THli MUTUAL INFLUENCE 
 
 OP CHRISTIANITY 
 AND rm STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 BRYANT 
 
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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 BR 128 .S7 B79 1866 
 Bryant, James Henry. 
 The mutual influence of 
 Christianity and the Stoic 
 
 
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THE MUTUAL INFLUENCE 
 
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 CHRISTIANITY AND THE STOIC SCHOOL. 
 
THE MUTUAL INFLUENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE STOIC SCHOOL. 
 
 JMIES HENRY BRYANT, B.D. 
 
 ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 
 INCUMBENT OF ASTLEY, WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 fxdvTis itji iadXiJov dyuvwv. 
 
 Soph. CEd. Col. 1080. 
 
 Hontron antt (STninbritige : 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1866. 
 
QDaintttDge: 
 
 FlllNTED BY C. J. CLAY M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
TO HIS GRACE, 
 
 WILLIAM, DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G., LL.D. 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 
 THE FOLLOWING ESSAY, BEING 
 
 THE HULSEAN DISSERTATION 
 
 IN TUE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, FOR THE YEAR 1865, IS 
 BY HIS grace's kind PERMISSION, 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAfiE 
 
 Introduction * 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Stoic School of Philosophy 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Stoicism in comparison with Christianity 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Influence of Christianity on Stoicism 48 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Influence of Stoicism on the Christian Church ... 74 
 
 Conclusion ^1 
 
Clauses directed hy the FOUNDER to he always prefixed 
 to the HuLSEAN Dissertation. 
 
 CLAUSES from the WILL of tho Rev. JOHN 
 HULSE, late of Elworth, in the County of Chester, 
 clerk, deceased : dated tho twenty-first day of July, 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and teventy-seven ; expressed in tho words 
 of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, 
 thought proper to draw and ^vl•ite the same him- 
 self, and directed that such clauses should every 
 year be printed, to the intent that the several per- 
 sons, whom it might concern and be of service to, 
 might know that there were such special donations 
 or endowments left for the encouragement of Piety 
 and Learning, in an age so unfortunately addicted 
 to Infidelity and Luxury, and that oLhers might 
 be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly 
 hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions. 
 
 He directs that certain rents and profits 
 (now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly) 
 be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the 
 University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master 
 of Arts, as shall compose, for that year, the best 
 Dissertation, in the English language, on the Evi- 
 dences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles 
 in particular, or any other particular Argument, 
 
whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the 
 Christian Religion, in order to evince its truth and 
 excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be 
 given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of 
 Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of 
 them, on New Year's Day annually ; and that such 
 Dissertation as shall be by them *, or any two of them, 
 on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also 
 printed, and the expense defrayed out of the Author's 
 income under his Will, and the remainder gJven to 
 him on Saint John the Evangelist's Day following; 
 and he who shall be so rewarded, shall not be 
 admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in 
 the same way, to the intent that others may be 
 invited and encouraged to write on so sacred and 
 sublime a subject. 
 
 He also desires, that immediately following the last 
 of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this 
 invocation may be added : " May the Divine Bless- 
 ing for ever go along with all my benefactions ; and 
 may the Greatest and the Best of Beings, by his 
 all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the 
 same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my 
 fellow-creatures !" 
 
 Subject proposed by the Trustees for the Year 1865 : 
 
 The mutual Injluence of Christianity and the 
 
 Stoic School. 
 
 * By the new Regulations, the four Divinity Professors were ap- 
 pointed as additional Adjudicators. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It was at Atlieus, " the school of the world," that the first 
 and ouly contact of Christianity with Gentile Philosophy, 
 recorded in the New Testament, took place. In "the 
 learned city" the mightiest efforts of the human mind liad 
 been made to grasj) eternal truth. But the contradictions 
 in the teachings of the master-minds of Greece and the 
 consequent doubt and unbelief so prevalent, at the same 
 time, with the most abject superstition, proved that the 
 effort had been vain to arrive at a full comprehension 
 of the Infinite from a consideration of the finite — to rise 
 from man to GoD. In this same city, about half a century 
 after the birth of the Redeemer, there was unveiled to 
 human souls which had been longing for the knowledge 
 of the unseen, " the mystery of Godliness," that " GOD " 
 had been " manifest in the fiesh." The eyes which had 
 been long looking for the day might now behold the day- 
 star from on high who had visited and blessed the world 
 with light and salvation. Now there could be found 
 repose of soul and certainty of belief, because the Truth 
 had come down from heaven, from GoD to man, that He 
 might raise man to GoD. Heavenly wisdom at length 
 encountered human wisdom and pride of intellect in their 
 stronghold. 
 
 By this I do not mean that before St Paul came to 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Athens tliere had been no contest of the religion of Christ 
 with mere human conceits. Philosophy is only the endea- 
 vour to reduce the thoughts of men to a system, to find a 
 grammar for the language of the mind, or rather, perhaps, 
 to find a language as well as a grammar. Wherever there 
 is mind there will be thought, either with, or without a 
 system. So that Christianity, in winning its way, had met 
 with opposition of human thought before the great Apo- 
 stle of Jesus reached the metropolis of thought. Indeed 
 the very sects of philosophy, which sneered at the revela- 
 tion of heavenly truth on its introduction into Athens, 
 had their counterparts in Jadsea, and especially at Jerusa- 
 lem. We have the testimony of a Pharisee, that the "sect 
 of the Pharisees -bore a strong affinity to that called Stoic 
 among the Greeks \" We are led to perceive, also, from 
 the accounts we have of the free-living Sadducees, who 
 claimed absolute freedom for the human will, that the 
 Epicureans were represented in some degree by them. 
 They were sceptics as to the providence of GoD, "believed 
 in neither angel, nor spirit^;" "they took away all fate, 
 and would not allow it to be anything at all, nor to have 
 any power over human affairs, but put all things entirely 
 into the power of our own free wnlP." Both Pharisees 
 and Sadducees, though disagreeing in other respects, yet 
 were united in their efforts against the spread of the truth. 
 From the earliest preaching of the doctrines of the Gospel, 
 the same spirit of self-seeking and joride of human nature 
 
 ^ "H ^apiaaiuv aXpeais 7rapair\i^<ri.os iarl rrj trap "EXKrjai Srwlkj 'Keyofx^- 
 vri. — Jos. in vita sua. 
 
 ^ Acts xxiii. 8. 
 
 2 Irjv fiiv elfiapfj.ii'rjv avaipovffiv, oiihiv etvai. rair-qv d^iovvres, oire /car' 
 aiTT^v rd. avOpdjiriva t^Xos 'Kajj.da.vuv, atravra ik i<p' rj/x'iy avTo7s Ti6ivT(S. — 
 Jos. Ant. Jud. xnr. 5. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 which animated the Epicureans and Stoics, showed them- 
 selves adverse to the humbling views which Jesus set 
 forth. And we cannot forget that St Paul, immediately 
 after his conversion, having been in great danger at Da- 
 mascus and at Jerusalem from the rage of the Jews 
 because of his becoming a Christian, dwelt some time in 
 ([uiet at Tarsus, his native city. We have no record of 
 how he spent his time there on that occasion. But doubt- 
 less, as at other places so there, he would proclaim the 
 conviction which he so strongly felt of the excellence and 
 truth of the Gospel. If so, it is probable that he met 
 with the same kind of coldness and contempt for his mes- 
 sage from the philosophers of Tarsus, as afterwards from 
 those of Athens. The native city of St Paul was noted 
 for the eagerness for learning displayed by its people. 
 Strabo tells us " the men of this place are so zealous in 
 the study of philosophy and all other subjects of education 
 that they surjiass the inhabitants of Athens and Alexan- 
 dria, and every place that one could mention where schools 
 of philosophy are found. The difference is in this re- 
 spect. Here they are all natives who are eager after 
 Icarninfj, and strangers do not choose a residence here. 
 They themselves (the Tarsians) do not stay, but finish 
 their course of training abroad. Few return home again. 
 Whereas, in the other cities which I have named, except 
 Alexandria, there is a contrary practice ; for many come 
 to them and live willingly there : but you will see few of 
 those born there either going to other places for the sake 
 uf philosophy, or caring to study it at home. The Alex- 
 andrians combine both descriptions, for they receive many 
 •strangers, and send abroad not a few of their own people." 
 We learn also from other sources that from Cilicia, and 
 especially from Tarsu.s, a great many of the most cele- 
 
 b2 
 
4' " INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brated Stoics came, and it appears therefore extremely 
 probable that St Paul would meet with such in his visit to 
 that city. If he met with them, they would hear the 
 truth from his lips. His heart would prompt him, as it 
 did afterwards at Athens, to proclaim glad tidings of sal- 
 vation to all ; and to those who professed to seek the 
 knowledge of deeper mysteries than the ignorant mass 
 cared to inquire about, he would declare "the mystery 
 which " had " been hid for ages," but was now " revealed 
 to the sons of men by Jesus Christ." 
 
 Of these meetings between the Apostle and the philo- 
 sophers of his native city, if they took place, we have no 
 record. The first account we have of the contact of the 
 religion of Christ and the wisdom of men is given us by 
 the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, in the seventeenth 
 chapter of the history. We are' told that, while St Paul 
 waited at Athens for Silas and Timotheus, " his spirit was 
 stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to 
 idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with 
 the Jews and with the devout persons ; and in the market 
 (t^ ayopa) daily with them that met him. Then certain 
 of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. 
 And some said, 'What will this babbler say ?' Other some, 
 ' He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods ;' because 
 he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." It 
 seems necessary in passing, to notice here the two sects of 
 philosophers who encountered the Apostle. They were 
 then the two most prominent in Greece ; one might say 
 they divided between them the adherence of all thought- 
 ful minds. The Epicureans were advocates of the doctrine 
 of the absolute freedom of the human will to choose what 
 is agreeable to it. They denied the providence of GoD, 
 or that he concerns himself at all about human affairs. 
 
INTRODUCTION. '5 
 
 According to them, the universe was neither formed, nor 
 created, by an intelligent being ; but was merely the 
 fortuitous concourse of infinite atoms. They taught that 
 happiness consisted in the pursuit of pleasure, and, as 
 all wish to be happy, all should seek after the greatest 
 amount of pleasure to be obtained. Although Epicurus 
 was fiercely assailed by the disciples of the opposite school, 
 and "the garden," where he taught, was held to be 
 a hot-bed of sensuality, there was probably mucli exag- 
 geration in the reports that were spread. E])icurus meant 
 by his teaching, perhaps, not that men should seek after 
 every momentary gratification, but for the greatest enjoy- 
 ment of a whole life. Yet as this doctrine left man to be 
 his own judge, it is not to be wondered at if the modera- 
 tion of the founder of the sect was little imitated by his 
 disciples. Men took pleasures as they came, not knowing 
 what pleasure might be in the future, and not caring for 
 the morrow ; so vice and jDrofligacy were the result, in- 
 stead of virtue and contentment and true enjoyment. 
 
 The Stoics, on the other hand, were absolute fatalists, 
 and taught that virtue consists in following the decrees of 
 nature and acting according to the dictates which ruled 
 all things. We shall not now enter fully into their doc- 
 trines, as these will require careful attention and full de- 
 velopment in accordance with the purpose of this essay. 
 We shall see, bye and bye, that the principles of their 
 school were of such a nature as to produce in some re- 
 spects the strongest, in others, the Aveakest of men. Stoi- 
 cism and Epicureanism both left man practically to him- 
 self. They agreed in looking at self-cultivation and self- 
 interest as the chief good. The controversy between the 
 two systems was what it has continued to be since among 
 ethical philosophers, a controversy as to the sources of 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 moral rules. Epicurus was an advocate of what has been 
 called "the selfish system of morals." Zeno and the 
 Stoics advocated the contrary system. It seems, however, 
 that though the conflict between them has been so long, 
 and often so fierce, the two systems are not incompatible 
 one with the other. Indeed in the word of God both 
 motives are set before us to urge us to right conduct, the 
 loveliness of virtue in itself, and the combined happiness 
 and blessedness to be gained from a certain course of life. 
 This view has been put in a few forcible words by an 
 eminent writer of the present day, who says, "Some mo- 
 ralists employ themselves mainly in deducing the rules of 
 action from considering the tendencies of actions to pro- 
 duce j)leasure or pain, as Paley and Bentham. Others 
 take pains to show that man has a faculty by which he 
 apprehends a higher Hule of action than the mere ten- 
 dency to produce pleasure, as Butler. But though these 
 two sources of morality are thus separate, they are not 
 really independent ; and it is, as I conceive, important to 
 present them in a mode which shows their connexion and 
 relation \" One of these springs of action does not neces- 
 sarily counteract the other. Doubtless, there is in man 
 an innate appreciation of the beauty of virtue. Though 
 the temple of the human soul has been laid in ruins by 
 the touch of sin, yet does it still retain marks of its prim- 
 eval glory. It was not created for anything but the abode 
 of purity. Hence we perceive naturally the excellence of 
 virtue. When I say naturally, I mean as man is at all 
 times enabled to see by God's help. We must remember 
 that, by virtue of the Kedeemer's merits, all men are 
 blessed with a certain degree of enlightenment. Speak- 
 
 1 Whewell's Elements of Morality, Preface to the 4th Edition. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 ing of the Etcnial Logos, St Jolin says*, "That was the 
 true liglit which lightcth every man that cometh into the 
 world." Only Lccause men in their obstinacy close their 
 eyes, the light which is given them often becomes dark- 
 ness. So St Paul, speaking of those without Revelation, 
 says^ "Tliey are a law to themselves, which show the 
 work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience 
 also bearing witness, and their thoughts l)ctwt'cn them- 
 selves accusinof, or else excusing one another." In order 
 to this they must appreciate the beauty and excellence of 
 virtue. So Justin Martyr declares', "Every race of men 
 participated in the Logos." When we speak of man by 
 nature then, we mean man witli the aid of this light given 
 to him by Christ. And we must perceive great force in 
 the statement of Berkeley, that " There is an idea of 
 beauty natural to the mind of man. This all men desire. 
 This they are pleased and delighted with for its o\\ai sake, 
 purely from an instinct of nature. A man needs no argu- 
 ment to make him discern and ajjprove what is beautiful ; 
 it strikes at first sight and attracts without a reason. 
 And as this beauty is found in the shape and form of cor- 
 poreal things, so also is there analogous to it a beauty of 
 another kind, an order, a symmetry and comeliness in the 
 moral M'orld. And as the eye perceives the one, so the 
 mind doth by a certain interior sense perceive the other : 
 which sense, talent, or faculty, is even quickest and purest 
 in the noblest minds. Thus, as by sight I discern the 
 beauty of a plant, or an animal, even so the mind ap- 
 proves moral excellence, the beauty and decorum of justice 
 and temperance. And as we readily pronounce a dress 
 becoming, or an attitude graceful, we can, with the same 
 
 ' Chap. i. Q. ^ Kom. ii. 15. ' Apol. I. 46. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 free, untutored judgment, at once declare whether this or 
 that conduct or action, be comely or beautiful." 
 
 We cannot deny, on the other hand, that men act from 
 a feeling of self-interest. To obtain pleasure or escape 
 pain is motive enough to make men pursue a certain 
 course instinctively, without weighing accurately, or even 
 caring at all for the motives which prompt them. When 
 men see that virtue brings in its train present blessing 
 and eternal hopes, shall we deny that this is a strong 
 reason why they should pursue it? Doubtless such a 
 reason weighs with many and draws them to a right 
 course, without a question arising in their minds as to the 
 motives by which they are actuated. 
 
 Then the enquiry naturally occurs, since virtue com- 
 mends itself to us as both lovely and beneficial, shall we 
 reject the loveliness as a motive, because our self-interest 
 moves us also ? On the other hand, shall we reject hope 
 of benefit, because the innate loveliness of the object 
 commends itself to us? May we not be moved by the 
 double influence? Certainly the word of God seems to 
 sanction such a double motive to religion and virtue. 
 
 Yet here we are brought to the humbling conviction 
 of the weakness of man without Christianity. Men had 
 this combined motive for ages. What was the result on 
 the heart and the life ? What effect had even the teach- 
 ing of the wisest ? The masses were still sunk in super- 
 stition and sin. The farthest advanced were only looking 
 at a height which they could not hope to reach. The 
 most acute thinkers were often in doubt. We see the 
 extremes meeting. Superstition, in its most debased and 
 enthralling forms, stands boldly in the front of the most 
 exalted teachings of philosophy. What could mere philo- 
 sophy do ? She could perhaps find employment for the 
 
INTUODUCTION. 9 
 
 minds of a few of tlio most gifted. But -wlint had she to 
 give as food for tlic hungry souls of the multitude ? The 
 starving spirits asked for bread, and she gave them the 
 stone of an unattainable moral excellence. They asked 
 for fish, and she gave them the stinging serpent of plca'^ure 
 and self-enjoyment \ In Athens the human mind reachotl 
 its zenith, yet could not rise to happiness or peace. How 
 unspeakably was the world blessed, therefore, when the 
 cross of Christ was raised as the means whereby man 
 might reach heaven. Never before was such life-giving 
 truth offered to the Athenians, as the good news which 
 was now brought by the Apostle who " preached unto 
 them Jesus and the resurrection." This was the subject 
 of St Paul's daily discourses in the Agora. Instead of 
 blind theories and abstract ideas, he placed before them a 
 person ; — a divine person, who had left an example of how 
 to act and how to suffer; — a Saviour, who had died to 
 open the way to happiness for others ; who had risen again 
 to show that his sacrifice Avas complete and sufficient. 
 The Epicureans wondered and yet were unbelieving, while 
 they heard of one who was Lord of all, that he thought of 
 men's lives and cared for their needs. It was stranirc and 
 unwelcome to them, who held that happiness was enjoy- 
 ment and freedom from pain, to hear one proclaimed as 
 worthy of their admiration and trust, who was " a man of 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief," who even gloried in 
 His sufferings and death ; and who had bid those that 
 would be his disciples, take up their cross and follow 
 him, by resisting and subduing self and pride. The 
 Stoics heard the tidings (for " the porch " was in the 
 Agora), and they, stern and self-reliant, were surprised, 
 
 * See our Lord's words, Matt. vii. 9, 10. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 yet not pleased, to hear of one who led a life of self-sacri- 
 fice for others' sake ; who was meek and lowly ; and who 
 had sent his messenger to declare to those very self-satis- 
 fied philosophers, that the only way to real virtue for 
 them, as for the rest of mankind, was by trusting in the 
 merits of another, and by a change of heart through His 
 divine power. " The resurrection" was also equally strange 
 and equally contrary to the ideas of the one sect, who 
 regarded death as annihilation ; and of the other, who 
 looked on it as the absorption of men into universal na- 
 ture of which they were component parts. To some the 
 preacher seemed a mere babbler, a picker up of trifles, 
 and therefore contemptible. To others, he was a setter 
 forth of strange gods. But because they are all desirous 
 of hearing anything newer than what they already are 
 acquainted with, they bring the Apostle to Mars' Hill, and 
 desire him more fully to expound to them the strange 
 things which he had brought to their ears. The locality 
 chosen was more suitable than the busy market-place. 
 The associations of the place were solemn and deeply in- 
 teresting. The subject then brought before the people in 
 the Areopagus was worthy of those associations, — far more 
 important and of more momentous consequences than 
 had ever been deliberated on there in times that were 
 gone by. The place, the speaker, the hearers, the sub- 
 ject, all appeal to our sympathies and interest us most 
 deeply. The discourse of the Apostle was admirably 
 suited to the place and the hearers. He appealed to their 
 deepest convictions, while at the same time the message 
 which he brought thwarted many of their cherished ideas. 
 St Luke has given us a report of this speech, so eloquent, 
 so worthy of the admiration of all time, so well calculated 
 to show how far Christianity coincided with Gentile, and 
 
INTRODUCTION'. 11 
 
 especially Stoic, philosophy, and how it excelled. This was 
 what St Paul said, " Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in 
 all respects you are extremely devout*. For as I passed 
 through your city and beheld the objects of your worship, 
 I found among them an altar on which was this inscrip- 
 tion, ' To the unknown God.' Him, therefore, whom you 
 worship though you know him not, I set before you. 
 God, who made the world and all things therein, being 
 Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made 
 with hands ; neither is he served hymen's hands as being 
 in need of any, seeing he giveth to all life and breath 
 and all things. And hath made of one blood every na- 
 tion of men to dwell on the face of the whole earth; 
 having ordained (to all) their appointed seasons and the 
 bounds of their habitations, that they might seek GoD, 
 if haply they would feel after him and find him, though 
 he be not far from every one of us. For in Him we 
 live and move and have our being ; as certain also of 
 your own poets have said, ' For we are also his offspring.' 
 We, therefore, being the offspring of GoD, ought not to 
 think the Godhead to be like gold, or silver, or stone 
 graven by art or man's device. Howbeit those (past) times 
 of ignorance GoD hath overlooked; but now he com- 
 mandcth all men everywhere to repent. Because he hath 
 appointed a day in which he will judge the world in 
 righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, 
 whereof ho hath given assurance unto all, in that he 
 raised him from the dead*." 
 
