STOICS
1039
STOICS
his brilliant disciple, Plato, as the Republic and the Laws may sufHcienth' attest. Seel'LATO; Sockates. Alike design, but with broader views and with less regard to particular applications, may be ascribed to Aristotle; though his alien nativitj', his restless ])ursuit of all knowledge, his marvellous com])rehension and system- atization, maj' disguise the tendency, and may have disguised it even to himself. Still, the moral bearing and the political direction fif the intpiiries of Socrates, riato, and Aristotle can hardly be misa|)prebended. It is a curious conrirmation of this prevailing direction of thought that Zeno's tirst work, composed before his sep- aration from the Cj'nics, was a treatise on tlie State. Tliis was, perhaps, the last marked manifestation of the spirit of an age that had passed away. It should be noted, too, that etliics, as such, had constituted a large part of the meditations of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and had been prominent in secondary schools. The reformation of morals had been the immediate design of Socrates, and the imptdse communicated by him had not ceased to operate. Indeed, the necessity for moral reform had greatly increased since Socrates urged the Athenians to a just and pure life. The crimes, the treacheries, the frauds, the greed, the selfishness, the rapacity, and the sensuality of the Greeks had been multiplied and aggravated in the days since Alcibiades and Critias; thej' had assumed larger proportions and greater disregard of restraint. The plundering trittmphs of Alexander; the sack, spoliation, or oppression of cit- ies; the acquisition of thrones, principalities, domina- tions, powers, and fortunes by the companions and fol- lowers of Alexander, raised the hopes of the enterprising and lowered their principles. If, in the days of Socrates, the reformation of knowledge was refpiisite for the re- form of the State, after the Macedonian supremacy there was scarcely any State to be reformed. The reforma- tion must, therefore, be restricted to private morals and to private life in order to redeem society or to insure individual contentment and respectability. Even this tendency had been already exhibited. The spirit of the approaching age is always anticipated, for " coming events cast their shadows before." Aristippus, the pupil of Socrates, preceded Epicurus in presenting pleasure as the object of life ; the jMegarians gave nearly all their solicitude to ethical precepts and practices; and Antis- thenes, the founder of the Cynics, was before Zeno in proclaiming indifference to worldly honors, worldly cares, and every indulgence to be the essence and substance of wisdom. In the confusion or cessation of political life, in the crash of the brilliant organizations of the past, in the ruin of social health, the independence or ease or dignity of inilividual existence naturallj' en- gaged the attention of innocent natures and of original and inquiring minds. Earlier speculations might be ciintinued — expanded rather than advanced; but the yearning anxiety of the time, and the " regnum futuri," centred in the individual, and sought escape both from political domination and social corruption. The need of moral satisfaction and of spiritual solace was, of course, augmented by the decay of effectual belief in the creed of polytheism.
Such was the condition of the Hellenic world when Zeno and Epicurus almost simultaneously appeared with antagonistic schemes, as with diverse temperaments, to institute new systems of philosophy, which long rivalled the Academics and Peripatetics, and divided the mass of intelligent and dissatistied men between their con- tending schools.
It woidd be very instructive to investigate the man- ner in which new schools of philosophy established them- selves among the Greeks. The materials for such an inquiry are widely scattered, and they are neither aliun- dant nor distinct. The jjrocess seems to have been both irregular and fortuitous. It bore much reseml)lance to the institution of new religious orders in the ISIiddle Ages; to the gathering of vast congregations of disci- ples by illustrious schoolmen ; and to the generation of
new sects and separatist churches in our time. An ardent or ambitious student, earnest in the pursuit of truth, or consumed with the desire of notoriety, fidl of self-confidence, and stul)boru in his convictions, finds himself at variance, on some points of greater or lesser importance, witii tiie teachers whom he has long attend- ed ; or is dissatistied, like Lucian's curious seeker, with all. He ventilates his doubts; he discusses his differ- ences; he argues, he extends, ho corroborates, he sys- tematizes his opjiosition; he draws around him others who have experienced the like duliitations, or wlio ealch the same infection from his own vehemence; and, as tlie luimbers of such acolytes increase, the desire and the demand for fuller and more orderh' exposition, for a more pronounced assertion of differences, and for the con- solidation of the dissentients become active forces, and provoke the establishment of a new congregation. A place of meeting and of formal instructicm is sought out, and the groves of Academns, the shady walks near Athens, an open colonnade, a pleasant and retired gar- den, a retreat in the mountains, forests, or meadows, or a new meeting-house, give "local habitation and a name" to a school of philosophy, a monastic order, or a modern sect. That Zeno, during his long peregrination through the existing heresies, was speedily led to contemplate the institution of another, is indicated by the keen cen- sure attributed to Polemo : "It does not escape my notice. Zeno, that you, in your Phcrnician garb, are gliding through the gates of others' gardens and stealing their doctrines" (Diog. Laert. vii, 25).