The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
212 THE STOIC CREED
Nature brings
:
and best too at the time, when Nature
brings it. Earth is in love with rain, and holy aether
loves. Yes, the world-order is in love with fashioning
whatever is to be. To the world-order I
profess, Thy
love is mine. Is there not a truth implicit in the
familiar as it listeth ? Either You live on where
you are ;
to that you are well used : or You move off,
and so doing have your wish : or You die, and your
service is finished. There is no other alternative. So
be of good cheer" (Aurelius, Med. x. 20-22).
This optimism was characteristic of the Stoics in
their speculative moods ; although, when they were
confronted by the actual experience of life s pains and
hardships and by the deep-rooted depravity of human
nature, they could not help sometimes giving expression
to pessimistic thoughts. This is
very
noticeable in
Seneca, who, even when administering comfort in
bereavement, cannot help being despondent.
There
is
nothing so deceitful," thus he consoles Marcia on the
loss of her son (Ad Marciam de Consolatione^ 22), "as
human life, nothing so insidious nor would any one,
:
in sooth, accept it, were it not given us without our
knowledge. Therefore, if it is happiest of all not to be
born, it is next best, I think, to be quickly restored,
after a brief life, to the Whole
"
again."
Think of
bathing," says Aurelius (Med. viii. 24), "and its
accessories oil, sweat, filth, foul water, and all things
nauseating. So is it with every part of life, and each
material thing." However, this pessimism is not a
fixed creed, but a mere transient state not the basis
for a philosophy, but a fleeting mood (such as we find
in a poet like Byron) and
; optimism was the prevailing