THE WORLDS EPOCH-MAKERS Marcus Aurelius and the Later Stoics By F. W. Bussell, D. D. of Biasenose College Oxjotd New York. Charles Scribners Sons 1910 VIRI AMABILIS ET DBSIDEBATISSIMI A. H, J. GREENIDGE MANIBUS, QTJI ME AMIGA NI AD HOC OPUS CTJBANDUM IMPULIT, ET INDUSTRIE SU l INENABRABILI8 EXEMPLO EX DESIDIA EXGITAVIT PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, FOR T T, CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON 1MPRIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED. NBW YORK CHARLES SCRBNERS SONS THIS little look will letray the length of time it has been under consideration by several allusions to modern events which are now anachronisms. But I have preferred to leave the text as I wrote it some time ago and to make no change in the estimate of the Stoic teachers, although in some respects my own standpoint is not the same. On the whole, it agrees fairly well with the valuation of a pure Monism set forth in the Bampton Lectures of 1905 and I am glad of an opportunity of supplementing and supporting the general statements made there ly this detailed inquiry into tivo or three of the most eminent and sincere expounders of an untenable creed. MUNBHAM HOUSE, NORFOLK, December 1909. GENERAL SYNOPSIS P-AFiB GEXKHAL PHEFACE ., , , .. v PART I. INTRODUCTION CIKP. I. The Roman Emperor ..... 1 II. The Stoic Philosopher . .... 18 III. Development of PHILOSOPHY m Rome . . .35 IV. The Wise Man . ... 51 PAET II. THE IMMEDIATE INFLUENCE I. EPICTETITS, or the New Cynism Devotional Personification of the Cosmic Order ., . . .76 A. The RELIGIOUS transfoimation of PHILOSOPHIC Dogma 76 B. The Gift of Free Will the Fatherhood of God the Divinity of Souls the Cosmopolis the Special Function . . ... 82 0. Providence extending toParticulars Discipline of the Sons of God ...... 03 II. The Wise Man in the Two Commonwealths Opportunism, or the r61e of Contemplation and Passivity . .97 A. Modern Conception of Stoicism in error the essential Expediency of Resignation and Abstention . . 97 JB. Close Restriction of the Sphere of Missionary Influence Rejection of Civic or Domestic Duties by the true Anchorites ..... 104 C. The Sage Spectator rather than Agent in the Universe 107 ix x GENERAL SYNOPSIS CHAP PAGK III. The intimate Problems 110 A. Death and Immortality . . . .110 B. Some Minor Points the Pax Romana the World of Conflict the Moralistic Standpoint the Noeiic Life of God Futility of meie Technical Emancipation, etc. ., . . .117 Harmony between Epictetiib and Marcus AurelmtJ . 120 PART III. THE CREED OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS I. The Teaching of the Emperor the Nature of Man the Agent 122 A. Chief Characteristics, ot his Meditations due to his Office and his Time ..... 122 J5. Influence of the Conception of A 7os on Greek Thought 132 C. The Constitution and Psychology of the Individual . 13b Z. Mans Function and Place in the World Special Equipment of each being a Key to its purpose and Happiness . . . . .147 II. Man and the World .... .15-2 A, The two Commonwealths and the Citizen, as Agent or Quietist ... .152 B. The Problem of Conformity to Natuie varying Definitions of 4iVts . . . .,158 0, Inheient Diveisity of the Natuic of Man and the World 167 III Absolute Subjectivity . ..... 175 A. Complete Isolation of the Individual from Things and from his Fellow-men . ... 175 B. Moral Effort expires in Tolerance of Evil . .181 G. Soul, without real Contact with Things-in-Themselve. s, can assimilate andtransmute into Material for its own Nurture ...... 18 IV. Happiness and Destiny of Man b Spii it . . .191 A. Self-bufficingness of the Soul . . . .194 GENERAL SYNOPSIS xi CHAP. PAGE J. Mystical Tendencies and the Doctrine of Deity within ...... 202 C. The Problem of Monopsychism . . . 204 . Immoitality ...... 206 E. Belief in Immoitality essential to the logical Theory, if not to the Pursuit, of Morality . . .217 Appendix A, B, . . . . . .220 V. The Universe, Eternal and Divine, and Transient and Contemptible. . . . . .225 A...