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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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Iviii INTRODUCTION SECT.<br />

veins, was interpreted <strong>to</strong> be conveyance <strong>of</strong> the Pneuma.<br />

Thus, in one phase at any rate, the Pneuma <strong>of</strong> the S<strong>to</strong>ics<br />

is the oxygen <strong>of</strong> modern Chemistry ; and the S<strong>to</strong>ic<br />

doctrine <strong>of</strong> being on the one hand expands in<strong>to</strong> cosmic<br />

pantheism, on the other narrows in<strong>to</strong> processes <strong>of</strong> human<br />

physiology.<br />

It is not clear <strong>to</strong> what exact point Zeno himself<br />

carried the mechanical expression <strong>of</strong> these ideas, or<br />

how far he extricated his own thought from the apparently<br />

insurmountable dualism implied by matter and force<br />

(whether conceived as spiritual or material). But it is<br />

indeed needless, even in so important an addition as<br />

the theory <strong>of</strong> 'tension,' <strong>to</strong> discriminate the precise<br />

contributions <strong>of</strong> successive masters Zeno, Cleanthes,<br />

Chrysippus, or even the later school <strong>of</strong> medical philos-<br />

ophers for- S<strong>to</strong>ic teaching crystallised in<strong>to</strong> a body<br />

<strong>of</strong> doctrine, representing the final revision <strong>of</strong> Zeno's<br />

system as supplemented and in details rectified by the<br />

severer method <strong>of</strong> his two great commenta<strong>to</strong>rs. This<br />

body <strong>of</strong> doctrine formed a permanent deposit <strong>of</strong> orthodox<br />

belief, which pious S<strong>to</strong>ics accepted with a homage almost<br />

as implicit and unquestioning as that which Epicureans<br />

rendered <strong>to</strong> the dogmas <strong>of</strong> the master and apart from<br />

casual aberrations <strong>of</strong> individual idiosyncrasy, or from<br />

unconscious relaxation <strong>of</strong> thought or expression, there<br />

was no deliberate reconstruction or abandonment <strong>of</strong><br />

dogma, from the days <strong>of</strong> the founders <strong>to</strong> the last<br />

deliverances <strong>of</strong> <strong>Marcus</strong> <strong>Aurelius</strong>. For Epictetus 'what<br />

Zeno says' is still held <strong>to</strong> sum up the lore <strong>of</strong> the<br />

philosopher.

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