xifi -^vx^n?., is plainly the fiery stream in Daniel. Vid. Euseb. Prcep. Evan. lib. xi. cap. 58.
* Et si Faradisum nominemus, Locum Divina amcenitatis recipiendis Sanct- orum spiritibus distinatum, macerid quddam ignea illiiis Zonce segregatum.
134 Tertullians Apology for the Christians.
divine pleasure, destined for the reception of the spirits of holy men, and guarded from the notice of the common world by the torrid zone or wall of fire, immediately they trump upon us with their Elysium. From whence now, I pray, had your poets and philosophers these resemblances ? Whence, if not from the books of our sacred mysteries? ,And if they copied from them, then they have the prerogative of antiquity, and consequently are the more credible ; since you look upon an original of more authority than the copy. But now, if they were the founders of these inventions, then we must take our religion from them, which is as impossible in
Paradise, says Philo, de Plaut. Noce, p. 171, is avfA^'oXov "^v^/Ai ^"^o -TrXriSovi »a) fiiyiirhv; ;^;a^aj dvaffxipruayi?, " The representation of a soul exulting for fulness and excess of joy." By Paradise or Abraham's bosom, or Abraham's port, as the Greek word ««x^o? truly signifies, the primitive Christians understood a place of ease and divine happiness, next to heaven, but not heaven itself, or the perfect fruition of the beatific vision ; they were of opinion that the departed souls of just men in general ascended not into heaven till after the resurrection ; which Irenseus and Tertullian prove from the example of Christ, to which we must be conformed ; for Christ Himself did not ascend into heaven till after His resurrection, but as His body rested in the grave, so His soul went into the place of departed souls, and when He rose again, then He ascended into heaven ; and thus, say they, we must do also. Not that they affirmed no souls immediately entered into heaven, for they believed the souls of martyrs did, and this belief seems to have increased the passion so much for martyrdom in that age. Here then the reader is desired to observe, that Tertullian asserts a middle state without a Purgatory, for he asserts Paradise to be a garden of divine pleasure prepared for the refreshment of holy souls till the resurrection ; and therefore our author could not possibly imagine it to be a place of torment, to expiate the temporal punishment due to sin, when the eternal punishment is remitted, which is the popish Purgatory, an invention not only against the current doctrine of the Fathers, but highly derogatory to the all-sufficient merits of our crucified Master, — a most discouraging and barbarous representation of the Christian religion, and such a one as had never been framed, had it not been a convenient engine to make a way into the pockets of the people. This Paradise (says our author) is guarded about with a wall of fire, like what the torrid zone is commonly supposed to be, plainly alluding to the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life ; hereby intimating, as I conceive, that as Paradise was the blissful seat of man in innocence, so Abraham's bosom or port was such an Eden of happiness for righteous spirits ; and as that was guarded from the re-entrance of sinful Adam and his posterity by those ministering spirits, which the psalmist, and after him the author to the Hebrews, calls a flame of fire, so was this blessed mansion of pure souls, this port after the storms of life, secured by the same ministers from the incursion of evil spirits : the devil they knew to be prince of the air, and this lower region to be filled with his legions, who in the opinion of the Fathers stood always ready to seize on a departed soul ; and therefore as the soul of Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, so they concluded that every righteous soul in the like manner was conducted in triumph through the dominions of the devil, and lodged in the same port of happiness till the day of judgment.
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. 135
nature as for a shadow to be before the substance,^ or the image before the reality.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
Let us now consider a little the different treatment of a philosopher and a Christian. If a philosopher affirms, as Laberius from Pytha- goras has done, that after death the soul of a man departs into a mule, and that of a woman into a serpent, and turns all the sails of eloquence to carry this absurd point, shall not he find credit, and harangue some of you into abstinence even from the flesh of animals ? And will not many scruple to eat a piece of beef, for fear of eating a piece of their ancestors ? But now if a Christian shall affirm that man shall be made man again after death, and Caius rise the very same Caius again, he is in danger of being mobbed, and having all the sticks and stones in the street presently about his ears. But if you can find it reasonable to believe the transmigration of human souls from body to body, why should you think it incredible for the soul to return to the substance it first inhabited? For this is our notion of a resurrection, to be that again after death, which we were before; for, according to the Pythagorean doctrine, these souls now are not the same they were, because they cannot be what they were not without ceasing to be what they were. A man might be very merry upon this subject, had he leisure and inclination to give himself a loose, and hunt
^ Nunquam enim corpus Umbra, aut veritatem Imago prcBcedit. It was a mighty objection with the heathens, that Christianity was a novel upstart religion, formed out of the corruption of the heathen mythology ; but this Tertullian argues to be as impossible as for the shadow to be before the sub- stance, or an imitation before the reality. This very objection we find almost continually in the mouth of Celsus the Epicurean ; for, says he, " the building of the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues were patched up out of the fable of the Aloidge in Homer's Odyssey ; the story of the flood, from Deucalion ; Paradise, from Alcinous's gardens ; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, from the story of Phaeton ; the folly of which objection Origen answerably demon- strates by showing the far greater antiquity of those relations among the Jews, than of these or any other fables among the Greeks ; and therefore the corruption of the tradition must be in them, and not in the Jews." Vid. Orig. cont. Cels. lib. iv. pp. 174, 179.
136 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
after all the animals in which all the departed souls from the beginning have taken up their lodgings.
But instead of digressing, I think it of more consequence to establish this doctrine of the resurrection; and we propose it as more agreeable to reason and the dignity of human nature to believe that man will be remade man, and every person after death himself again; so that the soul shall be habited with the same qualities it was invested with in its former union, though the man may receive some alteration in his figure. For certainly the reason of a resurrection is only in order to judgment ; and therefore it is necessary that the bodies which have been instrumental to the actions should be the same bodies which are summoned from the grave to judgment, "that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be evil."
The graves then shall repay the bodies at the day of judgment,
because it is not conceivable perhaps how a mere soul should
be passible without a union with matter, I mean the flesh; but
especially because the divine justice will have souls suffer in
the body they have sinned. But perhaps you will ask how the
particles of a body dissolved to dust can be made to rally and
reunite after such a dissolution ? Reflect upon yourself, O man !
and in yourself you will find an answer. Consider what you were
before you had existence — you were nothing at all ; for if you had
been a man, you might have remembered something of it. As
therefore you may be said to be nothing before you were in being,
to just such a nothing will you return again when you cease to be.
Why then cannot you be recalled from this second nothing, as you
think it, by the same Almighty word which called you from your
first ? Where now is the wonderful difference in these two cases ?
You who were not are made to be, and when you shall not be
again, God shall make you what you were. Be pleased now, if you
can, to solve me the mode of your creation, and then demand the
manner of your resurrection. And yet methinks you may easily
conceive the possibility of restoring you to a former being, since
you were with the same ease made something out of nothing. Is
the power of that God to be disputed who raised this universe
from nothing, from nothing as it were but the death of privation or
pure void, and animated it with that spirit which is the universal
life? And He has impressed upon this world for your conviction
many testimonials of the human resurrection. For the light which
Tertullians Apology for the Christians. i
'^
daily departs rises again with its primitive splendour ; and darkness succeeds by equal turns ; the stars which leave the world revive ; the seasons, when they have finished their course, renew it again ; the fruits are consumed and bloom afresh ; and that which we sow is not quickened except it die, and by that dissolution rises more fruitful. Thus you see how all things are renewed by corruption, and reformed by dying. And you, O man ! did you but under- stand the nobility of that title, and which you might have under- stood even from Apollo's oracle, how could you imagine that man, the lord of all these dying and reviving things, should himself die for ever ? In what place soever therefore the cord of life is broken, whatsoever element has your body in destroying, in abolishing, in annihilating, it shall deliver up the pledge, and return you whole ; for pure nothing is as much at the divine word as His whole creation.
But then, say you, here will be nothing but dying and rising in endless succession. If the Sovereign of the world has ordered it thus, you must have taken your destined turns whether you would or no \ but now He has established a resurrection once for all, as He has taught by His Word ; that Word or Reason which composed the universe of various elements, and made it a consistent har- monious system by a due temperament of opposite principles, of vacuum and matter, animate and inanimate, comprehensible and incomprehensible, light and darkness, life and death. The same Word who thus made and preserved the world has likewise so pointed and distinguished time, that the first period from the creation shall run out the determined stage of years, but the succeeding space on which all our thoughts are fixed is endless duration. But between these two there is an isthmus or middle term of time,^ and when this period is over, and the beauty of this
1 Cum ergo finis ^ et limes medius qui interhiat adfuerit, etc. "Between the conclusion of this world and the commencement of the world eternal there is an isthmus or middle term of time." By which he undoubtedly means the Chiliasm, or thousand years' reign upon earth ; for this he maintains in his books against Marcion^ lib. iii. cap. 23, p. 411. Now this is an error (if it be one) wherein Tertullian stands not alone, but in the good company of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis, Irseneus Bishop of Lyons, Justin Martyr, Nepos, Apollinaris, Victorinus, Lactantius, and Severus Gallus, with many others. But then it is to be remembered that this was an opinion they laid no stress upon, for Justin Martyr confesses, and without any censure, that there were many sincere and devout Christians who did not hold it, and many others also of the same mind with himself, and so leaves it as a matter indifferent. Vid. Dial, cum Tryphones, pp. 306, 307, 369. This notion seems to be first set on foot by the forementioned Papias, a very good man but of no great reach, as Eusebius remarks, EccL Hist.
138 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians,
new world likewise had its season, which is but a goodly curtain between us and eternity, then all human kind shall be restored to life, to answer for their several works, whether they be good or evil j and then consigned over to a state of immense perpetuity ; and then death and resurrection shall be no more, but we shall be the same we now are, and the same for ever. The worshippers of God shall be clothed upon with a substance proper for everlasting duration, and fixed in a perpetual union with God ; but the profane and the hypocrite shall be doomed to a lake of everflowing fire, and fueled with incorruptibility from the divine indefectible nature of that flame which torments them. Philosophers are not unacquainted with the difference of secret and common fire ; the fire which serves for the use of man is quite of another nature from that which ministers to the justice of God ; whether it be that which shoots the thunderbolts from heaven, or that which belches from the bowels of mountains, for it burns without consuming, and repairs what it preys upon ; the mountains therefore burn, and maintain themselves by burning, and the man who is blasted from heaven is insured from being burnt to ashes ; and this may be a testimony of the eternal fire, an emblem of those flames which are decreed to nourish the damned in torment. The mountains burn with per- petual fire, and are mountains still ; why, therefore, may not the wicked and the enemies of God burn like these ?
lib. iii. cap. 39, p. 112, who by not seeing into the mystical meaning of the apostle's discourses, ran presently away with it as an apostolical tradition ; just perhaps as we find from the misunderstanding of our Saviour's words to St. Peter : " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple (namely John) should not die." Now from a doctrine so harmless in itself and consequences, according to the sense of the orthodox (though abused indeed by Corinthus and his followers), recommended by the venerable antiquity of an apostolical person, as Papias was, an opinion that has so much to be said for it from Scripture, from the Revelation especially, as appears by the learned Mr. Mede and others, and which we are freely left to believe or disbelieve at our discretion ; is it not, I say, very disingenuous as well as very trifling in Mr. Daille to argue from hence against the authority of the Fathers ? As if their authority was the less valuable in matters of faith wherein they are all unanimous and pressing, and in matters of fact wherein they cannot be mistaken, because, forsooth, in some cases of tradition or reasoning it is possible they may be mistaken, and wherein they expressly declare that it is no matter of consequence if they are.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians. 139 CHAPTER XLIX. .
THAT THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OUGHT NOT TO BE PERSECUTED, BECAUSE THE WORLD CANNOT BE WELL WITHOUT IT.
These things then are decried as groundless whimsy and capricious in us alone ; but in the philosophers and poets who stole them from us are deemed prodigious attainments, the brightest discoveries and noblest flights of human wit ; for the same things, they are the sages and we the simpletons ; they are laden with respect, and we with derision, and what is worse, with punishment. But allowing our tenets to be as false and groundless presumptions as you would have them, yet I must tell you that they are presumptions the world cannot be well without ; if they are follies, they are follies of great use, because the believers of them, who under the dread of eternal pain, and the hope of everlasting pleasure, are under the strongest obligations possible to become the best of men. It can never therefore be a politic expedient to cry down doctrines for false and foolish, which it is every man's interest to presume true ; it is upon no account advisable to condemn opinions so serviceable to the public. You, then, are the presumptuous and impertinent, and not we ; you who rashly adventure to pass sentence against principles so palpably conducing to general good ; however, if you will upbraid our religion with folly and impertinence, yet certainly you can never charge it with mischief to any person breathing; you can at most but look upon it like abundance of other romances, which by the laws are not penal, and which, though vain and fabulous, are not criminal, but as harmless stories, without accusation or punishment, pass freely among you. For errors of such inoffensive nature at worst should only be condemned to ridicule, and not to fire and sword, gibbets and beasts ; at which savage executions, not only the mob are transported with insolence and cruel satisfaction, but even some of you magistrates pride yourselves in the same barbarities, the better to recommend yourselves to the populace ; as if the whole of your power against us was not dependent upon our own will, and defeatable at pleasure. For instance, I am certainly a Christian because it is my will and pleasure so to be, then you shall condemn me, if I please to be condemned ; and if you could not condemn me if I would not persist in my religion, it is plain your power depends upon my will. In like manner, the people show as much folly as brutishness in rejoicing at the sufferings of Christians ; for these sufferings which give them only a malicious
140 Tertullian s Apology for the Christians.
pleasure, a pleasure they usurp without a title, feed the Christian sufferers with just and substantial comforts, who choose to be con- demned rather than to fall from their affiance in God, and the expectations of the other world ; for would these people act conse- quently who thus hate us, they ought rather to grieve than rejoice at our torments, because these torments put us in possession of our heart's desire.
-0-
CHAPTER L.
1
THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH.
What reason then, say you, have we Christians to complain of our sufferings, when we are so fond of persecution ; we ought rather to love those who persecute us so sweetly to our heart's content. It is true, indeed, we are not against suffering, when the Captain of our salvation calls us forth to suffer : but let me tell you, it is with us in our Christian warfare as it is with you in yours, we choose to suffer as you choose to fight ; ^ but no man chooses fighting for fighting sake, because he cannot engage without fear and hazard of life. Yet, nevertheless, when the brave soldier finds he must engage, he battles it with all his power, and if he comes off victorious is full of joy, though just before not without his complaints of a miUtary Hfe, because he has obtained his end, laden with glory, laden with spoil.
Thus it is with Christians we enter into battle, when we are cited to your tribunals, there to combat for truth with the hazard of our
^ Plane volumus pati, vertim eo more quo et belliwi miles, nejno qtdppe libens patitur. ' ' We choose to suffer as you choose to fight, but no man chooses fighting for fighting's sake." Some of the Winder and perverser sort of heathens derided the primitive martyrs (as their passive followers since have been) for a sect of besotted, infatuated fellows, who did neither know nor feel what it was they underwent. But our author tells them that the flesh and blood of Christians was like other folks, that they understood natural rights and liberties, had the same aversion to suffering, the same passion for preservation and pleasure that the heathens had ; and whereas they alone were the people who seemed to have forgot humanity, by their enduring the most exquisite torments not only with patience, but with joy and thanksgiving, yet this was far from the effect of any stoical apathy, but purely the strength of their faith, which overcame the reluct- ance of nature, the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, which enabled them to despise the life present, and that light affliction which is but for a moment, and which worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Tertullian s Apology for the Christians, 141
life. To set up truth is our victory, and the victor's glory is to please his God, and the precious spoil of that victory is eternal hfe ; and this life we certainly win by dying for it, therefore we conquer when we are killed, and being killed are out of the reach of you and all other vexations for ever.
Give us now what names you please from the instruments of cruelty you torture us by ; call us Sarmenticians and Semaxians, because you fasten us to trunks of trees, and stick us about with faggots to set us on fire ; ^ yet let me tell you, when we are thus begirt and dressed about with fire, we are then in our most illustrious apparel. These are our victorious palms and robes of glory, and mounted upon our funeral pile we look upon ourselves in our triumphal chariot. No wonder then such passive heroes please not those they vanquish with such conquering sufferings ; and therefore we pass for men of despair, and violently bent upon our own destruction. However, that which you are pleased to call madness and despair in us are the very actions which under virtue's standard lift up your sons of fame and glory, and emblazon them to future ages. Thus Mutius Scaevola immortaHzed himself
1 Hcec Palmata vestis^ etc. This among the Romans was the triumphal robe, all over embroidered with palm branches in token of victory. A Christian then, says Tertullian, never thinks himself so fine, never so illustrious as at the stake, with fire and faggot about him ; he then is in his triumphal chariot going to heaven in state. Eusebius tells us it was a most charming sight to behold the martyrs in prison, to see how their misery became them, how they adorned their fetters, and that they looked as captivating in chains as a bride in all her glories at the day of marriage. Vid. Eus. Bist. Ecc. lib. v. cap. i, p. i6o. So far were they from complaining of providence, that they blessed God the more for the honour of suffering, and gave thanks to their judges for condemning them ; so far from being ashamed of their bonds, that they gloried in them, and therefore we find that Babylas the*martyr ordered the chains he wore in prison to be buried with him. Vid. Chrys. /. de S. Bab, tom. i. p. 669. Here then we see a Christian triumph, the true spirit of the first ages, nor would I interpose any cold criticisms on this last and most excellent chapter, that my reader might not be interrupted, but go off with a full impression, with all the fire and devotion of the writer ; for in the Bishop of Sarum's words, " I confess there is no piece of story I read with so much pleasure as the accounts that are given of these martyrs, for methinks they leave a fervour upon my mind, which I meet with in no study, that of the Scriptures being only excepted." I conclude all with that admirable collect of our own Church upon the festival of St. Stephen, so exactly conformable to the primitive spirit, " Grant, O Lord, that in all our sufferhigs here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed, and being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by the example of Thy first martyr St. Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, O blessed Jesus, who standeth at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen. Amen."
142 Tertullian^s Apology for the Christians.
by voluntarily sacrificing his right hand to the flames for mistaking the eneny. O exaltation of mind ! Empedocles offered his whole self to the flames of ^tna near Catana ; O vigour of soul ! the foundress of Carthage bequeathed herself to the fire, to avoid a second marriage ; O monument of chastity ! Regulus not willing to put his country to the expense of redeeming himself alone, with the liberty of many enemies, chose to go back and suffer all the torments they could inflict upon every part of his body ; O brave Regulus, in captivity conqueror ! Anaxarchus while the executioner was pounding him like barley in a mill j Pound on, pound on, says he, for you pound not Anaxarchus but his budget. O notable magnanimity of the philosopher, who had presence of mind enough to pun while he was pounding ! I mention not those who seem to have contracted for praise at the price of cutting their own throats, or despatching themselves by some sweeter method ; for lo ! you crown as meritorious even a mere spiteful contention for degrees of torture : for a strumpet of Athens having quite tired out her executioner, at length, to her immortal honour, bit off her tongue, and spit it in the tyrant's face, that so she might put it out of her power to discover the conspirators should the torments chance to get the better of her resolution. Zeno Eleates being demanded by Dionysius the use of philosophy, told him it was to raise men to a contempt of death, and by the tyrant's order was whipped to death for an experiment, and ratified his doctrine with his blood. The Lacedaemonian method, of enuring their people to hardiness, is to put them into a course of scourging, and to double their discipline in the presence of any of their friends, who read the scholars a lecture of patience while they are under the lash ; and every scholar carried home a quantity of honour, according to the quantity of blood he left behind him.* O true glory, because of human stamp and fashion ! not one of all these contemners of death and cruelty in its several shapes have had their actions sullied with the imputation of despair and madness. A man shall suffer with honour for his country, for the empire, for a friend, what he is not tolerated to suffer for his God. Strange 1 that you should look upon the patience of Christians as such an inglorious thing, and yet for the persons aforesaid cast statues, and adorn figures with inscriptions and magnificent titles, to perpetuate the memory of their actions to eternity, to such an eternity as monu- ments can bestow; and by this means give them a kind of resurrection from the dead. On the contrar)^, he who expects a real resurrection, and in hopes of this suffers for the word of God, shall pass among you for a sot and a madman.
Tertullians Apology for the Ckrisiiafis' 143
And now, O worshipful judges, go on with your show of justice, and, beheve me, you will be juster and juster still in the opinion of the people, the oftener you make them a sacrifice of Christians. Crucify, torture, condemn, grind us all to powder if you can ; your injustice is an illustrious proof of our innocence, and for the proof of this it is that God permits us to suffer; and by your late condemnation of a Christian woman to the lust of a pander, rather than the rage of a lion, you notoriously confess that such a pollution is more abhorred by a Christian than all the torments and deaths you can heap upon her. But do your worst, and rack your inventions for tortures for Christians — it is all to no purpose; you do but attract the world, and make it fall the more in love with our religion ; the more you mow us down, the thicker we rise ; the Christian blood you spill is like the seed you sow, it springs from the earth again, and fructifies the more. Many of your philosophers have set themselves to write the world into patience and a con- tempt of death, as Cicero in his Tusculan questions, Seneca in his remedies against accidents, Diogenes, Pyrrhon, and CaUinicus ; but their pompous glitter of words has not made the tithe of disciples that our lives have done. That which you reproach in us as stubbornness has been the most instructing mistress in proselyting the world ; for who has not been struck at the sight of that you call stubbornness, and from thence pushed on to look into the reality and reason of it? And who ever looked well into our religion but came over to it ? And who ever came over, but was ready to suffer for it, to purchase the favour of God, and obtain the pardon of all his sins, though at the price of his blood ? for martyr- dom is sure of mercy. For this reason it is that we thank you for condemning us, because there is such a blessed emulation and discord between the divine and human judgment, that when you condemn us upon earth, God absolves us in heaven.
THE
CONVERSATION OF THE
EMPEROR MARCUS ANTONINUS:
A DISCOURSE WITH HIMSELF.
BOOK I.
I. The example of my grandfather Verus gave me the advantage of a candid and dispassionate temper.
II. By the recollection of my father's character I learned to be both modest and manly.
III. As for my mother, she taught me to have a regard for religion, to be generous and open-handed, and not only to forbear doing anybody an ill turn, but not so much as to endure the thought of it. By her likewise I was bred to a plain, inexpensive way of living, and very different from the common luxury and liberties of young people of my quality.
IV. I am to thank my great grandfather^ for not running the risk of a public education, for providing me good masters at home, and making me sensible that I ought to return them a large and honourable acknowledgment.
V. From my governor I learned not to overvalue the diversions of the race-ground and amphitheatre, nor to dote upon the liveries and distinctions of jockeys and gladiators. He taught me also to
^ Catilius Sevems.
1 46 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
put my own hand to business on occasion, to endure hardship and fatigues, and to throw the necessities of nature into a Httle compass. That I ought not to meddle with other people's matters, nor be easy in giving credit to informers.
VI. Diognetus gave me the hint not to keep quails for the pit,^ or bestow my pains and inclination upon trifles. Not to be led away with the impostures of wizards and figure-fiingers, who pretend they can discharge evil spirits, and do strange feats by the strength of a charm. This Diognetus helped me to the faculty of bearing freedom and plain dealing in others ; brought me to relish philo- sophy, and apply myself to it ; and procured me the instruction of those celebrated men, Bacchius, Tandacides, and Marcianus. He likewise put me upon improving myself, by writing dialogues when I was a boyj prevailed with me to prefer a couch covered with hides to a bed of state; and reconciled me to other resembling rigours of the Stoic disciphne.
VII. It was Rusticus ^ that first set me upon correcting my humour, and bringing it to a better state ; who prevented me from running into the vanity of the sophists, either by writing pretendedly upon learning and life, haranguing upon moral subjects, or making a fantastical appearance of being mightily taken up with exercises, disciphne, and business. This philosopher kept me from being smitten with the charms of rhetoric and poetry, from affecting the character of a man of pleasantry, or the dress and mien of a beau, or anything of this kind, which looks like conceit and affectation. He taught me to write letters in a plain, unornamented style, like that dated from Sinuessa to my mother. By his instructions I was persuaded to be easily reconciled to those who had misbehaved themselves and disobliged me. And of the same master I learned to read an author carefully ; not to take up with a superficial view, or resign to every noisy impertinent, but to look through the argument, and go to the bottom of the matter. And to conclude with him, he procured me a copy of Epictetus's works.
VIII. ApoUonius ^ taught me to give my mind its due freedom, and disengage it from dependence upon chance; and furnished me with such precepts for steadiness and ballast, as not to float in uncertainties, or be at a loss about design or event ; nor so much
^ Quail-fighting amongst the ancients, like cock-fighting with us.
^ A Stoic philosopher.
2 Most probably a Stoic philosopher.
A Discourse with Himself. 147
as to look towards anything uncountenanced by reason and truth. To maintain an equality of temper under trying circumstances, such as tedious sickness, acute pains, and loss of children. To give him his due, his practice was a handsome instance that a man may be master of his own behaviour, that he may be earnest and easy, force and unbend his humour as occasion requires. To go on with him. The heaviness and impertinence of his scholars could seldom throw him off the hooks. And as for his learning, and the peculiar happines-s of his manner in teaching, he was so far from being smitten with himself upon this score, that one might easily perceive, he thought it one of the least things which belonged to him. This great man let me into the true secret of managing an obligation, without either lessening myself, or being ungrateful to my friend.
IX. The philosopher Sextus recommended good humour to me, and to make nature and reason my rule to live by. He also gave me to understand that good usage and authority were not incon- sistent, but that a family might be governed with the tenderness and concern of a parent. By his precedent I was instructed to appear with an unaffected gravity, to study the temper and circum- stances of my friends, in order to oblige them ; to bear with the ignorant and unthinking; to be complaisant and obliging to all people, even up to the smoothness of flattery ; and yet at the same time not to suffer in one's quality, or grow a jot the cheaper for it. Conversing with this philosopher put me in a way how to draw up a true, intelligible, and methodical scheme for life and manners; and never so much as to show the least sign of anger, or any other disturbing thought; but to be perfectly calm and indifferent, yet not in the latitude of letting my fancy stand neuter, and be uncon- cerned for the advantage of others. However, he let me see in himself that a man might show his goodwill significantly enough, without noise and transport, and likewise be very knowing on this side vanity and ostentation.
X. Alexander the grammarian taught me not to be ruggedly critical about words, nor fall foul upon people for improprieties of phrase or pronunciation ; but to set them right, by speaking the thing properly myself, and that either by way of answer, assent, or inquiry, or by some such other remote and gentlemanly cor- rection.
XI. Fronto, my rhetoric master, obliged me with the knowledge of men. For the purpose ; that envy, tricking, and dissimulation
148 Conversation of Efnperor Marcus Antoninus :
are the character and consequences of tyranny ; and that those we call top quality have commonly not much of nature in them.
XII. Alexander the Platonist advised me, that without necessity I should never pretend not to be at leisure to assist a friend, nor make business an excuse to decline the offices of humanity.
XIII. I learned of Catullus ^ not to slight a friend for making^ remonstrance, though it should happen to be unreasonable, but rather to retrieve his temper, and make him easy. That, like Domitius and Athenodotus, I should never be backward to give an honourable character of those who had the care of my education ; and that I should always preserve a hearty affection for my children, without any little jealousies of being supplanted or over- topped by them.
XIV. I am indebted to Severus for the due regard I have for my family and relations, and for keeping this inclination from growing too strong for justice and truth. He likewise made me acquainted with the character and sentiments of those celebrated patriots and philosophers, Cato, Brutus, Thraseas, Helvidius, and Dioj and gave me the idea of a commonwealth, in which the general interest was considered, without preference or partiality in the constitution ; and also of a monarchy, where the liberty of the subject was principally regarded. To mention some more of my obligations to him. It was of him I learned not to grow wise by starts and broken fancies, but to be a constant admirer of philo- sophy and improvem.ents ; that a man ought to be generous and obliging ; hope the best of matters, and never question the affection of his friends ; to be free in showing a reasonable dislike of another, and no less clear in his ovm expectations and desires, and not to put his friends to the trouble of divining what he would be at.
XV. The proficiency I made under Maximus ^ was to command myself, and not to be overborne with any impotency of passion or surprise; to be full of spirits under sickness and misfortune; to appear with modesty, obligingness, and dignity of behaviour; to turn off business smoothly as it rises, without drudging and com- plaint. By observing the practice of this Maximus I came to understand a man might manage himself so as to satisfy the world,
'a Stoic philosopher. 5, Another Stoic philosopher.
A Discourse with Himself, 149
that there was nothing but truth, sincerity, and fair play in his words and actions ; attain that greatness of mind, as not to admire or start at anything. Neither to hurry an enterprize, nor sleep over it ; never to be puzzled, dispirited, or lie grinning at a disgust or disappointment. His way was to be neither passionate nor over- suspicious, forward to do a good turn and to forgive an ill one. In short, he seemed to be always in the possession of virtue, and to have nothing which stood in need of correction. And, which is very remarkable, nobody ever fancied they were slighted by him, or had the courage to think themselves his betters \ and to conclude with him, another part of his philosophy was, not to be taken with raillery and jesting.
XVI. In my father's ^ conversation and management I observed a smooth and inoffensive temper, with great steadiness in keeping close to measures judiciously taken; a greatness proof against vanity, and the impressions of pomp and power. From him a prince might learn to love business and action, and be constantly at it ; to be willing to hear out any proposals relating to public advantage ; to overlook nobody's merit or misbehaviour ; to understand the critical seasons, and circumstances for rigour or remissness ; when it was proper to take up, and when to slacken the reins of government; to have no he-sweethearts and boy- favourites ; not to stand upon points of state and prerogative, but to leave his nobility at perfect liberty in their visits and attendance. And when he was upon his progress, no man lost his favour for not being at leisure to follow the court ; to debate matters nicely and thoroughly at the council-board, and then to stand by what was resolved on; to be constant to a friend, without tiring or fond- ness ; to be always satisfied and cheerful ; to reach forward into the future, and manage accordingly ; not to neglect the least con- cerns, but all without hurry or being embarrassed. Further, by observing his methods and administration, I had the opportunity of learning how much it was the part of a prince to check the excesses of panegyric and flattery ; to have his magazines and exchequer well furnished; to be frugal in his favours and expenses, without minding being lampooned for his pains ; not to worship the gods to superstition, nor to court the populace, either by prodigality or compliment, but rather to be reserved, vigilant, and well poised upon all occasions, keeping things in a steady decorum, without chopping and changing of measures; to enjoy the plenty and
^ The Emperor Antoninus Pius, who adopted our author.
