STOICS and EPICUREANS (sto'iks and ku-re'anz). Reference is made in Acts xvii:t8 to certain philosophers belonging to these cele brated sects as having 'encountered Paul at Athens.' The Stoics derive their name from 'a porch'; because their founder Zeno (who was born from 36o to 35o years B. C.) was accustomed to teach in a certain porch at Athens.
Zeno was followed by Cleanthes (about B. C. 26o), Cleanthes by Chrysippus (about B. C. 240), who was regarded as the intellectual founder of the Stoic system. Stoicism soon found an en trance at Rome, and under the empire Stoicism was not unnaturally connected with republican virtue. The ethical system of the Stoics has been commonly supposed to have a close connection with Christian morality. But the morality of Stoicism is essentially based on pride, that of Christianity on humility; the one upholds indi vidual independence, the other absolute faith in another ; the one looks for consolation in the issue of fate, the other in Providence; the one is lim ited by periods of cosmical ruin, the other is con summated in a personal resurrection (Acts xvii: 18). But in spite of the fundamental error of
Stoicism, which lies in a supreme egotism, the teaching of this school gave a wide currency to the noble doctrines of the Fatherhood of God, the common bonds of mankind, the sovereignty of the soul (Smith, Dict.) The Epicureans were named after their founder, Epicurus. who is said to have been born at Athens B. C. 344, and to have opened a school (or rather a garden) where he propagated his tenets. at a time when the doctrines of Zeno had already ob tained credit and currency. , F. W. N.