Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

in i STOIC DOGMA Iv
it *
sparked,' as it were, into a new form of activity. 1 To
this continuous and automatic thrill 2 or tension the self-
realisation of the Pneuma is due ; and the phenomenal
self- manifestations of the Pneuma correspond to the
various degrees of tension, under which the Pneuma
precipitates itself as material existence. They may
be either of the psychical order, such as reason or
instinct, or of the physical, ranging from the rarest
ether to the densest forms of solid matter.
The whole process was conceived in the most rigidly
physical terms, and quantitative as well as qualitative
differences were admitted, and held to affect the resultant
life. The leading phenomenal variations were differ-
entiated, as corresponding to the various degrees of
tension ; the indwelling Mind of man attesting by its
extreme mobility a high grade of inner tension, and
materialisation becoming grosser with each successive
relaxation or loss of tension. At the highest grade of
tension the Pneuma acts as the World -Soul, super-
sensuous and ethereal, occupying the same relation to
the universe as the individual soul to the human organism;
at another grade the Pneuma becomes the indwelling
Mind or Reason, the '
element '
governing in man, by
which he enters into conscious relation with cosmic
life, and upon which hangs the whole of 3
personality a
;
lower grade takes us from the rational or logical faculty
of man to the lower psychical life of animals possessed of
instinct, impulse, and gregarious affections, which Marcus
irvpbs 6 rbvos eVri Cleanthes 76.
- vi. 38.
3 For its functions and psychological relations, see 3 and 4.