The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
iQ2
THE STOIC CREED
of these two memorable and contemporaneous protests
against the evils of the world (Christian Doctrine and
Morals, p. 34). 1 So, further, there is an absolute
contrast between Stoicism and Christianity in the
matter of the kindlier feelings. There is
nothing in
the Stoic teaching like the sentence,
"He shall not
break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax" ;
nor like this,
"If thine enemy
smite thee on the one
cheek, offer him the other also"; nor like this,
"Be
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving
each other, even as God also in Christ "
forgave you
(Eph. iv. 32).
Yet the need for recognizing the sympathetic and
tender side
be felt by the Stoics ;
of human nature came more and more to
and, as time went on, they tried
to adjust their teaching to this requirement. It is note
worthy that the Roman period of Stoicism is far more
expansive and humane than the earlier Greek period.
The meaning of this is that, pressed, on the one side
by the demand to show some living example of the
ideal wise man, and, on the other side, by the constant
cry of the emotions for a more adequate recognition,
they made important alterations in their system, which
had indeed the effect of rendering
it more popular, but
at the expense of consistency. It
may reasonably be
doubted whether any system should be finally con
demned on the simple ground that it has failed to
produce any man who lived exactly up to its highest
to show
precepts. For the use of an ideal is precisely
what should be done, or what ought to be aimed at,
1
See also Lightfoot, St. Paul s Epistle to the Philippians, p. 303.