Antoninus does not treat of Politic.  His subject is Ethic, and Ethic in its practical application to his own conduct in life as a man and as a governor.  His Ethic is founded on his doctrines about man’s nature, the Universal Nature, and the relation of every man to everything else.  It is therefore intimately and inseparably connected with Physic, or the Nature of Things, and with Theology, or the Nature of the Deity.  He advises us to examine well all the impressions on our minds ([Greek:  phantasiai]) and to form a right judgment of them, to make just conclusions, and to inquire into the meanings of words, and so far to apply Dialectic; but he has no attempt at any exposition of Dialectic, and his philosophy is in substance purely moral and practical.  He says (viii. 13), “Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion of every impression on the soul,[A] apply to it the principles of Physic, of Ethic, and of Dialectic:”  which is only another way of telling us to examine the impression in every possible way.  In another passage (iii. 11) he says, “To the aids which have been mentioned, let this one still be added:  make for thyself a definition or description of the object ([Greek:  to phantaston]) which is presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a thing it is in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the things of which it has been compounded, and into which it will be resolved.”  Such an examination implies a use of Dialectic, which Antoninus accordingly employed as a means toward establishing his Physical, Theological, and Ethical principles.

[A] The original is [Greek:  epi pases phantasias].  We have no word which expresses [Greek:  phantasia], for it is not only the sensuous appearance which comes from an external object, which object is called [Greek:  to phantaston], but it is also the thought or feeling or opinion which is produced even when there is no corresponding external object before us.  Accordingly everything which moves the soul is [Greek:  phantaston], and produces a [Greek:  phantasia].

    In this extract Antoninus says [Greek:  physiologein, pathologein,
    dialektikeuesthai].  I have translated [Greek:  pathologein] by using
    the word Moral (Ethic), and that is the meaning here.

There are several expositions of the Physical, Theological, and Ethical principles, which are contained in the work of Antoninus; and more expositions than I have read.  Ritter (Geschichte der Philosophie, iv. 241), after explaining the doctrines of Epictetus, treats very briefly and insufficiently those of Antoninus.  But he refers to a short essay, in which the work is done better.[A] There is also an essay on the Philosophical Principles of M. Aurelius Antoninus by J.M.  Schultz, placed at the end of his German translation of Antoninus (Schleswig, 1799).  With the assistance of these two useful essays and his own diligent study, a man