A belief in the goodness of God and the perfection of his works made the Stoic naturally regard this world as the best of all possible worlds, and urge men to accommodate themselves to the natural order, in which he saw the perfect product of the supreme reason. He could not think that the world was out of joint, but he believed that all was perfect harmony for one who would set himself in tune with the universe. So Marcus Aurelius wrote: “Everything is harmonious to me that is harmonious to thee, O Universe; nothing is too early or too late for me that is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature; from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things return. ‘Beloved city of Cecrops,’ sings the poet: Shall I not say, ‘O beloved city of God?’”[286] It is easy to understand from passages like this how stabilizing and how ennobling later Stoicism was. To reverence God, to do nothing that God would not approve, to think ever of God, and to trust in the harmonious purpose of the universe was the Emperor’s constant exhortation to himself. With this purpose was associated a similar desire to help his fellowmen; and yet in spite of the Emperor’s religious devotion and sympathetic interest in humanity, in spite of the exaltation of spirit which appears in his Meditations, there is still a note of sadness which had already been sounded by Seneca and Epictetus; there is a sense of the vanity of all things which makes itself felt again and again as we read his book. For all his belief in the harmony of this universe the Emperor exhorts himself too much to make the best of a sad and wicked world. What Marcus Aurelius felt others had been feeling for generations. The passion for assurance of protection here and salvation hereafter, the longing for union with God, would not be quieted. The West offered little satisfaction; the answers from the East will occupy our next lectures. FOOTNOTES: [262] Dionys. Hal. IV, 62. [263] See p. 370 f. for an example of such a calendar. [264] 296 B.C., Livy X, 19, 17. [265] Livy XXII, 10, 2 ff. [266] Livy XXII, 10, 9. [267] _Scen._ 316 ff., Vahlen. [268] Livy XXXIX, 8 ff. [269] Livy XL, 29; Plin. _N. H._ XIII, 84. ff. [270] Athen. XII, 547 A; Aelian _V. H._ IX, 12. [271] Suet. _de rhet._ 1; Aul. Gell. XV, 11, 1. [272] Plin. _N. H._ VII, 112; Plut. _C. M._ 22. [273] Augustin. _Civ. Dei_ IV, 27. [274] Epic., p. 72 Usener. Cf. p. 59, and frg. 506. [275] _Diss._ I, 15, 1. [276] Sen. _de Ira_ III, 36, 1-4. [277] Epict. _Diss._ III, 10, 2. [278] _Diss._ III, 12. [279] _Diss._ III, 10, 8. [280] _De vita beata_, 17. [281] _Epist._ 11, 8-10; 25, 5, 6. [282] _Epist._ 41, 8; 92, 2 f.; and often. [283] _Epist._ 41, 2. [284] Seneca _Epist._ 95, 47-50; 115, 5. Epict. _Diss._ I, 16. [285] Epict. _Diss._ II, 16, 45-47; III, 13, 9 ff. [286] IV, 23. VIII ORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THE WESTERN HALF OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE