# XXV: Sunt Lacrimae Rerum explained — Marius the Epicurean

> Chapter companion for Marius the Epicurean by Walter Pater.

## What happens

Marius reflects on the pervasive sorrow of human existence, cataloging a series of poignant vignettes—orphans, a senile mother being left at a home, a child watching his father's labor, a boy injured at work, and a racehorse led to slaughter—that illustrate the universal capacity for suffering. He confesses a sense of failed love and indifference to others' pain, yet finds a touch of the eternal in human clinging and self-pity, suggesting a possible divine sympathy behind the vain show of things.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering, Compassion, and Human Solidarity

The chapter is a meditation on the ubiquity of suffering and the imperfect sympathies that fail to fully connect humans, yet Marius finds a touch of the eternal in human clinging and self-pity.

### Death, Mortality, and the Hope of Afterlife

Marius reflects on the gradual approach of death ('is it of cold always that men die') and the 'sorrowful mysteries' of mortal life, including the end of the injured boy and the slaughtered horse.

### The Search for Moral Principle and Right Conduct

Marius grapples with a sense of failed love and the reproach of historical cruelties, questioning his own moral indifference and the natural unkindness in things.

## Character check-ins

### Marius

Marius is the narrator and central consciousness, keeping a register of his private thoughts and humors, reflecting on suffering, compassion, and the failure of love.

### Marcus Aurelius

The Stoic emperor is mentioned as Marius's patron who made charity fashionable by forgiving public debts in a grand bonfire in the Forum.

### Nero

Referenced in connection with the cold-blooded slaughter of four hundred slaves, a historical crime that Marius feels reproached by.

## Key lines

> Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

There are tears for things, and mortal affairs touch the mind.

_This Latin phrase from Virgil's Aeneid serves as the chapter's title and encapsulates its theme of universal sorrow and empathy._

> I would that a stronger love might arise in my heart!

I wish that a more powerful love could grow within me.

_Marius expresses a desire for greater compassion after observing scenes of suffering._

> We are constructed for suffering!

We are built to experience pain.

_Marius concludes that human nature is fundamentally oriented toward suffering._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/marius_the_epicurean_se/chapters/part-iv-xxv-sunt-lacrimae-rerum
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/marius_the_epicurean_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/marius_the_epicurean_se/chapters