The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

STOIC MASTERS AND THEIR WRITINGS 33
early Christians who defended antinomianism by St.
Paul s doctrine of God s free grace), there were, on the
other hand, Stoics (and many of them) who lived noble
lives ;
and, in particular, we have Epictetus and Marcus
Aurelius, who are brilliant examples to all ages of
practice conforming to precept. Earlier, we have
Zeno, the founder, of whom it is recorded by Diogenes
Laertius (vii. 9), that the assembly decreed him a
golden crown and a tomb in the Ceramicus at the
public expense, on the ground that "he had spent
many years in the city in the pursuit of philosophy, and
was in all respects a good man, and had exhorted the
young men who sought his intercourse to the practice
of virtue and temperance, setting up his own life to all
as a model in the things that are best, being in con
formity
with the doctrines on which he discoursed."
So that noble lives there were among the Stoics, of
which any creed might be proud ;
and, for the rest, we
may ask, What philosophy, or what religion, can stand
the rigorous test of absolutely consistent lives on the
of all its adherents ? It that we must
part
gauge
is principles
principles in their legitimate, and not merely in
their actual, effect in practice ;
and on an unprejudiced
examination of these principles and their legitimate
outcome, must our estimate be formed.
II
There is no need here to offer biographies of "those
budge doctors of the Stoic fur." That has been done
with sufficient fulness by Zeller and others ; and, in
particular, the three great Roman Stoics Seneca,
Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius have been limned in
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