The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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CHAPTER IX
ETHICS: SPECIAL POINTS
"It is from considering- the relations which the several appetites
and passions in the inward frame have to each other, and, above
all, the supremacy of reflection or conscience, that we get the idea
or constitution of human nature. And from the idea
of the system
itself it will as fully appear, that this our nature, i.e., constitution,
is
adapted to virtue, as from the idea of a watch it
appears, that
its nature, i.e., constitution or system, is adapted to measure
time. BUTLER.
In
"
regno nati sumus deo : parere libertas est." SENECA.
"
The seat of law is the bosom of Almighty
God." HOOKER.
1
BEFORE proceeding
it
, may be well to emphasize and
further explain one or two of the leading positions in
the Stoical Ethics.
I
And, first of all, the formula, "Live agreeably to
nature."
Many people have stumbled at this phrase, regarding
it as indefinite, and unsuitable to express the central
thought of the system. Now, it is quite true that the
term nature" is ambiguous: it may be used in a
wider and in a narrower sense, as designating the
whole or as indicating merely a part. But, in either
case, the meaning is perfectly plain, and the two
significations are complementary of each other. If
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