 There is much, in connexion with the purpose of our 
 essay, that requires careful consideration in this discourse. 
 
 ^ There can be no doubt that 5ei(rt5atjttor«ffT^pous = valdo relijjiosoa. 
 ^ Acts xvii. 22 — 31. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION". 
 
 If we want to understand the influence which Christianity 
 and Stoicism exercised, one on the other, and on the souls 
 of men, we must notice them side by side at this their 
 first public encounter. When we have observed how far 
 the Christian teacher agreed with the Stoic philosopher, 
 and in what he differed and excelled, we shall have a fair 
 starting-place for investigating the mutual consequences 
 which resulted. In order properly to grasp our subject, it 
 will be necessary to place before our minds what Stoicism 
 was as it came from its founder, and how far it was modi- 
 fied at this time. I purpose therefore in another chapter 
 to give a sketch of the life and teaching of Zeno of Cittium, 
 and of the modifications of his system by Cleanthes and 
 Chrysippus. The way will then be clear to compare the 
 Apostle's teaching with theirs, and to appreciate the pe- 
 culiar excellence of the good news preached by St Paul on 
 Mars' Hill. 
 
FRIITOSTOIT 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 THE STOIC SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ' A.vaicd/j.irTui> 5i iv ry ttoim'Xi? <XTof ry Kal HciaiavaKTclg. KoXov/xlfy, iirb 
 Si TTJi ypa<prji Ttjs UoXvyvuirov, iroiKlXr], hUdero roiii "Kdyovs . . .Upocrje- 
 aav 8r} \oi.it6i> dKoiJovrej avrov Kai 5ia tovto ^tuI'koI (KKiiO-qaaLV, Koi ol 
 6.1T avTov Ofj-oius, irpoTepof Zijcuii'etot KoXoOfievoi. 
 
 Diog. Laert. vit. Phil. Lib. Vil. 6, 7. 
 
 Zeno was born at Cittiura, a small cify in the island of 
 Cyprus, founded by Phoenicians, but inhabited by Greeks. 
 His father, who was a merchant, finding his son attracted 
 to the study of philosophy, allowed him to follow his bent. 
 From Athens, whither he had often occasion to go for 
 commercial purposes, the father frequently brought home 
 for his son many writings of the Socratic school of phi- 
 losophers. Zeno read these with great eagerness and was 
 enchanted with the views which they unfolded. When he 
 was about thirty years of age he made a voyage, probably 
 of business and pleasure combined, to the city which was 
 at once the home of the philosophers who had so delighted 
 him by their works, and a great centre of trade. The 
 story goes that he was shipwrecked on the coast and lost a 
 valuable cargo of Phoenician purple which he had brought 
 with him. Others say he did not lose his property when 
 he first came to Athens, but was, on the contrary, abound- 
 ing with wealth. The former version of the story would 
 account to those who questioned the disinterestedness of 
 his conduct, for his having attached himself to a sect that 
 professed to despise riches. On his first arrival, having 
 
14 THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 read, at a bookseller's stall, a few pages of Xenophon's 
 Memorabilia, he formed a high opinion of the author of 
 a work which so pleased him, and asked the bookseller 
 where such men were to be found. Crates, the Cynic, 
 happened to pass at the time, and the bookseller replied, 
 " Follow that man." Zeno acted on the advice, placed 
 himself under the Cynic philosopher's instruction, and 
 enrolled himself among his disciples ; but he did not long 
 remain so. He became disgusted with the manner of 
 the sect, which he found too gross and unrefined for his 
 taste ; though at the same time he highly admired their 
 general principles and spirit. Besides, the activity of his 
 mind forbad him to abstain from all scientific enquiry, 
 and indifference .to science was a marked characteristic of 
 the Cynics. He became a disciple of the Megaric d(5ctrine, 
 and thought to learn the nature and causes of things. 
 He attended the school of Stilpo, the chief teacher of prac- 
 tical philosophy among the Megaric succession, who de- 
 clared that the sovereign good was im]3assivity (dirdOeta). 
 Zeno was pleased with the teaching of this school. To 
 Crates, his former master, who, being angry at his deser- 
 tion, endeavoured to draw him by force from his new 
 teacher, he exclaimed, "You may seize my body, but 
 Stilpo has laid hold of my soul." Becoming tired of this 
 teacher after some years, he turned to Diodorus Cronus, 
 who taught him Dialectics, and to Philo ; both of these 
 being contemporary Megarics with Stilpo. He also studied 
 under Xenocrates and Polemo, who were expositors of 
 Platonic pliilosoj^hy ; and from the Academics he learnt 
 much, for we can perceive a germ of Stoicism in the Pla- 
 tonic philosophy. But he found much in their teaching 
 also contradictory to his own theories. When he came 
 to Polemo, that teacher, with an insight into his dispo- 
 
OF rniLosornY. 15 
 
 Bition, said to liim, "I am no stranger to your Pliconician 
 arts, Zcno ; I sec that you intend slily to creep into my 
 garden and steal my fruit." 
 
 Being now, after twenty years' study, well informed as 
 to what others could teach him, as he was either dissatis- 
 fied with all, or moved by ambition, he determined to 
 found a new school. The place chosen for his teaching 
 was a puljlic portico, adorned with the paintings of Poly- 
 gnotus and other masters. Hence it was called TroiKik'q 
 (TTod (the painted porch) ; more commonly, as it was the 
 most famous in Athens, it was simply called aroa. From 
 this arose the name of the Stoics. As a teacher, Zcno 
 was celebrated for subtle reasoning and for enjoining 
 strict morality of conduct. As a man, his conduct corre- 
 sponded with his teaching. His docti'ines and manner of 
 life teach us that he gathered much from various systems. 
 He gathered from Pythagoras and Plato and Aristotle by 
 the teaching of Xenocrates and Polemo, from the Meraric 
 school by the teaching of Stilpo, Diodorus Cronus, and 
 Philo. Cicero, in his Academic Questions, tells us that 
 the doctrines of the old Academy were changed by Zeno 
 only in name. He adhered too to the Cynic doctrines, 
 slightly tinged by subsequent training perhaps, especially 
 by Stilpo's teaching that the perfection of wi.sdom con- 
 sisted in impassivity. But he did not share in Cynic 
 grossness, insolence, and affectation. He obtained the 
 applause and love of numerous disciples, among whom 
 was Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedon, Cleauthes, and 
 perhaps Chrysippus; though the last may have been the 
 disciple of Cleanthes only. To these two we must refer 
 again. The Athenians are said so to have respected Zcno 
 that they trusted to his keeping the keys of the citadel. 
 This may be questioned ; but there is no reason to doubt 
 
16 THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 that tliey honoured him with a golden crown, that they 
 gave him a public burial in the Ceramicus when he died, 
 and erected to his memory a statue of brass. By Cyprians 
 and Sidouians, to whom he was allied by descent, he was 
 also held in reverence. He is described as having been a 
 thin withered man, of dark complexion, and with his neck 
 bent. He preserved his health, though naturally feeble, 
 by abstemious living. His diet, even when honoured by 
 noble guests, as he often was, consisted only of figs, bread, 
 and honey. His brow, furrowed with thought, and his 
 look stern and hard, showed his Cynic education ; but, in 
 contrast to his first teachers, he was neat and careful in 
 his dress and person. Frugal in his expenses, he was 
 without avarice. He conversed freely, with poor as with 
 rich. He had only one servant ; Seneca says, none at 
 all. 
 
 Though he was proverbially sober and chaste, he was 
 assailed by various enemies in his lifetime. Arcesilaus 
 and Carneades of the New Academy, and in his latter 
 years, Epicurus, who disliked the philosophy and pride of 
 Zeno, were his powerful antagonists. Little credit is due, 
 however, to the abuse which jDassed on both sides. He 
 lived to old age. When he died is matter of doubt. He 
 is said to have been alive in the 130th Olympiad. In his 
 98th year, as he was leaving his school, he stumbled and 
 fell, and broke one of his fingers in the fall. Pain so affected 
 him that he exclaimed, striking the earth, "Ep')(^o/j,ac, rt 
 fju avea ; " I come, why dost thou call me ? " He went 
 home and strangled himself, about the year B.C. 260. 
 
 In trying, at the present day, to estimate the teaching 
 of Zeno, it is necessary for us to consider the cu'cum- 
 stances of the age in which he lived and taught, and to 
 remember also that it is difficult to find out how much of 
 
OF PUILOSOPHY. 17 
 
 the later Stoic philosophy really came from him. His 
 writings were numerous', but tlu'y arc lost. .His teaching 
 seems to have been UK^dihed, and sometimes even changed 
 altogether, by Chrysippus. Indeed the later professed dis- 
 ciples of the school seldom went back to the works of the 
 first Stoic. Let us, as well as we can, however, lay hold 
 of the circumstances in which he was placed as a philo- 
 soi^her, and the alterations he intioduced. 
 
 He began his course at a time of decay in Greece, and 
 when the mind of men was become sceptical as to all 
 things in heaven and earth. Philosophers had so quar- 
 relled with one another's dogmas, and proved one another 
 wrong so often, that men began to doubt if there were 
 any foundation on which to rest. GoD was educating the 
 world for the reception of the great truths of revelation. 
 He did this by showing men how helpless they were in 
 divine things by their own unaided nature, how contra- 
 dictory their speculations, how far short of the truth the 
 highest attainments of human intellects, how uncertain it 
 was which was truth of the various theories proposed, so 
 that men doubted about all truth. Zeno under these cir- 
 cumstances did a great work in educating the world still 
 further, and preparing it for the great Truth. He was to 
 the people of his day in some degree what Socrates was to 
 the men of his age. He brought back the influence of 
 reason and connnon sense, rescuing them from the Pyr- 
 rhonists, as Socrates did from the Sophists. Like the son 
 of Sophroniscus, also, the founder of the Stoics turned 
 men from mere speculation to action. Socrates taught 
 men to look within themselves, and created a desire to 
 live as became them. He was an ethical reformer, and so 
 turned men away from the guesses of a so-called philo- 
 
 ' Diug. Laert. enumerates and quotes many of his writings. 
 
 C 
 
18 THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 sophy, and from the scepticism consequent on failure. 
 Victor Cousin ha,s well said, "La pliilosophie Grecque 
 avait ^t^ d'abord une pliilosophie de la nature ; arrivee a 
 sa maturite elle change de caract^re et de direction et 
 elle devient une philosophic morale, sociale, humaine. 
 C'est Socrate qui ouvre cette nouvelle ^re et qui en repre- 
 sente le caractbre en sa personne." Plato followed him in 
 this. His fundamental problem was how man might live 
 like God. Aristotle turned men's thousfhts back ao-ain to 
 physics and metaphysics ; and then came a period of syste- 
 matic scepticism, by which the vanity of the guesses of 
 philosophy was exposed and derided. Zeno and Epicurus, 
 so different in other respects, yet both brought men back 
 to a better mind by teaching them that philosophy was 
 the art of living aright rather than merely thinking 
 aright ; the former, because living aright was in accord- 
 ance with nature, — the latter, because it made men 
 happy, and happiness was the great end to be sought by 
 alP. Zeno and Epicurus both had thus their share in 
 training men to receive the great Truth of God ; for they 
 both proved that man of himself can do nothing but con- 
 ceive of perfections that human nature alone cannot reach: 
 while the believer in divine love and mercy learns to say 
 with St Paul, "I can do all things through Christ Avhich 
 strengtheneth me." 
 
 I have before intimated that Zeno has been said 
 to have borrowed much of his philosophy from former 
 masters, giving the truths . new names. The various 
 schools which at different times prevailed in Greece, 
 amidst much contradiction, yet contained some germs of 
 truth, and therefore so far had some agreement one with 
 
 ^ "Le caracture commun de Stoicisme et de I'Epicur^isme est de 
 r^duire presque entibrement la philosophic h, la morale." — V. Cousin. 
 
OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 19 
 
 the otlicr. But tlio triitli was cumbered \\ith so inucli 
 rubbish that it was Dvcrpowored and hidth^i. These vari- 
 ous schools of thought endeavoured to grasp the same 
 object from ditferent standpoints, and opposed all others. 
 The Ionics looked around them, and from external objects 
 tried to make one natural law for all subjects and combi- 
 nations. They wished to reduce all things to accord with 
 a settled physical law. They aimed at discovering a prin- 
 ciple, a sidjstance, of which every thing that exists is a 
 combination. The IMathematical school reasoned from 
 within themselves. As Thales looked on the external 
 universe and thence tm-ned within, so Pythagoras reasoned 
 on external objects from within himself, from mental har- 
 monies to physical. Then came the Eleatics, contradicting 
 even reason itself. Zeno, the Eleatic, argued against 
 motion and sensible unity. Parmenides declared that 
 "thought and being are the same;" that "thought and 
 that for Avhich thought exists are one." Indeed the gi-eat 
 maxim of the school was to. 'rravra ev. They taught that 
 the sensible universe was purely phenomenal and acciden- 
 tal : that it was apparent, not real. The Megaric school, 
 which Zeno Citticus attended soon after he came to 
 Athens, taught somewhat similar doctrines, but in a dia- 
 lectic form. Their tenets, Pliny tells us, produced in 
 daily life, " rigorem quondam torvitatenKpie natura^ duram 
 et inflexibilem." I have already said that Stilpo placed 
 the height of wisdom in impassivity. These doctrines, so 
 various, so contradictory to reason oftentimes, made many 
 men professedly sceptics. Pyrrho and his followers, hav- 
 ing proved the impossibility of a science superhuman in 
 its height being reached by unaided man, supposed they 
 had destroyed all knowledge and certainty whatever. The 
 state of Athens then was particularly unsatisfactory. Old 
 
 C2 
 
20 THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 creeds were tottering. The sj^iritual life of Greece was 
 decaying, as was its national. Men wanted some refuge 
 from the distractions of their minds. Their spiritual na- 
 ture, their soul, began to exert its power, to speak in 
 tones that would be heard. The mind had been trying to 
 still its craving with the noble but unsatisfying theories of 
 Plato, or the subtleties of Aristotle. But the soul, the 
 inner life, had been uncared for. Now it claimed its share 
 of attention and new schools arose to satisfy, as far as they 
 could, the newly felt longings. 
 
 At such a time, Zeno founded his system. When 
 Greece was tottering and falling into ruin, out of materials 
 which I have shown to be so contradictory, he built up a 
 structure which outlasted Greece, and was removed 
 (altered a little, but in the main the same), to the new 
 centre of the civilization and power of the world. His 
 system lasted from his day to the time of Marcus Aurelius. 
 It was embraced by the Eomans with eagerness, as being 
 congenial with their nature, before they became corrupted 
 by their unrivalled prosperity. When at length it had 
 done its destined work in the world, it yielded to a 
 mightier and holier influence ; leaving, however, its im- 
 press on the souls of men, even as, before its own decay, 
 it received some of the rays of divine light Avhicli came 
 from heaven with the Son of God, though it did not 
 acknowledge the boon. 
 
 It would be beside the purpose of the present essay to 
 enter into all the specialities of the Zenonic doctrines ; or 
 to enquire at large, huw far Zeno differed from Plato, 
 or how nearly he agreed with Aristotle, in defining the 
 manner of iDerception by the mind. We need not discuss 
 riiv KaTaXrj7TTtKi)ii ^avraalav, which Sextus Empiricus 
 alleges to have been held by Zeao and his successors as 
 
OF piiiLosoriiv. 21 
 
 the one means of judging true from false ; respecting 
 which even Clean tlies and Chry.sippus diftercd'. An out- 
 line of the main features of the system ■will ho sufficient. 
 As I have before said, the first Stoic fixed his thoughts 
 chiefly on moral conduct. His philosophy was eminently 
 practical. It referred to the daily life. In order to stem 
 the torrent of scepticism and sensuality, he taught men 
 the value, the absolute necessity, of virtue. Tliey were to 
 apply his dogmas to their daily experience. They were 
 not to speculate, but to act; not to doubt, but to dare. 
 He taught them also that what Socrates had said was true, 
 that the knowledge and practice of good was virtue and 
 wisdom, that vice was therefore error in its worst form. 
 In order to induce men to conform to this knowledge in 
 their way of life, he unfolded to them how they were 
 related to the imiverse. 
 
 Every rational theory respecting the universe admits 
 of an Absolute Being of some sort. The difference begins, 
 when the relation of the \miverse with the Absolute Infi- 
 nite is explained and nnfolded. One theory would dis- 
 tinguish the Infinite from the nniverse, but make him act 
 from a kind of necessity. A second theory would allow 
 him to act with perfect freedom of will. A third theory 
 would make the universe itself to be the Absolute Infi- 
 nite; and a fourth would insist that the Infinite Being 
 is matter, of which the universe is only a modification. 
 ' Zeno seems to have taught the third of these theories ; 
 though in after writers we see traces of the first. Accord- 
 ing to him, there existed from all eternity a chaos, a con- 
 fused mass, vXt] TrpcoTrj, which contained the germ of all 
 
 ^ Cleanthes said tliat it was ri'Twcrts iv i/i'XV' '^^ impression made on 
 the soul, similar to that of a stamp on molten wax, too Krjpou Tvirwffiv : 
 while Cbrysippus said it was a (Tfpduxm, or modification of the soul itself. 
 
22 THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 future things. Gradually, order supervened and creation 
 assumed forms of various kinds, resulting in the universe 
 as it is now. The universe is one whole, which comprises 
 all things ; yet contains a passive principle, matter, to 
 iraa-')(ov, and an active principle, to ttolovv, which is reason, 
 or God. The soul of man is part of this divine nature, and 
 will be reabsorbed into it and lose its individual existence. 
 The Deity in action, if we may so speak, is a certain active 
 sether, or fire, possessed of intelligence. This first gave 
 form to the original chaos, and, being an essential part of 
 the universe, sustains it in order. The overruling power, 
 which seems sometimes in idea to have been separated 
 from the Absolute Being, was elfMapfievr}, fate, or absolute 
 necessity. To this the universe is subject, both in its 
 material and divine nature. Men return to life totally 
 oblivious of the past, and by the decrees of fate are 
 possessed of a renovated existence, but still in imperfec- 
 tion and subject to sorrow as before. The tenets of the 
 later Stoics may have been tinged with Christian truth on 
 this point, as on others ; but they had none of the noble 
 hope of the Christian dvda-racn^. Indeed, respecting their 
 dogma, Seneca said, "This renewal of life many would 
 reject, were it not that their restored existence is accom- 
 panied with utter forgetfulness of the past." 
 