150 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
magnificence of a sovereign fortune, without pride or epicurism, and yet if a campaign or country happen to prove cross, not to be mortified at the loss of them; and to behave himself so that no man could charge him with vanity, flourish, and pretendingness, with buffooning, or being a pedant ; — no, he was a person, modest, prudent, and well weighed, scorned flattery and fooling, and was thoroughly qualified both to govern himself and others. In a word, he had nothing of the sophist in him. And as for those that were philosophers in earnest, he had a great value for them, but without reproaching those who were otherwise. To go on with him, he was condescensive and familiar in conversation, and pleasant too, but not to tiresomeness and excess. His dress was neither beauish nor negligent. As for his health, he was not anxious about it, like one fond of living, and yet managed his constitution with that care as seldom to stand in need of the assistances of physic. Further, he never envied and browbeat those that were eminent in any faculty or science, either orators, historians, or others,^ but, on the contrary, encouraged them in their way, and promoted their reputation. He observed decency and custom in all his actions, and yet did not seem to mind them. He was not fickle and fluttering in his humour, but constant both to place and undertaking. And I have seen him after violent fits of the headache return fresh and vigorous to business. He kept but few things to himself, and those were secrets of government. He was very moderate and frugal in public shows, triumphal arches, liberalities, and such like; being one that did not so much regard the popularity as the reason of an action. It was none of his custom to bathe at unusual hours, or to be overrun with the fancy of building, to study eating and luxury, to value the curiosity of his clothes, or the shape and person of his servants. Indeed, his dress at his country palaces was very ordinary and plain, where he would scarcely so much as put on a cloak with- out making an excuse for it. To take him altogether, there was no- thing of ruggedness, immodesty, or eagerness in his temper. Neither did he ever seem to drudge and sweat at the helm. Things were despatched at leisure, and without being felt, and yet the administra- tion was carried on with great order, force, and uniformity. Upon the whole, part of Socrates's character is applicable to him, for he was so much master of himself, that he could either take or leave those conveniences of life with respect to which most people are either uneasy without them or intemperate with them. Now to
1 This was then a considerable commendation, for in the reign of Adrian an excellency of almost any kind was sometimes capital to the owner, Cassius Capitolinus.
A Discourse with Himself. 1 5 1.
hold on with fortitude in one condition, and sobriety in the other, is an argument of a great soul, and an impregnable virtue. And lastly, when his friend Maximus was sick, he gave me an instance how I ought to behave myself upon the like occasion.
XVII. I am to thank the gods that my grandfathers, parents, sister, preceptors, relations, friends, and domestics were almost all of them persons of probity; and that I never happened to dis- oblige or misbehave myself towards any of them ; notwithstanding, if my humour had been awakened, and pushed forw^ard, I had been likely enough to have miscarried this way. But by the goodness of the gods, I met with no provocation to discover my infirmities. It is likewise their providence that my childhood was no longer managed by my grandfather's mistress j^ that my youth was un- debauched, and that I barred my liberty for some time in standing clear from engagements with women ; that I was observant of the emperor my father, and bred under him, who was the most proper person living to put me out of conceit with pride, and to convince me that authority may be supported without the ceremony of guards, without richness and distinction of habit, without torches,^ statues, or such other marks of royalty and state ; and that a prince may shrink himself almost into the figure of a private gentleman, and yet act nevertheless with all the force and majesty of his •character when the government requires it. It is the favour of the gods that I happened to meet with a brother,^ whose behaviour and affection is such as to contribute both to my pleasure and improvement. It is also their blessing that my children were neither heavy in their heads, nor misshapen in their limbs ; that I made no further advances in rhetoric, poetry, and such other amusements, which possibly might have engaged my fancy too far, had I found myself a considerable proficient ; that without asking, I gave my governors that share of honour, and that sort of business, which they seemed to desire, and did not put them off from time to time with promises and excuse; that I had the happiness of being acquainted with those celebrated philosophers, ApoUonius, Rusticus, and Maximus ; for having a clear idea of the rules of practice, and the true way of living, and the impression frequently refreshed, so that considering the extraordinary assistances and directions of the gods, it is impossible for me to miss the road of nature and
^ Concubine.
^ To have torches or fire always carried before them was an honour peculiar to the Roman emperors and empresses.
' Lucius Verus, who was adopted by the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
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right reason, unless by refusing to be guided by the dictates and almost sensible inspirations of heaven. It is the favour of these superior beings that my constitution has held out so well, under a life of fatigue and business ; that I never had any infamous correspondence with Benedicta or Theodotus ; ^ and that after some amours and intemperate saUies, I took up, and recovered; that when I fell out with Rusticus, as it frequently happened, I was not transported into any act of violence ; that I had the satisfaction of my mother's life and company a considerable while, though she was very near dying when she was young. To give more instances of their bounty \ it is they that kept me from standing in need of any man's fortune, and that when I was willing to relieve the necessities of others, I was never told that the exchequer, or privy-purse, were out of cash. And further, it is from them that my wife is so very obsequious and affectionate, and so remote from the fancy of figure and expense ; that I had choice of good governors for my children; that remedies were prescribed me in a dream, against giddiness and spitting of blood, as I remember it happened both at Cajeta and Chrysa;^ that when I had a mind to look into philosophy, I met neither with a pedant nor a knave to instruct me ; that I did not spend too much time in voluminous reading, chop- ping logic or natural philosophy. Now all these points could never have been compassed and guarded without a protection from above, and the gods presiding over fate and fortune.
This was written in the country of the Quadi,^ in my expedition against them.
BOOK II.
I. Remember to put yourself in mind every morning that before night it will be your luck to meet with some inquisitive impertinent, with some ungrateful and abusive fellow; with some knavish, envious, or unsociable churl or other. Now all this perverseness in them proceeds from their ignorance of good and evil. And since it is fallen to my share to understand the natural beauty of a good
^ The one most probably a famous wench, and the other a court catamite. 2 A town in Troas, D'Acier. ^ In High Germany.
A Discourse with Himself, 153
action, and the deformity of an ill one \ since I am satisfied the person disobliging is of kin to me, and though we are not just of the same flesh and blood, yet our minds are nearly related, being both extracted from the deity ; since I am likewise convinced that no man can do me a real injury, because no man can force me to misbehave myself; for these reasons, I cannot find in my heart to hate or be angry with one of my own nature and family. For we are all made for mutual assistance, no less than the parts of the body are for the service of the whole ; from whence it follows that clashing and opposition is perfectly unnatural. Now such an unfriendly disposition is implied in resentment and aversion.
II. This being of mine, all that is of it, consists of body, breath, and that part which governs. Now would you examine your whole composition? Pray then let your library alone; what need you puzzle your thoughts and over-grasp yourself? To come to the inquiry. As for your carcase, value it no more than if you were just expiring, and taking leave of it. For what is it in comparison ? Nothing but a little paltry blood and bones ; a piece of network, wrought up wdth a company of nerves, veins, and arteries twisted together. In the next place, you are to examine what sort of thing your breath is. Why, only a little air sucked into your lungs, and pumped out again. The third part of your composition is your mind, which was made for government and authority. Now here make a stand ; consider you are an old man ; do not suffer this noble part of you under servitude any longer ; let it not be overborne with selfish passions ; let it not quarrel fate, be uneasy at the present, or afraid of the future.
III. Providence shines clearly through the administration of the world. Even chance itself is not without steadiness and nature at the bottom, being only an effect of that chain of causes which are under a providential regulation ; indeed, all things flow from this fountain. Besides, there is necessity and general convenience that matters should lie as they do ; and to speak out, the interest of the whole world, of which you are a part, is concerned in it. Now, that which is both the product and support of universal nature must by consequence be serviceable to every part of it. But the world subsists upon alteration, and what it loses one way it gets another ; for generation and corruption are no more than terms of reference and respect. Let these reflections satisfy you, and make them your rule to live by. As for books, never be over-eager about them; such a fondness for reading will be apt to perplex your
154 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
mind, and make you die unpleased. Be sure therefore to resign willingly, and go off in good humour, and heartily thank the gods for what you have had.
IV. Remember how often you have postponed the minding your interest, and slipped those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended ; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it, to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.
V. Take care always to pursue the business in hand with vigour and application ; remember yourself a man, and a Roman ; and let the action be done with all the dignity and advantage of circum- stance. Let unaffected gravity, humanity, freedom, and justice shine through it. And be sure you \ entertain no fancies which may give check to these qualities. This talk is very practicable, if you will but suppose everything you are upon your last; if your appetites and passions do not cross upon your reason ; if you stand clear of rashness, and do not complain of your destiny, and have nothing of insincerity and self-love to infect you. You see what a few points a man has to gain in order to a happy and godlike way of living; for he that comes thus far performs all which the immortal powers require of him.
VI. In earnest, at this rate of management thou usest thyself very coarsely,^ neither hast thou much time left to do right to thy honour. For life hurries off apace ; thine is almost up already, and yet instead of paying a due regard to thy own reason, thou hast placed thy happiness in the fancies of other men.
VII. Do not let accidents disturb or outward objects engross your thoughts, but keep your mind quiet and unengaged, that you may be at leisure to learn somewhat that is good ; and do not ramble from one thing to another. There is likewise another dangerous sort of roving to be avoided. For some people are busy, and yet do nothing ; they fatigue and wear themselves out, and yet drive at no point, nor propose any general end of action or design.
VIII. A man can rarely miscarry by being ignorant of another's
^ See sect. i6.
A Discourse with Himself. 155
thoughts ; but he that does not attend to his own is certainly un- happy.
IX. The reflections following ought always to be at hand. To consider well the nature of the universe, and my own, together with the communication and reference betwixt them ; and in what degree of proportion and quality I stand with respect to the whole ; and that no mortal can hinder me from acting and speaking suitably to the condition of my being.
X. Theophrastus, in comparing the degrees of faults (as we commonly speak), talks like a philosopher, where he affirms that those instances of misbehaviour which proceed from desire are greater than those of which anger was the occasion. ^ For a man that is angry seems to quit his hold unwillingly, to be teazed out of his reason, and start out of rule before he is aware. But he that runs riot out of appetite and pleasure is swayed by a libertine principle, and appears a more scandalous offender. The philosopher therefore was certainly right in pronouncing upon the difference of the case ; for the first looks like an injured person, and is vexed, and, as it were, forced into a passion, whereas the other begins with inclination, and commits the fault with a gust.
XL Manage all your actions and thoughts in such a manner as if you were just going to step into the grave. And what great matter is the business of dying? If the gods are in being, you can suffer no harm. And if they are not, or take no care of us mortals, why then I must tell you that a world without either gods or providence is not worth a man's while to live in. But there is no need of this supposition ; the being of the gods, and their concern in human affairs, is beyond dispute. And as an instance of this they have put it in his power not to fall into any calamity properly so called.^ And if other misfortunes (as we count them) had been really evils, they would have provided against them too, and furnished them with capacity to avoid them. And here I would gladly know how that which cannot make the man worse should make his life so ? To speak clearly, I can never be persuaded that the first cause can be charged with the want of power, skill, or inclination to take care of these matters ; or, that nature should commit such an error as to suffer things really good and evil to
^ This is said because the Stoics esteemed all sins equal.
2 The emperor means that no man is under a necessity of committing an immoral action.
156 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
happen promiscuously to good and bad men. Now, living and dying, honour and infamy, pleasure and pain, riches and poverty, all these things are the common allotment of the virtuous and disorderly. Why so? Because they have nothing of intrinsic creditableness or scandal in their nature, and therefore, to speak properly, are neither good nor bad.
XII. A man's reason will easily convince him how quickly all corporeal things moulder off, and vanish both in appearance and memory, and are neither so much as seen or talked of. The same faculty will inform him of the quality and size of the objects of sense, particularly those which charm us with pleasure, frighten us with pain, or are most admired upon the score of reputation. A little thinking will show a man how insignificant, despicable, and paltry these things are, and how soon they wither and go off. It will show one what sort of bulk those people are of, upon whose fancy and good word the being of fame depends. Thus a man may examine the point of dying, which if once abstracted from the pomp and terror of the idea it will be found nothing more than a pure natural action. Now he that dreads the course of nature is a child. Besides, there is general advantage in the case.^ Lastly, we should consider how nigh we are related to the deity, and in what part of our being, and what becomes of that honourable side when the composition is broken.
XIII. Nothing can be more unhappy than the curiosity of that man that ranges everywhere, and digs into the earth for discovery ; that is wonderfully busy to force a passage into other people's thoughts, and dive into their bosom, but does not consider that his own mind is large enough for inquiry and entertainment, and that the care and improvement of himself will afford him sufficient business. And how is all this to be done ? Why, by being neither passionate nor heedless, nor yet displeased upon any account either with the gods or men. For as for the gods, their administration ought to be revered upon the score of excellency and station. And as for men, their actions should be well taken for the sake ot common kindred ; besides, they are often to be pitied for their ignorance of good and evil ; which incapacity of discerning between moral qualities is a greater misfortune than that of a blind man who cannot distinguish between white and black.
XIV. Suppose you were to live three thousand, or, if you please,
^ See sect. 3.
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three millions of years, yet you are to remember that no man can lose any other life than that which he lives by, neither is he possessed of any other than that which he loses ; from whence it follows that the longest life, as we commonly speak, and the shortest, come all to the same reckoning. The proof lies thus : the present is of the same duration everywhere, and of the same extent to all people; everybody's loss therefore is of the same bigness, and reaches no further than to a point of time. For, to speak strictly, no man is capable of losing either the past or the future j for how can any one be deprived of what he has not ? So that, under this consideration there are two notions worth the laying up. One is, that a little while is enough to view the world in, for things are repeated, and come over again apace. Nature treads in a circle, and has much the same face through the whole course of eternity ; and therefore it signifies not a farthing whether a man stands gazing here a hundred or a hundred thousand years ; for all that he gets by it is only to see the same sights so much the oftener. The other hint is, that when the longest and shortest lived persons come to die, their loss is equal; for, as I observe, the present is their all, and they can suffer no further.
XV. Monimus, the cynic philosopher, used to say that all things were but mere fancy and opinion ; pretending there was no infallible rule for the test of truth and certainty. Now this rallying expression may undoubtedly prove serviceable, provided one does not turn sceptic and carry it too far.
XVI. There are several ways of behaviour by which a man may sink his quality, use his person very scurvily, and it is possible without being aware of it. And this in the first place is more remarkably done by murmuring at anything which happens. By doing thus he makes himself a sort of an excrescence of the world, breaks off from the constitution of nature, and instead of a limb becomes an ulcer. Again, he falls under the same misfortune who hates any person, or crosses upon him, with an intention of mischief ; which is the case of the angry and revengeful. Thirdly, a man lessens and affronts himself when he is overcome by pleasure or pain ; fourthly, when he makes use of art, tricking, and falsehood in word or action ; fifthly, when he does not know what he would be at in a business, but runs on without thought or design — whereas even the least undertaking ought to be aimed at some end. Now the end of rational beings is to be governed by the laws of nature
158 Conversation of E7nperor Marcus Antofiinus :
and the interest of the universe \ for these two are both the oldest and the best rules we can go by.
XVI I. The extent of human life is but a point ; matter is in a perpetual flux; the faculties of sense and perception are weak and unpenetrating ; the body slenderly put together, and but a remove from putrefaction; the soul a rambling sort of a thing. Fortune and futurity are not to be guessed at ; and fame does not always stand upon desert and judgment. In a word, that which belongs to the body streams off like a river, and what the soul has is but dream and bubble ; life, to take it rightly, is no other than a campaign or course of travels ; and posthumous fame has little more in it than silence and obscurity.^ What is it then that will stick by a man and prove significant ? Why, nothing but wisdom and philosophy. Now the functions of this quality consist in keeping the mind from injury and disgrace, superior to pleasure and pain, free from starts and rambling, without any varnish of dissembling and knavery, and as to happiness, independent of the motions of another. Further, philosophy brings the mind to take things as they fall, and acquiesce in the distributions of Providence, inasmuch as all events proceed from the same cause with itself; and above all to have an easy prospect of death, as being nothing more than dissolving the composition and taking the elements to pieces. Now if the elements themselves are never the worse for running off into one another, what if they should all unclasp and change their figure? Why should any man be concerned at the consequence ? All this is but nature's method ; now nature never does any mischief.
Written at Carnantum,^ a town of Pannonia, or Hungary.
BOOK III.
I. We ought not only to remember that life is perpetually wearing off, and in a literal consumption, but also to consider that if a man's line should happen to be longer than ordinary, yet it is uncertain whether his mind will keep pace with his years, and afford him sense enough for business and speculation, and to look
1 See Book iii. sect. 10, Book iv. sect. 35. 2 Supposed to be Piesburg,
A Discourse with Himself. 159
into the nature, reasons, and references of things both human and divine ; for if the understanding falls off, and the man begins to dote, what does he signify? It is true the mere animal life may go on, he may breathe and nourish, and be furnished with percep- tion and appetite; but to make any proper use of himself; to work his notions to any clearness and consistency; to state duty and circumstance and practice to decency and exactness; to know whether it is time for him to walk out of the world or not,^ — as to all these noble functions of reason and judgment, the man is perfectly dead already. It concerns us therefore to push forward and make the most of our matters, for death is continually advancing; and besides that, our understanding sometimes dies before us, and then the true purposes and significancy of life are at an end.
II. It is worth one's while to observe that the least design and almost unbespoken effects of nature are not without their beauty. Thus, to use a similitude, there are cracks and little breaks on the surface of a loaf, which, though never intended by the baker, have a sort of agreeableness in them which invite the appetite. Thus figs, when they are most ripe, open and gape ; and olives, when they fall of themselves and are near decaying, are particularly pretty to look at. To go on ; the bending of an ear of corn, the brow of a lion, the foam of a boar, and many other things, if you take them singly, are far enough from being handsome, but when they are looked on as parts of somewhat else, and considered with reference and connection, are both ornamental and affecting. Thus, if a man has but inclination and thought enough to examine the product of the universe, he will find the most unpromising appear- ances not unaccountable, and that the more remote appendages have somewhat to recommend them. One thus prepared will perceive the beauty of life as well as that of imitation, and be no less pleased to see a tiger grin in the tower than in a painter's shop. Such a one will find something agreeable in the decays of age as well as in the blossom of youth. I grant many of these things would not charm us at the first blush ; to pronounce rightly, a man must be well affected in the case, and thoroughly acquainted with the methods and harmony of nature.
III. Hippocrates, who cured so many diseases, was not able to recover himself; the Chaldceans, who foretold other people's death, at last met with their own. Alexander, Pompey, and Julius Caesar,
' The Stoics allowed self-murder.
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who had destroyed so many towns, and cut off so many thousands in the field, were forced at last to march off themselves. Heraclitus, who argued so much about the world's being set on fire, perished himself by a counter element, and was drowned in a dropsy. Democritus was eaten up with lice,^ and Socrates was despatched by another sort of vermin.^ And what are these instances for? Why, to show what we must all come to. Look you, you are got abroad, you have made your voyage and your port; debark then without any more ado ; if you happen to land upon another world, there will be gods enough to take care of you ; but if it be your fortune to drop into nothing, why then your virtue will be no more solicited with pleasure and pain ; then you will have done drudging for your carcase. Whereas as matters go now, the best moiety of you has sometimes the worst office ; for, if I mistake not, the one is all soul and spirit, whereas the other is but dirt and putrefaction.
IV. For the tuture, do not spend your thoughts upon other people, unless you are put upon it by common interest. For the prying into foreign business, that is, musing upon the talk, fancies, and contrivances of another, and guessing at the what and why of his actions, all this does but make a man forget himself and ramble from his own reason. He ought therefore not to work his mind to no purpose, nor throw a superfluous link into the chain of thought, and more especially to stand clear of curiosity and malice in his inquiry. And to come home and make all sure, let it be your way to think upon nothing but what you could freely discover, if the question was put to you ; so that if your soul was thus laid open there would nothing appear but what was sincere, good-natured, and public-spirited ; not so much as one libertine or luxurious fancy, nothing of litigiousness, envy, or unreasonable suspicion, or anything else which would not bear the light without blushing. A man thus qualified may be allowed the first rank among mortals; he is a sort of priest and minister of the gods, and makes a right use of the deity within him ; ^ by the assistance of which he is preserved uninfected with pleasure, invulnerable against pain ; out of the reach of injury, and above the malice of ill people. Thus he wrestles for the noblest prize,^ stands firm on the most slippery ground, and keeps his feet against all his passions ; to go on with him, his honesty is right sterling, and touches as
^ In this story about Democritus the emperor seems to be singular.
^ The informers Anytus and Melitus.
^ So the emperor calls the soul or reasoning faculty.
* An allusion to the diversions and wrestling in the circus.
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well as it looks ; he always resigns to Providence, and meets his fate with pleasure ; he never minds other people's thoughts or actions, unless public reason and general good require it. No ; he confines himself to his own business, and contemplates upon his post and station, and endeavours to do the first as it should be, and believe well of the latter, — I say of the latter, for fate is both inevitable and convenient. He considers that all rational beings are of kin, and that general kindness and concern for the whole world is no more than a piece of humanity ; that every one's good opinion is not worth the gaining, but only of those who live up to the dignity of their nature. As for others, he knows their way of living, and their company ; their public and their private disorders ; and why indeed should he value the commendation of such people, who are so vitious and fantastical as not to be able to please themselves ?
V. Be not haled, selfish, unadvised, or passionate in anything you do; do not affect quaintness and points of wit; neither talk nor meddle more than is necessary. Take care that your tutelar genius ^ has a creditable charge to preside over ; that you appear in the character of your sex and age ; act like a Roman emperor that loves his country ; and be always in a readiness to quit the field 2 at the first sounding of the retreat. In the meantime manage your credit so that you need neither swear yourself nor want a voucher. Let your air be cheerful; depend not upon foreign supports, nor beg your happiness of another. And, in a word, never throw away your legs to stand upon crutches.
VI. If in the whole compass of human life you find anything preferable to justice and truth, to temperance and fortitude ; to a mind self-satisfied with its own rational conduct, and entirely resigned to fate, — if, I say, you know anything better than this, never baulk your fancy, count it your supreme happiness, and make the most of it you can. But if there is nothing more valuable than that the genius and spirit within you ^ should be absolute in its reason, master of its appetites, inquire nicely into the quality of an object. If there is nothing more to be wished than that, with Socrates, it should stand off from the impressions of sense ; submit to the government of the gods, and be helpful and benevolent to mankind. If all things are trifles with respect to this, do not divide
* The mind, or powers of reason. ^ To die. ^ The soul.
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your inclinations, misplace your thoughts, and weaken your satis- faction, by any foreign pursuits ; rational choice and benevolent design should never be checked. But if you are for trying tricks, and compounding the matter \ if popularity and power, if wealth and pleasure once strike your fancy, you are gone ; these new favourites will govern your motions, and ride you at discretion. Let your choice therefore run all one way, and be bold and resolute for that which is best. Now use and significancy is the proper test of this quality ; so that the question will be whether a thing is serviceable to your rational capacity ; if so, close with the offer ; but if it is no more than a sensual advantage, hold your hand ; and that you may distinguish rightly, keep your judgment unbiassed, and do not let it stick in the outside of matters. i
VII. Do not be fond of any thing, or think that for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, be of a dissembling, suspicious, or outrageous humour; which puts you upon hating any person, and inclines you to any practice which would not bear the light and look the world in the face. For he that values the virtue of his mind, and the dignity of his reason before all other things, is easy and well fortified, and has nothing for a tragedy to work on ; he laments under no misfortune, and wants neither solitude nor company ; and, which is still more, he neither flies death nor pursues it, but is perfectly indifferent about the length and shortness of his life. And if he was to expire this moment, the want of warning would not surprise him ; he would never struggle for more time, but go off with decency and honour. Indeed, he is solicitous about nothing but his own conduct, and for fear he should fail in the functions of reason, prudence, and generosity.
VIII. If you examine a man that has been well disciplined by philosophy, you will find nothing that is unsound, foul, or false in him; nothing that is servile, foppish, or fond ; no selfish, no obnoxious and absconding practices. To give him his due, his business is always done ; his life may be short, but never imperfect ; so that nobody can say he goes off the stage before the play is quite acted.
IX. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly ; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. Now in order to this, you must be wary in your assent, obedient to the gods, and benevolent to mankind.
r
A Discourse with Himself. 163
X. As for other speculations, throw them all out of your head, excepting those few precepts above mentioned ; remembering withal that every man's life lies all within the present ; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain. Now the present, if strictly examined, is but a point of time. Well, then, life moves in a very narrow compass; yes, and men live in a poor corner of the world too ; and the most lasting fame will stretch but to a sorry extent. The passage of it is uneven and craggy, and therefore it cannot run far. The frequent breaks of succession drop it in the conveyance ; for alas ! poor transitory mortals know little either of themselves or of those who were long before them.
XI. To the foregoing hints you may add this which follows. And that is to survey and define every object and thought extra- ordinary ; and that with such penetration as to dissect it throughout, pull off its mask and fucus, and view it in its naked essence ; to call the whole and the parts by their true names ; and be truly informed of their force and nature, both single and in composition. For nothing is so likely to raise the mind to a pitch of greatness as to bring accidents, persons, and pretensions to a true test. For instance, to be ready to tell oneself, to what sort of purpose this thing serves, and what sort of world it is which makes use of it ; what proportion of value it bears to the universe, and what to men in particular; to men, I say, who are citizens of that great Capitol,^ in respect of which all other towns are no more than single families. To return : my business is to examine nicely into the present object; to know what it is made on, and how long it will last ; what virtue it requires of me, and gives occasion to ; whether fortitude or truth, good nature or good faith, simplicity, frugality, and so forth. Upon every impression and accident, a man should be ready to pronounce, — this was sent me by heaven ; this is a consequence of destiny ; this comes from chance, overruled by Providence ; and this other was done by one of the same clan, family,^ and corporation with myself. It is true, I do not like the usage, but the man was a stranger to the relation he stood in, and knew no better. But I am under none of this mistake, and therefore I will be just and friendly to him, and treat him by the laws of common society ; for why should any man forfeit for his ignorance, and lose a natural right ? However, as to things indifferent,^ I shall take care to look into them too, and rate them according to their respective value.
1 The world. 2 s^g Book ii. sect. i.
^ The Stoics reckoned all things indifferent, excepting honesty and virtue.
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XII. If you will be governed by reason, and manage what lies before you with industry, vigour, and temper ; if you will not run out after new game, but keep your mind stanch and well disciplined, as if this trial of behaviour was your last ; and then, if you will but stick to your measures, and be true to the best of yourself, and keep your fears and desires from going further ; if living up to your nature, minding an opportunity, and standing boldly by the truth ; — if these things, I say, will satisfy you, you may be a happy man. Now, if you are but willing, the world cannot hinder you from doing all this.
XIII. As your surgeons have their instruments ready for sudden occasions, so be you always furnished with rules and principles, to let you into the knowledge and extent of things human and divine ; for these two have their reference and connexion with each other. The consequence is that 5^our whole practice ought to turn upon this supposition ; for without looking into the nature and adminis- tration of the gods, you will fail in your behaviour towards men ; and thus the reasoning holds backward to the other side of the argument.
XIV. Do not go too far in your books, and overgrasp yourself Alas ! you have no time left to peruse your diary,^ to read over the Greek and Roman history, or so much as your own common-place book, which you collected to serve you when you were old. Come, do not flatter and deceive yourself ; look to the main chance, to the end and design of reading, and mind life more than notion. I say, if you have a kindness for your person, drive at the practice, and help yourself, for that is in your own power.
XV. Many people do not know the true compass and extent of language. For instance, they are not aware in how many senses the words, to steal, to buy, to sow, to be at quiet, may be taken, nor how much meaning the duties of life carry in them. These actions are commonly either straitened in the notion, or misapplied in the end. To say no more of it, he that would view this matter rightly must think a little, and look inward.
XVI. There are three things which belong to a man — the body, the soul, and the mind. And as to the properties of the division, ^ sensation belongs to the body, appetite to the soul, and reason to
1 D'Acier.
* The emperor makes a distinction "between the soul and the mind, or spirit.
A Discourse with Himself. 165
the mind. To have the senses affected, and be stamped with the impression of an object is common to brutes and cattle. To be hurried and convulsed with passion is the quality of beasts of prey and men of pleasure ; of hbertines and tyrants ; ^ of atheists and traitors ; and of those who do not care what they do when nobody sees them. And since these qualities are both coarse and common, let us find out the mark of a man of probity. His distinction then lies in keeping reason at the head of practice, and being easy in his condition ; to live in a crowd of objects without suffering either in his sense, his virtue, or his quiet ; to have a good understanding at home, and be governed by that divine principle within him ; to be all truth in his words, and justice in his actions. And if the whole world should disbelieve his integrity, dispute his character, and question his happiness, he would neither take it ill in the least, nor alter his measures, but pursue the ends of living with all the honesty, ease, and resignation imaginable.
-0-
BOOK IV.
I. When the mind acts up to nature, and is rightly disposed, she takes things as they come, stands loose in her fancy, and tacks about with her circumstances. As for fixing the condition of her fortune, she is not at all solicitous about that. It is true, she is not perfectly in- different, she moves forward with a preference in her choice ; but then it is always with a reserve of acquiescence, and being easy in the event. And if anything comes cross, she falls to w^ork upon it, and, like fire, converts it into fuel. For, as this element, when it is weak, is easily put out, but when once well kindled it seizes upon what lies next, subdues it into its own nature, and increases by resistance.
II. Let every action tend to some point, and be perfect in its kind.
III. It is the custom of people to go to unfrequented places and country seats for retirement; and this has been your method formerly. But, after all, this is but a vulgar fancy ; for it is in your power to withdraw into yourself whenever you have a mind to it.
^ The Greek mentions Phalaris and Nero.
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Now, one's own breast is a place the most free from crowd and noise in the world, if a man's retrospections are easy, his thoughts entertaining, and his mind well in order. Your way is therefore to make frequent use of this retirement, and refresh your virtue in it. And to this end be always provided with a few short, uncontested notions, to keep your understanding true, and make you easy in your business. For instance, what is it that troubles you ? Is it the wickedness of the world, and the ill-usage you meet with ? If this be your case, out with your antidote, and consider that mankind were made for mutual advantage ; that forbearance is one part of justice, and that people misbehave themselves against their will.^ Consider likewise how many men have embroiled themselves, and spent their days in disputes and animosities ; and what did they get by it ? Why, they had more trouble, and it may be less of life than they would have had. Be quiet, then, and do not disturb yourself to no purpose. But it may be the government of the world does not please you ; take out the other notion, and argue thus. Either Providence or chance sits at the helm ; if the first, the administration cannot be questioned; if the latter, there is no mending of it. Besides, you may remember that the world is, as it were, one great city and corporation. But possibly the ill state of your health afflicts you ; pray reflect, your soul does not lie in your lungs, nor your reason in your breath, so that if you are somewhat asthmatic or out of order, it is no such great matter. No, not if your mind will retire and take a view of her own privilege and power, and when she has done this, recollect her philosophy about pleasure and pain, and to which she has formerly assented. Well ! it may be the concern of fame sits hard upon you. If you are pinched here, consider how quickly all things vanish and are forgotten ; what an immense chaos there stands, what an extent of darkness and confusion on either side of eternity.^ Applause ! consider the emptiness of the sound, the precarious tenure, the little judgment of those that give it us, and the narrow compass it is confined to. For the whole globe is but a point ; and of this little, how little is inhabited ? And where it is peopled, you will have no reason to brag either of the number or quality of your admirers. Upon the whole, do not forget to retire into the seat of your reason ; and above all things, let there be no haling nor struggling in the case, but move freely and gracefully, and manage matters like a man of sense and spirit, like a burgher of the whole world, and like a creature that must die shortly. And among the rest of your stock, let these two maxims be always ready —
1 See Book viii. sect. 14, where the emperor gives his reasons for this paradox, ^ Of eternity past, and eternity to come.
