He never showed mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty
What do these words mean?
This quote from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Meditation # 16) relates to his adopted father. Of this father, his predecessor on the imperial throne, Marcus observed: “—but he showed sobriety in all things and firmness, and never any mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty. And the things which conduce in any way to the commodity of life, and of which fortune gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and without excusing himself; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them without affectation, and when he had them not, he did not want them.”1
His father sounds like a swell guy, doesn’t he? The quote about not loving novelty got me thinking about novelty and its opposite. But then I began to wonder if novelty is even the properest translation from the original Latin. The particular translation I’m reading is by George Long (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1889.) A novelty, we know, is something new, something that perhaps has not been tried and tested. We cannot think of examples of a novelty without the example itself being a novelty. An electric car—no, it is no longer an example of a “novel” idea because it has been a global dream for many decades already, and it is a reality, granted a very expensive one!
A novelty can be an object that is precious for its rarity or unique functionality—a one-time-only, perhaps, a one-hit-wonder, never to be replicated. Tim Burton tried to remake “Willy Wonka” in his own vision, but the film from 1971 was a novelty; Gene Wilder was too novel, too special in his performance as Willy Wonka to be surpassed. The Latin word “novus”2 can refer to a novelty or an innovation. It is similar to the word for insolence. A novelty can be strange, unfamiliar, even frightening. Yet the opposite—that which is the known, familiar, tried and tested—can induce a feeling of ennui. Here we go again! Can we try something else? We might need some novel ideas, for example, when it comes to solving the problem of gun violence. For too long, we have been stuck in a rinse-and-repeat cycle whenever there is a mass shooting at a public venue. And so, how do we know if novelty is good? How can we know, if it has not been tested?
The father of Marcus—Emperor Antoninus Pius—apparently did not have “mean thoughts or actions,” nor any “love of novelty.” What is the meaning of this? What does it mean to be mean? What is the meaning of mean? It has multiple meanings, of course. In one sense, it means unkind, but it also means miserly, cheap, petty. I think he means that his father was generous both in thought and action, and that he was too much fond of what was deliberate to love what was untested. In other words, it is good to have big thoughts, but also to be deliberate before you resolve and act; and therefore, if you are deliberate and intentional, then your actions cannot be novel. They will have measure, reason, and a proper evaluation to back them up.
From Marcus, we have a description of his adopted father (and father-in-law) as a person who was balanced and measured in all things. There was nothing in Antoninus Pius, apparently, that was excessive. He was affectionate, without being “extravagant in his affection.” He would give due praise, but never flattery. Nor did he praise something merely because it was widely praised. Marcus wrote in admiration and gratitude of one who never imitated what was merely popular or followed trends, and of one who might even be compared with Socrates, because he was so temperate, and, in short, had “the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.”3
Perfect and invincible souls do not arise as novelties. They are born out of time—out of a long time ago, and lots of trial and error. They endure. Even when the organs in the body cease to function and the body is laid to rest, the essence of the person is remembered by those who loved him or her. And there is nothing novel about eternal love.
The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus/Book I. (2021, July 12). In Wikisource . Retrieved 14:04, July 9, 2022, from https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_I&oldid=11501510.
novus. (2022, July 3). Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 13:18, July 9, 2022 from https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=novus&oldid=67603756.
See note 1.