The Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics - College of Stoic Philosophers

60 THE STOICS.
Chap, the soul.^ This purifying process, however, is
IV.
neither to be found in logical
subtleties nor in
natural science. Logic, as doing
more harm than
good, he compared to a spider's web, which is as
useless as it is curious ;
^ or else to the mud on a
road.^ Those who studied it he likened to people
eating lobsters, who take a gi-eat deal of trouble for
the sake of a little bit of meat enveloped in much
shell."* Convinced, too,
that the wise man is free
from every deceptive infatuation,"* and that doubt,
for the purpose of refuting which logic has been
invented, can be more easily overcome by a healthy
tone of mind* than by argument, he felt no particular
necessity for logic. Nay, more, he considered
that excessive subtlety transforms the healthy action
of philosophy into an unhealthy one.^ Just as little
was Aristo disposed to favour the so-called encyclical
knowledge
: those who devote themselves to this
knowledge instead of to philosophy he compared to
the suitors of Penelope, who won the maids but not
the mistress.* Natural science would probably have
received a more favourable treatment at the hands of
Aristo, had he not shared the opinion of Socrates,
that it is a branch of knowledgre which transcends
•O"
'
Pint. De Audiendo, C. S, a6(pov a'bd^arrrov thai.
p. 42: of/Te yap fiaXavfiou, (jyr^crly
'
6 'Api(TTwv, otiTf x6yov fxT] Kadal- Aristo (in the 'OnottifiaTo)
povTos v