A Discourse with Himself, 167
first, that it is not things, but thoughts, which give disturbance; for things keep their distance, and tease nobody, until fancy raises the spleen and grows untoward. The second ^ is, to consider that the scene is just shifting and sliding off into nothing, and that you yourself have seen abundance of great alterations. In a ji'ord, generally speaking, the world is all revolution and conduct, little better than fancy.^
IV. If the faculty of understanding lies in common amongst us all, then reason, the effect of it, must be common too, — that reason, I say, which governs practice by commands and prohibitions. From whence we may conclude that mankind are under one common regulation ; and if under one common law, they must be fellow-citizens, and belong to the same body politic. From whence it will follow that the whole world is upon the matter but one commonwealth ; for certainly there is no other society in which mankind can be incorporated. Now this common fund of under- standing, reason, and law, is a commodity of this same country, or which way do mortals light on it ? For as the four distinctions in my body belong to some general head and species of matter ; for instance, the earthy part in me comes from the division of earth ; the watery belongs to another element ; the airy particles flow from a third spring, and those of fire from one distinct from all the former. For, by the way, nothing can no more produce something, than something can sink into nothing. And thus in proportion to the reasoning upon my constitution, our understanding must have a cause, and proceed from some quarter or other.
V. Death and generation are both mysteries of nature, and some- what resemble each other; for the first does but untwist those elements the latter had wrought together. Now, there is nothing that a man needs be ashamed of in all this ; nothing but what his reason may digest, and what results from his make and constitution.
VI. Practices and humours are generally of a piece ; such usage from such sort of men is in a manner necessary. To be surprised at it, is in effect to wonder at the eager quality of vinegar.^ Pray consider that both you and your enemy are dropping off, and that ere long your very memories will be extinguished.
1 See Book v. sect. 19, Book viii. sect. 47, and alib.
2 See Book ii. sect. 15.
^ It is probable the emperor made this reflection upon receiving some great injury.
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VII. Do not suppose you are hurt, and your complaint ceases, and then no damages will be done.
VIII. That which does not make a man worse, does not make him live worse ; and by consequence he has no harm by it either one way or the other.
IX. Nature was obliged to act in this manner for her own con- venience.
X. Take notice that all events ^ turn upon merit and congruity ; which, if you observe nicely, you will not only perceive a con- nection between causes and effects, but a sovereign distribution of justice, which presides in the administration and gives everything its due. Go on with this remark, and let all your actions answer the character of a good man, I mean a good man in the strictness and notion of philosophy.
XL If a man affronts you, do not go into his opinion, or think just as he would have you. No; look upon things as reality presents them, and form your judgment accordingly.
XI I. Be always provided with principles for the following purposes : First, to engage in nothing but what reason dictates, what the sovereign and legislative part of you shall suggest for the interest of mankind. Secondly, to be disposed to quit your opinion and alter your measures when a friend shall give you good grounds for so doing. But then the reasons of changing your mind ought to be drawn from the considerations of justice, public good, or some such generous motive ; and not because it pleases your fancy or promotes your reputation.
XIII. Have you any sense in your head ? Yes. Why do you not make use of it, then ? For if this faculty does but do its part, I cannot see what more you need wish for.
XIV. At present your nature is distinguished and stands apart ; but ere long you will vanish into the whole. Or, if you please, you will be returned into that active and prolific reason which gave you your being.^
1 That is, which proceed from the first cause.
2 The Stoics supposed the soul a part of the deity, and that it was absorbed in him after death.
A Discourse with Himself. 169
XV. When frankincense is thrown upon the altar, one grain usually falls before another ; but then the distance of time is insignificant.^
XVI. The seeming singularities of reason quickly wear off. Do but stick close to the principles of wisdom, and those who take you now for a monkey, or a madman, will make a god of you in a week's time.
XVII. Do not manage as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Look you, death stands at your elbow ; make the most of your minute, and be good for something while it is in your power.
XVIII. What a great deal of time and ease that man gains who is not troubled with the spirit of curiosity ; who lets his neighbour's thoughts and behaviour alone, confines his inspections to himself, and takes care of the points of honesty and conscience. Truly, as Agatho observes, this malicious trifling humour ought to be checked. In a word, we must keep to our own business, for rambling and impertinence is not to be endured.
XIX. He that is so very solicitous about being talked of when he is dead, and makes his memory his inclination, does not consider that all his admirers will quickly be gone ; that his fame will grow less in the next generation, and flag upon the course; and, like a ball that is handed from one to another, it will be dropped at last. But, granting your monuments and your men immortal, what is their panegyric to you when you are dead, and know nothing of the matter? And if you were living, what would commendation signify, unless for the convenience of imitation ? To conclude, if you depend thus servilely upon the good word of other people, you will act below your nature, and neglect the improvement of yourself.
XX. Whatever is good has that quality from itself; it is finished by its own nature, and commendation is no part of it. Why, then^ a thing is neither better nor worse for being praised. This holds concerning things which are called good in the common way of speaking as the products of nature and art ; what do you think, then, of that which deserves this character in the strictest propriety ? Do you imagine it wants anything foreign to complete the idea ? What is your opinion of truth, good nature, and sobriety? Do any of
^ This thought is to show that the difference between a long and short life, as we call it, is inconsiderable with respect to eternity.
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these virtues stand in need of a good word ? or are they the worse for a bad one ? I hope a diamond will shine never the less for a man's being silent about the worth of it; neither is there any necessity of flourishing upon a piece of gold to preserve the intrinsic of the metal.
XXL If human souls have a being after death, which way has the air made room for them from all eternity? Pray how has the earth been capacious enough to receive all the bodies buried in it ? The resolution of this latter question will satisfy the former. For as a corpse after some continuance turns into dust, and makes way for another, so when a man dies, and the spirit is let loose into the air, it holds out for some time, after which it wears off and drops in pieces. And when things come to this pass, it is either renewed and lighted up into another soul,^ or else absorbed into that of the universe ; and thus they make room for succession. And this may serve for an answer upon the supposition of the soul's surviving the body. Besides, we are not only to consider the vast number of bodies disposed of in the manner above mentioned, but what an infinite number are every day devoured by mankind and other living creatures, and as it were buried in their stomachs ; and yet by the transmutation of the food into blood and humours, and by the con- veyance of perspiration, there is stowage enough. And now, which way can a man take a prospect of the truth, and trace the history of nature? ^Miy, in order to this you must divide the thing in question into matter and form.^
XXII. Do not run riot. Keep your understanding true, and your intendons honest.^
XXIII. Whatever is agreeable to you, O universe,* is so to me too. Your things are never mistimed ; your methods are accept- able, and your seasons all spring and summer to me ! From you all things proceed, subsist in you, and return to you. And if the poet called Athens the city beloved by Cecrops, why may not the world be styled the favourite town of Jupiter ?
XXIV. If you would live at your ease, says Democritus, manage
^ The Stoics held the soul a composition of fire and air, but fire was the pre- dominant element.
- By form the Stoics meant God, or the efi&cient cause of all things.
^ See Book v. sect. 36, Book vii. sect. 54.
* By the world the Stoics sometimes understood God.
A Discourse with Himself. 171
but a few things. I think it had been better if he had said, Do nothing but what is necessary, and what becomes one made for society; nothing but what reason prescribes, and in the order, too, she prescribes it. For by this rule a man may both secure the quaHty and draw in the bulk of his business, and have the double pleasure of making his actions good and few into the bargain. For the greatest part of what we say and do, being unnecessary, if this were but once retrenched, we should have both more leisure and less disturbance. And therefore before a man sets forward he should ask himself this question. Am I not upon the verge of something unnecessary and impertinent ? Further, we should apply this hint to what we think, as well as to what we do ; for impertinence of thought draws unnecessary action after it.
XXV. Bring the matter to an issue, make an experiment upon yourself, and examine your proficiency in a life of virtue ; try how you can acquiesce in your fate, and whether your own honesty and good-nature will content you.
XXVI. Have you seen one sort of fortune ? Pray view the other too ; never be disturbed, but reduce your person to its natural bulk, and be not concerned for more than belongs to you. Is any man guilty of a fault ? It is to himself, then. Has any advantage happened to you ? It is the bounty of fate. It was all of it pre- ordained you by the universal cause. Upon the whole, life is but short, therefore be just and prudent, and make your most of it; and when you divert yourself, be always upon your guard.
XXVII. The world is either the effect of contrivance or chance ; if the latter, it is a world for all that, that is to say, it is a regular and beautiful structure. Now, can any man discover symmetry in his own shape, and yet take the universe for a heap of rubbish ? I say the universe, in which the very discord and confusion of the elements settles into harmony and order.^
«
XXVIII. There are several sorts of scandalous tempers, some malicious and some effeminate, others obstinate, brutish, and savage. Some humours are childish and silly, some false and others scurrilous, some mercenary and some tyrannical.
XXIX. Not to know what is in the world, and not to know what is done in the world, comes much to the same thing, and a man is
^ This section is levelled against the hypothesis of Epicurus.
172 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
one way no less a stranger than the other. To proceed ; he is no better than a deserter that renounces pubHc reason and the laws of Providence. He is a blind man that winks with his understanding ; and he is a beggar that is not furnished at home, but wants the assistance of another. He that frets himself sore because things do not happen just as he would have them, is but a sort of an ulcer of the world ; by murmuring at the course of nature, he quits the universal body, and gains only the distinction of a disease, never considering that the same cause which produced the displeasing accident made him too. And lastly, he that is selfish, narrow- souled, and sets up for a separate interest, is a kind of voluntary outlaw, and disincorporates himself from mankind.
XXX. This philosopher has never a waistcoat to his coat, the other never a book to read, and a third is half-naked, and yet they are none of them discouraged. One learned man has nothing for his stomach, nor another for his lectures ; however, they are resolved to starve on, and be wise in despite of misfortune.
. XXXI. Be satisfied with your business, and learn to love what you were bred to ; and as to the remainder of your life, be entirely resigned, and let the gods do their pleasure; and when this is done, be neither slave nor tyrant to anybody.
XXXII. To begin somewhere; consider how business, humour, and fortune went with the world in Vespasian's time ; consider this, I say, and you will find mankind just at the same pass they are now, — some marrying, and some concerned in education ; some sick, and some dying ; some fighting, and some feasting ; some drudging at the plough, and some upon the Exchange ; some were too affable, and some overgrown with conceit; one was full of jealousy, and the other of knavery. Here you might find a parcel wishing for the death of their friends, and there a seditious club complaining of the times ; some loved their wenches, and some their bags ; some grasped at the consulship, and some at the sceptre. Well ! all is over with that generation long since. Come forward, then, to the reign of Trajan; now here you will find mortals in the same circle of business and folly they were in before ; but they are all gone too. Go on with the contemplation, and carry it to other times and countries ; and here you will see abundance of people, very busy and big with their projects, drop off presently, and moulder to dust and ashes. More particularly recollect those within your own memory who have been hurried on in these vain pursuits; how
A Discourse with Himself. 173
they have overlooked the dignity of their nature, and those better satisfactions in their own power. And here you must remember to proportion your concern to the weight and importance of business ; thus you will be safe against trifling, and part with amusements without regret.
XXXIII. Those words which were formerly current and proper are now become obsolete and barbarous. Alas ! this is not all : fame tarnishes in time, too, and men grow out of fashion as well as language. Those celebrated names of Camillus, Caeso, and Volesus are antiquated ; those of Scipio, Cato, and Augustus will have the same fortune ; and those of Adrian and Antoninus must follow. All these things are transitory, and quickly swallowed up in oblivion. I speak this of those who have been the wonder of their age, and shined with unusual lustre ; but as for the rest, they are no sooner dead than forgotten. And if you could perpetuate your memory, what does fame everlasting signify? Mere stuff! What, then, is it that is worth one's while to be concerned for? Why, nothing but this, to bear an honest mind, to act for the good of society, to deceive nobody, to foresee the worst, and be contented with what happens upon the score both of the cause and the necessity.
XXXIV. Put yourself frankly into the hands of fate, and let her spin you out what fortune she pleases.
XXXV. He that does a memorable action, and those that report it, are all but short-lived things.
XXXVI. Accustom yourself to consider that whatever is pro- duced, is produced by alteration ; that nature loves nothing so much as shifting the scene, and bringing new persons upon the stage. To speak closely; the destruction of one thing is the making of another; and that which subsists at present is, as it were, the seed of succession which springs from it. But if you take seed in the common notion, and confine it to the field or the garden, you have a dull fancy.
XXXVII. You are just taking leave of the world ; and do you not know what you are, and what you are not ? Have you not done with unnecessary desires? Are you not yet above disturbance and suspicion, and fully convinced that nothing without your own will can hurt you ? Have you not yet learned to be friends with every-
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body, and that to be an honest man is the only way to be a wise one ?
XXXVIII. To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
XXXIX. Your pain cannot lie in another man's head, neither can his mismanagement be your misfortune ; nay, further, the declension of your health, or the accidents in your carcase, need not affect you. Where, then, are you passive and vulnerable ? Why, in that part of you that forms judgments and opinions of things. Do not imagine you are hurt, and you are impregnable. Suppose, then, your flesh was hacked, seared, or putrefied, for your life let your fancy lie still ; ^ that is, do not conclude what is common to good or ill men can be good or evil in itself; for that which may be everybody's lot must in its own nature be indifferent.
XL. You ought frequently to consider that the world is an animal,^ consisting of one soul and body; that a universal sense runs through the whole mass of matter. You should likewise reflect how nature acts by a joint effort, and as it were altogether; and how everything contributes to the being of everything. And lastly, what connection and subordination there is between causes and effects.
XLI. Would you know what you are ? Epictetus will tell you that you are a living soul that drags a carcase about with her.
XLII. Things that subsist upon change, and owe their being to instability, can neither be considerably good nor bad.®
XLIII. The world hurries off apace, and time is like a rapid river: a thing is no sooner well come but it is past; and then another is posted after it, and it may be at length the first will return under another appearance.
XLIV. Whatever happens here is as common and well known as a rose in the spring, or an apple in autumn ; of this kind are diseases and death, calumny and undermining, and several other things which raise and depress the spirits of unthinking people.
A Stoical rhodomontade. 2 The Stoics believed the world animated, and that God was the soul of it. ■^ See Boole vii. sect. 23, and alib.
A Discourse with Himself. 175
XLV. Antecedents and consequents are dexterously tied together in the world ; things are not carelessly thrown on a heap, and joined more by number than nature, but, as it were, artificially inlaid into each other. And as the present set of appearances are very curiously contrived, so those upon the stocks are carried on by rule, and come forward with great uniformity.
XLVl. The elements are always shifting their forms, and trans- muting into each other; therefore do not forget the saying of Heraclitus, that the earth dies into water, water into air, air into fire, and so backward. Remember likewise the story of the man that travelled on, without knowing to what place the way would bring him, and that many people contest the point with that reason that governs the world, and with which they are daily con- versant, and seem perfectly unacquainted with those things which occur daily. Further, we must not nod over business, nor dream away life, like people who fancy they are mightily employed, when they are fast in their beds. Neither are we to be wholly governed by tradition ; for that is like children who believe anything their parents tell them.
XLVII. Put the case, some god should acquaint you, you were to die to-morrow, or next day at furthest. Under this warning you would be a very poor wretch if you should strongly solicit for the longest time ; for alas ! how inconsiderable is the difference ? In like manner, if you would reason right, and compute upon the notion of eternity, you would not be much concerned whether your life was up to-morrow or a thousand years hence.
XLVIII. Consider how many physicians are dead that used to value themselves upon the cure of their patients; how many astrologers, who thought themselves great men by foretelling the death of others ; how many philosophers have gone the way of all flesh, after all their learned disputes about dying and immortality ; how many field-worthies, who had knocked so many men's brains out ; how many tyrants, who managed the power of life and death with as much pride and rigour as if themselves had been immortal; how many cities, if I may say so, have given up the ghost — for instance, Helice in Greece, Pompeii and Herculanum in Italy, not to mention many besides. Do but recollect your acquaintance, and here you will find people managing and making way for funerals, mourning for their friends, and giving occasion for the same ofiice themselves ; and all within a small compass of time.
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In short, mankind are poor transitory things. They are one day in the rudiments of hfe, and almost the next turned into mummy or ashes. Your way is therefore to manage this minute wisely, and part with it cheerfully; and, like a ripe nut, when you drop out of the husk, be sure to speak well of the season, and make your acknowledgments to the tree that bore you.
XLIX. Stand firm like a rock, against which though the waves batter and swell they fall flat at last. How unfortunate has this accident made me ! cries such a one. Not at all ; he should rather say, what a happy mortal am I, for being unconcerned upon the occasion, for being neither shocked at the present, nor afraid of what is to come ! The thing might have happened to any other man as well as myself, but for all that, everybody would not have been so easy under it. Why, then, is not the good-fortune of the bearing more considerable than the ill-fortune of the happening ? Or, to speak properly, how can that be a misfortune to a man which is no disappointment to his nature ? And how can that cross upon a man's nature which falls in with the very intention and design of it ? Now, what human nature rightly disposed drives at, I suppose, you are not to learn at this time of day. To apply this reasoning ; does the present accident hinder your being honest and brave, temperate and modest, judicious and unservile? etc. Now, when a man is furnished with these good qualities, the highest notion of him is finished, and his nature has what she would have. Further, when anything grows troublesome, recollect this maxim, that generous behaviour is too strong for ill-fortune, and turns it to an advantage.
L. To consider those old people that resigned so unwillingly is, for a common notion, not unserviceable ; it helps us somewhat to face death, and contemn it j for what are these long-lived mortals more than those that went off in their infancy ? What is become of Coecilianus, Fabius, Julianus, and Lepidus? Their heads are all laid somewhere j they buried a great many, but came at last to it themselves. Upon the whole, the difference between long and short life is insignificant, especially if you consider the accidents, the company, and the carcase you must go through with; therefore do not let a thought of this kind affect you one way or the other ; do but look upon the astonishing notion of time and eternity; what an immense deal has run out already, and how infinite it is still in the future ; — do but consider this, and you will find three days and three ages of life come much to the same measure and reckoning.
A Discourse with Himself. 177
LI. Always go the shortest way to work. Now the nearest road to your business lies through honesty. Let it be your constant method, then, to deal clearly and above-board ; and by this means you need not fatigue it, you need not quarrel, flourish, and dis- semble like other people.
BOOK V.
I. When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, make this short speech to yourself: I am getting up now to do the business of a man ; and am I out of humour for going about that I was made for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world ? Was I then designed for nothing but to doze and batten beneath the counterpane ? Well, but this is a comfortable way of living. Granting that ; wert thou born only for pleasure ? were you never to do anything ? I thought action had been the end of your being. Pray look upon the plants and birds, the pismires, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all regular and industrious, exerting their nature, and busy in their station. For shame ! Shall a spider act like a spider, and make the most of her matters, and shall not a man act like a man? Why do you not rouse your faculties, and manage up to your kind ? For all that, there is no living without rest. True ; but then let us follow nature's directions, and not take too much of it. She likewise has given you leave to eat and drink within a rule ; but here you generally exceed your commission, and go beyond convenience ; whereas in business you are apt to favour yourself, and do less than lies in your power. In earnest, you have no true love for yourself; if you had, you would improve your nature, humour her motions, and solicit her interest. Now, when a man loves his trade, how he will sweat and drudge to perform to a curiosity, and make himself master of it ! But to speak out ; you mind your person less than a turner does the making of a chair ; a dancing-master has much more regard for his heels than you have for your head ; and as for wealth and popularity, how strongly are they pursued by the vain and the covetous. All these people, when their fancy is once struck, push their point, might and main, and will scarcely allow themselves necessary refreshment. And now, caia you think the functions of reason, justice, and generosity less valuable than these petty amusements ?
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II. What an easy matter it is to them the current of your imagina- tion ; to discharge a troublesome or improper thought, and grow as calm and regular as one would wish !
III. Do not think any action beneath you which reason and circumstances require; and never be misled by the apprehension of censure or reproach. Where honesty prompts you to say or do anything, never baulk yourself or start at the matter. If other people are particular in their fancies and opinions, mind them not. Be you governed by the reason within you ; pursue that which is most for your own and the common interest. For to speak strictly, these two are but one and the same.
1
IV. I w411 jog on in that path which nature has chalked out till my legs sink under me, and then I shall be at rest, and expire into that air which has given me breath ; fall upon that earth which has maintained my parents, helped my nurse to her milk, and supplied me with meat and drink for so many years ; and though its favours have been often abused, still suffers me to tread upon it.
V. Wit and smartness are not mightily your talent. What then ? There are a great many other good qualities in which you cannot pretend nature has failed you. Improve them as far as you can, and let us have that which is perfectly in your power. You may, if you please, behave yourself like a man of gravity and good faith j endure hardship, and despise pleasure ; want but a few things, and complain of nothing ; you may be dispassionate, stand upon your own legs, and be great if you please, and have nothing of ill-nature, luxury, or trifling in your humour. Do you not see how much you may do if you have a mind to it, and how the plea of incapacity is out of doors ? And yet you do not push and manage as you should do. What then ? Does any natural defect force you upon grumbling, miserableness, or laying your faiilts upon your constitution, upon flattery or ostentation ; upon uncertainty of temper, and rolling from one folly to another ? Can you say you are so weakly made as to be driven upon these practices ? The immortal gods know to the contrary ! No, you might have stood clear of all this long since. And after all, if your parts were somewhat low, and your understanding heavy, your way had been to have taken the more pains with yourself, and not to have lain fallow and doted upon your own dulness.
VI. Some men when they do you a kindness are presendy for
A Discourse with Himself. 1 79
ringing the obligation in your ears ; others are more modest than this comes to. However, they remember the favour, and look upon you as their debtor. A third sort shall be every jot as much benefactors, and yet scarce know anything of the matter. These are much like a vine, which is satisfied by being fruitful in its kind, and bears a bunch of grapes without expecting any thanks for it. A fleet horse or greyhound do not use to make a noise when they have performed handsomely, nor a bee neither when she has made a little honey. And thus a man that is rightly kind never proclaims a good turn, but does another as soon as he can ; just like a vine that bears again the next season. Now we should imitate those who are so obliging as hardly to remember their beneficence. But you will say, a man ought to understand the quality of his own actions. It is somewhat natural for one that is generous to be conscious of his generosity ; yes, truly, and to desire the person obliged should be sensible of it too. I grant what you say is in a great measure true, and if you do not take me right you will make one of those untoward benefactors I first mentioned. Indeed, they think their grounds plausible enough, for their vanity imposes upon them. But if you will view the case in its true colours, the privacy of doing a good turn will never discourage you.
VII. The Athenians used to be mighty clamorous to Jupiter for rain upon their own lands, but not a word for other people. Now, to my mind, they had even better have held their tongues, or else prayed with more of extent and generosity.
VIII. u^sculapius, as we commonly speak, has prescribed such a one riding out,^ walking in his slippers, or a cold bath. Now, much to the same meaning we may affirm that Providence or the soul of the universe has ordered this or that person a disease, loss of limbs or estate, or some such other calamity. For, as in the first case, the word prescribed signifies a direction for the health of the patient, so in the latter it means an application proper for the constitution and benefit of fate. And thus these harsher events may be counted fit for us, as freestone, v/hich is well joined and lies snug in a building, may be said to fit it. Indeed, the whole of nature consists of a harmony and congruity of parts ; for as the w^orld has its form and entireness from that universal matter of which it consists, so the character and distinction of fate results from the quality and concurrence of all other causes contained in
^ Probably in a dream.
i8o Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
it. The common people understand this notion very well; their way of speaking is, "This was sent him by destiny." Say you so? Was there not, then, somewhat of purpose and design in it ? Let us then comply with our doom, as we do with the prescriptions of a celebrated physician. These doses are often unpalatable and rugged, and yet the desire of health makes them go merrily down. Now, that which nature esteems profit and convenience should be no less valued than your own health ; and therefore, when any cross accident happens, take it quietly to you ; it is for the good of the universe, and Jupiter himself is the better for it.^ Depend upon it, this had never been sent you if the world had not found its account in it ; neither does nature act at random, or order anything which is not suitable to those beings under her government. You have two reasons, therefore, to be contented with your condition : first, because you were born and singled out for it ; it was assigned you from the beginning by the highest and most ancient .causes. Secondly, it is for the interest of him that governs the world ; ^ it perfects his nature in some measure, and continues his happiness ; for it holds in causes no less than in matter and quantity ; if you lop off any part of the continuity and connection, you maim the whole. Now, if you are displeased with your circumstances, you dismember nature, and pull the world in pieces, as much as lies in your power.
IX. Be not uneasy, discouraged, or out of humour, because practice falls short of precept in some particulars. If you happen to be beaten off your reason, come on again, and let your fancy strike in at your second trial, and do not go like a school-boy to his master with an ill-will. No, you must apply to philosophy with inclination, as those who have sore eyes make use of a good recipe; and when you are thus disposed you jwill easily acquiesce and be governed by reason. And here you are to remember that philosophy or true wisdom will put you upon nothing but what your nature wishes and calls for. And can you be so unreasonable as to cross the inclinations of your nature ? Is not her fancy the most agreeable of anything? And does not pleasure often deceive us under this pretence ? Now, think a little, and tell me what there is more delightful than downright honesty and religion, than generosity and greatness of mind. And once more, what can be more entertaining than prudence, than to be furnished with that
^ A Stoical paradox.
^ A gross error of the Stoics.
A Discourse with Himself. 1 8 1
understanding which keeps a man from making a false step, and
helps him to good fortune in all his business ? ^ ^
X. Things are so much, perplexed and in the dark, that several considerable philosophers looked upon them as altogether un- intelligible,^ and that there was no certain test for the discovery of truth. Even the Stoics agree that nature and certainty is very hard to come at, that our understandings are always liable to error, and that infallibility is mere vanity and pretence. However, our ignorance is not so great but that we may discover how transitory and insignificant all things are, that those we commonly call the best circumstances are sometimes in the worst hands, and that it is possible for thieves, whores, and catamites to run away with the world, and who then would care threepence for it? Further, consider the temper of those you converse with, and you will find the best will hardly do ; not to mention that a man has work enough to make himself tolerable to himself. And since we have nothing but darkness and dirt to grasp at, since time and matter, motion and mortals, are always rolling and running out of them- selves,— for these reasons, I say, I cannot imagine what there is here worth the minding. On the other hand, a man ought to keep up his spirits, for it will not be long before his discharge comes. In the meantime his point is to be easy, and satisfy himself with these two considerations ; the one is, that nothing will befall me but what is for the interest of the universe;^ the other, that nobody can command my practice, or force me to act against my own judgment.
XI. What use do I put my soul to, or what hand do I make of my reason ? It is a serviceable question this, and should frequently be put to oneself. I say, how does my sovereign part stand affected? and what is the furniture and complexion of my mind ? Is there nothing of the boy or the beast in it ? nothing that is either tyrannical or effeminate ?
XII. What sort of good things those are which are commonly so reckoned, you may learn from hence. For the purpose, if you reflect upon those qualities which are intrinsically valuable, such as prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, you will not find a jest
^ The Stoic's maxim is, "A wise man can never be unfortunate, let his circumstances be what they will."
^ Of this opinion were Pyrrho and the new Academics. '^ See sect. 8.
1 82 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
upon them apt to relish and make sport ; whereas upon the advantages of fortune and common estimation a piece of raillery will pass well enough. Thus we see the generality are struck with the distinction, otherwise they would not dislike the liberty in one case and allow it in the other. The felicities of riches, luxury, and ambition are all within the privilege of buffoons, and liable to the lash of the stage. Now, what significancy can there be in these things when a poet's jest will take place upon them? And what comical droll may be patly applied to the owner. "He is so stuffed," says the play, "with wealth and finery that he has no room for his close-stool."
XIIL My being consists of matter and form, that this, of soul and body. Annihilation will reach neither of them ; for as they were never produced out of nothing, so they will always remain something. The consequence is that every part of me will serve to make something in the world ; and thus I shall be tossed from one figure to another, through an infinite succession of change. And what wonder of all this ? This constant method of alteration gave me my being, and my father before me, and so on to eternity backward ; for I think I may speak thus, though the world is confined within a certain determinate period.^
XIV. Reason needs no foreign assistance, but is sufficient for its own purposes. This faculty moves within itself, and makes directly for the point in view; for to take the matter rightly, honesty is always the nearest way to success.
XV. Those things do not belong to a man which do not belong to him as a man, or under the definition of his species. This notion may be applied to all external advantages, for these are not included in the idea; they are not required of us as men; human nature does not promise them, neither is she perfected by them ; from whence it follows that they can neither constitute the chief end of man, nor strictly contribute towards it. Further, if these things were any real additions, how comes the contempt of them, and the being easy without them, to be so great a commendation ? To balk an advantage would be folly, for one cannot have too much of that which is good. But the case stands otherwise ; for we know that self-denial and indifference about these things is the character of a good man, and goes for a mark of true greatness,
^ See Book x. sect. 7, Book ii. sect. i.
A Discourse with Himself» 183
XVI. Your manners will depend very much upon the quality of what you frequently think on ; for the soul is, as it were, tinged with the colour and complexion of thought. Be sure, therefore, to work in such maxims as these. A man may live as he should do, and behave himself well in all places; by consequence, a Hfe of virtue, and that of a courtier, are not inconsistent. Again, that which a thing is made for, it is made to act for ; and that which it is made to act for it is naturally carried to ; and in the due pursuit of this tendency the end of the agent consists. Now, where the end of a thing is, there the advantage and improvement of it is certainly lodged. From hence the inference will be that the happiness of mankind lies in society and correspondence, since that we were made for this purpose I have proved already. ^ For is it not plain that the lower order of beings are made for their betters, and the higher for the service of each other? Now, as Hfe is preferable to bare existence, so amongst all living creatures the rational are the h)est quality.
XVII. To expect an impossibility i's distraction; now it is impossible for ill men not to follow their bias, and show their temper in some instance or other.
XVIII. There is nothing happens to any person but what is in his power to go through with. Some people have had very severe trials, and yet, either by having less understanding or more pride than ordinary, have charged bravely through the misfortune, and come off without a scratch. Now it is a scandalous indecency to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.
XIX. It is thoughts, not things, which take hold of the soul. Outward objects cannot force their passage into the mind, nor set any of its wheels a-going. No, the impression comes from herself, and it is her notions which affect her. As for the contingencies of fortune, they are either great or little according to the opinion she has of her own strength.
XX. When we consider we are bound to be serviceable to mankind, and bear with their faults, we shall perceive there is a common tie of nature and relation between us. But when we see people grow troublesome, and disturb us in our business, here we are to look upon men as indifferent sort of things, neither good nor bad to us, but according to our management. It is true, like a
^ See Book ii. sect. i.
184 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
cross wind, they may hinder me in the executing part, but all this while my inclinations stand firm, and the reserve of a good meaning is secured to me. Being rightly disposed, I can pass on to the exercise of another virtue ; and thus it is probable I may gain by the opposition, and turn the disappointment to an advantage.
