ngs--en oligistois keitai."+ And to-day,
committing himself with a steady effort of volition to the mere silence
of the great empty apartments, he might be said to have escaped,
according to Plato's promise to those who live closely with philosophy,
from the evils of the world.

In his "conversations with himself" Marcus Aurelius speaks often of
that City on high, of which all other cities are but single
habitations. From him in fact Cornelius Fronto, in his late discourse,
had borrowed the expression; and he certainly meant by it more than the
whole commonwealth of Rome, in any idealisation of it, however sublime.
Incorporate somehow with the actual city whose goodly stones were lying
beneath his gaze, it was also implicate in that reasonable constitution
of nature, by devout contemplation of which it is possible for man to
associate himself to the consciousness of God. In that New Rome he had
taken up his rest for awhile on this day, deliberately feeding his
thoughts on the better air of it, as another might have gone for mental
renewal to a favourite villa.

"Men seek retirement in country-houses," he writes, "on the sea-coast,
on the mountains; and you have yourself as much fondness for such
places as another. But there is little proof of culture therein; since
the privilege is yours of [38] retiring into yourself whensoever you
please,--into that little farm of one's own mind, where a silence so
profound may be enjoyed." That it could make these retreats, was a
plain consequence of the kingly prerogative of the mind, its dominion
over circumstance, its inherent liberty.--"It is in thy power to think
as thou wilt: The essence of things is in thy thoughts about them: All
is opinion, conception: No man can be hindered by another: What is
outside thy circle of thought is nothing at all to it; hold to this,
and you are safe: One thing is needful--to live close to the divine
genius within thee, and minister thereto worthily." And the first
point in this true ministry, this culture, was to maintain one's soul
in a condition of indifference and calm. How continually had public
claims, the claims of other persons, with their rough angularities of
character, broken in upon him, the shepherd of the flock. But after
all he had at least this privilege he could not part with, of thinking
as he would; and it was well, now and then, by a conscious effort of
will, to indulge it for a while, under systematic direction. The