Luke 17:2

It were better for him,&c. The literal rendering of the verse is "It is for his advantage if a millstone is hanginground his neck, and he has been flunginto the sea, rather than that, &c." In other words, the fate of a man who is lying drowned at the bottom of the sea is better than if his continuance in life would have led to causing "one of these little ones" to stumble. The general thought is like that of Queen Blanche, who used to say of her son St Louis when he was a boy, that she would rather see him dead at her feetthan know that he had fallen into a deadly sin.

a millstone The true reading here is lithos mulikos,not mulos onikos,a millstone so large as to require an ass to work it. This is introduced from Matthew 18:6.

one of these little ones St Mark adds "that believe in me" (Luke 9:42). The reference is not to children, or the young, though of course the warning applies no less to their case; but primarily to publicans and weak believers. Christ calls even the Apostles -children, John 13:33 (cf. 1 John 2:12-13).