XXI. Among all things in the universe direct your worship to the greatest. And which is that ? It is that Being which manages and governs all the rest. And as you worship the best thing in nature, so you are to pay a proportionable regard to the best thing in yourself You will know it by its relation to the Deity. The quality of its functions will discover it. It is the reigning power within you, which disposes of your actions and your fortune.
XXII. That which does not damnify the city,^ or body politic, cannot, properly speaking, damnify any person that belongs to it. Therefore, when you think you are ill-used, let this reflection be your remedy, ahd say thus to yourself. If the community is not the worse for it, neither am I; But if the community is injured, your business is to show the person concerned his fault, but not to grow passionate about it.
XXIII. Reflect frequently upon the instability of things, and how very fast the scenes of nature are shifted. Matter is in a per- petual flux. Change is always and everywhere at work \ it strikes through causes and effects, and leaves nothing fixed and permanent. And then how very near the two vast gulfs of time, the past and the future, stand together ! Now, upon the whole, is not that man a blockhead that thinks these momentary things big enough either to make him proud or uneasy .?
XXIV. Remember what an atom your person stands for in respect of the universe, what a minute of unmeasurable time comes to your share, and what a small concern you are in the empire of fate.
XXV. A man misbehaves himself towards me. What is that to me? The action is his, and the will that set him upon it is his, and therefore let him look to it. As for me, I am in the condition Providence would have me, and am doing what becomes me.
XXVI. Whether the motions of your body are rugged or agree-
^ By the city the emperor means the world, to which, as he observes, private disadvantages are a convenience.
A Discourse with Himself. 185
able, do not let your reason be concerned with them ; confine the impressions to their respective quarters, and let your mind keep her distance and not run in. It is true, that which results from the law of the union, from the force of sympathy or constitution, must be felt, for nature will have its course ; but though the sensation cannot be stopped, it must not be overrated nor strained to the quality of good or evil.
XXVII. We ought to converse with the gods, and live the life that they do. This is done by being contented with the appoint- ments of Providence, and by obeying the orders of that genius, which is both the deputy and the offspring of Jupiter. Now this divine authority is neither more nor less than that soul and reason which every man carries about him.
XXVIII. Are you angry at a rank smell or an ill-scented breath? Why, if a man's lungs or stomach are ulcerated, or his arm-pits out of order, how can he help it ? But you will say, the case is not parallel between an ill action and an ill breath — the one is choice, and the other necessity. Well, if you think mankind so full of reason, pray make use of your own. Argue the case with the faulty person, and show him his error. If your advice prevails, he is what you would have him, and then there is no need of being angry. And lastly, do not mismanage either by your haughtiness or servility.
XXIX. You may live now, if you please, as you would choose to do if you were near dying. But suppose people will not let you ? why, then, give life the slip,^ but by no means make a misfortune of it. If the room smokes, I leave it, and there is an end \ for why should one be concerned at the matter ? However, if nothing of this kind drives me out, I will stay, behave myself like a man of spirit, and do what I have a mind to ; but then I will have a mind to nothing but what I am led to by reason and public interest.
XXX. God, or the soul of the universe, is of a sociable disposi- tion. For this reason He has made the coarser part of the creation for the sake of the finer. And as for those beings of the higher rank, He has engaged them to each other by inchnation. You see how admirably things are ranged, and sorted according to the dignity of their kind, and cemented together by nature and benevolence.
^ A Stoical piece of distraction.
1 86 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
XXXL Recollect how you have behaved yourself all along, towards the gods, your parents, brothers, wife, and children ; towards your instructors, governors, friends, acquaintance, and servants ; whether you have not done or said something unbecoming to some of them. Recollect how much business you have been engaged in, and how well you have gone through it; that now your task is done, and the history of your life finished. Remember likewise how much bravery you can make out ; how much of pleasure, and pain, and grandeur you have despised; and how often you have done good against evil.
XXXII. Why should skill and knowledge be disturbed at the censures of ignorance? But you will say. Who are these knowing and skilful people? Why, tliose who are acquainted with the original cause and end of all things, with that reason that pervades the mass of matter, renews the world at certain periods, and governs it through all the lengths of time.
XXXIII. You will quickly be reduced to ashes and skeleton ; and it may be you may have a name left you, and it may be not. And what is a name ? Nothing but sound and syllable. And then for those things which are so much valued in the world, they are miserably empty and insignificant. The prize is so mean that it makes the scuffle about them ridiculous. It puts one in mind of a parcel of puppies snarling for a bone, and the contests of little children, sometimes transported and sometimes all in tears about a plaything. And as for modesty and good faith, truth and justice, they have left this wicked world and retired to heaven. And now what is it that can keep you here ? For if the objects of sense are floating and changeable, and the organs misty and apt to be imposed on ; if the soul is but a vapour drawn off the blood, and the applause of little mortals insignificant ; — if the case stands thus, what is it you stay for ? Why, I am resolved to have patience until I am either extinguished or removed.^ And until that time comes, what is to be done? The answer is easy — to worship the gods, and speak honourably of them ; to be beneficial to mankind ; to bear with their faults and let their property alone ; and lastly, to remember that whatever lies without the compass of your person is nothing of yours nor in your power.
XXXIV. You may be always successful if you do but set out well, and let your thoughts and practice proceed upon grounds and
^ Into a state of separation.
A Discourse with Himself. 187
method. There are two properties and privileges common to God and all rational beings ; the one is, not to be hindered by anything foreign \ the other, to make virtue their supreme satisfaction, and not so much as to desire anything further.
XXXV. If this accident is no fault of mine, nor a consequence of it, and besides, if the community is never the worse for it, v/hy am I concerned ? Now, which way the community ^ may be damnified, I shall discourse afterwards.^
XXXVI. Do not suffer a sudden impression to overbear your judgment. Let those that want your assistance have it, as far as the case requires. But if fortune, as they call it, lies hard upon them, do not you conclude upon any real damage, for there is no such thing. However, upon the score of tenderness and humanity, you may condescend to their weakness, and treat them a little in their own way. But then you must remember to keep your notion true, and not suffer your compassion to run away with your reason. Thus, when you are haranguing in the Rostra ^ and courting the populace, when you are thus busy, I say, a little of this to yourself would not be amiss. Hark you, friend, have you forgot that this glitter of honour is but tinsel and pageantry? I grant it, but for all that, it is extremely valued. It is mighty well. And because other people are fools, must you be so too ? You may be a happy fellow in any ground, provided you have the wit to choose your fortune hand- somely. Now, if you ask further, I must tell you, if your manners be good, your fortune can never be bad. For, in a word, happiness lies all in the functions of reason, in warrantable desires and regular practice.
-0-
BOOK VI.
I. As matter is all of it pliable and obsequious, so that sovereign reason which gives laws to it has neither motive nor inclination to bring an evil upon anything. This great being is no way unfriendly or hostile in his nature ; he forms and governs all things, but hurts nothing.
^ By the community is meant the world. ^ See Book viii. sect. 55. A pulpit in one of the squares at Rome, where the great men use to make speeches to carry elections.
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II. Do but your duty, and do not trouble yourself about your condition. If you behave yourself well, never mind whether it is in the cold or by a good fire; whether you are overwatched or satisfied with sleep ; whether you have a good word or a bad one ; whether you are in health or dying ; for this last must be done at one time or other. It is part of the business of life to lose it handsomely. Upon the whole, if we do but manage the present to advantage, that is enough.
III. Look thoroughly into matters, and let not the distinction or intrinsic value of anything escape you.
IV. The present appearance of things will quickly undergo a change, and be either exhaled into common matter, or dispersed into their respective elements.^
V. That intelligent Being that governs the universe has perfect views of everything ; his knowledge penetrates the quality of matter, and sees through all the consequences of his own operations.
VI. The best way of revenge is not to imitate the injury.
VII. Be always doing something serviceable to mankind, and let this constant generosity be your only pleasure, and not forgetting in the meantime a due reverence and regard to the Deity.
VII I. It is the governing part of the mind which awakens thought, and alters the quality of it ; which gives what air she pleases to her own likeness, and to all the accidents and circumstances without her.
IX. The particular effects in the world are all wrought by one intelligent nature. This universal cause has no foreign assistant, no interloping principle, either without his jurisdiction or within it.
X. For argument's sake let us use a disjunction ; the world, then, is either nothing but a rencounter of atoms, a heap of confusion, and a hurry oi chance, or else it is the effect of design, and under the laws of order and providence. If the first, what should I stay for, where nature is in such a hotch-potch, and things are so blindly jumbled together? Why do not I rather make it my choice to
1 Some philosophers held all matter was the same ; and others maintained that
the four elements were distinct and original principles of bodies.
A Discourse with Himself. 189
disengage and return to the element of earth as soon as may be ? ^ Why should I give myself any trouble? Let me do what I will, my constitution must be broken, and my atoms all disbanded in a little time. But if there is a Providence, and tlie latter part of the disjunction holds good, then I adore the great Governor of the world, and am easy in the prospect of protection.
XI. When you happen to be ruffled a little, and throw off your temper by any cross accident, retire immediately into your reason, and do not move out of rule any longer than needs must. For the sooner you recover a false step, the more you will be master of your practice.
XII. Put the case you had a mother-in-law and a mother at the same time ; though you would pay regard to the first, your converse I conceive would be mostly with the latter. Let the court and philosophy represent these two relations to you ; apply frequently to this last, and set up your stand with her ; for it is a life of virtue and philosophy which makes you and your courtiers tolerable to each other.
XIII. To check the pleasure of luxury, we should in our fancy at least take away the garnishing of the dishes, the value the cook sets upon them, and give them names less tempting than ordinary. For the purpose, we may say this is but the carcase of a fish, this fowl has no more life in it than I shall have when I am buried, and the other is no better than a piece of a dead hog. And then for this bottle of Falerno,^ what is it but a little moisture squeezed out of the tumour of a grape? And to mortify the vanity of fine clothes, and prevent your purple ^ from growing too big for you. consider that it is nothing but sheep's hair twisted together, and stained in the gore of a little shell-fish. And if we were to proceed to some other satisfactions of sense, we should find them but coarse in their causes and constitution ; and as these notions strike through the surface, press into the heart of things, and show them in their natural colours, so we should carry them on and apply them to all the pageantry of life. And where things appear most plausible and pretending, be sure to bring them to the test, and look within them. And when the paint is thus pulled off, the coarseness of them will
1 An expression of Homer.
2 Falernus, a country in Campania, which affords the richest wines in Italy.
^ Purple was so nauch the privilege of the emperor, that it was treason for the su' ject to wear it.
I go Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
easily be discovered. Without this care, figure and appearance are great cheats, and when you think your fancy is best employed, you will be most fooled. Even virtue itself is sometimes counter- feited, and gravity is nothing else but grimace. Thus Crates discovered Xenocrates' philosophy to be only skin deep, — great demureness without, and no less vanity within.
XIV. The inclination of the generality may be reduced to these heads. Some people are httle enough to be smitten with things in the state of bare existence or vegetation, as with wood, stones, fruit, and such like. Others, who are somewhat more tolerable in their fancy, must have life to charm them, and these, it may be, are mightily in love with their flocks and herds. A third sort, better furnished than the former, admire nothing beneath human nature ; but then they do not take in the whole kind, but it is either the skill, parts, or property ^ of some particulars which affect them. But he that values a rational creature without limitation or partiality, runs into none of the dotages above mentioned, but makes it his chief business to look at home, to keep reason and good-nature stirring, and to assist all mankind in the public interest.
XV. Some things are pressing for birth and being, and others are posting off, and that which was entire just now is part of it spent already. The world is renewed by this change and rolling, no less than time is by a perpetual succession. Now, who would dote upon things hurried down the stream thus fast, and which it is impossible to take hold on ? Such a passion is much like falling in love with a sparrow flying over your head — you have as it were but one glimpse of her, and she is out of sight. To go on ; Hfe is but a sort of exhalation of the blood, and a little air sucked into the lungs. Now, to return your breath for the support of life, and expire your last, when you lose it, is muchwhat the same action.
XVI. Neither the perspiration of plants, nor the breath of animals, nor the impressions of sensation, nor the poppet motions ^ of passions, are privileges of any great value. To which we may add the instinct of crowding into herds, together with the functions of nutrition; this latter being not unlike a separating kind of evacuation. What then is it that you count worth your esteem.? Huzzas and acclamations ? Not at all. Why, then, you must not value harangues and panegyric, for this is but a mannerly sort of
' As in slaves who belong to their masters.
- Because they do as it were dance men upon wires.
A Discourse with Himself, 191
bawling about a man. Well, I find fame and glory will not tempt you, what then is there behind worth the having ? To govern your motions, and make use of your being according to the intentions of nature ; this is the design of arts and improvement in other cases ; every artificer and profession endeavouring to make the thing fit to answer the end for which it was intended. This, for instance, is the design of vine-dressers, those that manage horses and make dogs ; their business is to make the most of things, and drive them up to the top of their kind. And what other view has learning and education but to improve the faculties and set them the right way at work? It is agreed, then, the main point lies here. Compass but this, and let the world rub. What! must your inclinations always run riot, and will you never keep them true to one thing? Must you be still hankering after this fancy and the other ? Why, then, let me tell you, you will always be a slave, always in wants and disquiet. This temper will let loose abundance of uneasy passions upon you. It will make you grow envious, full of jealousy and suspicion, and apt to overreach those who are possessed of some- thing you have a mind to. And when strong desires are unsatisfied, you will find yourself mightily disturbed ; and this will make you murmur, and grow mutinous against the gods. But if you come once to pay a due regard to your reason, you will be pleased with yourself, serviceable to society, and compliant with the gods, that is, you will be entirely satisfied with their administration.
XVII. The elements either press upwards, or tumble downwards, or else run round in a circle. But virtue has none of these motions ; she is of a nobler kind. Her progress in regular thoughts is somewhat unintelligible, but always prosperous.
XVIIl! What a strange humour there is amongst some people. They do not care to afford a good word to their contemporaries, and yet are very desirous of being praised by posterity ; that is by those they never saw, nor ever will have the least acquaintance with. Now this is almost such a freak as it would be to be disturbed because you were not commended by the generations that lived before you.
XIX. Because you find a thing very difficult, do not presently conclude that no man can master it. But whatever you observe proper and practicable by another, believe likewise within your own power.
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XX. If an antagonist in the circus tears our flesh with his nails, or tilts against us with his head, we do not use to cry out foul play, nor be offended at the rough usage, nor suspect him afterwards as a dangerous person in conversation. It is true, when we are at the exercise, we guard and parry, but all this is done without raising ill blood, or looking upon the man as an enemy. Let us act at this rate in the other instances of life. When we receive a blow, let us not think ourselves in a battle, but at a trial of skill. We may fence, as I said before, and manage the contest with caution, but not with malice and ill-will.
XXI. If any one can convince me of an error, I shall be very glad to change my opinion, for truth is my business, and right information hurts nobody. No, he that continues in ignorance and mistake, it is he that receives the mischief.
XXII. I will do my duty, that is enough. As for other things, I shall never be disturbed about them. For if they happen to come cross, it is but considering that they are either without life, or without reason, or without judgment, and thus I can easily pass them over.
XXIII. As for brute animals, and things undignified with reason, use them freely and boldly, as being of a superior order yourself. But treat men like beings of your own kind, and members of the same society. And in all your affairs invoke the gods for their assistance. As for the time you are to continue this regularity, never trouble yourself whether it is long or short ; for three hours of hfe thus well spent will do your business.
XXIV. Alexander the Great and his groom, when dead, were both upon the same level, and ran the same fortune of being either scattered into atoms or absorbed in the soul of the universe.^
XXV. What abundance of motions there are in the body, what abundance of thoughts and sensations in the mind at the same time ! What a vast number of operations are performed, and how much business is despatched within us in a single moment ! He that considers this will not wonder so much that infinitely more productions should start out together in the universe, or that the soul of the world should by once exerting Himself look over, actuate, and govern the whole mass of matter.
^ See Book iv, sect. 14.
A Discourse zvith Himself. 193
XXVI. Suppose you were asked to spell Antoninus's name, would you holloa every letter in the company's ears? Or would you return their passion, if they were angry? I conceive you would rather go mildly to work, and give them the letters and syllables as they stand, without noise. Apply this to greater instances, and remember that all duties in morality have such a determinate number of parts and circumstances to render them complete ; these must be all taken care of, and performed in order; but then it must be done smoothly, without growing hot upon meeting with peevish- ness and provocation.
XXVII. It is a sort of cruelty to baulk people's fancies, and not give them leave to pursue what they reckon their interest. And with this you are chargeable in some measure yourself when you are angry with those that do amiss. Why so? Because they imagine they are carrying on their own interest and convenience. But that, you will say, is their mistake. I grant it ; but then it is your part to lead them out of it, and to show them their error without passion and resentment.
XXVIII. What is death ? It is a resting from sensation and desire ; a stop upon the rambling of thought, and a release from the drudgery about your carcase.
XXIX. Keep up your spirits for business as long as your consti- tution lasts ; for it would be a shame if your mind should falter and give in before your body.
XXX. Have a care you have not too much of an emperor in you, and that you do not fall into the liberties and pride of your predecessors. These humours are easily learned, therefore guard against the infection. Be candid, sincere, and modestly grave. Let justice and piety have their share in your character ; let your temper be remarkable for mildness and good-nature, and be always enterprizing and vigorous in your business. And, in short, strive to be just such a man as virtue and philosophy would make you. Worship the gods and protect mankind. This life is short, and all the advantage you can get by it, is the opportunities you have of adoring those above ^ and doing good to those below you. Do everything like a disciple of Antoninus ; ^ imitate him in the vigour and
^ The gods.
2 The author means the Emperor Antoninus Pius, who was his adoptive father.
G
194 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
constancy of his good conduct, in the equahty, sweetness, and piety of his temper, the serenity of his aspect, the modesty and unpre- tendingness of his behaviour, and the generous ambition he had to be perfectly master of his business. Further, it was his way to dismiss nothing till he had looked through it, and viewed it on all sides ; to bear unreasonable remonstrance without making a return ; never to be in a hurry ; to be backward in giving encouragement to informers. He was a great judge of men and manners ; but ot no satirical or reprimanding humour. Not at all apt to be frightened or surprised; not too suspicious, nor in the least overrun with impertinence and conceit. Expense and figure was none of his fancy, as one might easily perceive, by his palace, his furniture, his habit, his eating, and his attendance. Lenity was his humour, and fatiguing his delight. He was so temperate in his diet that he was able to sit at the council board till night, without withdrawing into another room ; for the necessities of nature never returned upon him till their usual time. He was firm in his friendship, and steady and agreeable in the manner of showing it. He gave his courtiers all the freedom imaginable to contradict him, and was pleased with the proposal of a better expedient than his own. To conclude, he was a religious prince, but on this side superstition. Pray imitate these good qualities of his, that you may have the satisfaction of them at your last hour.
XXXI. Rouse and recollect yourself, and you will perceive your trouble lay only in a scene of imagination ; ^ and when you are well awake, turn the tables, and carry the contemplation through life ; and then the world in a dream, and the world out of it, will appear muchwhat the same thing.
XXXII. My person consists of soul and body. To this latter all things are morally indifferent ; the body being in no condition to make a distinction of this kind. And as to my mind, there is nothing can affect her in the quality of good or evil, her own actions excepted ; now these are all within her power. And of all her actions she is only concerned with the present ; for what is past or to come signifies as much as nothing, and falls under no moral character. 2
XXXIII. As long as the hands and feet do the work they were made for, they move naturally and with ease. Thus while a man
^ The emperor seems to have made this reflection after a troublesome dream. 2 A kind of paradox.
A Discourse with Himself. 195
performs the functions of his species, and keeps true to his condition, he feels no more weight than what nature lays upon him. Now that which is not beside the intentions of nature can never be a real misfortune.
XXXIV. What abundance of sensual satisfaction have thieves, catamites, parricides, and usurpers been possessed of? We may guess at the quality of pleasure by its falling to the share of such wretches as these.
XXXV. Do you not observe among your artificers, though they bear the contradiction and impertinence of the unskilful, yet they will not comply so far as to be talked out of their knowledge, or work against the rules of their trade ? And is it not a scandalous business that an architect or a physician should have more regard for their profession than a man has for his? For his, I say, in which he has the honour of the gods for his partners. And what is a man's trade simply considered as a man ? Why, nothing but the study and practice of virtue and moral philosophy.
XXXVI. The vast continents of Europe and Asia are but corners of the creation. The ocean is but a drop, and Mount Athos but a grain in respect of the universe; and the present instant of time but a point to the extent of eternity. These things have all of them little, changeable, and transitory beings. Remember like- wise that all things proceed from the soul of the universe, either by direct or consequential causality. Thus the growling deformity of a lion, the poison of serpents, thorns and dirt, and whatever seems coarse or offensive in nature, start out of something more noble, or belong to the entireness of her beautiful productions. Do not therefore suppose them insignificant and unworthy the Being you worship, but consider the fountain from whence all things spring.^
XXXVII. He that has taken a view of the present age has seen as much as if he had begun with the world, and gone to the end of it ; for all things are of a kind and of a colour. ^
XXXVIII. The mutual dependence all things have, and the relation they stand in to each other, is worth your frequent observation. For all the parts of matter are in some measure linked together and interwoven, and for this reason have a natural
^ See Bonk iii. sect. 2, Book viii. sect. 50. '^ See Book ii. sect. 14, Book ix. sect. 35.
196 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
sympathy for each other. And thus ixiotion and the continuity of matter makes one body consequent and connected to another.^
XXXIX. Bring your will to your fate, and suit your mind to your circumstances; and love those people heartily that it is your fortune to be engaged with. 4
XL. Those tools and utensils are said to be right when they serve for the uses they were made ; though in this case the artificer that made them is commonly absent. But in the works of nature, the forming power is always present with the effect, and deserves a particular regard. From hence you are to conclude that as long as you behave yourself as this sovereign power directs you, you will have your wishes in everything. Indeed, it is this bent of inclina- tion which makes the gods happy, and gives satisfaction to the soul of the universe.
XLI. If you suppose anything which lies out of your command to be good or evil, your missing the one or falling into the other will unavoidably make you a malcontent against the gods, and put you upon hating those people whom you either know or suspect to be instrumental in your misfortune. To be plain ; our mistake in this supposition and pursuing objects above our reach often makes us very unreasonable and unjust. But if we confine the notion of good and evil to things in our power, then all the motives to complaint and ill -nature will drop off; then we shall neither remonstrate against heaven nor quarrel with any mortal living.
XLII. All people concur in some measure to the purposes of Providence, though all are not sensible of it. And thus, as I remember, Heraclitus observes, that those who are asleep may be said to help the world forward. In short, the grand design is carried on by different hands and different hearts too. For even he that complains makes head against his fate, and strives to pull the administration in pieces ; even such a testy mortal as this is useful in his way.2 Consider then how you are ranged, and whether you have joined the dutiful or the disaffected party. For He that governs the world will certainly make you good for something, and prove serviceable to his scheme one way or other. Have a care you do not serve for a foil or a jest, and make such a ridiculous
^ This section seems to be levelled against Epicurus's hypothesis of a vacuum. ^ See Book ix. sect. 42.
A Discoitrse with Himself. 197
figure in nature as that Doggril did in the play Chrysippus mentions.
XLIII. Every one should keep to his post, and be contented with the assignments of Providence. The sun never covets the properties of a shower, nor does one god interfere with another. Everything is serviceable in his own station, and unresembling causes unite to advantage in the effect. Are not the stars different from each other? and yet their influences agree together upon sublunary productions.
XLIV. If the gods have decreed me anything, they have decreed my advantage. If not, they must either be mistaken in their measures or unbenevolent in their design. Now, as the first part of this supposition is absurd, so the latter is incomprehensible. For to what purpose should they intend me any harm ? What would themselves or their universe get by it? But granting they have made no particular provision for me, yet since their government of the world is not disputed, the consequence will be much the same. For this way my affairs will be comprehended and fall within the compass of their general providence, and why then should 1 not be contented with whatever happens ? To put the case further. Sup- pose the gods take care of nothing, which, by the way, we must reckon a scandalous opinion, or else it will be high time to leave off the common solemnities of sacrificing, prayers, and religious swearing. If things lie thus, why all this superstitious trouble in these and many other instances? To what purpose should we behave ourselves as if we were in the very court and company of heaven ? However, since a supposition implies nothing of reality, let it pass for once. If the gods therefore will take care of none of us, it is certainly lawful for me to take care of myself. Now it is my right to state the notion of my own convenience ; and what is that? Why, that is convenient for every one which suits his nature and his species. Now my nature has reason, sociable principles, and public inclination in it. By consequence, the interest of my country must be my own. Take me then under the particular distinction of Antoninus, and Rome is my town and country ; but consider me as a man in general, and I belong to the corporation of the world. That, therefore, and only that, which is serviceable to both these societies, is an advantage to me.
XLV. Whatever happens to particulars is serviceable to the universe ; that thought might satisfy. But we can carry the reasons
198 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
for acquiescence further ; for, upon observation, you will perceive that what is profitable to one man is in some measure for the interest of the rest. And here I take the word profit in the sense of common acceptation, and not in the language of the Stoics.^
XLVI. You may remember at a play, or such resembling diver- sions, coming over and over with the same thing tires the sense and extinguishes the pleasure. Remove this contemplation into life; for here all things come round, and bring the same causes and appearances along with them. How long, then, will it be before you are cloyed with these repetitions ?
XLVII. Consider with yourself that people of all conditions, professions, and countries are forced to die. Cast your eyes upon what sort of mortals you please, and you will find them go the way of all flesh. And we must take our turn too with the rest, and remove to the same place whither so many famous orators and philosophers, generals, princes, and heroes have shown us the way. Those great sages, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates; those celebrated mathematicians, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, and Archi- medes, had no privilege or protection against fate. Not to mention a great many other extraordinary geniuses, persons of industry, reach, and spirit ; they are all gone. Even those buffoons who, like Menippus, were always flouting and fleering at mankind, though they lived in jest, they died in earnest. Remember they are all in their graves ; and where is the harm of all this ? Nay, what are those the worse for it that have not so much as left their own names behind them? In a word, there is only one thing here worth the minding, and that is, not to imitate the degeneracy of mortals, but to be true, honest, and good-natured even amongst knaves and sharpers.
XLVIII. When you have a mind to divert your fancy, consider the good qualities of your acquaintance ; as the enterprizing vigour of this man, the modesty of another, the liberality of a third, and so on ; for there is nothing so entertaining as a lively image of the virtues and advantages of those we converse with. Let such an idea therefore be always ready and at hand.
XLIX. You are not angry because you weigh so light in the scale, and do not ride forty stone. Why then should you be
^ The Stoics esteemed nothing profitable but virtue and honesty, though at the same time they allow other things to be useful.
A Discourse with Himself. 199
dissatisfied because your life is not drawn out to an unusual and extraordinary period? You ought to be no more covetous of time than you are of bulk, but be contented with the common allowance.
L. It is good to try to bring people to a right understanding of the case, but if they grow troublesome, be governed by your own conscience, and never ask anybody's leave to be honest. If there comes a force upon you, and stops your progress, disengage, and be easy, and make a virtue of necessity. Remember that you undertook the business upon the condition of its being feasible, and never pretended to grasp at impossibilities. What was it, then, you aimed at? Why, to do your best, and secure your reason. Right! And this may be effectually done, though the enterprize should happen to miscarry.
LI. The ambitious person lodges his happiness in the fancy of another. The voluptuary admires at home, and keeps within the reach of his senses ; but a man of understanding depends upon himself, and makes action, and not appetite, his pleasure.
LII. We are at liberty not to misinterpret any accident, and by consequence may be free from disturbance. Things have no such power over thoughts as to make us of what judgment they please.
LIII. Accustom yourself to attend to what is discoursed, and, as far as you can, get into the soul of him that speaks.
LIV. That which is not for the interest of the whole swarm is not for the interest of a single bee.
LV. If the patient rails at the doctor, or the crew at the master of the vessel, who will they mind, or what good is to be done upon them? Or, which way can either health or a good voyage be expected ?
LVI. How many people that came into the world with me are gone out of it already ?
LVII. Honey tastes bitter to such as are troubled with an over- flowing of the gall ; and people bitten by a mad dog are frightened at the sight of water; and, on the other hand, a little ball is a curious thing to a child. This considered; why should you be
200 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonimts :
angry with any one? Can you imagine that error and ignorance has less force upon the mind than a Httle gall or venom upon the body ?
LVIII. As nobody can rob you of the privileges of your nature, or force you to live counter to your reason, so nothing can happen to you but what comes from Providence, and consists with the interest of the universe.^
LIX. Consider with yourself what sort of people your men of popularity must court, what scandalous submissions they are obliged to, and what poor returns they have for their pains. And then how soon death and oblivion sweep all before them.
BOOK VII.
I. What is vice and wickedness ? No rarity, you may depend on it. When you are in danger of being shocked, consider that the sight is nothing but what you have frequently seen already. To be brief, men and manners are generally much what alike. All ages and histories, towns and families, are of the same complexion, and full of the same stories. There is nothing new to be met with, but all things are common and quickly over.
II. Opinions, whether right or wrong, can never be pulled out of your head, unless the grounds and reasons of them are first removed. It is your interest, therefore, to awaken your memory, and refresh those notions which are serviceable and well examined. For the purpose ; you may say to yourself, it is in my power to form a right judgment upon the present emergency ; and why then should I be disturbed at it ? For nothing that does not enter my mind, and get within me, can hurt me. Hold to this, and you are safe. Come, I will tell you a way how you may live your time over again. Do but recollect and review what you have seen already, and the work is done.
III. Gazing after triumphs and cavalcades ; the diversions of the Stage ; farms well stocked with flocks and herds ; contests for victory
^ See Book v. sect, 8.
A Discourse with Hhnself. 201
in the field, — these are the little pleasures and concerns of mortals. Would you have a further illustration, and see an image of them elsewhere ? Fancy, then, that you saw two or three whelps quarrel- hng about a bone ; fishes scrambling for a bait ; pismires in a peck of troubles about the carriage of a grain of wheat ; mice frightened out of their wits, and scouring across the room ; puppets dancing upon a wire, etc. And after all, though human life is but ordinary and trifling, a wise man must be easy and good-humoured, and not grow splenetic or haughty upon the contemplation ; remembering, notwithstanding, that the true bulk and bigness of a man is to be measured by the size of his business and the quality of his mclinations.
IV. Do not let either discourse or action pass unobserved ; attend to the sense and signification of the one, and to the tendency and design of the other.
V. Am I sufficiently qualified for this business or not? If I am, I will make use of my talent, as given me by heaven for that purpose. If I am not, I will either let it alone, and resign it to a better capacity, or else I will do what I can, I will give my advice, and put the executing part into an abler hand ; and thus, by looking out for help, the juncture may be nicked, and the general interest secured. For whatsoever I act, either by myself or in conjunction with another, I am always to aim at the advantage of the community.
VI. How many famous men are dropped out of history, and forgotten ! And how many poets and panegyrists, that promised to keep up other people's names, have lost their own !
VII. Never be ashamed of assistance. Like a sentinel at the storming of a town, your business is to maintain your post and execute your orders. Now, suppose you happen to be lame at an assault, and cannot mount the breach upon your own feet, will not you suffer your comrade to help you ?
VIII. Be not disturbed about the future ; for if ever you come to it, you will have the same reason for your guide and protection which preserves you at present.
IX. All parts of the universe are interwoven and tied together, and no one thing is foreign or unrelated to another. This general
202 Conversation of Emperor Ma^xus Antonimis :
connexion gives unity and ornament to the world. For the world, take it altogether, is but one; there is but one sort of matter to make it of, one God to govern it, and one law to guide it. For, run through the whole system of rational beings, and you will find reason and truth is but single and the same. And thus beings of the same kind, and endued with the same reason, are made happy by the same exercises of it.
X. All compositions of matter fly off apace to the common stock and receptacle ; spirits are quickly swallowed up in the soul of the universe,^ and so is memory and fame in the gulf of time.
XI. With rational beings, nature and reason is the same thing. By consequence, to act according to the one must be to act according to the other.
XII. Either stand upright upon your own legs, or let another support you.
XIII. Does continuity and connexion create sympathy and relation in the parts of the body ? Why, resemblance and, as one may say, consanguinity of nature does the same thing among rational beings ; for though they are not tacked together by extension and union of place, they seem all made to co-operate with each other. This thought will be more intelligible and affect- ing if you frequently consider yourself as a member of the rational system ; but if you reckon yourself only a part, this relation will prove too weak for a principle of action. This remoter notion will not cherish good nature enough, nor carry it to a just improvement. You will not love mankind so heartily as you should do. Under this persuasion a generous action will never delight and regale you. You will do a good office merely for fashion and decency, but not as if it was really a kindness to yourself
XIV. Let accidents happen to such as are liable to the impression, and those that feel misfortune may complain of it if they please. As for me, let what will come, I can receive no damage by it, unless I think it a calamity ; and it is in my power to think it none if I have a mind to it.
XV. Let people's tongues and actions be what they will, my
^ See Book iv. sect. 14.
A Discourse with Himself. 203
business is to keep my road, and be honest, and make the same speech to myself that a piece of gold or an emerald should, if they had sense and language. Let the world talk and take their method, I shall not mind it, but sparkle and shine on, and be true to my species and my colour.
XVI. Does not the mind give the man the disturbance ? Does she not bring fears and fits of the spleen upon herself? Let any other body try to disquiet her if they can ; when they have done their worst, it is in her power to prevent the impression. And as for this small carcase, let it complain, and feel, and be frightened, if it know how. It is true, the soul is the seat and principle of thought, and by consequence, of passion and pain ; however, this passive capacity will do no harm, unless you throw her into fancies and fears about it.^ For the mind is in her own nature self- sufficient, and must create her wants before she can feel them. 2 This privilege makes her impregnable, and above restraint, unless she teases and puts fetters upon herself.
XVII. What is happiness but wise thinking, or a mind rightly disposed ? Why then does fancy ^ break in and disturb the scene ? Begone ! I will have nothing to do with the impostures of imagina- tion ! However, since they have custom to plead in their excuse, let them withdraw, and I will forgive them.
XVIII. Is any one afraid of dissolution and change? I would gladly know what can be done without it. If the course of nature and the method of the universe will not reconcile us to the expecta- tion, we are somewhat unreasonable. Pray, must not your wood be turned into»a coal before your bath can be ready for you ? Must not your meat be changed in your stomach, to make it fit to nourish you? Indeed, what part of life or convenience can go forward without alteration? Now, in all likelihood, a revolution in your carcase and condition may be as serviceable to the world in general as those alterations above mentioned are to you.
XIX. All particular bodies are quickly dissolved and hurried through the universal mass, where, at last, they incorporate, grow serviceable, and become a sort of limbs to the world. How many such eminent sages, as Chrysippus, Socrates, and Epictetus, have
^ The old Stoical paradox. 2 a Stoical piece of vanity.
^ That is a vulgar opinion concerning good and evil. Now all people are the vulgar with the Stoics except themselves.
204 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonmus :
sunk in the gulf of time ? And the same reflection will hold good concerning any other person or thing whatsoever.
XX. I am only solicitous about one thing, and that is, lest I should not act up to the nature and dignity of a man ; lest I should fail in some of the circumstances of my duty, and mismanage either in the matter, manner, or time of doing it.
XXI. It will not be long before you will have forgotten all the world; and in a little time, to be even, all the world will forget you too.
XXII. It is the privilege of human nature above brutes to love those that disoblige us ; to practise with ease and inclination, you must consider that the offending party is of kin to you, that ignorance is the cause of the misbehaviour, that the will and the fault seldom go together, ^ that you will both of you quickly be in your graves ; but especially consider that you have received no harm by the injury ; for if your reason is untouched, and your mind never the worse, there can be no damages done.
XXIII. God, or the spirit of nature, works the mass of matter like wax. Now, for the purpose, it is a horse ; soon after you will have it melted down, and run into the figure of a tree ; and from this form it is possible it may remove into the flesh and bones of a man, or what you please, and it is but a little while that it is fixed in one species. Now, a trunk feels no more pain by being knocked in pieces than when it was first put together.^
XXIV. A sour, gruff look is very unnatural, and to put it on often will make it settle, and destroy the beauty and pleasantness of the aspect to that degree that it is never to be recovered ; from whence you may conclude it a foolish custom.
XXV. It is high time for those people to die that have outlived the sense of their own misdemeanours,
XXVI. That Being which governs nature will quickly change the present face of it. One thing will be made out of another by frequent revolutions, and thus the world will be always coming new out of the mint.
^ See this paradox further explained, sect. 3.
2 This similitude is brought to insinuate the mind's independence on the body, which is all paradox.
A Discourse with Himself. 205
XXVII. When any one misbehaves himself towards you, im- mediately bethink yourself what notions he has concerning advantage and disadvantage ; when you have found out this, you will pity him, and neither be angry nor surprised at the matter. It may be, upon inquiry, you may find your opinions upon these points much the same, and then you ought to pardon him, for you would have done the same thing yourself upon the same occasion. But if your notions of good and evil are different, and more just than his, then your passion will yield to your good-nature, and you will easily bear with his ignorance.
XXVIII. Do not let your head run upon that which is none of your own, but pick out some of the best of your circumstances, and consider how eagerly you would wish for them, were they not in your possession ; but then you must take care to keep your satisfaction within compass, for fear it should carry you too far, make you overvalue the object, and be disturbed at the loss of it.
XXIX. Fortify at home, and rely upon yourself, for a rational mind is born to the privilege of independence ; honesty, and the inward quiet consequent to it, is enough, in all conscience, to make you happy.
XXX. Rub out the colours of imagination ; ^ do not suffer your passions to make a machine of you ; confine your care to the present: 2 look through the quality, and press into the nature of that which happens either to yourself or another. Distinguish the parts of your subject, and divide them into matter and form, and into body and spirit,-"^ when they have them. Think upon your last hour, and do not trouble yourself about other people's faults, but leave them with those that must answ^er for them.
XXXI. When you hear a discourse make your understanding keep pace with it, and reach as far as you can into those things which fall under your observation.
XXXII. Would you set off your person, and recommend your- self? Let it be done by simplicity and candour, by modesty of behaviour, and by indifference to external advantages. Love mankind and resign to Providence, for, as the poet observes, " All things are
^ See sect. 17.
2 See Book iii. sect 12, and alib.
^ See Book iv. sect. 21.
2o6 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
under law and superior direction." And what if the elements only had their course chalked out, and their motions prescribed them ? But we may carry the conclusion further, for there are, at the most, but very few things in the world perfectly turned over to chance and liberty.
XXXIII. Let death make atoms or vacuum of me, or what you please, it will come to this upshot at last, — it will either extinguish my being or translate me to another state.
XXXIV. As for pain, if it is intolerable, the extremity will destroy itself and quickly despatch you. If it stays long, you will be big enough to grapple with it. Your mind, in the meantime, will save herself by the strength of thought, keep undisturbed, and suffer nothing.! And for your limbs that lie under the execution, if they can complain and make out anything, let them do it.
XXXV. To moderate your ambition about fame, consider the generality of the people that are to commend and take notice of you, how insignificant they are, and how little in their pursuits and aversions ! Consider also that as one heap of sand thrown upon another covers the first, so it happens in the business of fame, a new glory eclipses an old one, and the latter age is a sort of extinguisher to the former.
XXXVI. A saying of Plato : ^ " He that has raised his mind to a due pitch of greatness, that has looked through the world from one end to the other, and carried his view through the whole extent of matter and time, do you imagine such a one will think human life any great business? Not at all (says the other man in the dialogue) ; what then ? Will the fear of death afflict him ? Far from it."
XXXVII. There is a great deal of truth in that sentence of Antisthenes : " That it is the fate of princes to be ill spoken of for their good deeds."
XXXVIII. It is a shame that a man should not be master of his mind as well as of his countenance ; that his will should be stronger for his looks than for his thoughts : prescribe what air he pleases to the first, and let the other lie mutinous and ungovernable.
^ The old paradox.
^ Plato, De Republic, lib. vi.
A Discourse with Himself. 207
XXXIX. " It is to no purpose to fall out with accidents and things, for they do not care a farthing for it." ^
XL. " Manage yourself with that advantage, that I, and the gods too, may have pleasure and satisfaction in your conduct." ^
XLI. " Fate mows down life like corn, this mortal falls, and the other stands a while." ^
XLII. " Is my family struck out of Providence, and do the gods forget me ? If it be so, they have reason for their neglect."
XLI II. " Virtue and happiness is a present I can make myself."
XLIV. " Not too much sympathy with other people's sorrow ; " * and keep your passions from all kinds of transport and excess.
XLV. More of Plato's sentences:^ "To such a one I should return this very reasonable answer. Hark ye, friend, you are mightily out if you think a man that is good for anything is either afraid of living or dying. No ; his concern is only to bring his actions to the test, to secure his practice, and stand clear of knavery and misbehaviour."
XLVI. Plato again : ^ " Gentlemen, in my opinion, when a man is satisfied with his own choice, or put into a post by his superiors, his business is to stand buff against danger and death, and fear nothing but disgrace and cowardice."
XLVII. Plato once more : ^ " With your favour, sir, it is not always the part of virtue and bravery to preserve either your own life or your neighbour's. He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to whine for life, and grasp intemperately at old age ; let him leave this point to Providence. The women in the nursery can tell him that we must go when our time is come. His duty is to consider how he may make the most of his life, and spend what there is to the best advantage."
^ Eurip. Belleroph. Here the emperor transcribed some sentences of the poets into his commonplace book.
2 This advice seems intended for his son Commodus.
^ Eurip. Hypsip. 1, * Aristoph. Acharn. ^ Plato, Apolog.
^ Apolog. ^ Plato, Gorgias.
2o8 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonmus :
XLVIII. Let the transmutation and shuffling of the elements be frequently the subjects of your meditation. Consider the course of the stars as if you were driving through the sky, and kept them company. Such contemplations as these brighten the soul, and scour off the rust contracted by conversing here below.
XLIX. It is a handsome saying, that of Plato's: ''That when we consider the state and condition of mankind, we should place our imagination upon some lofty pyramid or observatory ; and from thence take a prospect of the world, and look it over as it were at one view. Here we may see how mortals are drawn up into towns and armies in one place, and dispersed for husbandry in another ! Here are abundance of things to be seen together, marriage and confederacy treated by nations and families, births and burials, feasting and jollity at one house, and all in tears at another. Here they are in a mighty hurry at the bar, and there up to the ears in trading and merchandise. Towards the end of the prospect, it may be you may see a great deal of barren and unhabitable wilderness, with variety of barbarous people beyond it. Take it altogether, it is a strange medley of business, humour, and condition ; and yet if you consider it thoroughly, you will find the diversity and disagree- ment of the parts contribute to the beauty of the whole."
L. By looking back into history, and considering the fate and revolutions of government, you will be able to draw a guess, and almost prophesy upon the future. For things past, present, and to come, are strangely uniform and of a colour, and are commonly cast in the same mould. So that upon the matter, forty years of human life may serve for a sample of ten thousand.
LI. "What is sprung from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat." ^
If the matter does not stand thus, either the atoms will be un- twisted, or the elements scattered into insensibility. .
LII. " We feed ourselves up for long life with a great deal of care and expense ; but alas ! fate will find us out, and when the gods give the sign, we must embark, though never so unwilling." ^
Lin. Can another man ride or fence better than you? It may be so. But though you may fall short in your exercises, let nobody
^ Eurip. Chrysip. ^ Eurip.
A Discourse with Himself. 209
outdo you in virtue and behaviour. Let nobody be more liberal and modest, more resigned and forgiving than yourself.
LIV. As long as a man can make use of his reason, and act in concert with the gods, he needs not question the event. There can be no grounds to suspect misfortune, provided you stick close to nature, and manage within the character of your condition.
LV. It is always and everywhere in your power to resign to the gods, to be just to mankind, and to examine every object with that nicety as never to be imposed on.
LVI. Never make any rambling inquiries after other people's thoughts, but look directly at the mark which nature has set you. Nature, I say, either that of the universe ^ or your own. The first leads you to submission to Providence, the latter to act as becomes you. Now that which is suitable to the frame and constitution of things is what becomes them. To be more particular ; the rest of the world is designed for the service of rational beings, in consequence of this general appointment, by which the lower order of things are made for the use of the more noble ; and rational creatures, standing all upon a level, are designed for the advantage of each other. Now, a beneficent and sociable temper is that which human nature was principally intended for -, the next thing designed in our being is to be proof against corporeal impressions. It being the peculiar privilege of reason to move within herself, to fortify against an assault, and not suffer sensation or passion to break in upon her; for these are both of animal and inferior quality. But the under- standing part claims a right to govern, and will not bend to matter and appetite. And good reason for it, since she was born to command and make use of them. The third main requisite in a rational being is to secure the assent from rashness and mistake. Let your mind but compass these points and stick to them, and then she is mistress of everything which belongs to her.
LVII. We ought to spend the remainder of our fife as if it was more than we expected, and lent us on purpose for wiser management.
LVIII. Let your fate be your inclination, for there is nothing more reasonable and prudential.
LIX. When any accident happens, call to mind those who have ^ The rature of the universe is God, in the language of the Stoics.
2 lo Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonimis :
formerly been under the same circumstances ; how full of surprise, complaint, and trouble they were about the matter. And where are they now? They are gone, their murmuring could not make them immortal. To what purpose should you imitate their behaviour ; cannot you leave foreign humours and things to their own mis- management and bias ? Your business is only to mind your conduct, and give a turn of advantage to the emergency. Now you may be the better for the misfortune, if you will but take care, and do nothing but what is warrantable ; always remembering that accidents are indifferent in themselves, and only good or bad for us accord- ingly as we use them.
LX. Look inwards, and turn over your self ; for you have a lasting mine of happiness at home, if you will but dig for it.
LXI. Take care that your motions and gestures may be grave and composed ; for the same air of sense and decency which the mind can put into the face ought to be visible through the whole body. But then all this must be done without the least affectation.
LXI I. The right knack of living resembles wrestling more than dancing, for here a man does not know his movement and his measures beforehand. No ; he is obliged to stand strong against chance, and secure himself as occasion shall offer.
LXIII. Well ! it seems you desire to be commended. But what sort of people are they that must do you this kindness, and how are their understandings furnished? Truly, if you do but consider the size of their sense and the disorder of their passions, you will pity their ignorant misbehaviour, and not care a rush for their approbation.
LXIV. It is a saying of Plato's,^ that nobody misses the truth by their good-will. The same may be said with reference to honesty, sobriety, good-nature, and the like. Be particularly careful to remember this hint, for it will help to sweeten your temper.
LXV. When you lie under any corporal affliction, let this lenitive be at hand to relieve you — that there is no scandal in pain, that the sovereign part of your mind is never the worse for it. For how can she suffer unless her essence or her benevolence were
' Plato charges ignorance and vice upon the misfortunes of constitution or education ; Plato's Tinueus.
A Discourse with Himself. 211
impaired ? Besides, Epicurus's maxim will support you under most pains ; for, as he observes, they will either be tolerable or quickly over. But then you must keep your notions tight, and not run into the common opinion about them.^ And here you must remember that there are many more sensations than we are aware of, which belong to the nature of pain. Such as nodding when one would be awake, broihng in the heat of the sun, and nauseating some part of our diet. Now, when you find yourself fret and grow disturbed at these things, take notice that you are caught napping, and that pain has got the better of you.
LXVI. Do not return the temper of ill-natured people upon themselves, nor treat them as they do the rest of mankind.
LXVII. Which way are we to conclude that Socrates was a better man in virtue and temper than Telauges ? ^ To make out this, it is not enough to say that he disputed better and died bolder. The austerity and discipline of his life, his bravery in slighting the orders of the thirty tyrants, and refusing to apprehend an innocent person,* the gravity and greatness in his mien and motion (though the truth of this last particular may be questioned) ; all this glitter will not make the character shine out. To prove the point, we must examine what sort of soul Socrates carried about him. Could he be contented with the conscience of an honest and a pious man ? Did he not fret and fume to no purpose at the knavery and wicked- ness of the age ? Was he governed by nobody's ignorance ? Did he never question the equity of Providence, grow surprised at his hard fortune, and sink under the weight of it ? To conclude, did he keep pain and pleasure at a due distance, and not dip his soul too deep in his senses ? These marks are the only test of a great man, and it is to no purpose to pretend to that character without them.
LXVIII. Nature has not wrought your composition so close as to destroy the properties of matter and spirit. No ; the mind is in a condition to distinguish her faculties, to set out her jurisdiction, and do her own business herself. And now I think of it, lodge this always in your memory, that a man may be a first-rate in virtue and true value, and yet be very obscure at the same time. You may likewise observe that happiness lies in a little room ; granting your talent will not reach very far into logic and natural philosophy. This
^ See Book viii. sect. 49. 2 ^ philosopher of slender character.
^ One Salominius, a man of fortune.
212 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoniwus :
cannot hinder the freedom and greatness of your mind, nor deprive you of the blessings of sobriety, beneficence, and resignation.
LXIX. You may live with all the freedom and satisfaction imaginable, though the whole world should bawl against you and cry you down ; nay, though a brace of lions should quarter upon your carcase and tear you limb from limb. For, pray, how can anything of this reach up to your mind and ruffle her serenity?^ How can it prevent your passing a right judgment upon your circumstances, and making the best use of them ? And thus your reason may repel the attack, and argue thus against the object of terror. " Look ye ! you are not so fierce as you are painted ; nature has made you one thing, and common mistake another. To be plain, I expected to engage you, and now you are come, I will turn you to some account or other ; for it is my way to make everything serve for something." In short, you may work any accident into an instance of virtue, into a performance of some duty, either to God or man. By consequence, we need not be surprised or overset by any rencounter. For to take things rightly, there is nothing new in them or difficult to deal with.
LXX. He that is come to the top of wisdom and practice spends every day as if it were his last, and is never guilty of over-driving, sluggishness, or insincerity.
LXXI. Though the gods are immortal, and have their patience tried through so many ages, yet they not only bear with a wicked world, but provide liberally for it into the bargain. And are you that are just going off the stage sick of the company ? Are you tired with ill men already, and yet one of those unhappy mortals yourself?
LXXn. It is great folly to run from other people's faults, and not part with your own. This is going quite the wrong way to work, grasping at a project impracticable, and losing an advantage which lies in your power.
LXXI II. Whatever business tends neither to the improvement of your reason nor the benefit of society, conclude it beneath you, and manage accordingly.
LXXIV. When you have done a kindness, and your neighbour
^ The old paradox.
A Discourse with Himself. 213
is the better for it, what need you be so ignorant as to look any farther, and lie gaping for reputation and requital ?
LXXV. Nobody is ever tired with favours and advantages. Now, to act in conformity to the laws of nature and reason is certainly an advantage. Do not you therefore grow weary of doing good offices ; for by obliging others, you are really kind to yourself.
LXXVI. There was a time when God and nature was employed in making the world. So that now all events must either be con- sequences of decree, and result from the first measures, or else the soul of the universe ^ failed in the execution of her principal design. Now the absurdity of this latter supposition will go a great way towards the making a man easy.
BOOK VIII.
I. To keep you modest and mortified to vain glory, remember that it has not been your good fortune to spend your life wholly in the pursuit of virtue and wisdom. Your friends and yourself too are sufficiently acquainted how much you fall short of philosophy; and though merit and character are sometimes parted, yet the bare report of being a philosopher is no easy matter for you to compass. You are unqualified by your station, and too much embarrassed, for this privilege, Plowever, since you know how to come at the thing, never be concerned about missing the credit of it. Be satisfied, therefore, and for the rest of your life let your own rational nature direct you. Mind then what she would be at, and let nothing foreign disturb you. You are very sensible how much you have rambled after happiness, and failed. Neither learning, nor wealth, nor fame, nor pleasure, could ever help you to it. Which way is it to be had, then ? By acting up to the height of human nature. And how shall a man do this? Why, by getting a right set of principles for thoughts and practice. And what principles are those ? Such as state and distinguish good and evil ; such as give us to understand that there is nothing properly good for a man but what promotes the virtues of justice, temperance, fortitude, and
iGod.
2 14 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
benevolence ; nor anything bad for him but that which carries him off to the contrary vices.
II. At every action and enterprise ask yourself this question, What will the consequence of this be to me? Am I not likely to repent of it ? I shall be dead in a little time, and then all is over with me. If the present undertaking is but suitable to an intelligent and sociable being, and one that has the honour to live by the same rule, and reason with God himself; if the case stands thus, all is well, and to what purpose should you look any farther ?
III. Alexander, Julius Csesar, and Pompey, what were they in comparison of Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Socrates? These philo- sophers looked through cause, matter, and consequence, and understood the nature and use of things. This was noble furniture for a man's head and happiness ; but as for those great princes, what a load of cares were they pestered with, and how much slaves to their ambition !
IV. Never disturb yourself, for people will be untoward, and play the same pranks over again, though you should fret your heart out.
V. In the first place, keep yourself easy, for all things are governed by the laws and order of Providence ; besides, you will quickly go the way of all flesh, as Augustus, Adrian, and the rest of the emperors have done before you. Farther, examine the matter to the bottom, and remember that the top of your business is to be a good man. Therefore, whatever the dignity of human nature requires of you, set about it presently without ifs or ands ; and speak always according to your conscience, but let it be done in the terms of good-nature and civility.
VI. It is the method of Providence to change the face of things, and remove fortune and success from one place to another. All conditions are subject to revolution, so that you need not be afraid of unusual treatment ; for you stand upon no worse ground than the rest of the world, and will only have your share of the common fate.
VII. Every being is at ease when the powers of it move regularly and without interruption. Now a rational being is in this prosperous condition when her judgment is gained by nothing but truth and
A Discourse with Himself. 2 1 5
evidence; when her designs are all meant for the advantage of society; when her desires and aversions are confined to objects within her power ; when she rests satisfied with the distributions of Providence ; for which she has great reason, in regard she is part of it herself,^ and with as much propriety as a leaf belongs to the nature of the tree which bears it ; only with this difference, that a leaf is part of nature, without sense or reason, and liable to be checked in its operations ; whereas a man is a limb, as it were, of an intelligent, righteous, and irresistible being, — a being that is all wisdom, and assigns matter and form, time, force, and fortune to everything in due measure and proportion. And this you will easily perceive, if you do not stop short in your speculation and make a lame inquiry, but compare the whole of one thing with the whole of another.
VIII. You have no leisure to read books; what then? You have leisure not to be haughty or play the knave. It is in your power to be superior to your senses, and paramount over pleasure and pain ; to be deaf to the charms of ambition, and look down upon fame and glory. It is in your power not only to forbear being angry with people for their folly and ingratitude, but over and above to cherish their interest and take care of them.
IX. Never censure a court life, nor seem dissatisfied with your own.
X. Repentance is a reproof of a man's conscience for the neglect of some advantages. Now, whatever is morally good is profitable, and ought to be the concern of a man of probity; but no good man was ever inwardly troubled for the omission of any pleasure, or the baulking of his senses. From whence it follows that pleasure, strictly speaking, is neither profitable nor good.
XI. To go to the bottom of a thing, these things should be answered, What is it in its proper nature and distinction ? Of what sort of matter and form does it consist? What share of force and action has it in the world ? And how long is it likely to stay there ?
XII. When you find yourself sleepy in a morning, remember that business and doing service to the world is to act up to nature and live like a man; whereas sleeping does but degrade you for the time, and bring you down to a beast. Now those actions which
^ The Stoics believed the soul a part of God.
2 1 6 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
fall in with the design and properties of nature are more suitable and serviceable, and upon a custom more pleasant than others.
XIII. Upon every new idea let it be your constant custom to make use of your talent in physics, metaphysics, and morality, and examine the object in the respective inquiries of those sciences.
XIV. When you are about to converse with any person, make this short speech to yourself: How does this man's definition stand affected ? What notions has he about good and evil ? Nay, if his understanding is so misled, if he has such unfortunate opinions concerning pleasure and pain and the causes of them ; if his fancy or his fears are misapplied, or over-proportioned with respect to reputation or ignominy, to life or death; if the case stands thus with him, I do not wonder at his practice, for indeed it is next to impossible he should do otherwise.
XV. Would it not be an odd instance of surprise to stare at a fig-tree for bearing figs ? Why then should it seem strange to us for the world to act like itself, and produce things pursuant to quality and kind? This is just as foolish as it would be for a physician to wonder at a fever, or a master of a vessel at a cross blast of w4nd.
XVI. To retract or mend a fault at the admonition of a friend, hurts your credit or liberty no more than if you had grown wiser upon your own thought; for it is still your own judgment and temper which makes you see your mistake and willing to retrieve it.
XVII. If what is done displeases you, why do you do it, if it is in your power to let it alone ? But if you cannot help it, who do you complain of? The atoms or the gods?^ Either way is dis- traction, and therefore we must murmur against nothing. If you can mend the matter, go about it; if you cannot, what are you the better for grumbling ? Now a man should never do anything to no purpose.
XVIII. Whatever drops out of life is caught up somewhere, for the world loses nothing.^ Within this circumference of corporeity all things have their several forms and revolutions ; and here it is,
^ That is, chance or Providence, for the world must be governed by one of them.
^ That is, nothing is annihilated.
A Discourse with Himself. 217
likewise, that they return into element and first principle, under which notion those of the world and your own are the very same ; ^ and all these last changes are made without the least repining. And why, then, should the same matter that lies quiet in an element grumble in a man ?
XIX. Providence does not grant force and faculties at random, but everything is made for some end. The sun, as high as it is, has its business assigned, and so have the celestial deities.^ And where is the wonder of all this ? But pray what were you made for ? For your pleasure ? Common sense will not bear so scandalous an answer.
XX. Nature ^ pre-ordains the end of everything, no less than its beginning and continuance ; as he that strikes a ball designs whither it should go, as well as which way. And what is the ball the better all this while for mounting, or the worse for flying lower and coming to the ground ? What does a bubble get in the swelling, or lose in the breaking ? The same may be said of a candle, which is every jot as happy out as burning.
XXI. Turn your carcase the wrong side outwards, and be proud if you can ; and to improve your thought, consider what a beauty, age, diseases, and death will make of you ; and, to keep you low in your computations upon fame, consider that both the orator and the hero, the men and the merit, will quickly go off and be out of sight ; that the earth is but a point, and that we live but in a corner of this little dimension ; that men differ in their notions of honour and esteem; and that even the same person is not of the same opinion long together.
XXII. Mind that which Hes before you, whether it be thought, word, or action. You are well enough served^ for postponing your improvement, and making virtue wait for you till to-morrow.
XXIII. Am I about anything? I will do it with regard to the interest of mankind. Does anything happen to me extraordinary ?
1 All bodies are made of the same matter.
2 The emperor means the stars which the heathen and some Christians too believed to be animated ; and that a spirit or intelligence was seated in the centre, and governed the motions of the luminary.
^ Or Providence.
^ Here the emperor refers to some disappointment.
2 18 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
I will receive it as the appointment of fate and the distribution of heaven.
XXIV. Think a little, and tell me what you meet with in the business of bathing. There is oil, and sweat, - and dirtiness, and water, but an offensive mixture, take it altogether. Why, life and satisfaction is made up of much such indifferent stuff, but coarse, if you examine it to the bottom.
XXV. Lucilla buried Verus,^ and followed him soon after; Secunda did the same office for Maximus, and survived but a little while. And thus it fared with Epitynchanus and Diotimus, with Antoninus and Faustina,^ with Celer ^ and the Emperor Adrianus ; they assisted at one funeral, and quickly made another themselves. Thus poor mortals moulder away ! Where are those men of reach and prognostication ? and the other haughty fantastical sparks ? They made a great noise and figure formerly, but what is become of them now ? Where are those celebrated philosophers, Charax, Eudsemon, Demetrius the Platonist, and others of their learning and character ? Alas ! they took but a turn in the world, and are gone long since. Some of them have sunk to-rights, and left no memory behind them ; the history of others is overcast and dwindled into fables ; and a third sort have decayed farther, and dropped even out of a romance. Your business is therefore to remember, that after death your body will fall in pieces and fly off into atoms ; and as for your spirit, that will either be extinguished or removed into another station.
XXVI. Pleasure and satisfaction consist in following the bent of nature, and doing the things we were made for. And which way is this to be compassed ? By the practice of general kindness, by neglecting the importunity and clamour of our senses, by distin- guishing appearance from truth, and by contemplating the nature and works of the Almighty. All this is acting according to kind, and keeping the faculties in the right channel.
XXVII. Every man has three relations to acquit himself in ; his body helps to make one, the Deity another, and his neighbours a third.
^ Lucilla was our emperor's daughter, and married to Verus, who was his partner in the empire.
2 Antoninus Pius's empress.
^ An orator, or rhetoric master to our emperor and his colleague Lucius Verus.
A Discourse with Hi^nself. 219
XXVIII. If pain is an affliction, it must affect either the body or the mind. If the body is hurt, let it say so.^ As for the soul, she can secure the passes, and keep the enemy at a distance ; it is in her power to be invulnerable, by supposing the accident no evil ; which supposition is very practicable; for judgment and appetite, aversion and desire, and all the equipage of thought, are lodged within, and there no mischief can come at them.2
XXIX. Discharge common prejudice and the fallacies of fancy, by saying thus to yourself: It is in my power to be as easy and as innocent as it is possible ; to have nothing of vice, of appetite or dis- turbance in me. I am likewise in a condition to state the value and distinguish the quality of things, and make use of them accord- ingly. These are all privileges of nature, and ought to be remem- bered as such.
XXX. When you speak in the senate, or elsewhere, mind decency and character more than rhetoric, and let your discourse be always sincere and agree with your meaning.
XXXI. Augustus's court is buried long since. His empress and daughter, his grandchildren and sons-in-law, his sister and Agrippa, his relations and domestics, physicians and under-sacrificers, his favourites, such as Arius the philosopher and Maecenas, they are all gone.
Go on from single persons to families ; that of the Pompeys, for instance, and you will find the whole line extinct. "This man was the last of his house " is not uncommon upon a monument. How solicitous were the ancestors of such people about an heir, and yet the family must of necessity sink, and the blood fail at one time or other.