 On their physical principles, the moral principles of 
 the Stoics depended. Conceiving themselves to be part 
 of universal nature, that their souls were part of the 
 divinity which actuated matter, they held themselves in 
 some measure to be gods. In human life therefore they 
 must follow nature, of which they formed part. But then 
 this nature was not this or that man's natural leaning, 
 but the laws of fate and the universal course of things, 
 from which resulted the unsuitableness of certain courses, 
 
OF niiLosopiiY. 23 
 
 and the excellence of others. To be conformed to tlio j 
 laws of the universe, of which they formed an essential * 
 ])art, was the ultimate end of life. Every man confirm- 
 ing to these laws is hajipy, notwithstanding external evils. 
 Every man's happiness, then, is in his own power; he is a 
 god to himself in some measure. To live according to his 
 true nature is to live godly ; godly life is virtue. This is 
 itself true happiness, independently of pleasure in the 
 common acceptation of the terra ; because the supreme 
 good is to follow what the law of nature points out as 
 being good. Virtue having its seat in the soul, outward 
 circumstances cannot reach the good man. As he can 
 distininiish good from evil, he is wise; and this suffices for 
 him. External things, forasmuch as they cannot reach 
 him, can neither increase his happiness or cause him 
 misery. Even torture cannot move him, because it cannot 
 reach his inner, true nature. There is no distinction 
 between different virtues as to degree, because they owe 
 their existence to their accordance with nature. All vices 
 are equal in degree, because they run counter to the one 
 law of virtue. These seem to have been the principal 
 features of Zone's teaching. His morality partook of the 
 evil of its origin. It was essentially artificial. Little 
 regard was paid to real nature in the pvirsuit of what was 
 called natural law : there Was little common sense, often- 
 times, in the ideas set forth under pretence of philosophy. 
 We cannot lose sight of the fact, however, that Stoi- 
 cism, as it came in contact with Christianity, was a system 
 that owed much to Cleanthes, and still more to Chrysippus. 
 Indeed, regarding the latter, we are told' that it was said, 
 Et fir) yap tJv XpyffiTTTro?, ovK civ rjV <TToa. The former > 
 was the earnest Stoic ; the latter the philosophical and 
 
 * By Diog. Laert. Lib. vn. c. vii. § v. 
 
24< THE STOIC SCHOOL 
 
 dialectic setter forth of the system. Under his hands, 
 in his various and most copious writings, the system was 
 probably not merely developed, but materially modified 
 in some respects, and systematized. Cleanthes has left 
 few records of his opinions behind him : but his H3"mn to 
 Jupiter will ever stand as a marvellous memorial of his 
 worth and intellect. It bears strcBig evidence to the Mo- 
 notheism of the system whicli he espoused. It has been 
 I a matter of controversy whether the Stoics were niono- 
 theists, or polytheists. The hymn to which I have just 
 referred, and to which I shall refer again in another 
 chapter, bears strong evidence, on the face of it, to the 
 belief in one absolute supreme being. Yet other passages 
 in many Stoic writers would seem to convey a different 
 idea. But it will be well for us not to forget that 
 the system was founded on a notion of the divine nature 
 totally different from our conception of a divine be- 
 ing. The monotheism of some of the Stoic wiiters may 
 have been the result of previous education. The fact 
 may be that one, or two, rose to higher conceptions of the 
 Eternal, than others were privileged with. This may have 
 resulted from their having come of a different stock \ and 
 
 ^ I cannot refrain from quoting here the following excellent remarks on 
 the origin of many Stoic philosophers who had great influence on the system, 
 from the article, "The Ancient Stoics," in the Oxford Essays of 1858, by 
 Sir Alexander Grant, Bart. : " If we cast our eyes on a list of the early Stoics 
 and their native places, we cannot avoid noticing how many of this school 
 appear to have come of an Eastern and often of a Semitic stock. Zeno, 
 their founder, vk'aa from Cittium, in Cjrprus, by all accounts of a Phoenician 
 family. Of his disciples Persasus came also from Cittium ; Herillus was 
 from Carthage ; Athenodorus from Tarsus ; Cleanthes from Assos, in the 
 Troad. The chief disciples of Cleanthes were Iphcerus of the Bosphorus, 
 and Chrysippus from Soli in Cilicia. Chrysippus was succeeded bj- Zeno 
 of Sidon, and Diogenes of Babylon. The latter taught Antipater of Tar- 
 sus ; who taught Panselius of Rhodus ; who taught Posidonius of Apamea 
 
OF nilLOSOPHY, 25 
 
 having had a diflfcrcnt early bent — a deeper intuition, as 
 it were, ])y nature — a purer sj)eeulati()n as to tlie unseen — 
 than those with wliicli others of the sect were endowed. 
 Tliose who were of a stock which deified ahiiost all thing's, 
 might carry their phantasies into the system itself. And 
 indeed it is possible that the same persons, under different 
 influences, may have had rather varied views of the hidden 
 world. Tlie system was one of ethics and not of specu- 
 lative philosophy. And if Christianity, with all its divine 
 testimonials and influences, does not bring all minds into 
 one accord about all things — even those who are of one 
 school of theology varying in opinion on certain points — 
 how very probable it is that men of the same school of 
 })hilosophy, with merely the authority of one man, neither 
 possessing, nor claiming a divine mission as founder, should 
 have somewhat different shades of thought. How possible 
 it is that they should, while viewing things from different 
 points of view, be almost inconsistent with themselves. 
 This kind of inconsistency was urged again and again 
 against Chrysippus, the most voluminous writer and chief 
 dialectician of the Stoics. Cleanthes has left few memo- 
 rials behind him, but his earnest pursuit of knowledge, 
 liis struggles to obtain the time and means of study, show 
 the pre-eminent zeal of the man. This zeal was the gi-eat 
 motive of his life. Possessed of a strong frame, of great 
 powers of endurance, we are told that he earned by night 
 what enabled him to live in study ])y day. His determi- 
 nation was so strong that he even made use of potsherds 
 
 in .Syria. Tiiere was another Athenodorus, from Cana, in Cilicia ; and the 
 early Stoic Archotleinua is mentioned by Cicero as belonging to Tarsus. 
 When we notice the frequent connexion of Cilicia with this list of names, 
 we may well be reminded of one who was born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a 
 citizen of no mean city ; and we may ))e led to ask, is there not something 
 in the mental characteristics of the early Stoics analogous to his ?" 
 
26 THE STOIC SCHOOL OF rHILOSOPHY. 
 
 and bones as his note-tablets. Such a man would impress 
 his earnestness on the system he espoused. His disciple, 
 Chrysippus, does not seem to have possessed his earnest- ) 
 ness of purpose to find out the truth, so much as to estab- 
 lish the system and wage war in its favour against all 
 adversaries. We have remarked that some inconsistencies 
 of doctrine were alleged against him. These appear to 
 have been owing to his desire to reconcile irreconcilable 
 things ; as, divine sovereignty with human freedom in any 
 respect: — universal goodness in the ordering of nature 
 with the presence of moral evil in the world. Such sub- 
 jects must always remain mysteries. He who will explain 
 them will be inconsistent either with himself or with 
 truth. 
 
 I shall proceed, in another chapter, to place the sys- 
 tem of Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus (that is, Stoicism 
 as it came, in its perfected condition, into contact with 
 divine truth) side by side with the doctrines and pre- 
 cepts taught us in the religion of Christ. We shall see 
 much to admire, much to lament in the sect that wished 
 to raise the individual almost to the level of the deity, i 
 and yet showed, by the suicides of the first two of its 
 founders, and by other proofs of human error, the fallacy 
 on which the system was built, that man himself is part of 
 the divinity, and so has only to act on his own influence 
 to rise to perfection. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 STOICISJI IN COMPARISON WITH CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 'Ey T]; <xo<plq. Tou OeoO, oi/K l-jfu 6 Kia/xos Sia tjJs <ro0/as rbf Oehv. 
 
 I Ep. ad Cor. i. 21. 
 
 Our way is now plain to compare tliis system of philo- 
 soph}', which has thus heen sketched, with the teaching 
 of Christianity. We shall see, if we place the address 
 of St Paul on IMars' Hill as the foundation of our thought, 
 how much the Christian Apostle had in common with the 
 Stoic teachers. As we go further and ask ourselves the 
 foundations on which the tenets of the religion of Jesus, 
 and those of the philosophy of Zeno, rest, we shall see 
 that herein they widely differ. It will be our work, in 
 order to distinguish the two things to be compared, again 
 to refer to the address to the Athenians : and although an 
 exhaustive commentary on that address woidd be out 
 of place here ; yet the subject seems to claim that we 
 refer to certain parts somewhat minutely. 
 
 We caimot fail to be striick with the fixct that, first of 
 all, the Apostle washed to draw the minils of his hearers, 
 from themselves and all surrounding objects, to one great 
 and supreme Creator and Governor of the world. This 
 infinite Being he shows to be a distinct personal existence, 
 separate from and superior to all things ; yet one who 
 
28 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 concerns Himself intimately with the affairs of men. He 
 is not a something vivifying and permeating all things, 
 and forming part of the essence of all things. He is the 
 great first cause of all, and existed before and indepen- 
 dently of all. The Apostle implies that none of the 
 guesses of the Avisest among his hearers had reached the 
 truth. Yet they had been feeling after Him, as men in 
 the dark try to feel their way to light. They had shown 
 their conviction that there was a great God, to the know- 
 ledge of whom they were strangers. To Him they had 
 erected an altar calling him by his title of Unknown. 
 Thus St Paul appeals to deep convictions impressed on 
 their minds. At the same time, he does not shrink from 
 showing that GoD does not require men's help, nor love 
 the worship of idolaters ; though the announcement ran 
 counter to strong prejudices, deeply seated in the minds 
 of his hearers. Men, he told them, are the offspring of 
 God. They should therefore render him the intelligent 
 and loving service due from children to a wise and bene- 
 ficent parent. Now in this great view of truth there was 
 presented to the Stoic much that he could agree with, and 
 yet a great deal opposed to, or in advance of, his precon- 
 ceived notions. The idea of the philosopher had been of 
 a supreme power which was a principle rather than a 
 person. Looking at himself, in connexion with the uni- 
 verse, he had not thought it impious to consider himself a 
 very part of this divine essence, rather than a creature 
 made by the divine power. Hence he had not a hum- 
 bling sense of his nothingness in comparison with the 
 Eternal. His philosophy rather gave him a feeling of 
 pride, from the conviction of his individual worth and 
 greatness, as an essential part of the great supreme. He 
 did not see that there was a mighty Being, a self-existent 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 29 
 
 Person, infinitely removed in power and nature from all 
 that he has made ; and that by Him men are cared fur 
 and loved, as the members of a vast family, of which he is 
 the Creator and Father. And in saying this, I do not lose 
 si-ht of the fact that some of the Stoics, at times, seem 
 to'^have risen superior to their own doctrhies, and to have 
 listened to the inner voice Avlii.h whispered to them ol 
 the everlasting Father. Whether it was from Aratus, or 
 Cleanthes, that St Paul cpioted, in his address to the 
 Athenians, yet we are forcibly reminded, by his words, of 
 the noble hymn of the second in the Stoic succession, a 
 song of praise almost unparalleled among the writings of 
 heathen anticiuity for nobility of utterance and purity of 
 thought. Addressing the chief of the gods, who, he says, 
 has many names and is the omnipotent prince of nature, 
 
 he sings : 
 
 " We are Thy offspring ; and of living things we alone 
 have the gift of speech, the image of reason. Therefore I 
 will for ever sing thee and celebrate thy power. All this 
 universe revolving round the earth obeys thee, and will- 
 ingly pursues its course at thy command. In thine un- 
 conquerable hands thou boldest such a minister as the 
 two-edged, flaming, vivid thunderbolt. King, most 
 high, nothing is done without thee, either in heaven, or 
 on'' the earth, or in the sea, except what the wicked do m 
 their foolishness. Thou makest order out of confusion, 
 and wliat is worthless becomes precious in thy sight ; for 
 thou hast fitted together good and evil into one, and hast 
 set up one law that is everlasting. But the wicked, un- 
 happy ones, fly from thy law, and though they desire to 
 possess what is good, yet do they not sec, nor do they 
 hear the universal law of Gon. If they would follow it 
 with understanding they might have a good life. But 
 
30 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 they go astray, each after his own devices, some vainly 
 ambitious of fame, others turning aside after gain avari- 
 ciously, others after riotous living and wantonness. Nay, 
 but, O Zeus, giver of all things, who dwellest in dark 
 clouds and rulest over the thunder, deliver men from their 
 foolishness ; scatter it from their souls. Grant tliem also 
 to obtain wisdom, for by wisdom thou dost rightly govern 
 all things ; that being honoured we may repay thee with 
 honour, singing thy works without ceasing, as is right for 
 us to do. For there is no greater thing than this, either 
 for mortal men, or for the gods, to sing aright the uni- 
 versal law." 
 
 One cannot fail to be struck with the marvellous in- 
 sight into the holiest truths revealed in these lines. A 
 candid mind must acknowledge with thankfulness how 
 graciously GOD was training the mind of man for the re- 
 ception of the mystery of godliness unfolded in the 
 Gospel. This fact St Paul acknowledged. He told the 
 Athenians that he was come to bring them further intelli- 
 gence of a Being, whom they, as the words of some of 
 their j^oets proved, acknowledged as the Lord and Father 
 of all ; whom they were desirous of knowing more fully. 
 Yet if we read the writings of the Stoics we cannot but be 
 saddened by the reflection that such views of God were 
 exceptional; that such desires to know more of him were 
 evanescent, if they existed at all in the minds of some. 
 These feelings were the work of some inner power, net 
 the result of their system of philosophy. The theory of 
 the universe which this system taught was one that did 
 not bow down the human soul in humble obedience and 
 in abasement before the Almighty ; but rather caused a 
 sense of pride and self-dependence at variance with this 
 feeling. Hence we meet with such expressions as we find 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 31 
 
 urged against the sect Ly riutarcli', wlio inforins us that 
 Clirysippus said that " tlic sage is not less useful to Zeus 
 than Zeus is to the sage." Similarly, how often arc there 
 recurring in various forms such a sentiment as we Hnd, for 
 instance, in ^Marcus Antoninus^ oTt 6 eKaarov vov<; fieo?, 
 Kol eKeWev eppvtjKe. While this was a cause of pride, it 
 was also one of sadness. Each man folt, in a great mea- 
 sure, left to himself. He was an atom broken off from a 
 vast whole, and would, bye and bye, l^e restored to his 
 former union. But he did not foel in this life that there 
 was an intimate personal loving union with a wise and 
 holy being, who was his personal friend and father. 
 
 This brings us to another point in which Christianity 
 and Stoicism were a contrast, yet at first sight not very 
 far removed one from the other. Both allowed and taught 
 an universal law, by which all nature and all events arc 
 regulated; but while the one teaches that this universal 
 law is the wisdom of an infallible Lord constantly superin- 
 tendinfj and ordcrin<x all thin<xs well, the other held that 
 all things were arranged according to the decrees of a 
 blind and unalterable fate. The Apostle of Christ taught 
 the Athenians that there was no truth in the wild specu- 
 lation of the Epicurean, who held that all things happened 
 by chance : but he brought before them, as a ruler, a 
 being full of intelligence and constantly superintending 
 the course of events; not some inexorable fate. He told 
 them of one who, having created of one blood all nations 
 that dwell on the face of the earth, arranged the period 
 of their existence and fixed the bounds of their habitation. 
 And He did this all in wisdom, with the intention that all 
 men might seek Him, and* find their happiness in the 
 knowledge of His goodness and by participating in His 
 ^ Advcrsus Stoicos, 33. - Lib. xii. Cap. 26, coUat. quoq. v. 10. 
 
32 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 love. Contrasted witli this was the doctrine of fatalism 
 which the Stoics taught. All things proceeded, they said, 
 from destiny, which was omnipotent. To its decrees both 
 gods and men must bow. From its power not the highest 
 even were exempt. This destiny was " the law according 
 to which what has been, has been ; what is, is ; and what 
 shall be, shall be'." Instead of an overruling Providence 
 constantly superintending the affairs of the universe, there 
 was a law binding the highest God, as well as the lowest 
 in creation. So we read in Seneca (De Providentia, cap. 
 VI.) : "Eadem necessitas et Deos alligat. Irrevocabilis 
 divina pariter atque humana cursus vehit. Ille ipse om- 
 nium conditor ac rector scripsit quidem Fata, sed sequitur. 
 Semper paret, semel jussit." The Stoical doctrine then 
 was that GoD himself is a servant to the necessity of the 
 material scheme; that He is bound by eternal decrees; 
 that he could not have created an atom different from 
 what it is, and cannot change anything merely accord- 
 ing to what He may will in the future. So Cicero 
 quotes a Greek poet, and puts these words as his meaning, 
 "Quod fore paratum est, id summum exuperat Jovem." 
 Indeed the first Stoics adopted this fatalism as their 
 belief, and seem to have held firmly as a truth, what 
 Herodotus states, hovko^ (5)eo9 ava<yK7]<i. We shall see 
 that this necessitarian scheme had an influence, of no 
 smtdl extent, on certain parts of the Church of Christ in 
 after ages. 
 
 I must proceed here, however, to point out another 
 aspect in which, though they seem to have had the same 
 end before tliem, namely, the raising man to moral excel- 
 lence, yet Christianity and Stoicism differed entirely — the 
 means whereby human perfection is to be attained. Chris- 
 1 Plutarch, I)c Placltls Pluloso'plcorum, I. 28. 
 
