Page:The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.pdf/18

without being led aside by the talkative. To him also do I owe having met with the writings of Epictetus, which he gave me. To Apollonius I owe freedom , a mind raised above doubt, and bent on truth alone ; to endure pain, loss of offspring, and disease. He was a living example of one who could both give way or stand firm ; and who never lost his temper while teaching, though it was plain he set no store by this great virtue. From him I likewise learned to receive a favour without forfeiting my self respect, or proving ungrateful to a friend . By Sextus I was taught good -nature and unaffected gravity ; to manage household affairs ; to regulate my mind according to nature ; to cherish my friends ; to put up with the rash and unthinking, and to exhibit kindness to all, without impeachment to myself ; to regulate life by maxims of wisdom and truth, without anger, ill-will, or in difference towards any one ; to bestow favours without ostentation, and to display learning without vanity. Alexander the grammarian induced me to avoid need. less fault - finding ; if I had occasion to address those who spoke incorrectly, not to take them up harshly, but to set them right in some kind obliging fashion. From Fronto came to know that envy, cunning, and hypocrisy are fruits of tyranny ; and that those of noble birth are too often void of natural feeling. Alexander the Platonist insisted that I should neither say nor write that I was not at leisure, thus unnecessarily to evade the duties of my life and station. Catullus led me not to cast off a friend on the score of a little harshness, even when he had no plea for it, but rather to try and lead him back to the same kindly feelings as before ; like Domitius and Athenodotus, to speak handsomely of my instructors -- and as for my children , to foster them with loving care.