The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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CHAPTER X
ETHICS: DEFECTS
in seipso totus, teres atque
rotundus." HORACE.
In lazy apathy let Stoics boast
Their virtue fix d ;
tis fix d as in a frost." POPE.
Certainly, Vertue is like pretious Odours, most fragrant, when
they are incensed, or crushed For :
Prosperity doth best discover
Vice ;
But Adversity doth best discover Vertue." BACON.
BUT with all these merits (and they are great), the
Stoic Ethics had its weak points ;
and to these it now
becomes necessary to advert.
I
For one thing,
it
over-emphasized the stern, austere,
unsympathetic side of morality in its paradoxical doc
trine of the Wise Man, and thereby disturbed
the true
balance of human nature, and, to a certain extent,
rendered its own teaching impracticable. If it was the
fault of Epicureanism that it made too much of pleasure,
it is certainly
little of pain.
Cynicism. Its dogma
the fault of Stoicism that it made too
This was, doubtless, an inheritance from
of Passionlessness or aTrdOcia
its contempt for pain and pleasure and its indifference
towards objects of affection is in an extreme : it is too
unbendingly Puritanical. Of it one might say, what
Stoicism itself said of Epicurus s counsel that parents
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