H. J'hysics. — Like other ancient philosophers, but with greater propriety, the .Stoics included theology in the philosophy of nature. They usually divided this branch of specidation into three heads: Concerning the Universe; Concerning Elements; Concerning Causes. They assumed two ]irinciplcs, as I'lato had done: af>\a<; i'X/ji' Kai Hf()i', wt; IWoTwv ( Aristocles. ap, Kuseb. I'r. Kr. XV, 14) ; but in a very difterent sense. With I'lato these principles had been distinct in character aiul es- sence, and inherently antagonistic; with Zeno they were confoimded, coalescent, anil virtually identical. Thus rigid materialism sup|ilanted I'latonic idealism, and the universe was filled with animate<l material en- lilies, an<l with their constant transformations. The tenilency of modern science seems to be in the direction of similar delusive hypotheses. From lleraclitus, from whom Zeno borrowed so largely, he borrowed also the dogma of the eternity and imi>erishability of matter; and also the four elements generated by the separation anddifffrenliation of un(pialifiedsubstance(a7roioe»'Xr;), and admitting indefinite combinations and transmuta-
STOIC PHILOSOPHY
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tions. The elements themselves and all resultinc; prod- ucts were enveloped anil interi>enetrated by a subtile, elastic current of liery ether, which blended with them throughout all their changes and determined their char- acter and actions. This ether was the determinin':^ cause, tiie ctficient force, in everythintc. All things were moulded, guided, governed, by its impregnating and sus- taining tlame; everytiiing was informed and animated liv it. Stars, planets, sun. moon, earth, comets— as all other things — were vitalized by it; and through all things moved the aitimu muiiili, the soul of the universe. "Nainque cimam tncita natm-ani niente pollentem; Iiiriisuniqne deurn coelo, tenisqiie, fretoqiie, iML'entein leqnuli moderanteni foedere nioletn, Et rationis au'i motu : cum spiiiuis unns Per cunciiis liahitet partes, alque irriget orbera, Omnia pervolitaus, corpusque animale flgnret"
(Maiiil. .4«^o/». ii, CO-65).
The Stoics differed among themselves in regard to the location of this all-pervading tire {nuf) nxt'iKoi''). Some placed it in the centre of the earth, Cleanthes in the sun, but most assigned it to the highest atmosphere, or '•extra llammantia moenia minidi.'' Dr. Carpenter, as president of the Hritisii Association, at the Brighton meeting, declared unphilosophical the representation of the forces of nature as self-sustaining and self-operative. The inconsistency was imfelt or disregarded by the Sto- ics, a-s it has been by recent materialists. Their whole universe and all its members were framed out of undi- gested and indiscriminate matter by the motion of the etlicreal tire which was distributed through all things. The liglit and life of the stars were su|iposed to be fed from the vapors and exhalations rising from the earth. These must be consumed in the long lapse of countless years. The universe would in turn become desiccated, and Ije consumed by the liery currents within it and around it. A general contlagration will therefore wind up the varied drama of creation, when " the heavens shall [lass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth, also, and the works that are therein shall be burneil up." This total Combustion shall be followed by the gradual renewal of all things. The process of evolution will recommence; there shall be " a new heavens and a new earth." A complete anacatastasis shall occur, to be succeeded bj' another total incandescence. This destruction of the World by fire was derived from Heraclitus. Other Sto- ics added to it, or substituted for it, destruction by flood. There were Xeptunians and Vulcanians in the sect. S)rae of the fraternity rejected the hypothesis altogeth- er. It will be observed in what a remarkable manner the Stoics preceded Ilelmholtz and his acolytes in the theory of the spontaneous constmiption of the worlds by fire, and their reproduction by cooling, coalescence, divi- sion, and recomposition of parts.
Although a nominal ilistinction is always made bv Zeiio and his followers between matter and (iod, and is specially insisted on by Hoethns, who does not admit the world to l>e a huge animal, yet, as God is material — only "a liner air"— as he is the creative and liery ether which fashions, regulates, and dwells in all, it is ini[»ossil.le to establish any real division between the I>iviiiiiy and the material universe. It is not merely, nt Antoiiiiie says, that " all things are from Jove, in Jove, and converge to Jove," but all things are Jove, and Jove is all things. The Stoic identification of (iod with lh<- universe was manifest to the ancients:
"Af niihi tiiin pne-ens rntio non nllu videtur (^ii;i piite;it niuiMJiim dlviiii> nunihie verli Atqiie ipHUin esi^e Denin" (.Manil. Axfrun. i, 490-492).
The fiery ether conctituteil the Divinity of Heraclitus before being adopted a« th(! (iod and soul of the uni- wtm: by Zeiio. Throughout the wlnde range of being, in it.i highest and in its lowest spheres, there is an in- conceivable mixture of the divine and the material
Kpautr I't' IjAiuv-^but the divine itself is only matter wiblimnte.!. This supreme (iod is no indepemhnt or auluiiouious ruler, lie is all-wise not of his own wis-
dom; almighty from no power of his own. He acts, like Spinoza's God, not of his own will, but from the necessity of his nature; and is obedient to the law which he seems to impose, for that law is only the proc- ess of his inevitable developments (Seneca, Dial, i, 5, 8). This Djivinity is more shadowy than the Nouveau Crand Eire Supreme of Comte, though infinitely more expansive. He is simply the chain of unalterable se- (piences in the procession of phenomena: '• irrevoeabilis humana pariter ac divina cursus vehit" (Seneca, ibid.). An absolute fatalism evidently results from this con- ception of the Divinity — a fatalism not of actions pre- determined, but of eventualities necessitated. It is fa- talism a posteriori, or an inverted fatality. As all pos- sibilities are involved in the being of God, as they occur in necessarv order, and are simultaneously contained in the totality of his essence, their complexion and mani- festation are foreknown to the Divinity, which, under this aspect, is named Providence. The Stoic doctrine here marches closely by the side of Spinozism. It is somewhat strange that we should owe the term " Prov- idence" to Stoic invention. From the conceptions just explained proceeds the Stoic fate — >'/ tifiapf-ikvi] — which envelops all issues in its toils, and determines the end from the beginning. It follows, as with Heraclitus, that law is universal and all-controlling, and that noth- ing can elude it or bend it. Resistance and submission are alike inetfectual to break, to change, to retard, or to advance it.