The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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CHAPTER XII
PRESENT-DAY VALUE OF STOICISM
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Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur." SENECA.
1
Among the statutes of the Ephesians was an injunction, to
meditate continually on some ancient model of virtue." MARCUS
AURELIUS.
"
Where Gods are not, spectres
rule." NOVALIS.
I
FROM what has now been said, it will be felt that
the Stoical philosophy is not a dead thing, a mere
past system effete and useless, to be put aside as
a relic of antiquity, arousing only an antiquarian
curiosity, but is something instinct with life, and is
capable of creating a genuine sympathetic interest.
It breathes a fine spirit,
and, in its later forms, touches
the heart, while at the same time it
appeals
to the
intellect.
What value it has as science and speculation (formu
lated by the founders), we saw with sufficient fulness in
Chapters III. to V. In that respect, it is very much
a philosophy of common sense and is the precursor of
much modern theory, especially of the teaching of
Thomas Reid and the Scottish School. It has both its
strength and its weakness, though the former is much
greater than is usually acknowledged at the present
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