XXXII. Govern your life altogether by measures and rules ; and if every action goes its due lengths, and holds up to opportunity, rest contented. Now, no mortal can hinder you from putting your affairs in this condition. But may not some obstacle without interpose ? No, not so far as to prevent your acting like a man of probity and prudence. For all that my motions may be checked, and my design baulked. It is no matter for that, as long as you are easy under the obstruction, and pass on smoothly to what comes
* See Book vii. sect. i6. ^ The old paradox.
2 20 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
next ; this behaviour is as good as going thorough, and serves your improvement as well as success.
XXXIII. As to the case of good fortune, take it without pride, and resign without reluctance.
XXXIV. If you have observed a hand or a foot cut off and removed from the body, just such a thing is that man to his power, who is either a malcontent or over-selfish, who struggles against fate, or breaks off from the interest of mankind.^ This untoward behaviour amounts to amputation, and destroys the union of nature. But here lies the good luck of the case; it is in your power to retrieve the maim, and set the limb on again. This favour is allowed to no other part of the creation. Consider then the par- ticular bounty of God Almighty to man in this privilege. He has set him above the necessity of breaking off from nature and Pro- vidence at all ; but supposing his miscarriage, it is in his power to rejoin the body, and grow together again, and recover the advantage of being the same member he was at first.
XXXV. Whence come all the powers and prerogatives of rational beings? From the soul of the universe.^ Amongst other faculties, they have this which I am going to mention. For as God overrules all mutinous accidents, brings them under the laws of fate, and makes them serviceable to his purpose, so it is the power of man to make some- thing out of every cross adventure, and turn all opposition to advantage.
XXXVI. Do not take your whole life into your head at a time, nor burden yourself with the weight of the future, nor form an image of all probable misfortunes ; this method will but confound you. On the contrary, your way is, upon every emergency to put this question to yourself. What intolerable circumstances are there in all this ? For here your honour will secure you, you will be ashamed to assign particulars, and confess yourself conquered. Besides, you are to remember that neither what is past nor what is to come needs afflict you, for you have only to deal with the present. Now this is strangely lessened if you take it single and by itself. Chide your fancy, therefore, if it offers to shrink for a moment, and grow faint under so slender a trial.
XXXVII. Do Panthea and Pergamus still wait at the tomb of
^ See Book ii. sect. l6, Book iii. sect. 8, and alib, 2 God.
'A Discotirse with Himself. 221
Verus, or Chabrias and Diotimus at that of Adrian ? ^ That would be stuff indeed. And what if they were there, would those princes be sensible of the service ? Granting they were, what satisfaction would it be to them ? And suppose they were pleased, would these waiters last always and be immortal? Are they not doomed to age and death with the rest of mankind ? And when they are dead, what a pickle would the royal ghosts be in for want of their attend- ance ! Alas ! these fancies have nothing in them ; all this cere- mony must end at last in stench and dust.
XXXVIII. If you are so discerning, says the philosopher, make use of your talent to some purpose, and let your subject be propor- tionable to your parts.
XXXIX. I find no moral virtue which contradicts and combats justice ; this cannot be affirmed of pleasure, for here temperance comes in with a restraint.
XL. It is opinion which gives being to misfortune ; do not fancy yourself hurt, and nothing can touch you. But what, is this you? Is it not some notional superfine thing? No, it is your reason. But I am not so lucky as to be all reason. Make yourself so, then, and do not let reason degenerate and grow uneasy. In short, when anything troubles you, let this thought be your remedy.
XLI. To be checked in the functions of sense, and motion, and desire, is an evil to the animal life. That which hinders the growth or flourishing of a vegetable may be said to be an evil there ; so likewise to be cramped in the faculties of the mind is an evil to an intelligent nature. Apply all this to yourself. Does pleasure or pain solicit or attack you ? Turn them over to your senses, and let them answer for it. Does anything lie across your undertaking ? Why, if you were positive and peremptory about it, and set your heart upon it, then the disappointment is really an evil. But if you engaged only upon condition the nail would drive, and with a reserve for accidents, then no manner of hindrance or harm has happened to you. Indeed, no mortal can lay the soul by the heels, or put a restraint upon her. The mind, if she will but arm her thoughts and exert her courage, is impregnable ; and neither fire nor sword, tongue nor tyrant, can touch her.
^ Princes used to have some of their friends or domestics sit constantly at their tombs for some time after they were dead.
2 2 2 Conversation of Empero7'' Marcus A ntonimis :
XLII. Why should I fret and vex that never willingly vexed any- body ? ^ Certainly I can have no reason to be more unkind to myself than to other people.
XLII I. Every man has his particular gust and inclination ; but my pleasure lies in wise thinking and reasonable desires. Give me a sound and a sober understanding; a temper that never falls out either with men or accidents, that takes all things with good humour, computes rightly upon their value, and puts them to the uses they are fit for.
XLIV. Make the best of your time while you have it. Those who are so solicitous about fame, and think of living here after they are dead ; such men, I say, never consider that the world will not mend by growing older; that future generations will be as weak and disobliging as the present. What then can the noise or opinions of such little mortals signify ?
XLV. Toss me into what climate or state you please ; for all that I will keep my genius^ in good humour; that is, my own conscience, if it is good, shall make me happy. Let me but perform the duties of a reasonable nature, and I will ask no more. What ! is this misadventure big enough to ruffle my mind and throw her off the hinges? to make her mean, craving, and servile, and to fright her from the privileges of her nature? What is there that can justify such disorders, and make satisfaction for them?
XLVI. No accident can happen to any man but what is conse- quent to his condition, and common to his kind. And the same thing may be affirmed of a beast, a tree, or a stone. Now, if things fare no otherwise than according to kind and constitution, what makes you complain and grow uneasy ? You may be assured Providence will never lay you in the way of an intolerable evil, nor make your being your grievance.
XLVII. If externals put you into the spleen, take notice that it is not the thing which disturbs you, but your notion about it, which notion you may dismiss if you please. But if the condition of your mind disgusts you, who should hinder you from rectifying your mistakes, and setting your thoughts in order ? Farther, if
^ The emperor seems here to be under the sense of some ingratitude and ill- usage extraordinary. ^ Or soul.
A Discourse with Himself. 223
you are disturbed because you are not active and bold in the discharge of your duty ; if this be your case, your way is to fall on, and do something, and not lie growling at your own omission. But you are under some insuperable difficulty. If you have done your utmost, never vex yourself about the matter ; for you have nothing to answer for. It may be you will say, It is not worth my while to live unless this business can be effected. Why, then, even die, but take your leave handsomely ; go off as smoothly as if you had succeeded, and be not angry with those that disappointed you.
XLVIII. The mind is invincible when she exerts herself and relies upon her own courage. In this case there is no forcing her will, though she has nothing but obstinacy for her defence. What then must her strength be, when she is fortified with reason, and engages upon thought and deliberation? A soul unembarrassed with passion ^ is the most impregnable security ; hither we may retire and defy our enemies. He that sees not this advantage must be ignorant, and he that forgets to use it, unhappy.
XLIX. Do not add to your information from without, nor make more of things than your senses report. For instance, you are told that such a one has spoken ill of you. Right ; but that you are really the worse for it is no part of the news ; and if you think so, it is your own addition. Again ; I see my child lie sick. True ; but that he is in danger is more than I see, and therefore if I conclude so I must thank myself for it. Thus always stop at the first representation, and you are safe. Inferences and supplemental fancies do but make a man unhappy. But if you will reason upon it (which may not be unserviceable) do it the right way. Do it like a man that has looked through the world, and is no stranger to anything that can happen.
L. Does your cucumber taste bitter ? Let it alone. Are there brambles in your way ? Avoid them, then. Thus far you are well. But then do not ask, What does the world with such stufi" as this is ? This is to be too bold and impertinent, and a natural philosopher would laugh at you. This expostulation is just as wise as it would be to find fault with a carpenter for having sawdust, or a tailor shreds in his shop ; they know where to bestow them, though you do not. Nay, if you examine farther, the absurdity is too big for the comparison. For universal nature has no place for refuse out of herself. All things are lodged within her circumference. Here it 1 That has nothing of hope or fear or aversion or desire to weaken it.
2 24 Conversation of Emperor Marctis Antoninus :
is that they grow old and moulder, and seem good for nothing. But then under all these disadvantages the wonder of her con- trivance is such that she melts them down, and recoins them in another figure, and sends them new and shining from the mint. And thus she neither wants any foreign ore or by-place to throw the dross in, but is always abundantly furnished with room, and matter, and art within herself.
LI. Be not heavy in business, nor disturbed in conversation, nor rambling and impertinent in your thoughts. Keep your mind from running adrift, from sudden surprise and transports, and do not overset yourself with too much employment. Do they curse you ? Do they threaten to kill and quarter you ? Let them go on. They can never murder your reason or your virtue. Those privileges run for life if you please. All this barbarity signifies little. It is much as if a man that stands by a lovely spring should fall a-railing at it. The water is never the worse for his foul language; and if he should throw in dirt and dung, it would quickly disappear and disperse, and the fountain be as wholesome as ever. Which way now are you to go to work, to keep your springs always running, and never stagnate into a pool ? I will tell you. You must be always drudging at the virtues of freedom and independence, of sincerity, sobriety, and good-nature. Make yourself but master of these qualities, and your business is done.
LII. He that is unacquainted with the origin and first cause of the world, and with that Providence that governs it, must be at a loss to know where he is, and what empire he lives under. And he that cannot tell the ends he was made for, is ignorant both of him- self and the world too. And he that is uninstructed in either of these two points, will never be able to look into the design of his being. And yet there are abundance of people that would be puzzled at these questions. What do you think then of his discre- tion that is anxious about what is said of him, and values either the praise or the censure of those little folks that know neither where they are nor who ?
LIII. Nothing can be more vain than the courting of popular applause. What ! are you so ambitious of a man's good word that it may be in an hour's time shall curse himself to the pit of hell ? Are you so fond of being in their favour that cannot keep in their own? Striving to please those people that cannot please them- selves is to no manner of purpose. And how can they be said to
A Discourse with Himself. 225
please themselves who are dissatisfied with their conduct at every turn, and repent of almost everything they do ?
LIV. Let your soul receive the Deity as your blood does the air, for the influences of the one are no less vital than the other. This correspondence is very practicable. For there is an ambient omnipresent spirit, which lies as open and pervious to your mind, as the air you breathe does to your lungs. But then you must remember to be disposed to draw it.
LV. Wickedness is no substance or separate being, and therefore one would think it should be no necessary nuisance. It subsists only in particular subjects, and here it does no harm to anything that is foreign. It is only a plague to the breast it lies in, and does nobody any mischief, but him that may be rid of it whenever he pleases.
LVI. My thoughts and my will are as much my own as my constitution, and no more concerned in the conduct of another man, than my blood is in the beating of another body's pulse. For though we are born for the service of each other, yet our liberty is independent, and our souls all left to ourselves. Otherwise my neighbour's miscarriage might be my misfortune. But God has prevented this consequence, lest it should be in another's power to make me unhappy.
LVII. The sun is diffused and bestows himself everywhere, but this seeming expense never exhausts him. The reason is, because he is stretched like a thread, and not poured out like a liquor. And thus his beams have their name from extension.^ As for the properties and philosophy of a ray, you may observe them, if you please to let it into a dark room through a narrow passage. Here you will see it move in a right line till it is broken and as it were divided in reflection, by having its progress stopped upon a solid body. And here the light makes a stand, without dropping or sliding off. Thus you should let your sense shine out upon conversation. There is no fear of emptying your understanding. And when you meet with opposition, never tilt and batter against it, nor yet drop your talent in despair. No ; let your beams spread themselves, and play on, and enlighten where they find a capacity. And as for that body that will not transmit the light, it does but darken itself by its resistance.
^ ' KxTmi from ''E.x.riUaffScii, as the emperor will have it.
H
2 26 Conversation of Emperor Marctts Antonimis :
LVIII. He that dreads death, is either afraid that his senses will be extinguished, or altered. Now if the powers are lost, the pain must be so too, for if he has no faculties, he will have no feeling. But if he has new perceptions, and another set of senses, he will be another creature, and then he will live still, as I take it.
LIX. Men are born to be serviceable to one another, therefore either reform the world, or bear with it.
LX. Understanding does not always drive onward like an arrow. The mind sometimes, by making a halt, and going round for advice, hits the mark much better than if she had let fly directly upon it. I
LXI. Look nicely into the thoughts of other people, and give them the same freedom with your own.
BOOK IX.
I. To play the knave is to rebel against religion, all sort of injustice is no less than high treason against heaven. For since the nature or soul of the universe^ has made rational creatures for mutual service and support ; made them that they should assist and oblige each other, according to the regards of circumstance and merit, but never to anybody any harm. The case standing thus, he that crosses upon this design, is profane in his. contradiction and outrages the most ancient Deity. For the nature of the universe is the cause of it, and that w^hich gives it being. Thus all things are one family, suited, and as it were of kin to each other. This nature is also styled truth, as being the basis of first principles and certainty. He, therefore, that tells a lie knowingly, is an irreligious wretch, for by deceiving his neighbour, he is unjust to him, and cheats him of the truth to which he has a natural right. And he that is guilty of an untruth out of ignorance, is liable to the same charge (though not in the same degree), because his ignorance is voluntary and affected ; because he dissents from the mind of providence, brings disorder into the world, and opposes the first settlement of nature. He seems to be fond of confusions to declare
iGod.
A Discourse with Himself. 227
for the interest of error, and take the field against certainty and science. By neglecting the assistances of heaven, and the talent he was born to ; he has parted with the guide of his understanding, lost the test of truth, and the distinction of right and wrong. Further, he that reckons prosperity and pleasure among things really good, pain and hardship amongst things really evil, can be no pious person. For such a man will be sure to complain of the administrations of providence, charge it with mismatching fortune and merit, and misapplying rewards and punishments. He will often see ill people furnished with materials for pleasure, and regaled with the relish of it, and good men harassed and depressed, and meeting with nothing but misfortune. To go on : he that is afraid of pain or affliction, will be afraid of something that will always be in the world, but to be thus uneasy at the appointments of providence, is a failure in reverence and respect. On the other hand : he that is violent in the pursuit of pleasure, will not stick to turn villain for the purchase. And is not this plainly an ungracious and an ungodly humour ? To set the matter right, where the allowance of God is equally clear, as it is with regard to prosperity and adversity, for had He not approved both these con- ditions, He would never have made them. I say, where the good liking of heaven is equally clear, ours ought to be so too. Because we ought to follow the guidance of nature, and the sense of the Deity. That man therefore that does not comply with providence in the same indifference of notion, with respect to pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and infamy ; he that does not this with- out struggling of passions, without unmanageable preference or aversion, is no friend to the divine economy ; his thoughts are lewd and mutinous, and so would his actions be too, if he had power.
By saying that Universal Nature, or God, stands equally affected to these different dispensations, the meaning is, that they are both comprehended in the general scheme, and equally consequent to the first establishment. They were decreed by the Almighty from the beginning, and struck out with the lines of the creation. Then it was that the plan of providence was drawn, and the fate of futurity determined. Then nature was made prolific, and enabled to bring forth in due time. Then the whole stock of beings, the revolutions of fortune, and the successions of time, were all stated and set a going.
H. He is better bred, and more a gentleman, that takes leave of the world without a blot in his scutcheon, and has nothing of false-
2 28 Conversation of Emperor Mar cits Antonimts :
hood and dissimulation, of luxury or pride, to tarnish his character. But when a man is once dipped in these vices, the next best thing is for him to quit, rather than live on and be an old sinner. I suppose you understand the plague too well hot to run away from it. And what is the plague ? Why, if you are a knave or a libertine, you have the tokens upon you. The infection of the mind is ten times worse than that of the air ; the malignity is not near so fatal in the blood as in the will, for the brute only suffers in the first case, but the man in the other.
III. Do not contemn death, but take it handsomely and willingly ; look upon it as part of the product of nature, and one of those things which Providence has been pleased to order. For as youth and age, growth and declension, down and grey hairs, pregnancy and birth, etc., are all natural actions, consequences of time, and incidents of life ; so also is dying and dissolution every jot as much according to common course as the rest. A wise man therefore must neither run giddily, nor stalk haughtily into his grave; he must look upon death as nature's business, and wait her leisure, as he does for the progress and maturity of other ^ things : for as you don't overdrive a foetus, but let it take its own time, and come into the world when it is ready, so you should stay in the other case, till opportunity presents, and things are ripe, and your soul drops out of the husk of her own accord. But if you stand in need of a vulgar remedy, and want a cordial to make dying go down the better, you shall have it. Consider then what sort of world and what sort of humours you will be rid of ! It is true you are not to fall foul upon mankind, but to treat them with kindness and temper ; but still you may remember that you do not live among people just of your own mind and fancy. Indeed if your humours hit it, and your understandings were all set to the same tune, such an unanimity amongst mortals might reasonably recommend life, and make us loath to part with it ; but you perceive the matter is quite otherways, and that vast disturbances are bred by different opinions, insomuch that now we ought rather to petition death to make haste, for fear we should be teased out of our reason, and lose our best thoughts in a crowd.
IV. He that commits a fault abroad is a trespasser at home, and he that injures his neighbour hurts himself, for to make himself an ill man is a shrewd mischief.
^ Here the emperor seems to contradict his Stoical opinion of the lawfulness of self-murder.
A Discourse with Himself. 229
V. Omissions no less than commissions, are oftentimes branches of injustice.
VI. If your judgment pronounces rightly, if your actions are friendly and well-meant, if your mind is contented and resigned to Providence ; if you are in possession of these blessings, you are happy enough in all conscience.
VII. Do not be imposed on by appearances ; check your fancy, and moderate your heat, and keep your reason always in her own power.
VIII. The souls of brutes are all of one kind, and so are those of rational beings, though of a high order. And thus all living creatures that have occasion for air, and earth, and light, are furnished at the same shop, and have the same elements and sun at their service.^
IX. Things of the same common quality have a tendency to their kind. Earthy bodies tumble to the ground, one drop of moisture runs after another ; and thus air, where it is predominant, presses after air, and nothing but force and violence can keep these things asunder. Fire likewise mounts, and reaches upwards, to make after its own element above. This property gives it a disposition to propagate its species, and join other fires here below, and for this reason it catches easily upon all fuel a little more dry than ordinary, because here the qualities opposite to ascension are weak and disabled. Thus all beings which partake of the same common thought and understanding, have a natural instinct for correspond- ence with their own kind, only with this difference, that the higher anything stands in the scale of being, the stronger it is inclined to communication with its own order and distinction. To illustrate the argument, we find the force of nature and blood very active amongst brute animals, as appears by their running together in herds and swarms according to kind ; by their providing for their young ones, and by that resemblance of love and affection, which is carried on among them. These animals have a soul in them ; by consequence their principle of union is more vigorous than in stocks and stones. To go on to reasonable creatures, and here we may observe mankind united by public councils and common- wealths, by particular friendships and families ; and when war has
^ This section proves that mankind are all equal in the grand privileges of nature.
230 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
worked them to the greatest misunderstanding, they have even then the benefit of corresponding by truce and articles. Farther, to instance in a higher order, the stars,^ though not neighbours in situation, move by concert. Thus where things are more noble, and nature rises, sympathy rises too, and operates at a distance. But here lies the misery of it. Mankind are strangely unfortunate with the privilege of their reason ! They are the only beings which break through the force of instinct, and would make the alliances of nature signify nothing. But though they run from their kind, they are caught again in some measure. For you shall sooner see a piece of earth refuse to lie by its own element, than find any man so perfectly unsociable, as not to correspond with somebody or other.
X. Everything affords some product ; God, and men, and the world, all of them bear fruit in their proper seasons ; it is true, use has restrained this signification to vines and trees ; but this custom apart, reason may properly enough be said to bear, when it is serviceable both at home and to the public, especially if we consider that the fruit of the understanding keeps close to its kind, and resembles the stock more fully than that which grows in the garden.
XI. Give an injurious person good advice, and reform him if you can. If not, remember that your clemency and temper were given you for this trial ; that the gods are so patient and benign, as to pass by the perverseness of men, and sometimes to assist them over and above in their health, fame, and fortune. Just thus may you do if you please ; if not, let me know the impediment.
XII. Do not drudge like a galley slave, nor do business in such a laborious manner, as if you had a mind to be pitied, or wondered at. Let your motives be more solid, and either put on, or make a halt, as public reason and convenience shall direct you.
XIII. To-day I rushed clear out of all misfortune, or rather I threw misfortune from me ; for, to speak truth, it was no outlier, nor ever any farther off than my own fancy.
XIV. All things are the same over again, and nothing but what has been served up to our forefathers; they are stale upon experiment, momentary in their lasting, and coarse in their matter.
^ The emperor supposed the stars animated by a deity.
A Discourse with Himself. 231
XV. Things or accidents stand without doors, and keep their distance, and neither know, nor report any things about themselves ; what is it then that pronounces upon their quahty, and makes them look frightfully ? Nothing but your own fancy and opinion.^
XVI. As virtue and vice consist in action, and not in the impressions of the senses ; so it is not what they feel, but what they do, which makes mankind either happy or miserable.^
XVII. It is all one to a stone whether it is thrown upwards or downwards ; the mounting or sinking of the motion does not make the thing one jot the better or the worse.^
XVIII. Examine the size of people's sense and the condition of their understandings, and you will never be fond of popularity, or afraid of censure.
XIX. All things are in a perpetual flux, and a sort of consump- tion ; you yourself are so, and the whole world keeps you company.
XX. Do not disturb yourself about the irregularities of other people, but let everybody's fault lie at their own doors.
XXL The intermission of action, and a stop in appetite and thought, are a kind of death upon the faculties for the present ; and yet there is no harm in it. Go on now to the different periods of life, and here you will find infancy, youth, manhood, and old age treading upon the heels of each other ; and the first as it were cut down, and despatched by the latter. And where lies the damage and terror of all this ? Proceed to your grandfather's time, and to that of your father and mother, and run over as much ground in changes, decay and death, as you please; and when you have done, ask yourself what great grievance there is in the contemplation. And when you find nothing extraordinary, you may conclude that ending and alteration will fit no harder upon your life than upon those before you.
XXII. Make a stand for thought and inquiry, and survey your own mind, that of the universe,* and that of the person who has disobliged you : your own, that you may keep it honest ; God Almighty's, that you may know who you are part of, and to whom
1 See Book iv. sect. 39 and alib. 2 See Book vi. sect. 51.
^ See Book viii. sect. 20. * God.
232 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus:
you belong; the offender's, that you may discover whether his fault was ignorance or malice : and here you should likewise remember, that you are of kin to him.
XXIII. As you are a member of society yourself, so every action of yours should tend to the benefit and improvement of it. So that when you do anything which has neither immediate nor remote reference to general advantage, you make a breach in the common interest, destroy the unity of public life, and are as really guilty of a seditious behaviour, as a malcontent that embroils a nation, and draws off a faction from the government.
XXIV. The business of mankind is strangely trifling and transient; things are so hollow, and so quickly hurried off, that the world looks somewhat like a scene of necromancy, and seems to be more apparition than real life.^
XXV. Penetrate the quality of forms, and take a view of them, abstracted from their matter ; and when you have done this, com- pute the common period of their duration.^
XXVI. You have been a great sufferer for rambling from a life of reason, and for not being contented with doing what you were made for.
XXVII. When people treat you ill, blame your conduct, or report anything to your disadvantage ; shoot yourself into the very soul of them ; rummage their understandings, and see how their heads are furnished. A thorough inquiry into this matter will set you at rest. You will be fully convinced that the opinion of such mortals is not worth one troublesome thought. However, you must be kind to them, for nature has made them your relations. Besides, the gods^ give them all sort of countenance, advertise them by dreams and prophecy, and help them to those things they have a mind to.
XXVIII. This uncertain world is always rolling, and turning things topsy-turvy. Now the soul of the universe ^ either pursues the course of time, descends to particulars, and exerts itself upon every effect, or else matter and motion were put into such order at
^ See Book v. sect. 33. '^ See Book iv. 21, and vii. 29, and xii. 18,
^ Whose pattern ought to be followed. * God.
A Discourse with Himself. 233
first, that things should do of themselves, and work up the model by necessary consequence. Take it either way, and the administration will lie in the same hands ; and that is sufficient to make you quiet. But if neither of these hypotheses will satisfy, you must set Epicurus's atoms at the helm, and make them justle out a world in the dark. In a word, if God governs, all is well ; but if things are left to themselves and set adrift, do not you ramble and float after them. To conclude ; we shall quickly be all under ground ; and ere long the earth itself must be changed into something else, and that something into another form, and so on in infinilum. Now he that considers these everlasting alterations, this constant tossing and tumbling, and how fast revolutions succeed each other ; he that considers this, I say, will have but a mean opinion of what the world can afford.
XXIX. Nature runs rapid like a torrent, and sweeps all things.^ What wretched statesmen are those counterfeits in virtue and philosophy ! ^ Hark you, friend, no more hypocrisy and grimace, no prudential knavery, no clashing between politics and morals ! Come, let honesty be served first ; do what God requires of you, and trust for the issue and event. Fall on them as occasion offers, and never look about for company and commendation. However, I would not have you expect Plato's commonwealth. That draught is too fine, and your morals will never rise up to it. As the world goes, a moderate reformation is a great point, and therefore rest contented. If we can but govern people's hands, we must let their hearts and their heads go free. To cure them all of their folly and ill principles is impracticable. And yet, unless you can change their opinions, their subjection will be all force and dissembling. But you will say, were not Alexander, Philip, and Demetrius Phalereus under the rules of these pretended philosophers? and what a noble figure do they make in history ! Granting all that, I have a question or two to ask them. Had they a right notion of the laws of nature, and were they just and generous in good earnest ? If their virtues were all show and varnish, I desire to be excused the imitation. Philosophy is a modest profession ; it is all reality and plain dealing. I hate solemnity and pretence with nothing but pride at the bottom.
XXX. Fly your fancy into the clouds, and from this imaginary
^ See Books ii., xvii., vii., xix., and alib.
2 This section is levelled against the knavery of the Sophists, who pretended to the politics.
234 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
height, take a view of mortals here below. What strange medley of management, what confusion of prospect is here ! What infinite variety in religion, government, and fortune ! Go on with the speculation, stretch your thoughts over time and nature, and look upon things in the different aspects of the past and the present ; consider how the world withers and wears off; that the ages before were unacquainted with you, and so will many of those that come after ; that neither your power nor your fame reaches far among the barbarians ; how many are there that never heard of your name, how many that will quickly forget you, and how many that admire you now, will censure you afterwards ! In short, memory and fame, and all those things which are commonly so much valued, are no better than toys and amusements.
XXXI. Be always easy and upright ; let fortitude guard without and honesty within ; keep your mind and your motions true to the interest of mankind, for then you know your faculties are in the right posture that nature has set them.
XXXII. The greatest part of your trouble lies in your fancy, and therefore you may disengage yourself when you please. I will tell you which way you may move much more freely, and give ease and elbow-room to your mind. Take the whole world into your contemplation, and the little time you are to live in it. Consider how fast the scenes are shifted, and how near the end of all things lies to their beginning ! But then the extent of duration in which we are nothing concerned ! The ages before our birth and after our death are both infinite and unmeasurable.
XXXIII. Whatever makes a figure now, will quickly decay and disappear. And those that gaze upon the ruins of time will be buried under them. And then the longest and the shortest liver will be both in the same condition.
XXXIV. If you would walk within people, and discover their intentions, and look through their ceremony and respect, you must strain for observation ; and strip them to the soul if you can. Such a narrow inquiry will, among other things, bring a great deal of vanity to light ; yes, mortals are very full of themselves ; when they commend or censure, do you a good or ill turn, they are strangely conceited of the performance.
XXXV. The dissolution of forms is no loss in the mass of matter.
A Discotcrse with Himself. 235
Things are changed this way, it is true, but they do not perish. Providence, by which all things are well contrived, delights in these alterations ; they have always had their range in the world, and always will have. What then ? Will you blame the conduct of the first cause ? Were all things made, and must they always be out of order ? What ! are there so many gods in being, and none able to conquer and correct this evil ? And is nature indeed condemned to an everlasting misfortune ?
XXXVI. The materials of bodies, if you examine them, are strangely coarse. Those that are animated have little in them but water, and dust, and bones, and something that is offensive. And then if you go to metals, minerals, etc., marble is no more than a callous excrescence, nor gold and silver any better than the dregs and sediment of the earth. Fine clothes are nothing but hair twisted together, and smeared with the blood of a little fish.^ And thus I might proceed further. And as for spirits, they are somewhat of kin to the rest, and are chased from on^ figure to another. 2
XXXVII. Come, you have lived long enough, unless you could make more of it. Here is nothing but grumbling and apishness to be met with. What makes you disturbed? What can you be surprised at? What has happened to you worse than you had reason to expect ? Does form or matter, body or spirit, make you uneasy? Look into them, and you may probably be relieved. Now, for your comfort, these two are nature's all, and there is no third thing to molest you. It is high time therefore to interpret the gods rightly, and throw off your chagrin against heaven.
XXXVIII. Three years' time to peruse nature and look over the world is as good as a hundred.^
&'
XXXIX. If such a man has done amiss, the mischief is to himself; and it may be, if you inquire, he is not neither.
XL. Either all things are ordered by an intelligent being, who makes the world but one family (and if so, why should a part, or single member, complain of that which is designed for the benefit
^ This made the purple dye.
^ The Stoics held the soul a composition of fire and air, and by consequence it must be corruptible.
^ See Book iii. sect. 7, Book vi. sect. 23.
236 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
of the whole?), or else we are under the misrule of atoms and con- fusion. Now, take the case which way you please, there is either no reason or no remedy for complaint ; and therefore it is to no purpose to be uneasy.
XLI. I hope you understand your mind better than to kill and bury it, and make it little enough for the coarse functions and fate of the body.
XLII. Either the gods have power to assist us, or they have not ; if they have not, what does praying to them signify ? If they have, why do not you rather pray that they would discharge your desires than satisfy them; and rather set you above the passion of fear than keep away the thing you are afraid of? For if the gods can help us, no doubt they can help us to be wiser. But it may be, you will say, they have furnished me sufficiently for these matters. Why then do not you make use of your talent and act like a man of spirit, and not run cringing and creeping after that which is out of your reach ? But then who told you that the gods do not assist us in things which we might possibly compass by ourselves ? Let me prescribe the matter of your devotions. For instance : This man prays that he may gain such a woman, it may be to debauch her ; but do you rather pray that you may have no such inchnation. Another invokes the gods to set him free from a troublesome superior ; but let it be your petition that your mind may never put you upon such a wish. A third is mighty devout to prevent the loss of his son ; but I would have you pray rather against the fear of losing him. Let this be the rule for your devotions, and see if the event does not answer.
XLIII. When I was sick, says Epicurus, I did not discourse the company about my diseases, or the torment I was troubled with. No ; my system of natural philosophy was part of my subject ; and my main concern was, that my mind might not give way to my body, nor grow uneasy under pain. I made no great business of a recovery, nor gave any handle to the doctors to brag of their pro- fession, but held on with fortitude and indififerency. Thus he. And when you are sick, or under any other disadvantage, cannot you behave yourself in this manner ? It is practicable to all persuasions in philosophy to stand their ground against all accidents, and not to fall into the weaknesses and folly of the ignorant. We must always be prepared for the present, mind the thing before us, and the tools too with which we are to work.
