Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

SECT, in i STOIC DOGMA li
thought of a world-soul, of Nous on a large scale im-
posing unity of motion on the celestial spheres, was
entertained. But the conception of its action did not
differ from that of other elements ;
it was regarded as
a sort of spiritual Phlogiston, possessed of superior
mobility, lightness, dryness, heat, or other qualities
of the kind. Neither did it inhere in all matter ;
whenever it was present, or present in sufficient
amount to make its sensible mark, it exhibited its own
characteristic qualities, and produced appropriate forms
and degrees of intelligence.
In the Stoic system Nous is no longer one of the
elements, primus inter pares ; it is sui generis^ antecedent
to matter and the material elements, no longer
juxtaposed but omnipresent, the condition and motive
cause of every form of being ; and by a new dynamical
conception it is regarded as immanent throughout creation,
equally permeating and determining every kind of
substance. The most general and comprehensive names
accorded to it are from the physical side, Pneuma ; from
the psychical, Reason or Logos ; but, corresponding to
the phase which it assumes, it is recognised
in relation
to the Universe as Nature, World-Soul, Destiny, Fate,
Necessity, Providence, God, Zeus ;
in relation to Man as
Soul, Mind, Pneumatic Current, Breath, or Vital Heat ;
in relation to Matter as Force, Air, Fire, or other
modes of motion. Thus, from one point of view, the
single element into which the Ionian physicists sought
to resolve the material world is found upon a higher
plane ; from another, it is comparable, and even at
times loosely identified, with that plastic Fire