WITU CIIIUSTIANITY. 33 
 
 tianity pointeil men to the way of humility and self- 
 renunciation. Stoicism pointed tJiem to tlic i^erfectibility 
 ofmanbyhis own exertion, without trusting on divine aid. 
 St Paul preached Jesus to the cn(iuiring minds of Greece ; 
 Jesus, as a Saviour : — Jesus, as an Example to those who 
 would attain holiness of life, — as a pattern of a perfect 
 man. Now no lesson is more plainly taught in the Gospel 
 of Christ, than the truth that penitence and humility are 
 the necessary precursors of holiness and true glory. The 
 Stoic would look on repentance as a confession that he 
 had failed in his philosophy. It was no part of his scheme 
 to lower himself in order to rise. Much less had he any 
 idea of trusting in another's merits, and in another's self- 
 sacrifice, in order to have any chance at all of becoming 
 perfect for ever. But then, his idea of perfection was per- 
 fection as a philoso2:»her in this life. The glorious hope 
 of an eternal future, in which he would take part as a 
 purilicd being, freed from all sin and defilement by the 
 power of the omnipotent Father, and by the furnace 
 through which he had to pass in struggling during a 
 lifetime with temptation and with affliction, was no part 
 of his creed. Like the Christian, he had a lofty purpose, 
 but his purpose was confined to this life ; to be conformed 
 to the course of nature; to rise by his philosophy to a 
 rejTfion of indifference about outward thinos. His end was 
 attained, he thought, if he subdued his own nature ; if he 
 learnt to bear, without flinching, whatever might cause 
 him pain or inconvenience ; if what men commonly call 
 natural feelings and affections were done violence to, with- 
 out compunction, that he might thus attain to conformity 
 with the rule of universal nature. All this he did, or 
 professed to do, of his own power. He did not require a 
 power from on high, to forgive his errors, and to give him 
 
 D 
 
3-4 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 strength to be virtuous. E-ather, he was to be virtuous 
 as a means of making GoD proj)itious. Just as Seneca 
 says\ "Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est, conciHante 
 virtute." So that between this system and the Christian 
 doctrine, though they both professedly inculcate a life 
 of virtue and self-denial, there is an impassable gulph. 
 Stoicism raised pride in human excellence into a part of 
 its teaching. Indeed, the Stoic was, as has been justly 
 observed, a Pharisee among heathens. He prided himself 
 upon being not as others around him ; upon being better 
 and more exalted in virtue than they ; and therefore upon 
 being nearer GoD, and more worthy of the love of the 
 Most High. Now Christianity goes on exactly the op- 
 posite principle to this. She teaches men that they must 
 obtain the divine favour and aid, not by means of their 
 innate superiority, but as the means of rising to holiness 
 and virtue. We cannot take any steps at all in true ■ 
 moral excellence, till we are possessed of the love of God. 
 This is the foundation of Christian truth. The divine 
 life must have its beginning in repentance and renunciation 
 of self, in deep humility and consequent trust in divine 
 aid, given to all who ask it for Christ's sake ; because GoD 
 is love. We shall see, nevertheless, that the views of 
 many Christians have been tinged with the Stoic belief, 
 that by self-mortification, and even by trying to uproot 
 natural affections and feelings, planted in man by GoD 
 himself for wise ends, the human soul renders herself wor- 
 thier of the friendship of heaven. We hear St Paul, how- 
 ever, setting before the Athenians this great duty, first of 
 all, that they feel and acknowledge themselves in error, 
 in order to amendment of life ; and that they trust in the 
 merits of another, in order to atone for their own de- 
 
 ^ De Providentia, Cap. I. 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 35 
 
 merits. " He commandcth all men cvcrywlicrc to.roipont," 
 This was the testimony of the messenger of the triw Cod. 
 From the mention of tlie resurrection of Jesus, ii^iedi- 
 ately after this, and the manner in which that resurrection 
 is spoken of, it would seem that St Paul gave the Athe- 
 nians some particulars of the Redeemer's life and death 
 either on Mars' Hill or in the Agora. Now the life of 
 Christ would teach the Stoic, that true philosophy is not^' 
 trying to eradicate human feelings and instincts, but con- 
 trolling them. Nothing is so striking and so lovely in the 
 divine life of the Son of God, as its humanitij. He is ' 
 a " man with men," in every sense of the word. He is not 
 ashamed to show ordinary human feelings. He was truly 
 noble, yet not the less meek and lowly. He was truly 
 brave, yet did not think it unworthy of himself to show 
 how intensely he suffered. He was truly resigned to the 
 will of Heaven, yet thought it not contrary to right to 
 express his sorrow when he was bereaved. He dignified 
 human sympathy by even weeping with those that wept. 
 How incomparably does this true nobility rise above the 
 Stoic apathy, which condemned such feelings, and led 
 Seneca, in an Epistle to Lucilius, to deprecate the indul- 
 gence of grief for a friend's loss. " I myself," says he, 
 "wept so immoderately for Anna3us Screnus,...that I must, 
 against my will, be reckoned among the examples of those 
 whom grief has overcome. Nevertheless, to-day I con- 
 demn my error \" The last days of our Saviour's life gave 
 the world a perfect example of true dignity ; yet, Ave can 
 see, he counted it only fit, as a man, to show that he 
 felt keenly reproach and pain. But it was the Saviour's 
 
 ^ "Haec tibi scribo, is qui Annaeum Serenum, carissimum niilii, tarn 
 immodice flevi, ut quod minime velitn, inter exempla sim eorum quos dulor 
 vicit: bodie tauten factum meum damno," &c. — £p. LXiil. t'i. 
 
 D2 
 
36 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 deatb, and the reason for which his death was deemed 
 necessary by eternal justice, that took away for ever any 
 foundation for Stoic pride and self-dependence. Nothing 
 less than this was sufficient to atone for human error, and 
 make it possible for man to obtain pardon, and be re- 
 stored to the divine image which he had lost. It is thus 
 he can become truly wise and lead a life worthy of himself 
 as a man. And by the divine aid he will be able to rise 
 to greater heights of self-control, than any to which pride 
 of philosophy could raise him. The Stoics claimed for 
 the wise man that he is infallible and impassive, that he 
 is unmoved by outward events, with his mind ever in an 
 even state \ That which the Stoic dreamed of, the Chris- 
 tian may become, but in a spiritual and far higher sense. 
 There were those in the early Church, and there have 
 been many since, who showed themselves philosophers 
 indeed, " in honour and dishonour, in evil report and good 
 report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet 
 well known ; as dying, and, behold, they lived ; as sorrowful, 
 yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich ; as 
 having nothing, and yet possessing all things"." The great 
 Christian Apostle was able to say, " I have learned, in 
 whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know 
 both how to be abased, and I knovv^ how to abound: every 
 where and in all things, I am instructed both to be full 
 and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 
 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
 me^" In this last sentence is the real secret of all true 
 heroism. Christ is the source of true philosophy. He 
 alone gives true strength of mind : He can render the 
 believer omnipotent for good. " I can do all things," says 
 
 ^ (paffl 5^ Ktti diraOrj etvai tov (XO(})hv, k.t.\. — Diog. Laert. VI. I. 64. 
 ' 2 Cor. vi. 8 — 10. 3 pijj]_ iv. II — 13. 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 37 
 
 the Apostle ; the power is from above, however. Without 
 God, tlie strungcst becomes a child. This fiict, that (JoD 
 prepares the heart for virtue, and gives us strength to 
 resist evil and do good, takes away all caiisc for boasting 
 from even the most advanced in moral excellence. Where- 
 as, the Stoic system, beginning and ending in self, with 
 nothing else to trust to, caused man to become proud of 
 his supposed advances. He thought even to become 
 equal to the Most High. Indeed, so far was this feeling 
 carried, that we have from a disciple of the system, such a 
 boastful and (to our feeling) profane assertion as the fol- 
 lowing. Seneca, writing to Lucilius, after persuading him 
 to diligently cultivate philosophy, says, then "Thou wilt 
 excel all men, nor will the gods much excel thee.... To 
 the wise man his own age lies open, as much as every age 
 to God. There is one respect in which the wise man may 
 be said to excel God ; the latter is fearless by the gift 
 of nature, the wise man by his own merits \" 
 
 We have one other point that requires attention in 
 connexion with St Paul's speech, and that is the future 
 state. He laid before the Stoics, who heard him, the great 
 fact of the existence of men, as individuals, after death ; 
 and not merely their existence, but their having to appear 
 at the judgment seat of Christ, after being raised from the 
 dead. The whole of this was foreign to the Stoic system. 
 They had nothing, in their wisest speculations, approach- 
 ing to these gi'and ideas, which the Apostle unfolded to 
 them as divine mysteries. The early Stoics held that they 
 would, after death, return to union Avith the universe. 
 Their plan for getting rid of evil and regenerating all 
 
 1 "Omnes mortales mnlto antecedes, non multo te dii antecedent... Tan - 
 turn sapienti sua, quantum Deo, omnis aetas patet. Est aliquid, quo sapiens 
 aaitcoedat Deuui : ille natunc beneficio uon timet, suo sapicu.-i."— £/>. Liii. 
 
88 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 things, was one of periodical conflagrations. The Chris- 
 tian anastasis was something which unaided human intel- 
 lects could not reach. Moreover, the future judgment of 
 men, if it could have been received by the Stoics, would 
 
 ; have modified their system in many respects. They would 
 have had different views of the deity, if they had felt that, 
 after all, they were to stand at his bar, to give an account 
 of their words and works. They would have had a dif- 
 ferent view of life and of death, if they had known that 
 when they ceased to live on earth, they would begin a 
 new existence, in which they would be happy, or miserable, 
 according as they submitted to, or rejected the will of 
 God here. For the want of this great truth, their system 
 was shortsighted and, in some respects, evil. If death were 
 the end of man, as a separate person, Avhy should it not 
 be also held to be under the control of each ? In fact the 
 great lesson to learn was to become master in the last act, 
 as well as in others. The system was not a training for / 
 immortality. This life was the scene of battle and of 
 
 \ victory, to the Stoic. To the Christian, this life is the 
 battle-field. He is contented to wait till another state of 
 existence, for victory and peace. He can understand the 
 meaning of the words of St Paul, " If in this life only we 
 have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable \" 
 With the hope of the future before him, however, he is 
 content to suffer. He can bear suffering with fortitude, 
 and can even triumph over it. For him, " this light afflic- 
 tion, which is but for a moment, worketh out a fai- more 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while he looks not 
 at the things which are seen, but at the things which are 
 not seen." The restoration of the body and soul to a state 
 of perfection opens before the mind a treasure in future, 
 
 ^ I Cor. XV. 19. 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 for which present poverty is lightly borne. But to this 
 glorious hope the Stoic was a stranger. He lived for this 
 world. His sufterini's, his trials, must all be borne un- 
 flinchingly, because only here woidd ho boar them ; only 
 here would he, an offshoot of the deity, dwell as such. 
 Therefore it was beneath him to say he suffered. He 
 lived for himself, to raise himself above others. He must 
 despise what lowered his existence. He must trample on 
 pain. When the conflict was too severe, then the end alsoi 
 was at his command, and he might leave a scene which he | 
 could adorn no longer. Then there was an end to the 
 whole matter'. The suljlime doctrines of the Gospel, how- 
 ever, which open a splendid future to the virtuous soul, 
 teach men a far different lesson. Moreover, the certainty 
 of a just judgment leads them to be careful, how they 
 pass through a scene, which is to them the only state 
 of probation. They know that the future will be preg- 
 nant with evil to them, if they neglect, or al)usc the time 
 given to them for preparation. They look forward with 
 no less certainty to a reward for well doing. They are 
 sure there will be no mistake in the final adjudication. 
 All these thoughts tend one way; to the promotion of holi- 
 ness of life, and to those acts of kindness and charity, 
 which are evidences of the love of God in the heart. 
 These acts the great Judge has promised to reward, as 
 though they were done to Himself. He says that, in that 
 
 ^ On this part the following words of Cousin are worthy of attention : 
 "Le Stoicisnie est essentiellement solitaire: c'est le soin exclusif de son 
 fime, sans regard h, celles des autres; et coinme la seule chose importante est 
 la puret^ de ranie, qiiand cette purete est trop en peril, quand on desesi)bre 
 d'etre victorieux dans la hitte, on peut la terminer, comme I'a tcrminde 
 1 Caton. Ainsi la philosophic n'est plus qu'un apprentiaage de la mort, et non 
 de la vie ; elle tend Ji la mort par son image, I'apathie et I'ataraxie, et se 
 resout dtfinitivemeut en son egoisme sublime." 
 
40 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 day, he will declare respecting each of these deeds of 
 love, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to point out the distinctive 
 features of the two systems, where they came in contact. 
 In the Christian religion, ther.e is presented to the mind a 
 God of holiness and purity and almighty power, a being 
 who rules over all and works in man's heart. In the 
 Stoic philosophy, the Supreme Being is rather an idea 
 than a person; a part of the universe, just as the soul is 
 part of man. In the Christian system, the Lord of all is 
 represented as constantly exercising a wise and judicious 
 superintendence over all creation, blessing His works, and 
 with unerring foresight, arranging all things by His provi- 
 dence. In the Stoic system, all things in heaven and 
 earth were the subjects of an unalterable fate. Christi- 
 anity teaches men that moral excellence is to be attained 
 only by divine aid, and this aid is given to those who 
 are penitent and humble ; who seek God first, and show 
 their love to Him in their lives. Stoicism taught that 
 moral excellence was attainable by man alone, and that 
 he might, unaided, raise himself to perfection, and make 
 himself worthy of God. In the religion of Jesus, men are 
 furnished with glorious views of a future life. The world 
 to come is presented to the faithful, as a reward for virtue 
 and piety. The resurrection of man, and the final setting 
 in order of the universe at the great day of regeneration, 
 when just judgment will be passed on good and evil 
 angels and men, are held out as the great facts of future 
 ages. In the Stoic philosophy, there is no future personal 
 
 1 St Matt. XXV. 40. 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 41 
 
 I existence promised ; and the regeneration is to be by fire 
 consuming, at certain cycles, the works of the universe. 
 Cliristiauity had an influence on the later Stoics. Wliere- 
 ever we see, in the works of these philosophers, clearer 
 views of God, His providence, His work in the spirit ; 
 wherever we see clearer perceptions of human depravity 
 and need for divine aid ; where we perceive dawnings of 
 hope of a future life for the soul ; there we see, if not the 
 direct influence, yet at least the spirit of Christianity 
 making itself felt. On the other hand, if, in the Christian 
 church, we see the necessitarian theory taking possession j 
 of men's belief ; if we perceive human pride asserting itself / 
 in raising moral virtues, or works of self-denial, or self- / 
 imposed austerities, into the place of Christ's sacrifice, as' 
 the means of obtaining the divine favour ; we shall not be 
 mistaken, if we say that, in these respects, the Church has 
 borrowed from the Porch, and departed from the simplicity 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 Before I proceed to investigate the influence which 
 the two systems have exerted one on the other, I purpose 
 to devote a few pages to the consideration of the relative 
 influence they have exerted on the world at large. Let 
 us compare what Stoic philosophy did for those nations 
 among whom it exerted an influence, with the effect which 
 Christianity has wrought on those who have embraced its 
 tenets and acknowledged its power. If we look at Athens, 
 and ask ourselves what result the doctrines of the Stoic 
 school had there, we shall find that, after centuries of effort, 
 very little was effected for the benefit of our race. Doubt- 
 less a strong impression was made on certain minds ; but, 
 as far as the masses were concerned, the influence of the 
 sect seems to have been small, and the beneficial result 1 
 very insignificant indeed. With regard to the adherents 
 
42 STOICISM IN COMPARISON" 
 
 of the system, we have httle trustworthy information as 
 to whether, in private life, their practice corresponded 
 with their pubHc professions. One is almost led, from 
 their declarations that their philosophy raised them above 
 the law of conduct binding the common herd, to suppose 
 that, for some, the profession of being a Stoic was only 
 a cloak. There seem to have been among them, men 
 of similar feelings to the Antinomians of the Christian 
 church. If a man were a philosopher, he was out of the 
 ordinary pale, and might be almost what else he liked. 
 The early Stoics were doubtless men of purer life than ~ 
 the masses around them, yet, from the remarks of those 
 who have written very favourably of them, one is led to 
 perceive that they were looked on more as professors of 
 a system of excellent ethical philosophy, than as strict 
 adherents to its precepts. Their principles were con- 
 sidered rather as intellectual, than heartfelt. As an in- 
 stance, we may notice what Diogenes Laertes reports con- 
 cerning Zeno. He says\ " UatSaplot^ re i^^prJTO a7ravlo3<i, 
 aira^ rj S19 irov TraiBiaKaplco rivl, iva firj hoKolrj fiLcroyv- 
 vr}<; ehai." Now one must see that, if the record be true, 
 then the purity of the Stoic was not thorough, though he 
 was better than others perhaps. If the report be a myth, 
 we perceive that in the writer's opinion, gathered probably 
 from observation, the precepts of philosophy were not so 
 very binding, but that a professor of it might be none the 
 less esteemed as a philosopher, for acting, now and then, as 
 an ordinary man. He evidently thought that Zeno was 
 not to be blamed, but rather commended, for showing, occa- 
 sionally, that he did not wish to be thought too austere. 
 The dogmas of this philosophy were public professions, 
 
 1 Lib. VII. c. I. §. XIII. 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 43 
 
 but did not alter the heart, and control the whole life. 
 It was powerless, as a moral lever, to raise the people. 
 The masses remained idolatrous and deeply superstitious. 
 Indeed the philosophers themselves conformed to the 
 prevailing worship, and were not free from the prevailing 
 superstitions. As ethical reformers, they seemed to have 
 despaired of raising men, except in small numbers, to a 
 better state. We look in vain for evidences of a wide- 
 spread philanthropy. In fact, the system was one of egoism; 
 and beginning in self, inculcating trust on self, it had no 
 wide grasp of the duty and love, which men owe one to 
 another, as children of a common Father. 
 
 If from Athens we go to Rome, and notice the effect 
 produced when Stoic influence was at its highest point 
 and most wide-spread, we are saddened by a similar 
 absence of evidence that it effected any gi-eat ameliora- 
 tion. We are led to see the truth of Niebuhr's remarks' 
 respecting the state of the community, upon which 
 Stoicism had exerted all its power. " Viewed as a national, 
 or political history, the history of the Roman Empire 
 is sad and discouraging in the last degree. We see that 
 things had come to a point, at which no earthly power 
 could afford any help : we now have the development of 
 dead powers instead of that of a vital energy." The age 
 of the greatest fame of Rome, when Augustus ruled her 
 destinies, and her power and wealth and wide-spread in- 
 fluence were so vast, was not a happy one for the people. 
 There was no fellowship between men, uniting them in feel- 
 ing and for mutual benefit. Perhaps half the people were 
 slaves and degraded, in the midst of suiTOunding splen- 
 dour. Arnold^ has well described the moral deficiency ; 
 
 ' Lcct. V. 194. 
 ' Later Roman Commonwealth, II. 398. 
 
44 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 " There were no public hospitals, no institutions for the 
 relief of the infirm and poor, no societies for the im- 
 provement of the condition of mankind, from motives of 
 charity. Nothing was done to promote the instruction of 
 the lower classes, nothing to mitigate the evils of domestic 
 slavery. Charity and general philanthropy were so little 
 regarded as duties, that it requires a very extensive ac- 
 quaintance with the literature of the time to find any 
 allusion to them." As long as it had an influence. 
 Stoicism taught men rather to bear the evils of life with 
 indifference, than to get rid of the evils that were in 
 the world, by schemes for the social happiness and moral 
 elevation of the people. So that superstition and gi'ossest 
 idolatry were rampant, and vices of the most lamentable 
 kind were indulged in, almost without producing any 
 shame. 
 
 In proportion as Christianity won its way, these things 
 disappeared ; and in proportion to the purity of the Chris- 
 tian religion, and its freedom from admixture of extra- 
 neous principles and influences, has been its success in 
 raising a fallen world. Whatever power Stoicism pos- 
 sessed for good, the religion of Jesus also possessed, and , 
 in a higher degree. In addition, it brought into play 
 enormous and superhuman resources ; high and holy mo- 
 tives; and doctrines which originated in heaven, and 
 partook of the purity of their origin. The consequence 
 has been marvellous. The progress of this religion in 
 face of opposition was such as to afford ample proof of 
 its divinity. And as it progressed, it proved its mission 
 by raising the fallen, blessing the wretched, despising not 
 even the most lowly, seeking the most sinful; that by 
 miracles wrought in the souls of men, it might show that 
 it was fitted for the high mission which it claimed. Men 
 
WITH CIIRISTIANTIY. 45 
 
 were no longer left to grovel in idolatry, and consequent 
 imitation in their lives of the conduct of the unholy 
 beings whom they worshipped. Like St Paul on Mars' 
 Hill, every true herald of the cross has set before men 
 a holy God, as the sole object of the reverence and obe- 
 dience of their hearts. They have been taught love to 
 God, as the highest duty of the creature ; and as a 
 consequence, love to their fellow-men. Mutual kindness 
 and charity have done marvels, in removing the various 
 calamities of this life ; and Avhere these have been irre- 
 raoveable, the efforts of the disciples of the Crucified One 
 have been put forth, to make them weigh less heavily on 
 the sons of afHiction. The jioor have been cared and pro- 
 vided for. To them the gospel of mercy has been preached, 
 and they have been taught to have faith in a future life, in 
 which the wrongs of this will be set right. Christianity 
 has brought civilization in its train. The marvellous pro- 
 gress of men in these latter days may be traced to the 
 exalting influence of this noble creed, which builds again 
 the ruins of the human soul ; and has nothing less for 
 its object than man's restoration to the image of GoD. No 
 one that reflects on the wonders it has produced ; on the 
 efforts it has put forth for the regeneration of our race ; on 
 the energy it still displays, in trying to give blessing and 
 help to those who sit in darkness, and are in need ; on the 
 success that has crowned the efforts of the past, inciting to 
 fresh ones for the future ; can fail to see the flnger of God. 
 We gratefully acknowledge that all praise is due to Him 
 for the gift of such grand means for raising a fallen world ; 
 for a system, which "has the promise of the life which 
 now is, as well as of that which is to come." 
 
