He can scarcely have been an inspiring general who took this view of war; and such sentiments have caused many active spirits to find him a very dull person indeed. After this we can scarcely wonder at the remark of one of his generals: “The soldiers don’t understand you; they don’t know Greek.” In the frieze on the Antonine column which represents him on horseback, surrounded by banners and triumphant soldiers, receiving the submission of the kneeling Germans, there is the same disenchantment in his eyes, the same firm lines of duty on the lips; there is no flash of enthusiasm, no gloating over the fallen. He seems absorbed in the thought that all is vanity, and the vanquished look at him with a puzzled, interested look which has something of affection in it. CHAPTER VI THE BOOK OF MEDITATIONS It was in the midst of this active strife that Marcus wrote one of the most introspective and peaceful of books--his Thoughts About Himself (τὰ εἰς ἑαυτὸν βιβλία)--the twelve books of his Meditations. Few books have had such influence over men’s lives, and its influence still abides; and for all students of humanity it will ever be a priceless document illustrative of one great phase of human thought, and one great thinker. Surely Stevenson, testifying to the moulding force of this little book on his own life, did not exaggerate in saying: “The dispassionate gravity, the noble forgetfulness of self, the tenderness of others that are there expressed, and were practised on so large a scale in the life of its writer, make this book a book quite by itself. No man can read it and not be moved.... When you have read, you carry away with you a memory of the man himself; it is as though you had touched a loyal heart, looked into brave eyes and made a noble friend; there is another bond on you thenceforward, binding you to life and to the love of virtue.” The secret of this charm and influence is in the candour and utter absence of self-consciousness of the book. It reveals the author as he wished himself to live, a sincere and open life, “lived on the mountain top--a naked soul more visible than the body which clothed it,” a soul whose thoughts may be read “as the beloved one reads all things in the lover’s eyes.” These jottings were the fruit of his frequent searchings of the heart, the outward expression of the inner life of one who seemed to live all within, with now and then some golden gleanings from his favourite moralists. These thoughts he meant to be his strength against the beggarly elements in his weaker moments. They, with the _Discourse of Epictetus_, were to be his mainstay. This latter book--a noble book too--was his à Kempis, and to it he owed the suggestion of gathering together his own thoughts. Having these he bore his cloister always with him.