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  Item Reference: KCLCAL-1878-1879-608

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cog general literature and science poraries it was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Absolute monarch of the whole civilised world he preserved through life not only the most unblemished justice but what was less to be expected from his stoical breeding the tenderest heatt This man better Christian in all but the dogmatic sense of the word than almost any of the ostensibly Christian sovereigns who have since reigned persecuted Christianity Placed at the summit of all the previous attainments of humanity with an open tin- fettered intellect and character which led him of himself to embody in his moral writings the Christian ideal yet he failed to see that Christianity was to be good and not an evil to the world with his duties to which he was so deeply penetrated Existing society he knew to be in deplorable state But such as it was he saw or thought he saw that it was held together and prevented from being worse by belief and reverence of the received divinities As ruler of mankind he deemed it his duty not to suffer society to fall in pieces and saw not how if its existing ties were removed any others could be formed which could again knit it together The new religion openly aimed at dissolving these ties unless therefore it was his duty to adopt that religion it seemed to be his duty to put it down The gentlest and most amiable of philosophers and rulers under solemn sense of duty authorised the persecution of Christianity To my mind this is one of the most tragical facts in all history -John Stuart Mill "On Liberty Pray Mr Opie may ask what you mix your colours withί" said brisk dilettante student to the great psinter "With brains sir was the gruff reply-and the right one It did not give much of what we call information hut it was enough to awaken the inquirer Many other artists when asked such question would have set about detailing the mechanical com- position of such and such colours in such proportions rubbed so and so or perhaps they would have shown him how they laid them on but even this would leave him at the critical point Opie preferred going to the quick and the heart of the matter With brains sir "-Brown
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