 By these remarks, I am far from wishing to imply that 
 there is not much to lament in Christian countries, or that 
 
46 STOICISM IN COMPARISON 
 
 since Christianity has been acknowledged and professed by 
 a great part of the world, she has succeeded in making even 
 the noblest of her sons faultless and sinless. Only one 
 such man has ever trod our earth, and He was more than 
 man, and shewed His divinity in the midst of human 
 weakness and pain. All others are liable to error. And 
 we must confess that, when we see the evils still remaining 
 in Christendom, there is room for sadness ; but there is 
 none for despair. 
 
 Moreover, no one would depreciate the Stoic system, 
 because its disciples did not act up to its precepts, in 
 every respect. Epictetus declared ^ there were many who 
 were philosophers in name, far from being so in deed ; 
 and Seneca assures us^, that Stoic philosophers " did not 
 say how they themselves lived, but how men ought to 
 live." Yet I quite agree with Gataker^ that there were 
 well-attested instances, in almost every age, of adherents 
 to the system, who, by their faithful observance of their 
 principles in the conduct of their lives, might put to' 
 shame many professors of Christianity, and cause them 
 to blush. 
 
 But I have been speaking of the effect of each 
 system, as a whole, on nations and masses of men, and 
 on individuals. And we see that Stoicism, after cen- 
 
 ^ "kvev Tov irpaTTeiv, p.expi- tov \iyeiv. Quoted by Gataker from Gel- 
 lius, Noct. Attic. 17, 19. 
 
 ^ " Non dicebant, quemadmodum ipsi viverent, sed quemadmodum 
 vivendum esset." — Seneca, de Vit. Beat. c. 18. 
 
 =* The words of Gataker, in the Preface to his Marc. Anton., are: 
 " Veruntamen ex eis qui sectaB hujus in disciplinam serio seduloque sese 
 dederunt, per singulas quasque fere setates reperti sunt, qui fide dignorum 
 scriptorum suffragiis consensu consono attestantibus, ita dogmata sua factis 
 consentaneis consignata, decretaque vitae instituto aequabili fere comprobata 
 exhibuerint, ut nominis etiam Christiani professoribus pleiisque pudorem 
 iuoutere, ruburem suffundere merito queant." 
 
WITH CHRISTIANITY. 47 
 
 turics of effort, proved itself unequal to the regeneration 
 of men, and as conii)letely failed as any otlicr merely 
 human scheme, in this respect. We should keep in 
 mind, that systems Mo- not relatively superior in pro- 
 portion to the adherence of their disciples. Unwavering 
 obedience, on the part of certain of its followers, does 
 not necessarily imply the excellence of a system ; it 
 simply proves that some of its disciples are faithful. On 
 the contrary, the excellence of a system is seen, when it 
 does a great work and raises a fallen world, in spite of the 
 apparent inadequacy of its means ; in spite of the luke- 
 warm attachment and want of consistency, often displayed 
 by its followers. In this way, the more than human per- 
 fection of Christianity has been shown. If her children 
 had been as faithful to her, as many of the Stoics were to 
 their school, she had, ere this, made our earth a paradise. 
 Even as things arc, notwithstanding the introduction, into 
 her midst, of doctrines and practices, foreign to her in origin, f 
 and opposed to her principles ; notwithstanding the many 
 shortcomings of her friends, and the unceasing opposition 
 of her foes, and the resistance ever offered by the pride of 
 man's heart to her humbling doctrines; she carries on her 
 glorious work successfully, and proves herself ec^ual to her 
 destined purpose. 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON STOICISM. 
 
 " Victi victoribus leges dederunt." 
 
 Sen. quoted by St Aug. in Civ. Dei. 
 
 There is nothing unreasonable in the supposition, that 
 when two systems such as Christianity and Stoicism came 
 into contact, they would naturally exert considerable in- 
 fluence, one on the other. We perceive, if we trace the 
 history of the religion of Christ, that it felt the effect 
 of the philosophy of the Gentile world, and especially of 
 the Greeks, in various ways. Platonism proved itself so 
 powerful as to cause the rise of the Alexandrian school, 
 with its vast influences. In other cases, we see Christi- 
 anity so strongly impregnated with notions drawn from 
 heathenism, that various baneful heresies arose, which 
 sometimes threatened the very existence of the truth. 
 Tertullian^ complains that " philosophy furnished the arms ' 
 and the subjects of heresy." During the middle of the 
 life of Christianity in the world, so evil were the results, 
 to the Church, of principles external to it in origin, and 
 antagonistic to purity, that we look back on those cen- 
 turies with deep sorrow, and call them "the dark ages." 
 
 ^ Press. Ecer. 7. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, &c. 49 
 
 Among other systems of philosophy Stoieism made itself 
 felt by tlie Church of Christ, In allusion to this Ter- 
 tuUian says, "Our triiiuing is from the porch of Solo- 
 iiiun." Again lie says, " Let those take care who lielp 
 iorward a Stoic, a Platonic, a dialectic Christianity. We 
 iiave no need of curious en([uiries about the coming of 
 Jesus Christ, nor of investigation after the gospel." But 
 though Stoic pliilo-sophy made itself felt, yet, being prac- 
 tical rather than speculative, it did not produce a distinct 
 school, such as resulted from the Academic system. Still 
 it left its impress on after times, as 1 shall endeavour to 
 point out in future pages. 
 
 Christianity also made a great impression on Stoicism, 
 while the latter continued to exist as a system of philo- 
 sophy. We do not find its power and principles acknow- 
 ledged in the writings of any of the school. Yet, from 
 certain expressions in Epictetus and M. Antoninus, v*'e 
 perceive they were fully aware how nearly allied Christian 
 virtue was to their high aspirations; liow closely those who 
 were disciples of Christ approached to their own standard. 
 But they were di.spleased at the principles from which the 
 Christian excellence proceeded ; ami probably also at the 
 living protest which these men afforded against the philo- 
 sophy which could not produce results such as their religion 
 produced among the peo])le. So Epictetus' in B. iv. Ch. 
 7, speaking of fearlessness, allows by implication that it 
 was possessed by the Galileans, but puts down their forti- 
 tude to habit, and commends much more that coming from 
 reason. So Antoninus'" allows that Christians are ready to 
 
 ^ EIra virb fxavlas /x^f Suvaral rtj oi'Vw 5iaTfO~ivai irpbi raPra Kal vrrb 
 (dovs oi raXiXatof viro Xoyov di, k.t.X. 
 
 ^ To oi tToi/JLOv TOVTo, ii'tt dnb Idiuiji Kpiaews ii)xr)Tai, fxr] Kara. ^i\i]v 
 ica.p6,T a:^i.v, ws oi X/Jiariofot, dXXd XeXo-)t(r/i^»'ws, k.t.\. — Cum. XI. i,. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 (lie, but says that, whereas this readiness should proceed ' 
 from personal judgment, resulting from due calculation, the 
 readiness of the Christians to die came of mere obstinacy./ 
 In other words, they had so strong a faith in the gospel 
 that they would rather die than give it up. Such passing 
 notices as these show decisively that the religion of Jesus 
 was doing a great work of which philosophers became jea- 
 lous. This work was of the same kind as that which the 
 Stoics professed to have as their object ; yet what they 
 failed in achieving was wrought out successfully on prin- 
 ciples which they despised. They were vexed and annoyed, 
 and would naturally ignore any influence which the Chris- 
 tian doctrines might have in modifying their opinions. I 
 shall proceed to point out in this chapter that this influence 
 Avas nevertheless remarkable. What changes occurred in i 
 the views of the sect at Athens we do not know : there 
 are no records of the Stoics at Athens at that time. The ' 
 only writers to whom we can refer, in order to come to any 
 correct estimate as to the development of thought among 
 the sect, of a nature to show Christian influence, were 
 Romans. They are only three in number — Seneca, Epic- 
 tetus, and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. I 
 shall refer to the writings of each in this, their proper order. 
 When I speak of Seneca as a Roman, I do not forget 
 that he was bom in Spain ; but being a Roman in thought 
 and feeling, as well as by residence and by birth-right, he 
 is rightly reckoned among Roman philosophers. It is not 
 my business, however, to give even a sketch of his life ; 
 nor shall I refer to his voluminous writings, except as 
 they show the influence which Christianity seems to have 
 exerted on the Stoic sect in his day. He lived at the 
 same time that St Paul laboured for the truth, and there 
 have been traditions of his having been taught the pre- 
 
ON STOICISM. 51 
 
 cepts of tlic Gospel Ly tlio great Apostle liimself. These 
 are probably without foundation, but their being so does 
 not prove that Christianity had no influence on his specu- 
 lations. Their very existence serves to show how ap- 
 parent that influence was to various readers, so as at least 
 to make the intercourse between the Apostle and the phi- 
 losopher seem to them not an improbable thing. We must t 
 remember that Judaism was the pioneer of Christianity at > 
 Rome, as well as elsewhere. Possessed of much divine 
 truth, it necessarily exerted considerable influence there 
 on the wfU'ld of thought ; and so prepared the way for 
 the fuller light which the gospel furnished. Christianity 
 also had now a Arm hold on many. Its influence, as we 
 learn from different sources, was beginning to be felt in 
 various ways, and even in the imperial court were found 
 some who acknowledged its power. It is likely therefore ' 
 that Seneca would study its teaching, or at least would 
 be moved by its presence in the very centre of the world, 
 to listen, even though without conscious sympathy, per- 
 haps with contempt, to what was told him respecting its 
 tenets. We see in his writings that he had many clearer 
 views of truth than the Stoics who preceded him\ For 
 
 ^ The remarks of Gataker with reference to Seneca are so apposite that 
 I quote them here: "Certe qusecunque Doininus ipse Christus in concioni- 
 bus collatiouibusque suis Histori.-B Evangelicaj insertis, intextisquo ; de mali 
 cogitatione etiam abstinenda ; de affectibus vitiosis supprimendis ; de ser- 
 mone otioso non insiiper habendo; de animo cumpriniis excolendo, et ad 
 imaginem divinam effingendo; de beneficentiii simplicissime exhibendri; de 
 injuriis lequanimiter ferendis; de admonitione et increpatione cum modera- 
 tione cautioneque accuratS, excrcendis ; de rebus quil)UsHbet, a<leoque vit& 
 ipsa, ubi res ratiotpie poscit, niliili liabemlia ; de ahis denique pleriscjue pie- 
 tatis, caritatis, aequitatis, huinanitatis otficiis quam exquisitissime obeundis 
 exequendisquc, prjecepta dedit ; apud nostrum hunc eadem, perinde ac si 
 ilia lectitasset ipse, in dissertationum coninientationumque congerie inspersa 
 passim, nee sine vchementia et vivacitate insigni, quae in praecordia ipsa 
 
 e2 
 
52 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 instance, with reference to tlie Deity, his providential care ■ 
 avowed as being exercised over men not merely collec- 
 tively but individually ; his sovereignt}^, his power and 
 glory, not as a mere part of universal nature, but as a 
 being, fully set forth ; his work in the human soul recog- 
 nized as a truth and a necessity for man's well-doing; 
 these and various other enlarged views of the Lord of all 
 show a vast advance on past Stoicism in the direction of 
 Christian doctrine. Then again, with regard to man, we 
 perceive how clearly he saw that necessary and primary 
 truth, that man is by nature depraved and can only leadf 
 a holy life by divine aid. We notice also how he incul- 
 cates the duty of love to God and to man, of forgiveness \ 
 of injuries and of the cultivation of other graces, which • 
 have a Christian likeness, if not a Christian parentage. 
 It is doubtless true that these doctrines were the strong 
 and approved opinions of one who was, as Gataker calls 
 him, "homo exterior, nee nomini Christiano favens :" but 
 vv^hen we read, " cum nee mysterii nostri gnarus esset, nee 
 fidei rationes assequeretur," the words must be taken in 
 a qualified sense. Experimentally, he was ignorant of the 
 glorious mysteiy of redemption ; but of the religion of 
 Jesus, and of Judaism which prepared the Roman mind 
 for Christianity, he was at least informed, if only by jf 
 rumour. And we see, from the effect of the religion of 
 the cross at the present time, that its doctrines of purity 
 and mercy may mightily influence even those nations and 
 individuals who do not acknowledge its authority. 
 
 Let us look at some of the passages in the writings 
 of Seneca, v/liich serve to bear out the views above ex- 
 
 penititis peneLiet, atque in animo infixos altius relinquat aculeos inculcata 
 SLibinde, Lector quLvis sedulus advertet, ingenuus agiioscet." — Proel. Marc. 
 Ant. Com. 
 
ON STOICISM. 53 
 
 pressed ; and first, witli regard to the divine being and 
 his care of man, we find such expressions as the following : 
 " God comes to men, yea, what is nearer still, he comes 
 into men'. No mind is good without GoD. Seeds (of good) 
 are sown in human bodies. And if a good husliandmau 
 receives them, there are produced fruits like the original 
 and Q([n:\\ to tlioso from which they sprung: but if a bad 
 husbandman receives them, the groimd, not being other- 
 wise than barren and marshy, kills them and thence 
 creates rubbish instead of fruit." One cannot fail to be 
 struck with the likeness this passage bears to our Lord's 
 words recorded by St Matt. xiii. 18 — 23. Again, in the 
 41st Epistle, we read, " God is near thee, is with thee, j^ 
 is within. So I say, Lucilius, the holy spirit has his seat 
 within us, the observer and guard of the evil and the good 
 of our lives : as he is treated by us, so he treats us." 
 Intimately connected with this view of an indwelling God, 
 was the theory Avhich Seneca held, that man could not be 
 good and perfect without His help. The view which he 
 had of human weakness by nature and of the depravity 
 of the human heart was a great advance in the direction 
 of Christian truth, from Stoic principles, which held so 
 much to the idea of man's unaided progress to perfection. 
 Yet the views which Seneca entertained were not unmixed 
 with the old speculations. Indeed his mind was evidently • 
 struggling to reconcile old doctrines with some new light,- 
 which was dawning on his mind. Hence he is often ap- 
 parently contradictory, as men are when in a transition 
 state, or rather when they are endeavouring to graft doc- 
 
 ^ " Deus ad homines venit, imrao, quod proprius est, in homines venit,"' 
 &c. — Sen. £p. 73. 
 
 I do not think it necessary to give the original of these passages, except 
 in special cases. 
 
54 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 trines of a totally different type on the old stock. We 
 see, in the passage first quoted above, how plainly he says 
 that no mind is good without GoD, who sows the seeds 
 of all virtues in the soul, and by his blessing enables a 
 willing heart to bring forth fruit. Again, in the 41st 
 Epistle, he writes, "There is no good man without GoD. ' 
 Can any one rise above fortune, unless aided by Him ? 
 He insj)ires grand and upright designs. In every good 
 man he dwells." But he adds, as if to show the struggle 
 going on within, that He whom he had in the former part 
 of the letter called the holy spirit was to him, as to the 
 Athenians, an " unknown God." " Quis deus incertum / 
 est," he says of the deity who dwells in every good 
 man. With regard to man's moral nature requiring the 
 aid of one who is strong enough to purify it, he speaks 
 very clearly. He sees the need of a change from evil to 
 ffood in order to become what man should be. Yet he 
 does not mention the need of pardon for sin that is past. 
 In De dementia, i. G, this passage occurs : " Reflect, in 
 this city, in which a crowd pours through the widest 
 street without intermission, and like a rapid stream dashes 
 against any obstacle that impedes its course ; where ac- 
 commodation is required in three theatres at the same 
 time ; where is consumed whatever grain is produced in 
 all lands ; what a solitude and desolation were the result, 
 if nothing were left but what a severe judge would pro- 
 nounce free from fault." A little further on he adds, 
 "We have all sinned^ ; some deeply, others more lightly; ' 
 some from design, others driven by chance impulses, or 
 bofne away by wickedness not their own; others of us 
 have shown little steadfastness in sticking to our good 
 
 1 " Peccavimus omnes, alii graviora, alii leviora," &c. 
 
ON STOICISM. 55 
 
 resolutions, and, against our will and in spite of our en- 
 deavours, have lost our innocence. Nor is it only that 
 we have erred, but to the end of time we shall err'. Even 
 if any one has so purified his mind that nothing can 
 shake, or seduce him any more, yet he has arrived at 
 innocence through sin." These are remarkable expres- 
 sions, and show how much advanced the views of the 
 philosopiier were in the direction of the truth, even though 
 it was by the path of self-humiliation. The writer of the 
 article on " The Ancient Stoics" in the Oxford Essays, 
 remarks : " Those who have been anxious to obtain the 
 authority of Aristotle for the doctrine of human corrup- 
 tion, will find on consideration that this idea, which was 
 historically impossible for a Greek of the fourth century 
 B.C., came with sufficient vividness into the conciousness 
 of persons in the position of Seneca; but not till much 
 later than Aristotle, probably not before the beginning of 
 our era. On the other hand, we are not to fancy that the 
 thoughts of Seneca received any influence from Chris- 
 tianity." With this last sentence I do not agree. It seems 
 scarcely reasonable to ignore the power of a system which 
 we know was already exercising attention at Home; a 
 system of high and holy principles, presenting much for 
 the Stoic mind to admire. That similar thoughts struck 
 Paul the Apostle, and Seneca the philosopher, at the 
 same era, is certain. It was a remarkable coincidence, 
 but it was something more. We know that those thoughts 
 in the mind of the converted Jew were the result, not 
 of self-reflection, nor of communing with his own heart, 
 merely, but of a power outside of himself, more mighty 
 and convincing than any inner influence ; but still, acting 
 
 * "Xec delinquimus tantum sed usque ad extremum Oivi delinquemus." 
 
56 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 on a strong mind, already trained in many uncommon 
 and elevating doctrines by Judaism ; which had also been 
 training the Roman world to look for something purer 
 and higher than the superstition and vain guesses at 
 truth, which were so prevalent heretofore. When Chris- 
 tianity supplied all the demands of the soul, and gave to 
 the Roman world a divine system of doctrine and morals, 
 it soon commanded the attention which it deserved \ This 
 being so, there would seem to be no reason for saying 
 that it had no influence direct or indirect on the mind of 
 the Stoic philosopher : especially when, on the very face 
 of it, the inconsistency of his writings shows that he owed 
 his conclusions to two distinct sources ; one, the old Stoic 
 system — the other, a new class of thoughts which might at 
 least be supposed to have a Christian origin. There is no 
 doubt that, among the Romans at the time of Seneca, 
 Christianity was not distinguished from Judaism, but 
 reckoned a part of that system. We see, in the 9oth 
 letter of the philosopher, plain reference to Jewish forms 
 and prohibitions. The word sabbath " is used ; and the 
 whole of the expressions show how conversant the writer 
 must have been with the tenets of the people brought 
 from Palestine. We are struck too with the lessons of 
 piety and charity which he deduces from his reflections. 
 He sets forth the necessity of having, as the end of our 
 endeavours, the attainment of the highest good ; and to 
 
 ^ We find from Seneca's observation respecting the Jews, which 
 St Augustin quotes, " victi victoribus leges dederunt," how strongly be was 
 impressed with the power the Jews exercised spiritually. The Satires of 
 Juvenal and the complaints of Tacitus present us with similar views on 
 their part. That Christianity was supposed to be a part of Judaism is seen 
 from the words of Suetonius ( Vit. Claud.) : " Judseos, impulsore Chresto, 
 assidue tumultuantes RomS, expulit." 
 
 2 "Accenitere aliquem lucernam sabbathis prohibeamus," &c. 
 
