Meditations (Illustrated)

This edition is illustrated with abstract paintings of Abraham McDonald, especially designed for this edition. Marcus Aurelius has been lauded for his capacity &quote;to write down what was in his heart just as it was, not obscured by any consciousness of the presence of listeners or any striving after effect&quote;. Gilbert Murray compares the work to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions and St. Augustine's Confessions. Though Murray criticizes Marcus for the &quote;harshness and plainness of his literary style&quote;, he finds in his Meditations &quote;as much intensity of feeling...as in most of the nobler modern books of religion, only with a sterner power controlling it&quote;. &quote;People fail to understand Marcus&quote;, he writes, &quote;not because of his lack of self-expression, but because it is hard for most men to breathe at that intense height of spiritual life, or, at least, to breathe soberly&quote;.