Other peculiarities of the later Stoic ethics are due to the condi tion of the times. In a time of moral corruption and oppressive rule, as the early empire repeatedly became to the privileged classes of Roman society, a general feeling of insecurity led the student of philosophy to seek in it a refuge against the vicissi tudes of fortune which he daily beheld.
From Seneca we turn, not without satisfaction, to men of sterner mould, such as Musonius Rufus, who certainly deserves a place beside his more illustrious disciple, Epictetus. As a teacher he commanded universal respect, and wherever we catch a glimpse of his activity he appears to advantage. His philosophy, however, is yet more concentrated upon practice than Seneca's, and in ethics he is almost at the position of Aristo. Epictetus testifies to the powerful hold he acquired upon his pupils, each of whom felt that Musonius spoke to his heart.
In the life and teaching of Epictetus this thought bore abundant fruit. The beautiful character which rose superior to weakness, poverty and slave's estate is also presented to us in the Discourses of his disciple Arrian as a model of religious resig nation, of forbearance and love towards our brethren, that is, towards all men, since God is our common father. With him even the "physical basis" of ethics takes the form of a religious dogma—the providence of God and the perfection of the world. We learn that he regards the
or "guardian angel" as the divine part in each man ; sometimes it is more nearly conscience, at other times reason. His ethics, too, have a religious character. He begins with human weakness and man's need of God: whoso would become good must first be convinced that he is evil. Sub mission is enforced by an argument which almost amounts to a retractation of the difference between things natural and things contrary to nature, as understood by Zeno. Would you be cut off from the universe? he asks. Go to, grow healthy and rich. But if not, if you are a part of it, then be resigned to your lot.
Epictetus is marked out amongst Stoics by his re nunciation of the world. He is followed by a Stoic emperor, M. Aurelius Antoninus, who, though in the world, was not of it. The Meditations give no systematic exposition of belief, but there are many indications of the religious spirit we have already observed, together with an almost Platonic psychology. Following Epictetus,
he speaks of man as a corpse bearing about a soul ; at another time he has a threefold division—(I) body, (2) soul, the seat of im pulse (iryfw.tarlov), and (3) van or intelligence, the proper ego. In all he writes there is a vein of sadness: the flux of all things, the vanity of life, are thoughts which perpetually recur, along with resignation to the will of God and forbearance towards others, and the religious longing to be rid of the burden and to depart to God. These peculiarities in M. Antoninus may perhaps be ex plained in harmony with the older Stoic teaching; but, when taken in connection with the rise of Neoplatonism and the revival of superstition, they are certainly significant. None of the ancient systems fell so rapidly as the Stoa. It had just touched the high est point of practical morality, and in a generation after M. Antoninus there is hardly a professor to be named. Its most valuable lessons to the world were preserved in Christianity; but the grand simplicity of its monism slumbered for fifteen centuries before it was revived by Spinoza.
Zeller, Phil. d. Griech. iii. pt. i. (3rd ed., 188o) Eng. trans. Stoics, by Reichel (1879), and Eclectics, by S. F. Alleyne (1883) ; F. Ravaisson, Essai sur le stoicisme (Paris, 1856) ; M. Heinze, Die Lehre vom Logos (Oldenburg, 1872) ; H. Siebeck, Untersuchungen zur Phil. d. Griechen (Halle, 1873), and Gesch. d. Psychologie, i. 2 (Gotha, 1884) ; R. Hirzel, "Die Entwicklung der stoisch. Phil.," in Untersuchungen zu Ciceros Schriften, ii. 1-566 (Leipzig, 1882) ; Oge reau, Essai sur le systeme des Stoiciens (Paris, 1885) ; L. Stein, Die Psychologie der Stoa, i. p. ii. (Berlin, 1886-88) ; A. C. Pearson, The Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes (London, 1891) ; A. Schmekel, Die Philosophie der mittleren Stoa (Berlin, 1892) ; A. Bonhoffer, Epictet and die Stoa (Stuttgart, 1890) ; Die Ethik des Stoikers Epictet (Stutt gart, 5894) ; A. Dyroff, Die Ethik der alten Stoa (Berlin, 1897) ; R. D. Hicks, Stoics and Epicureans (Iwo) ; E. V. Arnold, Roman Stoicism (191I) ; H. Diels, Doxographi graeci (Berlin, 1879 and late editions) ; J. von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, (Leipzig, 1903-05).
See also ETHICS, HISTORY OF, and LOGIC, HISTORY OF. (R. D. Hi.)