ON sToiris:\r. 5"^ 
 
 this we should havo respect in every act ami word, "as 
 sailors direct their course to some star." When we read 
 the words, "non (juaa-it miuistros Deus : quidni? Ipse 
 humane genori ministrat : ubicjue et omnibus prjesto est:" 
 how naturally our minds recal the words of St Paul to 
 the Athenians : " neither is He served by men's hands, as 
 being in need of any ; seeing He giveth to all life, and 
 breath, and all things'." "We see too that Seneca had 
 clearer notions than his predecessors of the personal ex- 
 istence of the deity and of his intimate care of each indivi- 
 dual, as well as of the whole race of men. He perceived 
 the need of knowing and believing God and of offering 
 liim spiritual worship; that mere sacrifice and outward 
 homage were vain. In the following passages from the 
 same letter these views are clearly expressed ; as is also 
 the great truth which the Saviour taught, that to love 
 God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, 
 and our neighbour as ourselves, is the essence of religion 
 and virtue : that it is indeed " more than all whole burnt 
 offerings and sacrifices^" He writes, " He who knows 
 God, worships Him. ...A man should learn how to conduct 
 himself in offering sacrifices, to recoil very far from dis- 
 quiet of mind and superstitious observances : never will 
 he be advanced enough imlcss he conceive in his mind 
 what kind of a being GoD must be, possessing. all things, 
 
 bestowing all things, freely giving His benefits The/ 
 
 beginning of the worship of the gods, is to believe thci 
 gods^; then, to ascribe to them their majesty; to ascribe 
 to them their goodness, without which there is no majesty ; 
 to know that they who rule the world, who control the 
 
 ^ Acta xvii. 25. ' Mark xii. 33. 
 
 ^ Compare this with the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, xi. 6 : 
 " He that cometh unto God must believe that He is." 
 
58 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 universe, who are guardians of the human race, are also 
 at the same time full of care for each man... Look at 
 another question, our proper conduct towards men. How 
 do we deal with this matter? What instructions do we 
 give ? That there be a sparing of human life ? How 
 small a matter it is not to hurt him to whom you owe 
 benefits. Truly it is great praise if man is gentle to man. , 
 Shall we teach that he stretch out his hand to the ship- 
 wrecked, that he show the right way to the erring, that 
 he divide his loaf with the hungry ? When shall I declare 
 all things which are to be performed, or avoided, since I 
 can furnish in few words this formula of human duty? 
 All this that you see, in which divine and human affairs 
 are included, is comprised in one fact, as a foundation for 
 our rule of action — we are members of one great body. 
 Nature has made us all akin, since she begat us from the 
 same originals and for the same destinies. She has indued 
 us with mutual love, and made us companionable : she 
 has arranged what is equitable and just : by her institu- 
 tion, it is more wretched to hurt, than to suffer injury: 
 and by her command, the hands are ready for the assist- 
 ance of others. That verse should be in the breast, as 
 well as in the mouth, 
 
 'Homo sum, human! nihil a me alienum puto.' 
 
 We should hold it as a common bond, that we have been 
 born. Our fellowship is most like an arch of stones ; 
 which will fall, if each in turn do not afford support, 
 one sustaining the other\" In the 47th letter (to Lu- 
 cilius), he speaks of the value of kindness even to slaves: 
 *'I have gladly learnt from those who have come from 
 
 1 Sen. Ep. 95. 
 
ON STOICISM. 59 
 
 you, that you live fainiliavly with your slaves. This is 
 worthy of your wisdom and of your learning. Are they 
 slaves? Yes, but they are also men. Are they slaves? 
 Yes, but they are also comrades. Are they slaves ? Yes, 
 but they are also humble friends." 
 
 He also shows how advanced his feelings were by 
 depicting the wickedness and debasing nature of revenge 
 and cruelty. He paints in beautiful language the opposite 
 virtue. Yet, lest he should seem to forget his Stoicism 
 altogether, he draws a nice distinction between clemency 
 (dementia) and compassion (miscricordia). He ascribes 
 to the former, however, nearly all that we ascribe to the 
 latter, except the outward manifestation of sympathy. 
 There must be an apparent Stoicism veiling real huma- 
 nity. He calls cruelty proceeding from revenge " An 
 evil in no degi-ee human, and unworthy therefore of a 
 gentle mind. It is a madness like that of wild beasts, to 
 delight in blood and wounds, and, manhood being laid 
 aside, to change into a brute." {De Clem. I. 24.) "As he 
 is not the large minded man, who is liberal of another's 
 property ; but he who deprives himself of what he gives 
 to another : so I will call him clement, not who is easy 
 under another person's wrong, but who does not break 
 out, when spurred on by his personal feelings ; who 
 understands that it is the attribute of a gi'eat mind to 
 suffer injuries though possessed of the fullest p»j\ver to 
 avenge them." (De Clem. i. 20.) " I know that the Stoic 
 sect are in bad repute among the inexperienced, as be- 
 ing too harsh, and inclined to give advice which is 
 far from good to princes and kings. It is ol)jected against 
 the sect that it says the wise man should not be com- 
 passionate, shoidd not forgive. These, if taken by them- 
 selves, are hateful doctrines; for they seem to leave no 
 
60 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 hope to human errors, but to bring every fault to j3unish- 
 ment. But if this be a true report, what is this system 
 of knowledge but one which commands us to unlearn 
 humanity, and shuts a most certain door against mutual 
 help in misfortune ? Yet there is no sect kinder or more 
 gentle, none more loving of men, and more attentive to 
 the common good : as it is a principle with us to pro- 
 vide for being of use, or to afford help, not only where 
 self is concerned, but to all and to each. Compassion 
 (misericordia) is an unquiet of the mind (asgritudo animi) 
 from the sight of others' miseries ; or a sadness contracted 
 from the misfortunes of others, which one believes to 
 have fallen on those who did not deserve them. Now 
 unquiet does not come to the wise man ; his mind is calm, 
 nor can anything happen to overthrow it : and nothing 
 but magnanimity becomes him. But the same man can- 
 not be magnanimous whom fear and sorrow assail, whose 
 mind these feelings overthrow and contract. To the wise 
 man this does not happen even in his own calamities ; but 
 he will, on the contrary, beat back all the anger of fortune 
 and break it before him. He will always preserve the same 
 countenance, calm and undisturbed ; which he could not 
 do, if he gave way to sadness. Therefore he is not com- 
 passionate, because this cannot be without misery : all 
 other things which those do who are compassionate, he 
 does willingly and in another frame of mind. He will 
 succour the tears of others ; he will not give way to them. 
 He will give a helping hand to the shipwrecked, shelter to 
 the exile, alms to the needy ; he does not do this disdain- 
 fully, like the greater part of those who wish to seem 
 compassionate, who disdain those whom they help and 
 fear to be touched by them : but he will give as an equal, 
 a man to a man. He will cive the son to his mother's 
 
ON STOICISM. 61 
 
 tears, and will comniaiul the fetters to be loosened ; he will 
 redeem from the arena the man condemned to fij,dit, and 
 he will even bury the noxious ikad body. But he will (l«j 
 this with a peaceful mind and a countenance wurthy of 
 himself Therefore the wise man will not pity, but he 
 will help ; he will benefit, as one born for mutual help 
 and the public good; from which he will give each his 
 share ; even to the troublesome, in due proportion — to 
 those who are to be disapproved of and reformed, he 
 shows kindness. But he much more willingly comes,' 
 to the help of the afflicted, and heavily laden." (De Clem. 
 II. 5, 6.) 
 
 With regard to the life of the soul in a future world as 
 a separate being, Seneca's mind seems, from his different 
 writiug.s, to have been in an undecided state. Sometimes, 
 however, he rises superior to his doubts and to his Stoic 
 bia.s, and rejoices in the hope of real immortality. We see 
 the uncertainty under which he laboured in his book 
 written to console Polybius for the loss of his brother. 
 He tells him that, if he lamented, it was either on his 
 own account, or on account of the departed. If on his own 
 account, then he was not wisely submissive to the wisdom 
 which ruled all things. If he lamented for his brother's 
 sake, then he should reflect that one of two events must 
 have occurred ; either that his brother by death had lost 
 consciousness and individuality; or, he was still sensible 
 and conscious. In either case Polybius should reason 
 himself out of grief. He should reflect in this way : 
 *'If there remain no sen.se to the departed, then he has 
 escaped all the inconveniences of life, and is restored to 
 that place where he was before he was born : and, free 
 from all evil, fears nothing, desires nothing, suffers no- 
 thinir. What madness is it then for me not to cease 
 
G2 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 grieving for him, who never will grieve any more?" In 
 this hypothesis, we see a reference to the ancient Stoic 
 belief respecting the dead. But Seneca proceeds to point 
 out to Polybius a nobler reason for ceasing to mourn. 
 He bids him think, " If there be any consciousness in the 
 dead ; now the mind of my brother, as though released 
 from a long imprisonment, at length acts according to its 
 own reason and will ; and enjoys the spectacle of the uni- 
 verse, and from a higher place looks down on all human 
 affairs ; yet has a nearer insight into those divine mys- 
 teries, the design of which he had so long sought in vain 
 to understand." He adds, " Do not then gi-ieve for your 
 brother ; he is at rest. At length he is free, at length 
 he is safe, at length he is immortal. Now he enjoys an 
 open and free heaven ; he has ascended from a low and 
 sunken place to that, whatever it be, which receives those 
 souls that are released from their fetters into its happy 
 bosom : and now he wanders freely, and beholds with 
 highest delight all the treasures of the universe. You 
 are wrong ; your brother has not lost his life ; but has 
 attained to one more secure. He has not left us, but ' 
 has gone before." (Ch. 28.) To this idea of a happy 
 future existence for the soul, he sometimes recurs in 
 other parts of his writings. In his 102nd letter he com- 
 plains of having been disturbed by a letter from Lucilius, 
 in his happy thoughts of this nature. " Just as he is a 
 troublesome fellow who wakes one that has a pleasant 
 dream, so did your letter injure me. It called me back 
 when indulging in suitable thought and about to venture 
 further, if one might. I was delighting myself with 
 enquiring respecting the immortality of souls, yes and 
 more than that, with believing in it. I gave my belief 
 readily to the opinions of great men, who rather pro- 
 
ON STOICISM. 63 
 
 mised this most welcome thing, than proved it. I gave 
 myself up to so great a hope. Already I was disdainful 
 of my present self, already I despised the fragments of 
 m}'' broken existence, about to pass, as I was, into that 
 immense duration and into the possession of eternity : 
 when suddenly I was awakened by the receipt of your 
 letter, and lost my beautiful dream. But I will seek it 
 again, when I have sent you away, and try to get it 
 back." In the latter part of the same letter he com- 
 pares our present life to the period of gestation. When 
 we cast off our skin and bones and sinews at death, we . 
 shall be like infants escaping from what has enfolded/ 
 them previously to their birth. When we die, then we^ 
 shall be born to a nobler life. We need not mourn over 
 our dying bodies. "The coverings always perish of those 
 who are born. Therefore look hence to something more 
 lofty and sublime. Hereafter the mysteries of the uni- 
 verse shall be revealed to you, the darkness shall be dis- 
 pelled, and clear light shall break upon you from every 
 side. Imagine within yourself how great will be that 
 brightness, so many stars commingling their light. No 
 cloud will disturb the peaceful scene. The whole expanse 
 of heaven will shine with equal splendour. Then you 
 w^ill say you have lived in darkness, when you shall have 
 full vision of that perfect light. This thought allows 
 nothing filthy, nothing low, nothing cruel to find place 
 in the mind ; and he who has embraced this doctrine, 
 dreads no hosts, trembles not at the trumpet's blast, fears 
 no threats." 
 
 No one would pretend to say that there are definite 
 traces of Christian influence in these lofty thoughts. In- 
 deed one's mind naturally turns from them to similar 
 musings in the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, and else- 
 
€4 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 where. We remember too the noble surmises of Plato 
 respecting the soul's immortality ; and how Cato, the 
 Stoic, improved on his Stoicism, by indulging in lofty 
 views of a future life, drawn from this source, before his 
 suicide. Yet one cannot but feel that Seneca, at times, 
 nearly reached the truth, and owed to the influence of the 
 religion of Jesus on the age in which he lived, much of the 
 peculiar excellence of his philosophy. 
 
 If from him we turn to Epictetus, we see one still more 
 steadily approaching the light. He seems almost more 
 than a pagan philosopher, but less than a Christian dis- 
 ciple. His discourses preserved to us by the care of Ar- 
 rian, who wrote in Greek what he heard as the disciple 
 of the philosopher, show a pious spirit and a disrelish for f 
 the harsher doctrines of the Stoic S3^stem. They bear in i 
 some parts a striking likeness to the teachings of the ,■ 
 Gospel. Just as our Saviour taught that he who hum- 
 bleth himself shall be exalted, and that the soul needed 
 His care, as a sick man needs a physician : so we read 
 in Epictetus, " The beginning of philosophy is, according 
 to those who enter, even as they ought, through this gate 
 to her, a perception of their weakness and powerless- 
 ness in necessary matters... Does the philosopher beseech 
 men to listen to him ? What doctor asks that any one 
 should suffer himself to be healed by him ? Although I 
 hear that at Rome now, doctors call patients to them, 
 yet in my time, they were called to their patients. I 
 invite you to come and hear that you are ill ; that you 
 take care of anything rather than what is worthy of care ; 
 that you are ignorant of good and evil ; that you are 
 unhappy and wretched. The school of the philosopher is 
 a doctor's shop, from which one should go away, not joy- 
 ful, but suffering: for you did not come to it whole, but 
 
ON STOICISM. G') 
 
 sick, one with a dislocated shoulder, another afflictod 
 with a tumour, another with an ulcer, and another with 
 headache'." We find also how clearly he saAv the neces- 
 sity for divine aid in do'm^ right, and the need for sub- 
 mission to the divine will, self-will being cast aside. He 
 says, '• Call t<» mind, man, what is said about tran([uillity, 
 liberty, magnanimity. Lift up your head now, like one 
 freed from slavery. Dare at length, with eyes raised to 
 God, to say, 'Henceforth deal with me as thou wilt: 
 Thy thought is my thought; Thy will the same as mine; 
 I refuse nothing that seemeth good to Thee. Lead me 
 whither Thou wilt. Clothe me as Thou wilt. Dost Thou 
 wish me to lead a public life, to live in private, to re- 
 main, to flee, to be in need, to abound with wealth ? I 
 will defend Thee as to all these dispensations of thy pro- 
 vidence before men: I will show what is the nature of 
 each. Cleanse Thou Thine own. Of Thine own will cast 
 out thence grief, and fear, and avarice, and envy, and ill- 
 will, and covetousness, and effeminacy, and intemperance.' 
 These things cannot be cast out except you look to GoD 
 alone, and cleave to him alone, and sacrifice yourself to 
 his commands''." At another place, we find Epictetus 
 acknowledging that the change of his life from sin to 
 virtue was due to divine mercy, and called for grateful 
 acknowledgement. "I observe what men say and by 
 what they are influenced ; and I do this not malevolently, 
 nor that I may find something to l^lame, or ridicule, 
 but I turn it to myself, lest I also sin in the same way. 
 How then shall I cease from sin ? Once I also sinned, 
 
 ^ Diss. III. 23. Compare our Lord's words, Matt. ix. iz. "They that 
 be wliole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I am not come to 
 call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
 
 •^ Ifiss. n. 16, 
 
 F 
 
66 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 but now do so no longer, thanhs he to God^." Of the 
 providence of GoD, some of the most elevated, reverent, 
 and grateful records are contained in the Dissertations. 
 For instance, we have the following noble passage in B. I, 
 c. 16: "What language will be sufficient to praise and 
 set forth these works of Providence towards us. For, if 
 we are mindful, what else does it behove us to do, both 
 in public and private, than to praise and bless the Deity, 
 and to utter thanksgivings ? Ought we not both while ( 
 we dig, and while we plough, and while we eat, to sing' 
 this hj^mn to GoD ? ' Great is God who hath provided i 
 such implements for us, by which we work the ground : 
 great is God, who hath given us hands ; and the power 
 of swallowing our food, as well as a place for its diges- 
 tion ; who hath caused us to grow without our own care, ' 
 and to breathe even while we sleep.' These things should 
 be sung, one by one ; even the grandest and holiest hymn 
 should be sung, because He has given us a power of 
 attending to these things and making use of them by a 
 proper methodl What then ? Since ye, the multitude, 
 are blinded to this, ought not one to be found to fulfil 
 this part and sing, in place of all, the hymn to GoD? 
 For what other duty can I, a lame old man, discharge, 
 except sing the praises of God? If I were a nightin- 
 gale, I would fulfil my part like the nightingale ; if a 
 swan, like the swan. But now, since I am possessed of 
 reason, I ought to sing the praises of GoD. This is my 
 work, I do it : nor will I leave this post, so long as 
 
 ^ Diss. B. III. c. 4. Hire /cat iyib ■tj/j.dprauov vvy S' ovk^tc, X''/"s Tip 
 Beip. 
 
 ^ Gataker has the following apposite and judicious remark on this pas- 
 sage, " Et qute sequuntur his gemina, homine Christiano quovis non indigna, 
 Christum mode donatum nobis adjecisset." — Pra;loq. 3f. Ant. Com. 
 
ON STOICISM. G7 
 
 power is given me to hold it, and I exhort yon to join in 
 the singing of this same song\" He speaks also of the 
 freedom of the human will to perform certain acts, and 
 • Iwells on the acts that are within the power of the will. 
 He shows the folly of valuing too highly what is beyond 
 our power, and the necessity of submitting our will to the j 
 diviiio will. But though he speaks of the freedom of the 
 human will, he is a firm believer in fatalism; so that his 
 idea of the true freedom of man was limited. " I have 
 one Avhom it behoves me to please, to whom I must 
 submit, Avhom I ought to obey — God, and those who hold 
 a place near him. He has committed me to myself and 
 placed my free will in subjection to myself alone, giving 
 me rules for its right use : and when I follow these in my 
 reasonings, I do not care what else any one says^" " Re- 
 member this, that if you esteem every thing that is 
 beyond your choice, you lose the power of choosing I" He 
 tells \is we are the children of God, and that this relation- 
 ship should lead us to act worthily of Him. " If any one 
 will embrace this truth as he ought, that we are especially 
 the children of GOD, and that GoD is the Father, as well 
 of men, as of the gods, I think he will allow no ignoble or 
 low thoughts about himself.... On account of this rela- 
 tionship, those of us who fall away become, some like 
 wolves, faithless, and cunning, and baneful ; other.-^, like 
 lions, fierce, savage, and uncivilized ; more of us still be- 
 come foxes and whatever else among beasts are monstrous. 
 For what else is an evil-tongued and depraved man than a 
 wolf, or whatever besides is more wretched and debased ? 
 See, then, and take care lest you fall away into one of 
 these monsters ^" Nothing is more remarkable in Epic- 
 
 1 Diss. B.' II. c. 16. - JDisi. B. iv. c. 12. 
 
 3 Diss. B. IV. c. 4. * IHss. B. i. c. 3. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ' tetus than his earnest piety. "I esteem what GoD wills 
 as better than what I will. I cleave to him as a servant 
 and follower ; with him, I go eagerly forward ; with him, 
 I stretch myself out : in short, what he wishes, I wish*." 
 But we find that he does not rise to any glorious hopes 
 of a future separate existence for the soul. Instead of 
 
 ■ this, he cleaves to the Stoic idea, of the distribution of 
 man, at death, into his component parts. " What was fire 
 in thee," he says, " will return to fire ; what was earthy, to 
 earth ; what belonged to the wind will return to the wind ; 
 what was watery, to water^." He was not, however, with- 
 out some knowledge of the power of Christianity, on those 
 who embraced it, to make them brave all things for the 
 gospel's sake. He speaks of the " Galileans braving the 
 tyrant, his satellites, and their swords, from madness and 
 
 ', custom." He says he prefers reason to this influence which 
 sustained them. Yet, though he remains without the per- 
 sonal knowledge of the power of Christ, what I have pro- 
 duced from his works serves to show that there was a 
 work going on in the world, by means of the gospel, which 
 extended further than the Church, and gave to the Stoic 
 purer and holier views of the truth. He felt himself an 
 erring being in need of divine aid. He felt that he was 
 under the care of a loving Father, to whom he turned for 
 aid. And he strongly brings before us the need all men 
 have by self-abasement to seek the love of the supreme 
 being, and to rise by his help to perfection. This was 
 a great advance on old Stoic pride and self-dependence. 
 Moreover, others began to have a share of attention. All 
 mankind were recognized as justly entitled to the love 
 and support of each other. Indeed, Stoicism came down 
 
 ^ Diss. B. IV. c. 6. * Diss. B. in. c. 13. 
 
ON STOICISM. CO 
 
 from the height of its solf-siifYlcicncy. Its disciples learnt to 
 mistrust themselves and to trust in Goi). They were mak- 
 ing progress in true wisdom. Plutarch had urged against 
 the sect their belief, that " GoD does not give men virtue ; 
 but that goodness is in their own power: that He gives 
 riches and health, without virtue ; and does not atford 
 assistance for their benefit^" They had to learn the 
 lesson, that man is incapable of goodness Avithout divine '' 
 aid; and, as Ave have seen, Epictetus did learn it in some 
 degree. Yet we shall perceive, from what Marcus Aure- 
 lius wrote, that the old leaven remained mightily at 
 work, and the advance was not thorough. In propor- 
 tion as the sect felt their need of divine aid, they came 
 also to give up some of their selfishness and exclu- 
 sivcness. Epictetus urges the propriety of mingling with 
 men and helping them. He would do them good, teach 
 them their need of humility, and of a cure for their 
 mental maladies. "Will you not," he says, "do as sick 
 people do, call the physician? 'Lord, I am sick, help 
 me ; see what I ought to do ; it is for mo to obey thee,' 
 So also again, * What to do I know not ; I have come to 
 thee to learn.'" {Diss. B. ii. 15.) He wished to benefit 
 the multitude, and had imbibed some of the spirit of 
 that lesson so full of truth, that "he who loves GoD will 
 love his brother also." 
 
 These remarks will be applicable, but not in so high 
 a degree, to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the Emperor, He 
 was the last of the Stoics who has left a memorial be- 
 hind. With him the sect ceased as a sect of philosophy. 
 If we read his meditations we perceive that while much 
 
 ^ EtVf/) 6 Oebi aptTTjv fiiv ov Sl^uriv ivOpuiroii' d\X^ t6 Ka\6v avOal- 
 ptrbv iffTf irXovTou di Kai i/yUiav X'^P^^ dperTJi Sl5u(Tiv' ovk W(pt\(T. Plut. 
 de Stoic, cont. c. 27. 
 
70 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of their doctrines remained unchanged, many were con- 
 siderably modified. The modification was in a direction 
 similar to that noticed in the previous pages, which we 
 should expect to find, if Christianity exercised a collateral 
 influence. Antoninus claims the care of the supreme 
 being for men, and shows the duty of men to believe in 
 the goodness of the gods. " It behoves thee so to do and 
 think about every thing, as to be able to depart out of 
 life now. But to depart from among men is nothing 
 dreadful, if there be gods, for they will lay no evil on 
 thee. If, on the other hand, there be no gods, or if they 
 do not concern themselves about human affairs, what good 
 is it to me to live in a world without gods, and without 
 a Providence ? But there are gods, and they concern 
 themselves about human affairs." (B. il. ch. 11). " The 
 soul, when it must depart from the body, should be ready 
 to be extinguished, to be dispersed, or to subsist a while 
 longer with the body." (B. xi. 3). Yet he would have 
 this readiness to proceed from similar feelings to his own. 
 He knew the bravery and resignation of Christians. Alas ! j 
 he had not large-heartedness enough to tolerate what 
 seemed an opposing influence to his favourite philosophy, 
 and tried by persecution to extirpate the faith of the/ 
 cross. The faith, however, proved itself stronger than 
 philosophy ; Christ crucified was to the Greek foolish- 
 ness, but was mightier than the wisdom of men, and 
 "the weakness of God was stronger than men." Anto- 
 ninus could not but see the inability of persecution to 
 check the religion of Jesus ; yet he put down the earnest 
 faith and determination of its disciples to obstinacy. So 
 after the words just quoted from his work, on the pro- 
 priety of being ready for whatever may come, he adds, 
 "But this readiness must proceed from the soul's own 
 
ON STOICISM. 71 
 
 judgment, and not from mere obstinacy, as with the Chris- 
 tians ; it must be arrived at with reflection and di<^uty, 
 so that you could even convince another without decla- 
 mation." 
 
 There is a resemblance in the description of the na- 
 ture of man given by this Stoic, to that given by the 
 Apostle Paul. This is noticed in the Essay by Sir A. 
 Grant, to which reference has already been made. Ho 
 says, " we find in him (Antoninus) the same p.sycholo- 
 gical division of man into body, soul, and spirit, as was 
 employed by St Paul." A similar observation was made 
 by Gataker in a note which I shall presently quote. An- 
 toninus writes in this way (B. II. c. 2), " What I am, con- 
 sists entirely of the fleshly {crapicia) and spiritual [irvevixa- 
 TLov), and the chief part (to rjjefjLoviKov). But now, as 
 being about to die, despise thou thy fleshly parts ; gore, 
 and bones, and a network woven of nerves, veins, and 
 arteries. Look also at thy spiritual part of what nature it 
 is; a breath of air which is never the same, but continually 
 breathed out and drawn in again. The third remaining is 
 the principal part. Thou art old, no longer shouldst thou 
 suffer this to be en.slaved." Again, in B. III. IG, his words 
 are, " Body (awfia), soul {■ylrvxv), niind (vovs:). To thy 
 body belong senses ; to thy soul, affections ; to thy mind, 
 opinions." Again, (xil. 3), " There arc three tilings of 
 which thou art composed, body {atofiarLov), spirit (rrvevfid- 
 TLov), mind (i/oi}<?). Of these the first two are thine, so 
 far as the care of them is concerned. But the third alone 
 is really thy own." On the first of these quotations, 
 Gataker has the following note'. "Almost the same 
 thing, in other words, the Apostle writes to the Thessa- 
 
 * "Idem fere, aliis verbis, Apostolus adThessal. Ep. I. c. 5. v. 13," &c. — 
 Gat. not. in M. Ant. B. 11. c. 1. 
 
72 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 lonians in the first Epistle, ch. 5, v. 23, where he says, 
 ' To TTvevfjia, KoX r] •^|^f%'7 KoX to aouixa :' in which place to 
 (ywfxa is what Marcus here calls crapKia ; tJ '^v^v is here 
 TTvevfidriov ; and to irvevfia is here to rj'yeixoviKcvr We 
 may notice, in addition, that this last is called vov<; in 
 B. III. 16, and B. xii. 3. We read in Epictetus, B. m. 7, 
 " That three things belong to man no one will deny — soul 
 (i^y^?)), and body {aoofia), and things without" {to, eKTo^;). 
 The " TO, e'/cT09 " here include the " to -jrvevfia " of An- 
 toninus, which he says is " av€fio<i," and is " breathed out 
 and drawn in continuously." 
 
 With regard to a future existence for the soul, freed 
 from sin and pain at death, though Aurelius denies 
 the hope in some places, yet in others the light of the 
 truth seems to stagger him. So when he says, B. xii. 1, 
 "How comes it to pass, that the gods, who order all 
 things well and lovinglj' for the human race, have over- 
 looked this alone, namely, that men innately good, and 
 who have had, as it were, frequent communions with 
 the deity, and by holy deeds and sacred services have be- 
 come friends of the deity, when once they die, no longer 
 have any being, but go away to be absorbed in the uni- 
 verse ?" He shows his doubts by adding, " if this be the 
 fact," concerning them ; and, further on, " if the fact be 
 otherwise." Evidently he wavered in his belief. 
 
 Antoninus was ascetic in his views. He was fond 
 of retirement and seclusion, thinking his mental pro- 
 gress furthered thereby. He does not seem so intensely 
 earnest, nor so pious and nobly gifted as Epictetus : yet 
 his aspirations were noble. " Oh, my soul ! " we hear him 
 saying^ "wilt thou ever be good, and simple, and one, 
 
 ^ M. Aur. Com. x. i. 
 
ON STOICISM. 73 
 
 and naked, and more transparent tlian the body wliich 
 clothes thee?" Though pliilosophy with liim was all in 
 all, yet the cause of truth was advancing ; the light from 
 heaven was beginning to penetrate the darkness. One 
 cannot put down his record of self-communings without 
 feeling sad, and wishing he had opened his eyes to the 
 perfection of that gospel which ho professedly rejected 
 and despised. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM ON THE CHETSTIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 lu (ppevQv Sucrcppovuv 
 afJ-apTTjixaTa ffreped. 
 
 Soph. Ardig. 1261, 2. 
 
 Having in the previous cliapter described the influence 
 which Christianity had in modifying the tenets of the 
 Stoic school, we come now to the consideration of the 
 influence which the latter exercised on the Christian 
 Church. Beyond the bounds of the sect a widespread 
 impression was made by the force of Stoic principles : 
 and by these Christianity became affected in no small 
 degree. There was so much about them which was real, 
 and they appealed so strongly to the sympathies and pride 
 of human nature, that even where their influence was 
 unperceived and unacknowledged, it was nevertheless deep 
 and lasting. The Stoic spirit gradually spread within the 
 Church, and found there a new home for itself after the 
 destruction of the school of philosophy to which it had 
 given life. Even to the present day it has continued to 
 exist, and still manifests undiminished energy. 
 
 The early Fathers, who came into contact vath the Stoic 
 system in its strength, saw its many excellences as well as 
 its many defects. Being a wonderful advance on merely 
 
TIIC INFLUENCE OF STOICISM, &C. V5 
 
 speculative philosophy, drawing men to the cultivation of 
 the moral sense instead of indulging in wild dreams, there 
 was much for the Christian to admire in its purpose. Still 
 he wouUl naturally be discontented witli a great deal that 
 it contained, as well as disappointed at the absence of 
 much that it omitted. There was something to commend 
 the system to many minds, in the fact that it taught the 
 duty of cultivating the nobler part, of self-denial, of bring- 
 ing the appetites into subjection to the will. There was 
 a gi'eat deal of pretension also in the outward appearance 
 of the philosophers and of their disciples, and this had an 
 influence on many Christians, which became stronger as 
 time wore on. 
 
 In endeavouring to decide how the Church was affected 
 by this spirit, we perceive that there were two principal 
 danwrs to which the relifjion of Jesus was liable from 
 Stoicism. These dangers were lest the purity of the 
 Gospel should be overridden by the asceticism born of, 
 the Stoic spirit; and lest the foreknowledge and provi- 
 dential care of the great Father should be confounded 
 with the fatalism which was so marked a feature of the 
 Stoic belief. These dangers include others which will be 
 noticed as we proceed. 
 
 There is a great proneness in many minds to look on 
 self-imposed austerities as in themselves a mark of virtue. 
 Hence men who have been discontented with the ordinary 
 duties of life and attempted to find higher walks of 
 excellence, have been looked on as superior to others. 
 This spirit has shown itself in all countries and systems. 
 Those who have yielded to it have generally affected a 
 superiority over the rest of the world, and a peculiarity 
 in their garb and manners. The Stoics were greatly in- 
 fluenced in this way. We read of their long robes, just 
 
76 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 as we read of the long robes of the Pharisees. Horace 
 and Persius, in their Satires, bring before us the assump- 
 tion of superiority by " the wise man." 
 
 This spirit of asceticism found its way into the Chris- 
 tian Church. Perhaps jealousy lest the Stoic philoso- 
 phy, or Jewish Pharisaism, should seem to have a more 
 marked influence than Christianity, produced a desire to 
 make a display of asceticism. Or it might be that a per- 
 suasion of the excellence of this, for its own sake, led 
 Christian men to adhere to it. Whatever the motive, 
 there was soon manifested, in the Church, an exao^greration 
 of self-restraint. Men began to withdraw from the ordi- 
 nary walks of Christian life. They began to despise the 
 performance of merely common duties ; and to sketch out 
 new ways to perfection, which they thought better than 
 those taught by the Saviour, They began to do violence 
 ) to their natures. In fact they became Stoical, as if they 
 thought the being so was an advance on being Christian. 
 
 Christianity is a religion eminently suited for the 
 daily life of men. It teaches us to do our duty in the 
 world. We are taught that the highest degree of piety is 
 consistent with, and indeed implies, the performance of 
 one's proper part, as belonging to a great family, which 
 has a right to the energy and service of each of its mem- 
 bers. To do our duty amongst men, wisely and bravely, 
 is taught us too by the example of the divine founder of 
 our religion. A man's interests and desires may often lie 
 in the direction of his ordinary duties. There can be no 
 true piety in relinquishing the post GoD has given him 
 merely because his interest would induce him to retain 
 it. On the other hand, our duties may often be difficult 
 and distracting. In that case, we have no right to leave 
 them. There is often greater victory in doing our work 
 
ON TUE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 77 
 
 in the world than in fleeing into solitude for the; exercises 
 of devotion. Ha who makes his rcHgion to consi.st of 
 care for self only, who for selfish ends neglects the duties 
 which every man owes to his fellow-men, has a very uu- 
 satisfactoiy sense of the doctrines of the Gospel. Yet we 
 find early mention in the records of the Church, of men 
 who cut themselves off from intercourse with their fellow- 
 Christians, leaving their place in the human family va- 
 cant, their work undone. They assumed the air of peculiar 
 sanctity, chul themselves in coar.se garments, slept on the 
 hardest of couches, often on the ground, covered only by 
 a sheepskin, or some similar coverlet, lived on the hum- 
 blest fare, and many of them thought it a peculiar virtue 
 to forego the joys of the niarriage-lifc. AVhcn avc look 
 at this state of things with the eye of reason, we see that 
 it has really no claim on the veneration of mankind. If 
 it was good for one, why not for another ? If certain 
 persons, by means of their seclusion and mortification of 
 the flesh, as they termed it, made themselves peculiarly the 
 loved of God, then might all men do so ; for we are told, 
 "there is no respect of persons with" Him\ But, if all 
 were to adopt this system of living, what would become 
 of human society ? The earth would soon cease to be the 
 scene of busy industry, commerce would die, and religion 
 would be a banc instead of a blessing. If one man makes 
 himself peculiarly the favourite of heaven by forswearing 
 marriage, then of course all men might make themselves 
 so by the same means. But if celibacy were universal, 
 what would become of the human race ? Yet it is the 
 duty of every man to make himself as much like what 
 God would approve as he can. And if celibacy is pecu- 
 
 ' Rom. ii. 1 1. 
 
78 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 liarly acceptable to heaven, all should be celibates. This, 
 however, would make it to be agreeable to the wishes of 
 the Most High, that the race of man should come to an 
 end. As this cannot be God's will, so neither can celi- 
 bacy be the state in which a man must be holiest and 
 most approved by his maker. The fact is that Christi- 
 anity does not teach any such an idea as this mistaken 
 one, to which I have referred. This has its origin in the 
 spirit to which Stoicism gave birth. The religion of Jesus 
 is one of faith in another's merits, as the first step of all ; 
 and then, from the loyalty to GoD which this produces, 
 the believer is anxious to do the utmost he can to show 
 his gratitude. He tries his best to please his King and 
 Lord, by whatever means. He counts no sacrifice too 
 great if called on to make it. But he is not to mark 
 out a way different from the rule of the Gospel. He 
 must be content to do God's work in the place and by 
 the means which His providence may point out. Since 
 the Most High has implanted certain feelings and affec- 
 tions in all our natures, though it may be Stoical, it is 
 hardly Christian to try to uproot them. The Gospel does 
 not teach us to destroy natural affections, but to control 
 them. It is true our appetites are not to be our masters ; 
 yet they are not evils ; they are sent to be our servants, 
 and are good gifts of heaven, if used aright. We are 
 nowhere taught by GoD, that, to be His peculiar people, 
 we must go out of the world, and live selfish and un- 
 social lives. The word of God lays it down as a mark 
 of evil to be " without natural affections." Our blessed 
 Lord, in His prayer for His disciples and the future 
 Church of all ages, said\ "I pray not that Thou wouldest 
 
 ^ St John xvii. 15. 
 
(JN THE CURISTIAN CUUUCII. 79 
 
 take tlicra out of the world, but that Thou woulJest 
 keep thcni from the evil." The noble duty laid u])on us 
 is to show in our daily life the excellence and power of 
 virtue. 
 
 Yet we find that very early in the history of the 
 Church there were great numbers of persons leading lives 
 of selfish seclusion, and claiming peculiar sanctity because 
 of this. Their solitude, and the lonely places in which 
 they chose to live, gave rise to the name of Monk, Hermit, 
 and Anchorite. Very soon these men occupied the same 
 position in the religious world that the Stoics held in the 
 heathen. And because Cliristianity gave woman her pro- 
 per place, as an heir of immortality, and did not neglect; 
 her as philosophy had done, the same rules of living be-i 
 came also common with that part of the Christian women 
 which aimed at superiority, as prevailed with regard to 
 the men. They separated themselves, were placed under 
 peculiar discipline, and bound by special vows. 
 
 It is surprising to observe how soon the notion became 
 widespread, that these men and women were worthy of 
 more reverence than others. Religion became divorced, 
 in thought at least, from the daily life, and began to be 
 considered as a system apart ; as if it inculcated the 
 excellence of certain courses, which were impracticable 
 to ordinary men. This divorce of Christianity from its 
 duty of raising the world by permeating all classes, and 
 imparting to all its life-giving influence, had a most disas- 
 trous result on the souls of men. They who were obliged 
 by the necessity of things to devote themselves to the 
 affairs of time, almost ceased to care about being religious, 
 since they thought religion to be the peculiar possession of 
 others, who performed certain acts and submitted to aus- 
 terities, to which they could not devote their time. Those 
 
80 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 who neglected their worldly duties, at the same time that 
 they forewent certain advantages, arrogated to themselves 
 the name of piety, and monopolised the right to the title 
 of religious. So, pure, vigorous Christianity decayed be- 
 fore a hybrid system born of superstition and asceticism. 
 Those who devoted themselves to the monastic life became 
 so much esteemed because of their pretensions, that they 
 acquired more influence than the ministers of God's holy 
 word and sacraments. The unscrijatural merit attached to 
 celibacy caused people to reckon those who embraced it as 
 better than those who did not. Hence the clergy, to 
 retain their influence, gave in to the idea. As early as 
 the Council of Nice, we find that it was the custom for 
 those who were unmarried when they were ordained, to 
 continue single. Not only so, but an attempt was made, 
 at that Council, to order all married clergy to separate from 
 their wives : and this decree would probably have been 
 carried, but for Paphnutius, an African Bishop, who was 
 himself, however, a celibate. 
 
 We are reminded by the hermits of the Christian 
 Church of those Stoic anchorites from whom they dif- 
 fered but little. We see in the work, which M. Aurelius 
 has left as the record of his self-communings, the fol- 
 lowing observation on the fondness for seclusion among 
 his fellow-philosophers. " They seek places of retreat for 
 themselves, lone dwellings in the country, and the sea- 
 shore, and the mountains." Then he goes on to say to 
 himself, "And thou thyself art wont most earnestly to 
 long for such retreats \" This spirit of abstraction found, 
 in the Church of Christ, more and more adherents as 
 
 ^ M. Aurelius uses the very word from which the anchorite took his 
 name, 'A^'axwpv/o'ets avrois ^njTovffiv, k.t.\. — B. IV. c. 3. 
 