A Discottrse with Himself. 237
XLIV. When you are shocked by any man's impudence, put this question to yourself, Is it possible for such impudent people not to be in the world? No indeed.^ Why then do you wish for an impossibility? For this lewd, ill-behaved fellow is one of those necessary rascals that the world cannot dispense with. This reflection will furnish you with patience for a knave or any other ill body. For when you consider that there is no living without this sort of cattle, you will treat them with more temper upon occasion. And to fortify you further, you will find that nature has armed you at all points, sent an antidote against every disease, and provided you some virtue or other against all sort of vice and immorality. For the purpose, if you have to do with a troublesome blockhead, you have meekness and temper for your guard, and so of the rest. It is likewise in your power to inform the man better and set him right ; for every one that does an ill action is really out of his way, and misses his mark, though he may not know it. Besides, what harm have you received ? If you examine the case you will find none of these provoking mortals have done your mind any damages. Now that is the only place in which you are capable of being hurt. Pray, where is the wonder if an ignorant fellow has done like himself? If you expected other things from him, you are much to blame. His want of sense or principles might make you conclude upon his misbehaviour, and yet when that which was most likely has happened, you seem surprised at it. Further, when you complain of a notorious knave, you are still more to blame ; for though his honesty might have been a disappointment, falsehood ought to be none. And what could make you believe he would baulk his custom and fancy for your sake ? To go on, you have done a kindness to such a person, and because he makes no return you grow peevish and satirical upon him. In earnest, this is a sign that you had a mercenary view, and that you were but a huckster in the mask of a friend ; for otherwise you would have been satisfied with a generous action, and made virtue her own reward. To argue the point a Httle : You have obliged a man ; it is very well. What would you have more ? Is not the consciousness of doing a good office a sufficient consideration ? You have humoured your own nature, and acted upon your constitution : and must you still have something over and above ? This is just as if an eye or a foot should demand a salary for their service, and not see a pin or move a step without something for their pains. For as these organs are contrived for particular functions, which when they perform
^ The Stoics fancied vice necessary to the being of virtue. Vid. Annot, Gatak,
238 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
they pursue their nature, and attain their perfection ; so man is made to be kind and obhge, and his faculties are ordered accordingly. And therefore when he does a good office, and proves serviceable to the world, he follows the bent and answers the end of his being ; and when he does so, he moves smoothly, and is always in the best condition.
BOOK X. I
I. O MY soul ! Are you ever to be rightly good, uncompounded and uniform, unmasked and made more visible to yourself than the body that hangs about you? Are you ever likely to relish good nature and general kindness as you ought ? Will you ever be fully satisfied, get above want and wishing, and never desire to fetch your pleasure out of anything foreign, either living or inanimate? Not desiring, I say, either time for longer enjoyment, nor place for elbow-room, nor climate for good air, nor the music of good com- pany? Can you abstract yourself thus from the world, and take your leave of all mortals, and be contented with your present condition, let it be what it will ? And be persuaded that you are fully furnished ; that all things will do well with you, for the gods are at the head of the administration; and they will approve o nothing but what is for the best, and tends to the security and advantage of that good, righteous, beautiful, and perfect aniraal,i which generates and supports all things, and keeps those things which decay from running out of compass, that other resembling beings may be made out of them. In a word, are you ever likely to be so happily qualified, as to converse with the gods and men in such a manner as neither to complain of them nor be condemned by them ?
II. Examine what your nature requires, as if you had no other law to govern you : and when you have looked into her inclinations, never baulk them, unless your animal nature or the interest of your body are likely to be worse for it. Then you are to examine what your animal nature or the interest of your senses demands : and here you may indulge your appetite as far as 3'OU please, provided your rational nature does not suffer by the liberty. Now your 1 The world, or God. See Book iv. sect. 40, Book v. sect. 8.
A Discourse with Himself. 239
rational nature admits of nothing but what is serviceable to the rest of mankind : keep to these rules, and you will have no need of rambling for further instruction.
III. Whatever happens, you have no reason to take it ill, for either you have strength to bear it, or you have not ; if you have, exert your nature, and never murmur at the matter : but if the weight is too heavy for you, it will crush your senses, and then you won't feel it. And here you are to remember that to think a thing tolerable is the way to make it so : now, to think it necessary is the way to think it tolerable. Press it but strongly from the topics of interest or duty, and you will go through.
IV. Is any one mistaken ? Undeceive him civilly, and show him his oversight; but if you cannot convince him, blame your own management, though it is possible you may not always deserve it.
V. Whatever happens to you, was pre-ordained your lot, and that chain of causes which constitutes fate, tied your person and the event together from all eternity.
VI. Either atoms and chance, or nature,^ are uppermost : now I am for the latter part of the disjunction, and lay it down for a ground in the first place, that I am part of that whole which is all under nature's government. Secondly, I am in some measure related to those beings which are of my own order and species. These points being agreed, I shall apply them : insomuch then as I am a part of the universe, I shall never be displeased with the general appointment : for that can never be prejudicial to the parts which is serviceable to the whole ; neither is the universe clogged with any incumbrance, for the nature of no being is an enemy to itself. But the world ^ has this advantage above other particular beings, that there is nothing to limit or overrule it; no foreign power to force it upon unfriendly productions. Since therefore I am a member of so magnificent a body, and belong to such an uncontrollable sovereignty, I shall freely acquiesce in whatever happens to me. Further, inasmuch as I have a particular relation to my own species, I will never do anything against common right or the interest of society. On the other hand, I shall make it my business to oblige mankind, lay out my whole life for the advantage of the public, and forbear all sort of liberty which has a tendency
1 God. ^ Or God.
\
\
240 Conversatio7i of Einperor Marcus Ajitoninus :
to the contrary. And by holding to this conduct I shall be happy of course ; as that burgher must needs be who is always plodding for the benefit of his corporation, and perfectly satisfied with that interest and station the government shall assign him.
VII. Whatever lies within the compass of the universe, must of necessity corrupt and decay ; by corruption I mean only alteration. Now if this be an evil, it is a necessary one ; by consequence the whole of nature must be in a bad condition, by having the parts so slenderly put together, and so very much disposed to moulder and drop in pieces. And if the case stands thus, nature must either design unkindness to herself, by making the parts of her own body subject to an unavoidable misfortune, or else she huddled up things in the dark without foreseeing what would become of them : but both these suppositions are highly improbable. Now if any man has a mind to leave nature or the first cause out of the scheme, and aftirm that things follow the make and tendency of their constitu- tion ; he that afiirms this does but expose himself by granting, in the first place, that the parts of the universe are made for alteration : and then falls a wondering and growling at decay and revolution, as if such accidents were unnatural and extraordinary ; especially since things do but return whence they came, and fall back no further than their first principles. For upon the dissolution of particular bodies, either the elements are scattered at large, or else they march straight to their head-quarters ; and that which is solid turns to earth, and the particles of air join their own element : and thus they are received into the main body of the universe: the universe, I say, which will either be destroyed by fire, after a certain period, or else be renewed by perpetual vicissitudes. To return ; I would not have you think that those particles of earth or air, which you have now in your constitution, are the same with those you brought into the world with you. Do not mistake ; your body has been made over and over since that time. The matter which now belongs to you is as it were but of yesterday's growth ; though you have lived so long in the world, your carcase is but a young one, for you have taken it all in at your mouth but somewhat lately; and therefore, when you perceive it wear off, you need not be so much troubled at the loss ; for the alterations in your body do not rob you of the flesh and blood you had from your mother, but only of some fresher recruits of no long standing. But suppose you had still the same body you were born with, what would you do with it without the benefit of change? Without a new supply of matter, which must alter the case, nourishment and growth are perfectly impracticable:
A Discourse with Himself. 241
besides, death cannot be far off, and then both new matter and old must take their leave and be swept to their respective elements.^
VIII. When you have given yourself the titles of a man of modesty and good nature, of truth and prudence, of resignation and magnanimity, take care that your practice answers up to your character; and if your distinctions and your hfe do not agree, if any of these glorious names are lost in your mismanagement, recover them as soon as you can. Remembering withal, that prudence implies consideration, care, and comprehensive inquiry : that to be unanimous ^ or resigned, signifies a cheerful compliance with the allotments of providence. That magnanimity imports an elevation of soul, a noble contempt of pleasure and pain, of glory and death ; and all those things which people are either fond or afraid of. Now if you can earn the honour of this style, and neither fly out of the compass of the character, nor yet desire it from other folks, you will be quite another man, and steer a quite different course from what you do at present. And indeed it is high time to begin : for to desire to go on at this rate, to be polluted with appetite and harassed with passion any longer, is a senseless and a scandalous wish. It resembles the meanness of those poor wretches in the amphitheatre, who when they are half devoured,^ and have nothing but wounds left them, beg notwith- standing to be respited till the morrow ; though they know them- selves only reserved for the same teeth that tore them before. Act up then to these few names of credit, and work them into the soul of you. And if you find your virtue big enough for the practice, stand your ground, and think yourself transported to the Fortunate Islands.* But if you are overmatched, and begin to give way, and perceive your station and impediment, even knock off, and retire where you may manage better. And if this will not do, you may give life the slip ; but then let there be nothing of passion or hurry in the manner. Walk gravely and handsomely into the other world ; and thus the last action of your life will be the only one worth the owning. And to remember those good qualities above mentioned the more effectually, you should consider that imitation is the most acceptable part of worship, and that the gods had much rather mankind should resemble than flatter them : that operation is the right proof of nature; that trees are distinguished by their fruit, dogs by the qualities proper to their kind ; and thus it holds with
^ D'Acier. 2 To(T6[z(ppov.
^ By lions and other beasts of prey. * The Paradise of the heathens.
242 Conversation of Emperor Maracs Anto7iinus :
men too, who ought to quit that name, unless they can answer the idea, and make out their claim by their actions.
IX. Unless you are very careful, this campaigning, tempestuous life you are engaged in, the liberties of your court, your own laziness, and the flattery of your subjects, will constantly be doing you disservice, wear out the noble impressions of philosophy, and make your study of nature insignificant. How then are you to manage upon all occasions ? In such a manner as to omit neither business nor thinking. To be modest in the consciousness of your improvement, but not so far as to undervalue your knowledge, and keep it out of sight. When you are thus well skilled, both in theory and practice, then your virtues will regale you, and you will relish the advantage of philosophy. Then you will be able to understand the bottom of everything; to pronounce upon its nature, the ingredients it was made of, and the weight it has in the world ; to calculate its continuance, who are likely to be affected with it, and what powers they are which can both give, and take it away.
X. A spider when she has caught a fly thinks she has done some great matter, and so does a sportsman when he has run down a hare, and a fisherman too when he has overreached a sprat or a gudgeon. Some others must kill a boar or a bear before they can grow conceited ; and a fourth sort value themselves extremely upon their hunting the Sarmatian moss-troopers. Though it may be, in this last case, if you go to the definition of robbing, the one are as much thieves as the other,
XI. Sit closely to the study of physics, that you may observe the steps, and learn the history of nature, and trace the progress of bodies from one form and species to another : contemplate often upon this subject, for there is nothing contributes so much to greatness of mind, as a thorough insight into these matters.^ He that is rightly affected with this speculation, has in a manner laid his body aside and all that belongs to it. He considers that this world will quickly be over with him, that he must take his leave of mankind, and remove into another condition. In consequence of these thoughts, he is all justice and resignation.^ And as for what people think or talk of him, or practise against him, he never minds it. He has but two points to secure, that is, to be honest in what he does, and contented with what he receives.^ As for other
^ See Book iii. sect. ii. ^ That is, to Providence.
^ From fate.
A Discourse with Himself. 243
projects and fancies, he has done with them. His business is only to live by reason, and to follow that path which nature has chalked out for him, for in so doing he has the deity for his guide.
XII. What need you be anxious about the event, when you may examine the enterprise, and debate the reasonableness of it? If you find it practicable and proper, go on, and let nothing divert you : but if you cannot see through it, make a halt, and take the best advice upon the case. And if your measures happen to be broken by some new emergency, make the most of what is in your power and always stick to the point of honesty ; for after all, that is the best stake in the hedge : for, though the grand design may not succeed, yet when it is fairly undertaken, and well managed, it makes one easy under the miscarriage. Reason and justice are pleasant companions; and those that keep to them are always satisfied, and in good humour.
XIII. When you are first awake you may put this question : whether another man's virtue will signify anything to the doing your business ? No, unless you help yourself, another man's mind will no more improve you, than another man's mouth will nourish you. This thought may do you service in a morning, and help to make the day more significant. And, now I think on it, do not forget what sort of men those are which value themselves so much upon the good or ill character they give their neighbours ; one would imagine by their bragging they could govern the world with their tongues, and talk people into what condition they had a mind to. But then these mighty men of satire and panegyric, how scandal- ously do they live ! How are they overgrown with luxury and lewdness ! How foolish are their fancies, and how unreasonable their fears ! How much truth do they murder with their pratings ; and how often do they steal from an honest man, to make a knave look the better ! But after all they have the worst of it, by abusing that reason which might have served them to so many excellent purposes.
XIV. He that considers that nature ^ has the disposal of all things, will address her in this language of respect : " Give me what you please, and take what you please away. I am contented.' This is the strain of a man bred to sobriety and good principles. And though the expression may be extraordinary, there is not the
1 God.
244 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonimts :
least tincture of vanity in it, but it proceeds wholly from obedience and satisfaction.
XV. Your time is almost over, therefore live as if you were re- tired in the country. Place signifies nothing ; virtue and philosophy will thrive everywhere, provided you mind your business. Never run into a hole and shun company. No, let the world have the benefit of a good example, and look upon an honest man ; and if they do not like him, let them knock him on the head ; for it is much better he were served so, than to live at their rate of disorder.
XVI. Notion without practice is impertinence ; spend no more time then in stating the qualifications of a man of virtue, but endeavour to get them.
XVII. Take the whole bulk of matter, and all the extent of time frequently into your thoughts : and then consider that all particular bodies are but a grain in the proportion of substance, and but the turning of a wimble in respect of time.
XVIII. Do not suffer the appearances of things to dazzle your sight and deceive you. Examine them closely, and you will find them ready to decay and tumble. And that all things are made as it were to be unmade again.
XIX. Consider what an humble figure the biggest people make when they are eating, sleeping, and doing the other coarse work of nature, to which they are all condemned ! But then when they are in their altitudes, in their pomp, or in their passion, strutting or mauling their inferiors; you would take them for another sort of creatures, and that they fancy themselves more than mortal men ! And yet how many little masters did they lately cringe to ! how mean was their service and their salary ! and what a sorry condition will they come to in a short time ! ^
XX. That's best for every man which God sends him ; and the time of His sending too is always a circumstance of advantage.
XXI. The earth, as the poet has it,^ " loves the refreshment of a shower, and the clouds when they are loaden, love to send it." And the world loves to execute the decrees of fate ; and therefore
1 Either by misfortune or death. ^ Eurip.
A Discourse with Himself. 245
say I to the world,^ your inclinations and mine shall always be the same.
XXII. Either you will take the benefit of custom, and keep to your old course of life, or you will step farther into the world, as your fancy shall lead you, or else death will give you your quietus est; one of these cases must happen, therefore be not discouraged.
XXIII. Take it for a rule, that philosophy is everywhere practicable ; and that there is no such great matter in retirement. A man may be wise and sedate in a crowd as well as in a desert, and keep the noise of the world from getting within him. In this case, as Plato observes,^ " the walls of a town and the enclosure of a sheepfold may be made the same thing."
XXIV. How does my mind stand affected ? What condition is my understanding in ? And to what uses do I put it ? Does not thought and reason run low with me? Am I not grown selfish, and broken loose from the general interest } Is not my soul as it were melted into my senses, and perfectly governed by them ?
XXV. He that runs away from his master is a fugitive ; now the law ^ is every man's master, and therefore he that transgresses it is a deserter. And under this character we may range all those that are dissatisfied with the administration of the world ; angry at what is past, and uneasy about the future. For these people, were it in their power, would set aside that justice which gives every one his due, and break through the orders of providence.
XXVI. The formation of the foetus is a great subject for con- templation. The first principles of life are extremely slender and mysterious ; and yet nature works them up into a strange increase of bulk, diversity, and proportion. And after the birth is over, the infant is supported by throwing a Httle nourishment down the throat on it. And here the force and conduct of the operation is extraordinary. For what can be more surprising than to see such wonderful effects from so unpromising a cause? To see growth and motion, and strength and beauty ; all the functions and force and ornament of the creature sprout out of a little pap or gruel ? These things though they are wrought in the dark, and we cannot trace them with our senses, no more than we can the causes of gravitation ; for all this, our understandings may reach a great way,
^ Or Providence. ^ piato, Thrcetei. ^ The law of nature, or God.
246 Conversation of E^npe^'or Marcus Antoninus :
and discover the miracles of Providence, though not the manner of their performance.
XXVII. You will do well to remember that the world is just as it was formerly, and will go on at the same rate when you are dead and gone. If you either dip into history, or recollect your own memory, you will perceive the scenes of life strangely uniform, and nothing but the old plays revived. Take a view of the courts of Adrian, Antoninus Pius, of PhiHp of Macedon or Croesus ; and you will find the grimace and entertainment the same, only the actors are different.
XXVIII. He that struggles with his fortune and makes an affliction on it, is much like a hog that kicks and cries out when his throat is cutting: and he that mourns privately over himself when he is sick, is not much better. We should consider that we are tied to the chains of fate, that all accidents are inevitable, that none but rational creatures have the privilege of moving freely, and making necessity a choice. All other things are forced onward, and dragged along to their doom.
XXIX. Consider the satisfactions of life singly, and examine them as they come up ; and then ask yourself, if death is such a terrible bugbear in taking them from you ? ^
XXX. When anybody's misbehaviour disturbs you, dismiss the image of the injury, and bethink yourself whether you have not been guilty of the same fault. For instance, whether you have not over-valued money, or pleasure, or fame, or the like. Such re- flections will quickly make you cool, and come to a temper; especially if you consider the offender was not altogether his own man, but under the force of some untoward passion or other. You would do well therefore, if you can, to step in to the rescue, and free him from the cause of his disorder.
XXXI. When you consider Satyrion the Socratist, think upon Eutiches or Hymen ; 2 and when you remember Euphrates, think upon Eutychion or Sylvanus ; and when Alciphron comes into your head, carry your thoughts to Tropseophorus ; and when you are musing
^ See Book xii. sect. 31.
- The first proper name throughout this enumeration denotes a philosopher that lived before the emperor's time, the others, those who were his con- temporaries.
A Discourse with Himself. 247
upon Xenophon or Crito, let Severus come into the contempla- tion ; and when you make yourself the subject of your meditations, bring some of the emperors your predecessors into your company ; and thus set the dead and the living of the same character and profession always one against another, then ask the question, Where are those men that made such a figure formerly? The answer will be, they are nowhere, or at least nowhere that I know of. Thus you will be strongly convinced that men are but smoke and bubbles ; they vanish as they rise, and break soon after the swelling, and this impression will go the deeper, if you consider that what is once perished and sunk, will never come up again exactly.^ As for your share of time ; it is but a moment in comparison ; why then cannot you manage that little handsomely, and be satisfied ? What a noble opportunity of improvement do you run away from ? For what are all the revolutions of nature, and the accidents of life, but trials of skill and exercises of reason ? A wise man that has looked through the causes of things, makes but a diversion of them. Go on then with the theory and practice of philosophy, till you have digested the subject and conquered the difficulty ; for I would have you be like a strong stomach, that masters all sort of diet, and makes nourishment of it ; or, if you please, like a fire well kindled, which catches upon everything you throw in, and turns it into flame and brightness.
XXXII. Put it out of the power of truth to give you an ill character; and if anybody reports you not to be an honest or a good man, let your practice give him the lie. This is all very feasible ; for pray who can hinder you from being just, sincere, and good-natured, if you have a mind to it? To make all sure, you should resolve to live no longer than you can live honestly ; for, in earnest, you had much better be nothing than a knave.
XXXIII. What is it which is most proper to be said or done upon the present occasion ? That question I confess is pertinent, but, let it be what it will, I am sure it is in your power to come up to it, and therefore never pretend it impracticable. You will never leave grumbling and growling till you have brought your fancy to your philosophy ; till you can practise virtue with a gust, and make your duty your pleasure. And why you should not do this I cannot imagine ; for the practice of virtue is nothing but human powers naturally set on work ; it is only putting the wheels in the motion they were contrived for, and going just as you were made. Now
^ Vid. Annot. D'Acier.
248 Cojiversdtion of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
nature's postures are always easy, and, which is more, nothing but your own will can put you out of them. The motion of a cylinder may be stopped, fire and water may be checked in their tendency, and so may any part of the elementary, vegetative, and animal world. In this case a great many obstructions may interpose. But there is nothing can block up a soul, stop the course of reason, or hinder a thought from running in the right channel. He that considers the irresistible liberty of the mind, that she moves as easily as fire does upwards, as a stone downwards, as a cylinder on a smooth descent, will trouble his head about nothing further. For all other impediments proceed either from the body, which he looks upon rather as a carcase than a companion, or else they are founded in opinion ; and unless we betray ourselves, and desert our reason, can do us no manner of mischief; otherwise, ill fortune, as it is commonly called, would make a body an ill man. For all other productions of nature or art, when any harm happens to them, they are certainly the worse for it ; but here a man is the better for what he suffers ; he improves his value, and raises his character, by making a right use of a rugged accident. In short, I would have you remember that no burgher can receive any damage by that which does not affect his corporation ; neither can the community suffer, unless the laws by which it is governed are broken and suffer too. But these misfortunes, as they are called, do not violate the constitution, nor break in upon the laws ; therefore they do not damage the corporation, nor by consequence any member in it.i
XXXIV. He that is well tinctured with philosophy needs but a short receipt. A common cordial will keep up such a man's spirits, and expel the cold from his heart. A verse or two out of Homer will serve for a hint, and do his business. Let the poet speak, —
Men are like leaves in verdure and decay, As spring supplies what autumn blows away, So mortals fade and flourish in their turns. ^
You see how slenderly human felicity is put together, your children are but leaves upon the matter, a little blast may take them from you. The freshest laurels wither apace, and the echoes of fame are soon silenced (and which has some comfort), so is censure and reproach too. All these matters, like leaves, have their
^ By the city or corporation the emperor means the world, and by the laws, the order and decrees of Providence. See Book v. sect. 22. 2 Horn. //. E.
A Discourse with Himself. 249
spring for growing, then a puff of wind sends them packing, and quickly after the wood is new furnished again. Things are strangely short-lived, and yet your appetites and fears grasp and scamper at that rate, as if all were everlasting. But for all your haste your head will be laid in a short time, and then he that is your chief mourner will quickly want another for himself.
XXXV. An eye that is strong and rightly disposed is indifferent to all colours ; therefore if it calls for greens, it is a sign it is weak and out of order. Thus when the hearing and smelling are in a good condition, they do not pick and choose their objects, but take in all manner of scents and sounds. Thus a strong stomach despatches all that comes into it, like a mill that grinds all sorts of grain ; and thus a mind that is sound and healthy is prepared to digest all sorts of accidents ; and therefore when it is clamorous in such wishes as these, " O that my children may live and flourish, that I may be everybody's favourite, and be commended for everything I do : " when the mind, I say, is thus sickly and untoward, it is just like an eye that is all for green colours, and like a set of teeth that would touch nothing by their goodwill but flummery and pudding.
XXXVI. There is nobody so happy in his family and friends, but that some of them when they see him going will wish for a good riddance, and almost keep a holy day for his death. Let him be a person of never so much probity and prudence, do you think somebody or other will not drop some of these sentences over his grave? "Well, our man of order and gravity is gone, we shall now be no more troubled with his discipline ! I cannot say he was ill-natured to any of us, but for all that, I am sensible he disliked our management in his heart." This is the best treatment a good man must expect. But alas ! as for our conduct, how many reasons will people muster up to be rid of us ! If you consider this when you are dying, you will quit with the less reluctance. Say then to yourself, " I am leaving an odd sort of world, where the sharers in my fortune, and the objects of my care and kindness, those people for whom I have drudged, and contrived, and wished so heartily, count my life no better than a grievance, and would fain be shut of me ; now who would be fond of staying in such company any longer?" However, this thought must not go so deep as to sour your humour. You must keep your temper, and part friendly with everybody ; but then your good-nature must not make you hang back ; for as when a man has an easy death, the soul slides gently out of the body and takes her leave without tugging, so you
250 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antoninus :
must walk off handsomely, and bid the world adieu without regret. It is true, nature has twisted your interests and tied you together, but now she loosens the knot, and makes the sign to disengage. I'll part then with the world as with my friends and relations, but for all my kindness I will not be dragged from them; no, Providence would have me move freely, and therefore I'll do it.
XXXVII. Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable. And to make this custom more significant, practise it first upon yourself.
XXXVIII. Remember that which pulls and hales you from one passion to another is no external force, but your fancy within you. There lies the rhetoric that persuades you. That is the live thing, and to speak plainly, that is the man after all. But when you talk of a man, I would not have you tack flesh and blood to the notion, neither those limbs which are made out of it; these are but tools for the soul to work with, and no more a part of a man than an axe or a plane is a piece of a carpenter. It is true, nature has glued them together, and they grow as it were to the soul, and there is all the difference ; but the use of them depends solely upon the mind, it is the will that either checks or sets them agoing. They have but the force of instruments, and signify no more without foreign direction than a shuttle, a pen, or a whip, which will neither weave, nor write, nor lash the horses without somebody to manage them.
BOOK XL
I. The properties of a rational soul are these. She has the privilege to look into her own nature, to cut out her qualities, and form herself to what temper she pleases. She enjoys her product (whereas trees and cattle bring plenty for other folks). Whether life proves long or short, she gains the ends of living. Her business is never maimed by interruption, as it happens in a dance or a play ; no, she is never surprised, her performances are struck out at a heat, and always finished and entire, so that she may say with modesty enough, " I have sustained no damages, but carry off all that belongs to me." Further, she ranges through the whole world,
A Discourse with Himself. 251
views its figure, looks into the vacuum on the outside of it,i and stretches on to an unmeasurable length of time. She contemplates the grand revolutions of nature, and how the universe will be destroyed,^ and renewed at certain periods. She considers that there will be nothing new for posterity to gaze at, and that our ancestors stood upon the same level for observation. That all ages are uniform and of a colour, insomuch that in forty years' time a tolerable genius for sense and inquiry may acquaint himself with all that is past and all that is to come. Lastly, it is the property of a rational soul to love her neighbours, to be remarkable for truth and sobriety, to prefer nothing to her own dignity and authority, which is likewise the custom and prerogative of a law ; and thus far the quality and measures of right reason and public justice are the same.
II. The way to despise the pleasure of a fine song, a well- performed dance, or the Olympic exercises, is as follows : As for the song, take the music in pieces, and examine the notes by themselves, and ask as you go along, " Is it this, or this single sound that has subdued me ? " You'll be ashamed to confess the conquest, and so get clear of the charm. Thus, to lessen the diversion of dancing, consider every movement and gesture apart. And this method will hold with respect to the Olympic exercises.^ In short, all other entertainments but those of virtue abate by taking them asunder, and therefore apply the expedient to all other parts of your life.
III. What a brave soul is that, that's always prepared to walk out of the body, and unconcerned about her being either extin- guished,^ scattered, or removed ! Prepared, I say, upon judgment, and not out of mere obstinacy, like the Christians ; ^ to recommend the example, this fortitude must have nothing of noise or ostentation, but be carried on with a solemn air of gravity and consideration.
IV. Have I obliged anybody, or done the world any service? If so, the action has rewarded me ; this answer will encourage good-nature, therefore let it always be at hand.
1 The Stoics imagined that on the outside of the world there was a void or vacuum, that is, extension unfurnished with substance or body. ^ By conflagrations.
^ Boxing, running, wrestling, leaping, and playing at quoits, etc. ^ Into atoms. '' The true bravery of the Christians was misrepresented to the emperor.
252 Conversation of Emperor Marcus AntoninMs :
V. What may your trade or profession be ? It is to live like a man of virtue and probity. And how can this end be better compassed than by the contemplation of the nature of the world, and of mankind in particular, and the influence the one has upon the affairs of the other ?
VI. As to dramatic performances, tragedy appeared first. The design of them was to show the misfortunes of life were customary and common. That thus the fiction might reconcile them to the reality, and that what diverted them upon the stage might surprise them the less when they meet with it in the world. Thus people see there is no living without accidents. Mortifications, and severe ones too, will happen ; kings and princes cannot stand clear of them. And to give the stage-poets their due, they have some sententious and serviceable passages, as for instance, —
If I and mine are by the Gods neglected
There's reason for their rigour. Again,
Ne'er quarrel accidents, for things are sullen,
And don't regard your anger. Once more,
Fate mows down life like corn, this mortal falls,
And t'other stands a while. -^
These instances may suffice, otherwise I might go on with them. Next to tragedy, old comedy took a turn upon the stage ; and here pride and ambition were lashed and pointed at with great freedom and authority, and not without some success. And for this reason Diogenes sometimes made use of the poet's discipline. You are now to observe that middle comedy succeeded to the old, and the new to the middle ; this last kind sinking by degrees to the buffoonery of the Mt?m. It is true, there are some useful expressions to be met with even here ; but then you are to consider the tendency of the whole poem, and what these dramatic diversions drive at in areneral.^
a
VII. Nothing is clearer to me than that the principles you go upon ^ are as good a foundation for philosophy and improvement as are to be met with in any other sect whatsoever.
^ Eurip. Hypsipyl. See Book vii. sect. 39, 41, 42.
^ It is D'Acier's observation that the emperor condemns all sorts of plays, though upon the comparison he prefers the old comedy to the new, because the old made instruction, not pleasure, their principal design.
^ The emperor's main principles are the love of God and our neighbour.
A Discourse with Himself. 253
VIII. A bough, by being lopped off from another, must of necessity be lopped from the whole tree. Thus a man that breaks with another loses the benefit of the whole community. It is true, a bough is lopped off by a foreign hand, but this moral amputation is all voluntary ; it is the man that pulls himself asunder by his untoward aversion to his neighbour. He little thinks by this unhappy division, how he disincorporates himself from the body of mankind ! And here the goodness of God who founded this society is extraordinary. He has put it in our power to grow to the limb we left, and come again into the advantage of the main body. But if this misfortune is often repeated, it will be a hard matter to restore the part, and close the division. For as gardeners observe, a bough cut off and grafted in again is not in the same good condition with another which always flourished upon the trunk ; for, though the first does not grow out of its kind, yet it suffers somewhat in its figure and beauty.^
IX. Never grow sour upon people's malice or impertinence. Can they beat you off your reason, or stop your progress in virtue ? Not at all. ■ Be not then disconcerted, nor check your good-nature towards them. If you meet with opposition and ill-will, you must neither be diverted nor disturbed, but keep your point, and your temper too. For as it is a weakness to lose your spirits, and be thrown off your conduct, so it is likewise to be angry with im- pertinent people. Upon the whole, they are both a sort of deserters from Providence, who are either frightened from their duty, or fall out with those of their own nature and family.^
X. Nature falls short of art in no instance, art being but an imitation of nature ; and if so, the most perfect and best furnished nature cannot be supposed to work with less reach than a common artificer. Now in all arts, the less in value are contrived for the * sake of the greater ; this therefore is the method of general nature, or the first cause. And upon this ground justice is founded, which consists in a regard and preference of things according to their dignity and worth. The other virtues are likewise governed by this rule, and are but acts of justice differently applied. But just we can never be, if we are eager and anxious about external advantages, if we are apt to be imposed on, and grow heedless and inconstant in our motion.
t
XL Aversions and desires are the general occasions of disturbance ; ^ See Book v. 8, Book viii. 34. 2 ggg Book ii. sect. I.
