CHAPTER X

THE PAGAN À KEMPIS 128

_Even in a palace, life may be led well! So spake the imperial sage, purest of men, Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell._

_Our freedom for a little bread we sell, And drudge under some foolish master’s ken Who rates us if we peer outside our pen-- Matched with a palace, is not this a hell?_

_Even in a palace! On his truth sincere Who spake these words, no shadow ever came And when my ill-schooled spirit is aflame._

_Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win, I’ll stop and say, “There were no succour here, The aids to noble life are all within.”_

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

The Emperor Marcus Aurelius