ON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 81 
 
 time wore on, and exacted a more absolute attention. 
 Wo find from the writings of SS. Chrysostom. Cyprian, 
 Jerome, Pachomius and Basil, how fast a hold it obtained 
 of the minds of men. Basil was a student at Athens 
 from A.D. 3-j1 to a. I). So."), with Grej^ory Nazianzene and at 
 the same time as the Empenn- Julian. Philosophy doubt- 
 less still flourished there. We find Julian renouncing 
 Christ altogether, for its sake. Basil, probably from the 
 education which he received at the old home of Stoicism, 
 was peculiarly in love with asceticism. He places before 
 us the secluded life in its best light. We see how his 
 ideas of piety were warped, however, by this spirit of 
 asceticism. We hear him saying to a young monk, his 
 disciple, "Hast thou left thy cell? Thou hast left there 
 thy virtue." " Shun the society of those of thine own 
 age; yea, flee from it as from a burning flame." "It is 
 the devil's craft," he says (Mon. Con. Cap. XX.), " to keep 
 alive in the mind of the monk a recollection of his pa- 
 rents and natural relatives, so that under colour of ren- 
 dering them some aid, he may he drawn aside from his 
 heavenhj course!' He tells us that some objected to this, 
 because the Apostle declared, " If a man provide not for 
 his own, and specially for those of his own kindred, he 
 hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." But 
 he gives the Antinomian reply that a monk, being one of \ 
 a peculiar class, was virtually dead to the world and to his / 
 duty in it; "As dead thou art free from all contributions 
 for the benefit of thy natural relatives, and, as utterly a 
 pauper, thou hast nothing which thou canst bestow." 
 
 This same spirit has continued to animate many parts 
 of the Christian Church to this day. It has given rise 
 to a vast variety of bodies, bound together by various 
 rules, all more or less austere and unnatural. Among the 
 
 G 
 
82 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 Roman Catholics it has developed itself in the Trappists, 
 the Jesuits, and other societies ; and even in the English 
 Church we have seen movements which tend to show 
 that this spirit is confined within no certain limits, but 
 exists in all quarters. 
 
 It is not my purpose to pursue the subject further in 
 this direction. But there is one view of it to which I 
 shall slightly allude. I would gladly pass over this, only 
 it serves to show the influence exerted by the ascetic 
 spirit on certain members of the Church, and therefore 
 seems to claim a passing notice. I allude to the practical 
 Antinomianism of the ancient ascetics. Respecting those 
 who have followed in their steps, in more recent ages, I 
 will be silent. When we turn to the writings of the an- 
 cient Fathers, however, we are struck with the testimony 
 they bear to the fact that just as among the Stoics the 
 long robe covered very often gross licentiousness ; just as 
 the sanctimonious look and the formality and pretension 
 were thought enough by some^ to take away the sinful- 
 ness of sin ; so it was too much the case also with the 
 Christian anchorites. They fell into grievous sins which 
 were a disgrace to their natures. Epiphanius informs us 
 
 ^ Juvenal, in reference to this says, Sat. ii. 8 : 
 
 "Frontis nulla fides, quis enim non vicus abundat 
 Tristibus obscoenis ?" 
 So Sat. III. 105, he has the foUowiDg : 
 
 "Audi facinus majoris aboUsB. 
 Stoicus occidit Baream, delator amicum, 
 Discipulumque senex." 
 Eespecting this man (P. Egnatlus), Tacitus says (Ann. xvi. 32) : "Cliens 
 hie Sorani, et tunc emptus ad opprimendum amicum, auctoritatem StoicEe 
 sectae prEeferebat, habitu et ore ad exprimendam imaginem honesti exercitus, 
 cetenim animo perfidiosus, subdolus, avaritiam ac iibidinem occultans." He 
 goes on to say we should be on our guard against those " specie bonarum 
 artium falsos." 
 
ON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. g3 
 
 tliat when Nicolaus affected to live a celibate life, he did 
 not, either IVoni want of power or will, restrain his lusts, 
 but nisheil into promiscuous intercourse, urging others 
 to follow his example. The descriptions which tliis writer, 
 and Ircnams, and others have given of the failings of 
 those who professed extraordinary sanctity among the 
 early heretics is such as forhid their being produced for 
 public perusal. The Christian Fathers complained of 
 similar conduct among the professed ascetics of the or- 
 thodox Cliurch in the first ages. St Cyprian describes 
 the iniquity of their conduct in his reply to Pomponius : 
 among men and women who had devoted themselves to 
 the monastic life great disorders prevailed. There can 
 be no mistake, as he enters into minute particulars. 
 Allusions were made to these by writers before his time. 
 Monks had professed virgin sisters of the Church, under 
 vows of perpetual chastity, living with them. These 
 were called crweiaaKTOL by the Greeks, 'mulieres siihin- 
 troductce by the Latins. With these the single men lived, 
 lodging in the same cell by day, and even sleeping on the 
 same couch by night. But they called their marriage 
 that of the soul and not of the body. They pretended 
 to have reached such a height of excellence and self- 
 control, as to be able to despise temptation, and to 
 brave moral dangers with impunity. St Chrysostom, who 
 was a great admirer of the ascetic life, thus bewails 
 the evil result '. " Alas, my soul ! Well may I exclaim, 
 and repeat the lamentable cry with the Prophet, Alas, 
 my soul! Our virginity is fallen into contempt; the veil 
 that j^art^.'d it off from matrimony is rent by impudent 
 hands: the holy of holies is trodden under foot, and its 
 
 ^ Chrysostomi, Opera, Tom. I. p. 309. Ed. Ben. 8vo. PariB, 1834. 
 
 g2 
 
84 THE INFLUENCE OF STCHCISM 
 
 weighty and awful sanctities have been profaned and 
 thrown open to all; and that which was once held in 
 reverence, as far more excellent than matrimony, is now 
 sunk so low, as that one should call the married blessed, 
 rather than those who profess celibacy. Nor is it the 
 enemy that has effected all this, but the virgins them- 
 selves." St Basil's works show even more plainly the 
 evils resulting from the system. St Jerome also inti- 
 mates the same facts. There is indeed nothino; wonderful 
 in all this. Men and women were fighting against human 
 nature, common sense, yea, even against Christianity 
 itself, possessed by an evil spirit; which was of Stoic 
 birth, but assumed the garb of preeminent sanctity. 
 
 Other vices, besides those hinted at above, were the 
 necessary offspring of the system. St Jerome tells us 
 that men who wore the garb of poverty and wished to 
 excite admiration as avowedly poor, were gathering wealth 
 within their ragged sleeves. But I need go no further 
 in this disagreeable direction, and shall content myself 
 with having said what the subject seemed to demand. 
 
 Another phase of the same ascetic bias in the human 
 mind is what we understand by Puritanism. This turn of 
 religious sentiment led men, and leads men still, to forego 
 pleasures and to look with suspicion on enjoyments, how- 
 ever innocent in themselves. It is a persuasion of the 
 same kind as that which led the Stoic to exclaim \ ''Thou 
 wilt despise the pleasant song, the dance, the ' pancratium,' 
 if thou dividest the harmonious strain into each of its notes, 
 and askest thyself am I overcome by that? For thou 
 wouldst blush to confess as much. Havingf done the like 
 
 ^ 'fio^s eViTepTToOs, Kal 6/)%-^(rewj Kal TrayKpariov Karacppovqaeis, k,t.\. 
 M. Aurelii Ant. Com. xi. 2. 
 
ON THE CHRISTIAN CllllKlf. 85 
 
 with regcard to dancing, and considered each separate 
 motion and action, tliou wouldst conic to the same con- 
 clusion, with respect to it: and the same also about the 
 ♦pancratium.' In short, except virtue and the tilings re- 
 lating to virtue, remember in all things to consider the 
 parts of which they consist, one by one, that by their dis- 
 section thou mayest learn to despise them." The closely 
 cut hair, which Persius gives us* as a characteristic of the 
 Stoic youth, has had its counterpart among those whom 
 the Cavaliers for this cause called Roundheads. And we 
 find that these men were animated by a zeal for what 
 they considered the cause of God, which led them to defy 
 danger, and apparently to court difficulties. Yet there 
 was often an exaggeration of feeling and sentiment in 
 many, similar to that which led to the asceticism of the 
 first ages of the Church; and which leads men still to seek 
 the monastic life. Among the Puritans, though distin- 
 guished from them in history, in name, and in many pecu- 
 liarities, we see the Quakers standing prominently forth. ^ 
 In fact, they were more puritanic than the Puritans, and 
 seem the personification of Stoicism among Christian . 
 
 people. 
 
 Another feature of Stoicism which has exerted great 
 influence on the Church of Christ is its fatalism. This 
 has been developed into a sytem of Christian doctrine, 
 which we shall designate sufficiently, when we call it 
 Calvinism; though it existed, in a considerable degree, 
 before Calvin; and though, in the system, the necessitarian 
 
 I Haud tibi inexpertum curves deprendere raore8 
 
 Qusequo docet sapiens braccatis illita Medis 
 Porticus, insomuia quibus et detonsa juventus 
 
 ^'^S^'^''^'- Sat.iu.y.-A. 
 
86 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 element is a variable quantity. The Supralapsarians carry 
 their belief so far as to hold that God decreed man's fall 
 into sin, with all the dreadful consequences. Others, with 
 less of this fatalism in their faith, restrict the decrees of 
 the Almighty to the disposal of man after the fall. St 
 Augustin was considerably influenced by doctrines bearing 
 a resemblance to certain phases of Calvinism : but he 
 argued stoutly for man's freedom of will. He was essen- 
 tially a Latin in his scholarship, and did not draw his in- 
 formation from the Hebrew and Greek. His views were 
 tinged with the fatalism of the Stoical philosophy which 
 had widely influenced those with whom he came in con- 
 tact in early life. With these views he came to the peru- 
 sal of the Epistle to the Romans, and thought he read 
 there a confirmation of them. Respecting the 9th chapter 
 of that Epistle, Dodwell says ^ " St Paul, being bred a Pha- 
 risee, spake there and is to be interpreted according to the 
 doctrine of the Pharisees'^ concerning fate, which they had 
 borrowed from the Stoics." St Augustin and Prosper and 
 Fulgentius understood St Paul to mean almost the same 
 predestination that the Stoic behef would imply. Yet 
 they did not contradict and explain away other parts of 
 Scripture, nor utterly ignore reason and common sense. 
 The same difiiculty met them that had occurred to the 
 Stoic Chrysippus. How was this absolute predestination to 
 be reconciled with human freedom ? Cicero tells us {De 
 Fato, VII. 11) that Chrysippus laboured painfully to show 
 how all things were ordered by fate, and yet that there 
 was something in ourselves ; and tried to reconcile the 
 inconsistencies of the system by saying that while fate 
 predisposed, the human will determined. So, naturally 
 
 ^ Proleg. ad J. Stearn, de Obstin. Sect. 41, p. 147. 
 ' " Ex mente PhariscEorum." 
 
ON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 87 
 
 the reasoning ^voukl occur that, if God has predestined us 
 to be saved, there is no need for striving; if he has not, 
 there is no use in any effort we can make. St Augustin, 
 however, does not seem to set before men such absohite 
 fatahsm as this; at least, he strongly impresses on us the 
 fact, that God is willing to receive every sinner coming to 
 Him ; and gives us our choice of good and evil. The Jan- 
 senists adopted and uplield similar views to these on pre- 
 destination. So did Luther and Beza. Calvin advanced 
 more decidedly necessitarian views, and many of his fol- 
 bwers to the present day have set out with eternal fate as 
 tlie foundation of their creed, and have intei-preted all 
 ether doctrines so as to harmonize with this. The essen- 
 tial tenet of Calvin was that GoD, from no other motive 
 than His good pleasure and freewill, has predestinated 
 irom all eternity certain members of the human family to 
 everlasting happiness, and the rest to endless misery. 
 Calvin saysS "Many indeed, a.s if they wished to avert 
 odium from GoD, admit election in such a way as to deny 
 that any one is reprobated. But this is puerile and absurd, 
 because election itself could not exist, without being op- 
 posed to reprobation. Whom God passes by therefore he 
 reprobates, and from no other cause than his determina- 
 tion to exclude them from the inheritance which he pre- 
 destines for His children." Such a doctrine as this re- 
 (|uires that other doctrines, such as "The Lord is not 
 willing that any should peri.sh ; but that all should come 
 to repentance V te taken in a qualified sense. Moreover, 
 since salvation is entirely independent of the indivi- 
 dual, there can be no danger to one predestinated, what- 
 ever he may do or neglect. He cannot fall and be lost. 
 Again, as Christ would not die for men whom he rcpro- 
 * Calv. Inst. ni. 25. I. * 2 Peter iii. 9. 
 
88 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM 
 
 bated, liis death was not for the sins of the whole world, 
 but for the elect only. The first five of " the Lambeth 
 Articles " thus set forth that j^art of the Calvinistic doc- 
 trine which is necessary for our present purpose. 1. " God 
 hath from eternity predestinated some persons to life; 
 others he hath reprobated to death. 2. This predesti- 
 nation to life proceeds not from the faith, perseverance, 
 good works, or any other quality in the predestinated, but 
 from the sole will or pleasure of GoD. 3. The number 
 predestinated is limited before, and cannot be increase4 
 nor lessened. 4. Those not predestinated to life will of 
 necessity be damned. 5. True faith and sanctification ia 
 the elect never fails either in part, or totally." The nintk 
 Article stated, " It is not in every one's will, or power, t 
 be saved." The Synod of Dort, A.D. 1618, reduced th 
 system under five heads, which it is not necessary to proi- 
 duce here, as they are a reiteration of what I have adduced 
 above. The Puritans were firm adherents to the doctrines 
 of Calvinism, and rejoiced in the belief that they were the 
 peculiar j)eople of GoD ; so that in their doctrine, as well 
 as discipline, they partook of the spirit which animated, 
 though in a different manner, the Stoic sect. Of the 
 Church party, at the same time, many held a mitigated 
 form of Calvinistic doctriue, though others rejected it 
 altogether. 
 
 From Calvinism, carried to its extreme limits, resulted 
 violent Antinomianism. In this also Stoicism repeated 
 itself. Just as the Stoics declared that nothing could be 
 a crime which the wise man did ; so the believers in Anti- 
 nomian doctrines declare there can be no sin in those 
 who are the elect ; that Christ obeyed the law and ful- 
 filled all righteousness in their stead, and that his right- 
 eousness being imputed to them, whatever their conduct 
 
ON THE CURISTIAN CIIUUCII. 89 
 
 may bo, tlic}' arc riglitcous still. Hence they call oUseiv- 
 ance of the will of God, and a sense of the duty of obey- 
 ing his law, " the bondage of legality." They cry down 
 morality, as a worthless thing in the sight of GoD. The 
 Stoics divided the world into the Avise and fools. These 
 two classes included all mankind. They called ordinary 
 men, who did not come up to their standard, fools and 
 mad. " The school and sect of Chrysippus," says Horace', 
 " deem every man mad, whom vicious folly, or the igno- 
 rance of any truth, drives blindly forward. This definition 
 takes in whole nations, yea, even gi'eat kings themselves, 
 the wise man alone being excepted." When once a man 
 was a " wise " man, however, they held that all things, 
 even the most revolting crimes, were indifferent to him. 
 So, if mankind be divided into two classes, the elect and 
 the reprobate, not one of whom can ever change from 
 either class to the other, "then," some men argue, "do 
 wdiat I will it docs not matter." The Antinomian claims 
 to be free from the law of GoD, and believes that what- 
 ever he does, he cannot bring himself under the condem- 
 nation which it denounces against the transgressor. Hence 
 have resulted fatal mistakes. We see how evil was the 
 result in the case of the Anabaptists in Germany. They 
 were men who called themselves, and perhaps believed 
 themselves, the elect of God; and, a.s such, despi.sed all 
 law, human and divine. The excesses which they com- 
 mitted, their crimes and subsequent misfortunes, have left 
 a fearful record behind them of the height to which this 
 
 1 Quera mala etultitia, et quaecunque inscitia veri 
 
 (.'ajcum agit, insanutn Chrysippi porticus et grex 
 
 Autuniat. Utec populos, ha;c maguoa formula reges, 
 
 ]ilxcepto sapiente, teuet. 
 
 Ilor, Sat. II. 3. 
 
90 THE INFLUENCE OF STOICISM, eCC. 
 
 spirit may be carried, and liow it may bereave men of 
 their reason and virtue. The sixth of the Lambeth Ar- 
 ticles declares, that "an assurance of having justifying 
 faith is certain of remission of sins, and of eternal salva- 
 tion through Christ." One cannot but see how possible it 
 is that men may be deceived in such a matter as this, and 
 how fatal such self-deception may be in its consequences. 
 Indeed, it may lead a man on in false security and un- 
 founded presumption till he is undone. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 "We have now examined the several parts of the subject 
 which claimed our consideration. In the course of our 
 investigation we have seen that, wliile Christianity and 
 Stoicism have many things in common, all .that which is 
 excellent in the Stoic system is contained in the Chris- 
 tian. There is in philosophy this iu'cmcdiable defect, 
 that though it may point out man's duty, it does not give 
 him power to fulfil it. It shows him a height of excel- 
 lence which he cannot reach. Christianity also points 
 man to noble and exalted paths. She gives him lessons 
 of the highest wisdom, and furnishes him with an example 
 of a perfect life. She does more. She furnishes him with 
 the power to obtain what slie pictures to him of excellence. 
 Stoicism is like the dry bones which Ezekiel saw in his 
 vision, the frames of nnen without the life. Christianity 
 is like those bodies after they had been endowed with 
 beauty, and strength, and vital energy, by His power, to 
 whom alone it belongs to pronounce the decree, " Come 
 from the four winds, breath, and breathe upon these 
 slain, that they may live\" 
 
 Nothing is more marked in our holy religion than 
 its reality. It enters into the every-day life of men, pre- 
 paring them for their duty, and helping them to perform 
 it. It would extend its blessed influence to all. Not like 
 
 ' Ezekiel xxxvii. 9. 
 
92 CONCLUSION. 
 
 philosophy, which separated a distinct class from their 
 fellow-men, and considered the mass of mankind as far 
 removed from any hope of their becoming wise ; this 
 divine system seeks the lost, and the lowly, and the foolish 
 of this world, and raises them so that in their several 
 spheres they may be holy and happy. We are warned in 
 strong language against allowing our souls to be surfeited 
 with the cares and pleasures of this world. We are to be 
 spiritual, thoughtful, and earnest in our jDurely religious 
 exercises. Yet we must guard against the mistake that 
 religion is merely an abstract thing. It does not end 
 when our ordinary duties begin : but follows us from the 
 mercy-seat, when we have finished our communions with 
 God and go about those duties which his Providence has 
 laid upon us. It does not deny us innocent pleasure, 
 though we are forbidden to waste time in pursuit of even 
 harmless amusement. The sentiment which would divorce 
 religion from the burdens and joys of ordinary men, is more 
 of Stoic, than of Christian birth. If Ave read the history 
 of the Saviour, we see him presenting a marked contrast 
 to John the Baptist, the ascetic and solitary. " The Son 
 of man came eating and drinking," and mingling as a man 
 with men so freely as to scandalize the Pharisees, the 
 Stoics of the Jewish Church. Our place also is in the 
 world, doing the will of God. Not choosing our own path, 
 or our own will, we are to resist the temptation to separa- 
 tion and spiritual pride which sometimes assails us. GoD 
 has given us life, spiritual as well as bodily life, that it may 
 be used in his service ; not to serve our own selves. Yet 
 many a man has served self and has followed a false light, 
 that has deceived him and led him into bye-ways ; while 
 the deceived one thought he was doing God service, and 
 practising self-denial. We want no special circumstances 
 
CONCLUSION. 93 
 
 made for iis, no extr.aordinary opportunities granted : for 
 each man lias Ly infinite wisdom been placed in his posi- 
 tion, whati'vor it may he ; and has, every day and all day 
 long, opportunity for honouring Goi), and helping on His 
 designs in the world. This St Paul felt when, writing to 
 the Corinthians, he says (2 Ep. v. 14), "The love of ("lirist 
 constraincth us ; because we thus jutlgc, that if one died 
 for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that 
 they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
 but unto Him who died for them, and rose again." The 
 jrreat lesson to learn is real self-sacrifice. We shall not 
 fail in learning this lesson if, depending on divine aid, we 
 study to conform ourselves to His example, whose life was 
 summed up in a few words by the Apostle Peter, when he 
 described Him as " Jesus of Nazareth, who went about 
 doing good." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED AT THE TNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 

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