2 54 Conversation of E'>nperor Marcus Antoninus :
now since the objects of these passions do not press upon you, but it is you that make up to them in some measure, whereas they stand off, and keep their distance,^ your method is therefore, to let your opinion about them He still ; this suspension of your judgment will bring you towards an indifference. And then you will neither pursue nor avoid them any longer.
XII. The figure of the soul, as we may call it, is then round and uniform, when she neither reaches after anything foreign, nor shrinks in, out of cowardice and fear. When her superficies is thus even, the light plays better upon her. The prospect of truth and nature is enlarged ; and she sees the world and herself to the most advantage.
XIII. Does any one despise me? What is that to me? I will take care not to give him any reason for his contempt. Does any one hate me ? It may be so j I shall not concern myself about it. And, more than that, another man's malice shall never spoil my temper. I will continue kind and good-humoured to all the world, even to the injurious person himself. I am always ready to show him his error, without ruffling, or making a merit of my own patience ; but frankly, and with all the cordial sincerity imaginable, as Phocion^ seemed to behave himself towards the Athenians. Indeed your mind should always be so disposed as to bear the narrowest inspection, that the gods may examine you with pleasure, and perceive that you are neither angry nor uneasy at anything. Now if you follow the current of your nature, and do a handsome action, where is the harm of it ? What ! are you unwilling to sub- mit to providence ? To comply with the interest of the universe, when you know you were made on purpose for it ?
XIV. People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things. -
XV. How fulsome and hollow does that man look that cries, " I am resolved to deal clearly with you " ! Hark you, friend, what need of all this flourish ? Let your actions speak. To go to the right of it, your face ought to vouch for you, and your sincerity be legible upon your forehead. I would have virtue look out of the
^ See Book v. sect. 19, Book ix. 15.
^ Phocion at his execution charged his son not to bear a grudge against the Athenians for putting him to death. Plut.
A Discourse with Himself. 255
eye, no less apparently than love does. I would have honesty so incorporated with the constitution, so mixed up with the blood and spirits, that it should be discoverable by the senses, and as easily distinguished as rankness, or a strong breath ; so that a man must be forced to find it out whether he would or no. But on the other side, an afifectation of being real is an untoward pretence. Nothing is more scandalous than false friendship, and therefore of all things avoid it. In short, a man of integrity and good-nature can never be concealed, for his character is wrought into his countenance.
XVI. To bestow no more upon objects than they deserve, and where things are indifferent to let our thoughts be so too, is a noble expedient for happiness ; the way to come up to this indifferency, is to look through matters, and take them quite asunder,^ re- membering always, that things cannot charge into the soul, nor force upon us any opinions about them. They stand aloof, and are quiet ; it is our fancy that makes them operate aiid gall us ; it is we that rate them and give them their bulk and value ; and yet it is in our power to let it alone ; and if any false colours are laid on by surprise, we may rub them out if we please. We are likewise to consider that this trouble will not last, that death will relieve us quickly ; where then is the difficulty of standing upon our guard a little while ? If therefore your circumstances put you in a way of improvement, and there is anything to be made out of them, bid them heartily welcome, and then your inclination will make you easy. But if they prove unmanageably cross (which by the way is a wrong supposition), look out for something that is more serviceable to the dignity of your nature ; and never let infamy, or being unpopular, deter you from the pursuit. For certainly every man may take leave to make himself happy if he can.
XVII. Consider the original of all things, the matter they are made of; the alterations they must run through, and the qualities consequent upon it ; and that all this instability of nature has no manner of harm in it.
XVIII. Concerning those that offend and disoblige you, con- sider in the first place, the relation you stand in towards them, and that you are all made for each other. And as for your own part, you are particularly set at the head of the world ; and like a ram in a flock, designed for defence and protection. You may go
^ See sect. 2.
/
256 Conversation of Emperor Marats Antoninus:
higher in your reasoning if you please, and consider that either chance or providence governs the universe ; if the latter, then the coarser parts of the creation were made for the service of their betters j and these last for the interest and support of each other.
Secondly, consider how wretchedly they mismanage their own business, and how far they are gone in luxury and libertinism; especially you should remember what strong prejudices they lie under, how confident they are in their mistakes, and with what satisfaction they play the fool.
Thirdly, consider that if those that disoblige you are in the right, you have no reason to be angry ; but if they are in the wrong, it is because they know no better. They are under necessity of their own ignorance. For as all error is involuntary, so nobody would lessen themselves so much as to miss either honesty or good manners, if they were rightly aware of it. And thus we see people will not endure the charge of avarice, ingratitude, or knavery, without being stung at the imputation.
Fourthly, do not forget you are like the rest of the world, and faulty yourself in a great many instances; that though you may forbear running riot in some cases, it is not for want of an inclina- tion. And that nothing but cowardice, vanity, or some such scandalous principle, hinders you from breaking out.
Fifthly, that it is sometimes a hard matter to be certain whether you have received ill-usage or not. For men's actions oftentimes look worse than they are. And one must be thoroughly informed of a great many things before he can be rightly qualified to give judgment in the case.
Sixthly, when you are most angry and galled, remember that human life lasts but a moment, and that we shall all of us very quickly be laid in our graves.
Seventhly, consider that it is not other people's actions (for they are lodged at home, and are neither good nor bad to any but those that do them) which disturb us, but only our own opinions about them. Do but then dismiss these notions, and do not fancy the thing a grievance, and your passion will cease immediately. But how can this fancy be discharged ? By considering that bare suffering has nothing of infamy or scandal in it. Now, unless you
A Discourse with Himself. 257
refrain the notion of evil to what is scandalous and dishonest, your own virtue will grow precarious, and you will be under a necessity of doing a great many unwarrantable things.^
Eighthly, consider that our anger and impatience often prove much more mischievous than the provocation could possibly have done.
Ninthly, that gentleness and good-humour are invincible, provided they are of the right stamp, without anything of hypocrisy or gri- mace. This is the way to disarm the most barbarous and savage. A constancy in obliging behaviour, will make the most outrageous person ashamed of his malice. The worst body imaginable cannot find in his heart to do you any mischief, if you continue kind and unmoved under ill-usage, if you strike in with the right opportunity for advice ; if, when he is going to do you an ill turn, you endeavour to recover his understanding, and retrieve his temper in such gentle language as this: "Prithee, child, be quiet, men were never made to worry one another ; in earnest, if you go on, my dear friend, you will have the worst of it; and as for my part, I am proof against everything but my own folly." Then proceed to illustrate the point, and let your arguments be general and inoffen- sive : show him that brutes are upon better terms than this comes to ; that it is not the custom of bees to spend their stings upon their own kind, nor of one herd of cattle to draw up against another. And let all this be done out of stark love and kindness, without anything of bantering or biting. You must likewise stand clear of vanity in your address ; do not seem to flourish upon the subject, as if you were declaiming in the schools, and courting the audience for commendation : if there is any company, never set yourself off to them : but discourse him with as little straining and affectation, as if there was nobody but himself.
Lay up these nine heads in your memory, with as much care as if they were a present from the nine Muses : for now it is high time to begin to be a man for your life time. And here you must take care to guard against flattery, as well as anger ; for these are both unserviceable qualities, and do a great deal of mischief in the world. And for a farther preservative against the latter, remember that frowardness and rage are marks of an unmanly disposition. Mildness and temper are not only more human, but more mascu- line too : one thus affected appears much more brave and firm,
^ See Book ix. i. I
258 Co7tve7^sation 0/ Empe^^or Marctts Antonmus .
and better fortified, than he that is fuming and out of sorts. F r impassibility is an argument of greatness ; and he that has the lea t feeling in these cases, has always the most strength : on the other hand, as grief is a sign of weakness, so is anger too ; a man is wounded in both these passions, and the smart is too big for him.
As you have received these nine precepts from the Muses, take this tenth, if you please, from their president and instructor, Apo lo : that to wish all people may not do ill things is to wish an impossi- bility, and no better than a piece of distraction. But then to give them leave to plague other folks, and desire to be privileged your- self, is a foolish and a haughty expectation.
XIX. There are four ill qualities we must be particularly careful to avoid,^ and pull them up as fast as we find them grow in our heads, and undertake them as they rise in this fashion. This fancy, say, is groundless and unnecessary, this rough behaviour makes society and correspondence impracticable, this other is but a copy of your countenance ; you cannot say it from your heart.^ Now this is a very bad character. There are three of them. And what- ever you are conscious degrades the diviner part of you, makes your mind truckle to your body, and your reason to your pleasures, look upon that as the fourth.
XX. Those particles of fire and air which are lodged in your body, notwithstanding their tendency to mount, submit to the laws of the universe, stick close to your constitution, and keep the rest of the elements company. Again, the earthly and watery part in you, though they naturally press downwards, are raised above their level, and stand poised in a foreign region. Thus the elements serve the interest of the world ; and though they seem to stand bent and uneasy, they keep their post till the signal is given to march off and separate. And is it not then a scandalous business that your mind should be the only deserter, and grow mutinous about her station, especially when her orders- agree with her constitution, and nothing that is unnatural is enjoined ? and yet she will not bear the conduct of her own faculties, but runs perfectly counter to humanity. For when a man turns knave or libertine, when he gives way to fears and fits of the spleen, he does, as it were, run away from himself and desert his own nature. And further, when his mind complains
' D'Acier supposes the emperor means suspiciousness, ill language, lying, and intemperance. 2 See Book ii. i6.
A Discourse with Himself. 259
of his fortune, he quits the station in which Providence has placed him. For acquiescence and piety are no less his duty, and his talent too, than honesty between man and man. For these virtues carry up to the common interest, and are rather of greater antiquity and value than fair dealing itself.^
XXI. He that does not always drive at the same end will never be uniform and of a piece in his conduct. But this hint is too short, unless you describe the quality of this design, and what it is that we ought principally to aim at. Now as people do not agree in the preferences of choice and the notion of advantage, unless in what relates to the common good, so a man ought to propose the benefit of society and the general interest of the world as his main business. For he that levels at this mark, will keep an even hand, and be always consistent with himself.
XXII. Remember the story of the country and city mouse, and how pitifully the former was frightened and surprised. ^
XXIII. Socrates used to say the common objects of terror were nothing but bugbears, fit only to scare crows and children.
XXIV. The Lacedaemonians at their public shows seated strangers under a canopy in the shade, but made their own people shift, and take their convenience as they found it.^
XXV. Socrates, being invited to Perdiccas's court,* made this excuse : "I dare not come," says he, " for fear of being put under an incapacity of returning an obligation, which I take to be the worst way of destroying a man imaginable."
XXVI. It is a precept of the Epicurean philosophers, that we should look back to the virtue of former ages, and always furnish our memory with some eminent example.
XXVII. The Pythagorseans would have us look up into the sky every morning, to put us in mind of the order and constancy of the heavenly bodies, of the equality and perpetuity of their motion, of
^ Piety the foundation of justice.
^ This hint, I suppose, was designed to show the danger of curiosity and appetite.
^ It was the custom of the Lacedaemonians to breed their people hardily. * Seneca reports this invitation was made by Archelaus, king of Macedon.
26o Conversation of Emperor Ma^^cus A^itoninus :
the fineness and purity of their matter, and how frankly they He open to observation ; for a star never wears a mask, nor puts any clothes on.
XXVIII. Remember how unconcernedly Socrates wore a sheep- skin, when Xantippe ^ had got his coat on, and run out with it ; and how handsomely he laughed off the matter to his friends, who were strangely out of countenance by seeing him in such a disguise.
XXIX. People don't pretend to teach others to write and read, till they have been taught themselves. This rule holds stronger in the niceties and importance of life, in which no man is fit to govern, till he has first learned to obey. '
XXX. Be dumb ; slaves have not the privilege of speaking.^
XXXI. I smiled within myself.^
XXXII. They will treat their parents with rebellious language."*
XXXIII. He is a madman that expects figs on the trees in winter, and he is little better that calls for his children again when they are dead and buried.
XXXIV. Epictetus would have a man, when he is kissing and caressing his child, say to himself at the same time, " To-morrow perhaps this pretty thing may die and leave me." These are four ominous reflections, you will say. That is your mistake; the consequences of mortality and the course of nature are no ominous things to think on, otherwise it would be an ominous business to cut down a little grass or corn.
b^
XXXV. Grapes are first sour, then ripe, then raisins ; these are all no more than bare alterations, not into nothing, but into some- thing which does not appear and come up at present.
XXXVI. As Epictetus observes, nobody can rob another of his will, nor by consequence make seizure of his virtue.
^ His wife.
2 A tragic poet quoted by Philo, De Libert. Viri boni.
•^ Horn. Odyss.
* Hesiod, Oper. lib. i. v. 184. These shreds of poetry seem to be set down
by the emperor as hints for further meditation. (Gatak.)
A Discourse with Himself, 261
XXXVII. The same philosopher has taught us the art of manag- ing our assent, and preventing our reason from being imposed on ; that we should enterprise with a reserve for disappointment, that our inclinations should be generous and benevolent, and propor- tioned to the merit and dignity of things, that we must keep our desires from being headstrong and unruly in all cases, and never have an aversion for anything which it is out of bur power to hinder.
XXXVIII. Therefore, as Epictetus observes, the contest is no trifle, but whether we are to live in our wits, or out of them.^
XXXIX. It is a saying of Socrates to some untoward people : " What would you be at ? Would you have the soul of a man or of a beast in you ? Of a man, without all doubt. Of what sort of men, of those that use their reason, or those that abuse it ? Of the first, you may be sure. Why, then," continues the philosopher, " don't you look out for this privilege ? Because we have it already. What makes you then disagree, and fall foul upon each other ? "
■0-
BOOK XII.
I. All those things you drudge and range so much ground for, you may have at your ease, unless you are afraid of making yourself too happy. Your method to do your business is not to concern yourself about the time past, for that is never to be recovered, to rest the future with Providence, and only stick to the present, and improve that to all the noble purposes of piety and justice. The pious part will be discharged by being contented with your fate ; and why should you not, since nature made you for each other ? ^ And as to the obligations of justice, you will acquit yourself here, provided you speak truth boldly and above-board, and make law and the dignity of things your rule to act by. When you are not to be checked in your progress by the misbehaviour, the ignorance, and impertinent reports of other people, nor yet by the sense and sufferings of your own carcase, though by the way it is a question whether it suffers or not.^ To go on ; if, since your life is almost
^ The Stoics reckoned all people madmen that did not live up to the precepts of virtue and philosophy.
2 See Book v. sect. 8. -^ See Book vii. sect. i6, i8.
262 Conversatio7t of Emperor Marcus Anto7iinus :
up, you lay aside all other matters, and only cultivate your mind, and pay a regard to the governing and diviner part of yourself; if you are not at all afraid of losing your life, but of missing the ends of it, and not living as you should do ; then you will act suitably to your extraction, and deserve to have the Deity for your Maker ; then you will be no longer a stranger in your own country, nor be surprised at common accidents ; you will never be anxious about the future, nor stand to the courtesy of events.
II. The Almighty sees through the soul of every man as clearly as if it was not wrapped up in matter, or had anything of the shroud and coarseness of body about it. And God being a spirit, acts only as such, and concerns Himself for no other beings but those of His own nature. Now, if you would learn to do thus, a great deal of trouble would be saved, for he that can overlook his limbs and make his carcase sit loose about him, will hardly disturb himself about the house he dwells in ; about his equipage or reputation, or any part of the furniture and magnificence of a figure.
III. You consist of three parts, your body, your breath, ^ and your mind ; the two first are yours to take care of, but the latter is properly your person. Therefore, if you abstract from the notion of yourself, that is, of your mind, whatever other pecjple either say or do, or whatever you may have said or done yourself formerly, to- gether with all that which disturbs you under the consideration of its coming to pass hereafter ; if you throw the necessary motions of your carcase out of the definition, and those of the vortex that whirls about you, and by this means preserve your rational faculties in an independent state of innocence, free from force and infection, holding close and steady to the virtues of justice, truth, and acqui- escence ; if, I say, you keep your mind separate and distinguished from the objects of appetite and the appendages of time, both past and future, and make yourself like Empedocles's world,
Round as a ball, and spinning on your axis ; 2
and concern yourself to live no longer than your lifetime, that is, the present moment ; ^ if you do all this, you may move on till death stops you with credit and satisfaction.
IV. I have often wondered how it comes to pass that everybody should love themselves best, and yet value their neighbour's opinion
^ See Book ii. sect. 2. - Turning upon your reason.
^ See Book ii. 14.
A Discourse with Himself. 263
about themselves more thnn their own. Therefore, if any god, or eminent instructor in philosophy, should stand at a man's elbow, and order him to turn his inside outwards, and publish every thought and fancy as fast as they came into his head, he would think it a hard chapter, and not submit so much as to a day's discipline. Thus we stand more in awe of fame than conscience, and regard other people's judgments above our own.
V. How comes it about, that since the gods have contrived all things so well, and so much to the benefit of mankind, they should overlook this particular, and suffer men of great virtue and merit, who by their piety and devotion were, as it were, the domestics of the powers above, and kept always a correspondence with heaven ; that they should suffer such men, I say, to be finally extinguished by death, and not give them their being again ? Now, if the case stands thus, you may be assured, had it been proper, the gods would have ordered it otherwise ; for had it been reasonable, it would have been possible. Nature ^ would certainly have brought it forth if it had been suitable to her perfections. Therefore, from its not being matter of fact, if indeed it is not, you may undoubtedly conclude it ought not to be so ; for, don't you perceive that in reasoning this point you dispute the administration of Providence ? Now, if the justice and goodness of the gods were not extraordinary, this liberty would not be allowed, neither would you presume so far if you thought otherwise. But if they have these perfections, they will never neglect their affairs, nor blemish their world with anything that is unreasonable or unjust.
VI. Accustom yourself to master things of the greatest difficulty, and which you seem to despair of; for if you observe the left hand, though, for want of practice, it is insignificant to other business, yet it holds the bridle better than the right, because it has been used to it.
VII. Consider what death will make of you, both as to body and mind ; recollect the shortness of life, the unmeasurable extent of time both past and future, and how tenderly all things are put together.
VIII. Let it be your method to contemplate spirits apart from their bodies, for these are no better than the shell they are shut up in. Mind the aim and the end of people's actions ; examine the
1 God.
264 Conversation of Emperor Marcus Antonimis :
value of fame, the force of pain, the ascendant of pleasure,^ and see what death amounts to. Consider upon what account a man grows troublesome to himself,^ that nobody can be hindered by. another, and that opinion is the main thing which does good or harm in the world.
IX. We must manage the precepts of philosophy like those that wrestle and box in the circus, and not like a gladiator ; for your fencer, if he drops his sword, is hewn down immediately ; but the other that makes weapons of his limbs has them always about him, and has nothing to do but to keep his hands and feet stirring.
X. Be not satisfied with a superficial view, but penetrate the nature and quality of things ; and to this purpose you must divide them into matter and form,^ and inquire into the end they were made for.
XI. What a mighty privilege is a man born to, since it is in his power not to do anything but what God Almighty approves, and to be satisfied with all the distributions of Providence !
XII. When things follow from the course and constitution ot nature, we ought not to murmur at it. Not against the gods, for they have neither ill-will nor impotence, and by consequence can do nothing amiss ; nor yet against men, for their misbehaviour is all involuntary,^ therefore we must complain of nobody.
XIII. How unacquainted is that man with the world, and how ridiculous does he appear, that makes a wonder of any thing he meets with here !
XIV. Either the order of things is fixed by irrevocable fate, or Providence may be worked into compassion, or else the world floats at random without any steerage. Now, if nature lies under an immovable necessity, to what purpose should you struggle against it ? If the favour of Providence is to be gained, qualify yourself for the divine assistance ; but if chance and confusion carry it, and nobody sits at the helm, be you contented, and ride out the storm patiently, for you have a governor within you,^ though the world
^ See Book vii. 33, Book v. 26. 2 See Book ix. 26.
^ See Book ii. sect. 12, Book iv. 21, Book vii, 29.
* See Book vii. sect. 63, 64. ^ Your reason.
A Discourse with Himself. 265
has none. And if the waves run too high, let them roll off your carcase and your fortune, but there is no necessity your mind should be driven with them.
XV. A lamp, unless you put it out, holds its light, and shines without interruption ; and can you find in your heart to see your honesty sink in the socket, to outlast your sobriety, and let your virtue be extinguished before you ?
XVI. When you fancy any one has transgressed, say this to yourself: How do I know it is a fault? And granting it is, it may be his conscience has corrected him ; and if so, he has given him- self a sour box on the ear. Besides, you are to remember, that to wish an ill man should not do amiss is just as wise as it would be to desire an unripe fig should not taste of the tree ; that children should not squall in the cradle, nor horses neigh, nor a great many other things act according to the necessity of their condition. Pray, how would you have a man of such an unfortunate disposition behave himself? If you believe the case may be remedied, and are such a doctor at his disease, do so much as cure him.
XVII. If it is not decent, never do it ; if it is not true, never speak it : let this always be your rule.
XVIII. Look always nicely into whatever makes an impression upon your mind ; distinguish it into matter and form ; find out the purpose and design for which it was contrived, and the period of time, too, beyond which it is unlikely to continue.
XIX. Consider, for it is high time, that you have something more divine in you than the mechanism of passion, than the wires and tackling of a puppet. What then is my soul made of? Is it fear, or jealousy, or lust ? Or anything of this coarse nature ? Certainly no.
XX. Take care never to do anything without thought and design, nor for any other end either, but what may be serviceable to the interest of society.^
XXI. Consider that in a little time you will neither have place nor being, that your contemporaries will have the same fate, and the present scene of nature be shut up ; for all things change of
^ That is, of mankind in general.
266 Conversation of E^nperor Marcus Antonimts :
course, and wither and drop in pieces, that new ones may be made out of them.
XXII. Thoughts are, in a great measure, masters of things, and, which is more, it is in your own power to think as you please; therefore do not suffer opinion to cheat you any longer. Disengage from the tyranny of fancy, and then, as if you doubled some dangerous cape, you will have nothing but a steady course, a smooth sea, and a land-locked bay to receive you.
XXIII. Every operation that ceases in due time, suffers nothing by breaking off; neither does the agent receive any harm upon this score. Thus life, which is nothing but a series and continuation of action, comes to no damages by having a seasonable period put to it ; neither does he that lays this motion asleep sustain any loss, provided it is done at a proper juncture. Now, nature assigns the term, and sets out the bounds of life ; sometimes this period is fixed by particular nature or force of constitution, as it happens when a man dies of old age ; but let it come late or early, common nature^ has certainly a hand in it. And thus the parts of nature, changing from one form to another, preserve the world in perpetual youth and vigour. Now, that is always as it should be, both as to time and quality, which makes for the service of the universe. ^ From hence it follows, that bare dying can be no real evil, seeing there is nothing of baseness or moral turpitude in it ; for it is both involun- tary with respect to ourselves, and serviceable to the general interest ; therefore there can be nothing of scandal in it. Nay, it is certainly a good thing, since it is suitable and seasonable for the universe. And thus a man that goes off smoothly is, as it were, carried out of the world by inspiration. For he that follows the Deity with his motions, and with his will too, seems actuated by a divine impression.
XXIV. Let these three hints lie ready for service. First, as to your own actions, let nothing be done rashly, nor to no purpose, nor indeed in any other manner than justice herself would have ordered it. And as for casualties and the state of your fortune, consider that they are the blind distributions of chance, or else the appointment of Providence. Now, either to murmur against chance, or impeach Providence, is extremely absurd. Secondly, consider what a slight thing man is, from his conception to his birth or
1 God.
^ See Book iv. sect. 23, Book v. sect. 8,
can
A Discourse ivith Himself. 267
animation ; ^ and from his first breath to his last, in the parts of his composition, and in the state of his dissolution. Thirdly, consider that, if you could shoot yourself at pleasure into the sky, and thence take a view of human affairs, you would perceive a strange medley of humour and condition ; and discover at the same time the air and ether too plentifully stocked with inhabitants,^ and that if you mounted never so often, you would have the old prospect. Alas ! things are generally of the same complexion, and of the same short continuance too, and yet how strangely we are conceited of them !
XXV. Discharge opinion,^ and you are safe ; and pray who hinder you from doing it ?
XXVI. When you are uneasy upon any account, you seem to forget that all things fall out according to the good pleasure of Providence, and that another man's fault is no concern of yours ; that what you reckon grievances is nothing but the old way of the world, and will come over again when you are dead and gone, and are now to be met with in a thousand places. You have forgotten that all mankind are of kin ; for though they may be unallied in flesh and blood, their understandings are all of the same family. You do not remember that every man's soul is a portion of the Deity, and derived from thence ; that we have nothing properly our own, but that our children, our bodies, and our breath, are all borrowed from heaven; that opinion governs all, and things are only as you think them ; and that it is not possible for anybody to live or lose any more than the present moment. All this you seem to have forgotten.
XXVII. Reflect frequently upon those that have formerly been mightily disturbed wath accidents of any kind ; that have carried their animosities and feuds to the most flaming excess ; that have made the most glorious figure, or met with the greatest misfortune ; and then ask yourself. Where are they all now ? They are vanished like a little smoke ; they shrank within the compass of an urn, and are nothing but ashes and romance,* and it may be have not so much as the last imaginary advantage neither. Recollect likewise all that humour and oddness that some people affect, to appear as
^ The Stoics believed a human foetus not animated till the time of birth. Tertull. De Aniin.
2 It was the opinion of the Platonists and Stoics that the air and sky were inhabited by spirits suitable to the respective regions.
^ Opinion is a common, but false notion of things.
* Soe Book viii. sect. 25.
268 Conversation of Emperor Marctts Antoninus :
Fabius Catullinus did at his country seat, as Lucius Lupus and Stertinius did at Baise, to act the fancy of Vertius Rufus, or the liberties of Tiberius at Capreae ; thus people dote upon figure and singularity, though it is sometimes in lewdness ; ^ but granting it is somewhat better, the prize is insignificant, and the play not worth the candle. It is much more becoming a philosopher to stand clear of affectation ; to be honest and regular upon all occasions, and to follow cheerfully wherever the Gods lead on. As for pretence and hypocrisy, it is all stuff; for nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility.
XXVIII. To those that ask me the reason of my being so earnest in religious worship ; — Did I ever 'see any of the gods } or, which way am I convinced of the certainty of their existence? — in the first place I answer, that the gods are not invisible ; ^ but granting they were, the objection would signify nothing. For I never had a sight of my own soul, and yet I have a great value for it, because it is discoverable by its operations. And thus, by my constant experience of the power of the gods, I have a proof of their being, and a reason for my veneration.
XXIX. The best provision for a happy life is to dissect every- thing, view it on all sides, and divide it into matter and form ; to practise honesty in good earnest, and speak truth from the very soul of you : and when you have done this, live easy and cheerful, and crowd one good action so close to another, that there may not be the least empty or insignificant space between them.
XXX. The light of the sun is but one and the same, though it is divided by the interposition of walls and mountains, and abundance of other opaque bodies. There is but one common matter for corporeity, though it is parcelled out among bodies of different qualities. There is but one sensitive soul, not- withstanding it has peculiar conveyances, runs in innumerable channels, and supplies a vast number of animals distinct from each other. And lastly, the rational soul, though it seems to be split into distinction, is but one and the same.^ Now, excepting this last, the parts of the other species of form'* and matter, though
^ That of Tiberius was such.
- The sun, the moon, and the stars, were gods in the opinion of the Stoics.
^ The Stoics held the rational soul a part of the Deity.
* By form in rational creatures, the emperor seems to mean the mind, in animals the sensitive soul, in vegetable and inanimate things the principle of union which supports them in their distinction, and tacks their being together. (D'Acier.)
A Discourse with Hhnself, 269
without apprehension or any common affection to tie them to each other, are yet upheld by an intelligent being, and by that faculty which pushes things of the same nature to the same place. But human understandings have a peculiar disposition to correspond- ence ; they stick together by inclination, and nothing can extinguish such sociable thoughts in them.
XXXI. What is it you hanker after? Is it bare existence? or sensation ? or motion ? or strength, that you may lose it again in decay ? What ! is it the privilege of speech, or the power of thinking in general ? Is any of this furniture big enough for desire? If all these things are trifles upon the matter, proceed to something that is worth your while ; and that is, to be governed by reason and the Deity. And yet you cannot be said to value these last mentioned privileges rightly, if you are disturbed because death must take them from you.^
XXXII. What a small part of unmeasurable time falls to the share of a single mortal, and how soon is every one swallowed up in eternity ! What a handful of the universal matter goes to the making a human body, and what a very little of the universal soul too,^ to raise it into an animal ! And on what a narrow clod, with respect to the whole earth, do you crawl upon ? Consider all this, and reckon nothing great, unless it be to act in conformity to your own reason, and to suffer as the Almighty shall appoint you.
XXXIII. The great business of a man is to improve his mind and govern his manners ; this is minding the main chance. As for all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, they are no better than trifling and amusement.
XXXIV. We cannot have a more lively and promising notion, to set us above the fear of death, than to consider that it has been despised even by that sect ^ who made pleasure and pain the standard of good and evil.
XXXV. He that likes no time so well as that fixed by Providence, he that is indifferent whether he has room for a long progress in reason and regularity or not,^ or whether he has a few or a great
^ See Book ix. sect. 7, Book x, sect. 28.
^ The emperor means the sensitive or vital soul, as the Stoics called it,
' The Epicureans.
* See Book ii. sect. I.
270 Conversation of Empei^or Marcus Antoninus.
many years to view the world in ; a person thus quaUfied will never be afraid of dying.
XXXVI. Hark ye, friend, you have been a burgher of this great city;^ what matter though you have lived in it but a few years? it you have observed the lav/s of the corporation, the length or shortness of the time makes no diiference. Where is the hardship, then, if Providence, that planted you here, orders your removal ? You cannot say you are sent off by a tyrannical and unrighteous sentence ; no, you quit the stage as fairly as a player does, that has his discharge from the master of the revels. But I have only gone through three acts, and not held out to the end of the fifth. You say well; but in life three acts make the play entire. He that appoints the entertainment is the best judge of the length of it ; and as he ordered the opening of the first scene, so now he gives the sign for shutting up the last. You are neither accountable for one or the other ; therefore retire in good humour, for he by wliom you are dismissed means you no harm.
^ The world.
THE END.
;viORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
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