The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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ETHICS: EXPOSITION 153
me. The one of them sought him out in all galleries
and porches where he was wont to walk, and ran
through all
other places wherein he had any hope to
find him out, and at length, being weary with his way,
and frustrate of his hope, returned home. The other
stood gazing at the next juggler, or mountebank, or
whilst he wandereth up and down and playeth with his
fellows and companions, seeth Plato passing by, and
found him whom he sought not. I, saith Cleanthes,
1
will commend that boy who performed that he was
commanded, to his uttermost, and will chastise that
other who was more fortunate in laziness. It is the
will that is the lawful mistress of these actions, the
condition whereof must be considered, if thou wilt
have me to be thy debtor. It is a small matter to
wish a man well, except thou pleasure him ; it
is a small matter to have pleasured, except thou
hadst a will to do it
(Seneca, De Beneficiis, vi. n,
Thomas Lodge s tr.). Hence, "the measure of
the man s worth is the worth of his aims
;
l
and
it is
only according to his purpose and intention
that a man is either to be praised or to be blamed
for his acts; 2 and "the
guilty deed lies in the very
hesitation, even though it should never be actually
accomplished." 3
This doctrine of the inwardness of morality was
fundamental to the Stoics,
4
and must be taken in
1
Marcus Aurelius, Med. vii. 3.
2 Epictetus, Diss. iv. 8.
3
Cicero, De Officiis, iii. 8.
4
As it was also to Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount.