"The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus" published by Tichnor and Fields, Boston, 1864, First Printing of the first American edition of George Long translation with '1864' imprinted on the title page, and without publisher's catalog at the end of the book. No copyright. [First British edition appeared 1862-63].

Hard boards, original publisher's embossed cloth [some wear, mostly spine ends: see photos]; 4.3/4" x 7.1/2"; brown endpapers, 310 pages including Index. A little soiling, very good condition.

Contains Dedication to Ralph Waldo Emerson, two essays on Marcus Aurelius and his philosophy by George Long [80 pages], Long's translation of M.A. "Meditations" with footnotes, Index.

In the introductory Note to the second edition, George Long mentions that this Tichnor & Fields edition (1864) was pirated. Long also states that he does not approve the dedication to Emerson, and would rather dedicate the edition, published during the American Civil War, to the two military leaders of Roman format, Grant and Lee. [See: The Thoughts of The Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus. Translated by Long, George (2nd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. 1880].

Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors. He is also today considered an important Stoic philosopher. While on campaign between 170 and 180, Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations in Greek as a tool for his own self-improvement. The title, Meditations, was added posthumously-originally Marcus Aurelius titled his work simply: "To Myself"

George Long (1800-1879) was an English classical scholar.He was Craven university scholar in 1821 (bracketed with Lord Macaulay and Henry Maiden), wrangler and senior chancellor's medallist in 1822 and became a fellow of Trinity in 1823. In 1824 he was elected professor of ancient languages in the new University of Virginia at Charlottesville, but after four years returned to England as the first professor of Greek at the newly founded University College in London.

In 1842 he succeeded T.H. Key as Professor of Latin at University College; in 1846-1849 he was reader in jurisprudence and civil law in the Middle Temple, and finally (1849-1871) classical lecturer at Brighton College. Subsequently, he lived in retirement at Portfield, Chichester, in receipt (from 1873) of a Civil List pension of L100 a year obtained for him by Gladstone.

He was one of the founders (1830), and for twenty years an officer, of the Royal Geographical Society; an active member of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, for which he edited the quarterly Journal of Education (1831-1835) as well as many of its text-books; the editor (at first with Charles Knight, afterwards alone) of the Penny Cyclopaedia and of Knight's Political Dictionary; and a member of the Society for Central Education instituted in London in 1837.

He contributed the Roman law articles to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and wrote also for the companion dictionaries of Biography and Geography. He is remembered, however, mainly as the editor of the Bibliotheca Classica series- the first serious attempt to produce scholarly editions of classical texts with English commentaries- to which he contributed the edition of Cicero's orations (1851-1862).

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