I have dwelt on a few of the many martyrdoms of his reign to show the conduct and the ideals of Christianity side by side with the conduct of the pagan philosophers. What reasonable being can read aright the story of this struggle and yet prefer the cold, negative, ineffectual ideals of Marcus and his friends to the warm throbbing life of love and the heroic death of Ponticus and Blandina, of Justin and Felicitas? Yet, if we are to believe Renan and Arnold, the Meditations of Marcus are the force which will transform the world when, to quote Renan, the Gospel and the _Imitation of Christ_ have passed away, and on the hillside of Lyons where the martyrs died “a temple shall rise to the Supreme Amnesty and contain a chapel for all causes, all virtues, all martyrs.” Surely this is dilettanteism and paradox run wild, as untrue to psychology as it is to history and all sane and effective religion! CHAPTER X THE PAGAN À KEMPIS The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius have often been compared with the _Imitation of Christ_. The comparison is interesting; and the analysis which it involves of one of the noblest and purest of pagan ascetics on the one hand, and of the great exponent of Christian asceticism on the other, cannot but strengthen belief in the divine origin of Christianity. Unfortunately, we cannot attempt anything like a complete analysis of the two books; and we must be content to call attention to a few points of resemblance and difference in the two ascetics; and estimate their respective values as salves to wounded souls. The appraisers of “disinterested” and “undogmatic” morality have professed to find in the pagan book a surer guide to life. They find it more human, less scholastic, freer and fresher. Renan has voiced this view with his usual brilliance and fickle impressionism. It is true of course that the _Imitation of Christ_ is built on Christian dogma and steeped in Christian mysticism. But this is not matter of discredit to the _Imitation_ but of glory to Christianity. It is because the martyrs were strengthened by Christian dogmas and ideals that they alone surpassed Aurelius in that age. There is far less of rigid adherence to the letter of formulæ and infinitely more of spirit, of unction, of personal devotion in the _Imitation_. If dogma did not hinder but rather inspired a book which gives such freedom to the spirit, it is time to revise some of the current cant about the sterility of theology, its fettering of the spirit, and the witty definition of dogmatism as “puppyism grown big.” Those who have embraced Christianity and walked its peaceful paths can have no doubt as to the superiority of the _Imitation_ in all that is beautiful, good and true. But even positivists, professing completely to reject the supernatural, find in à Kempis a unique charm. George Eliot, the best of them, has told us in inspired words what the _Imitation_ was to her:--