The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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sophy ? From TT to
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38 THE STOIC CREED
and carried off the fragments ; prizing the parts more
highly than the whole. Philosophical sects, like all
others, have much to answer for. Yet, take Philosophy
in its entirety, and what, according to Boethius, have
we ? We have an instructress and a consoler :
light
and comfort come from thence the deepest intellectual
insight and sovereign regulative power. We have both
the
books" and the
sceptre ": on the one side,
illumination of the mind ;
on the other side, guidance
of the will. Philosophy, when rightly interpreted,
is of studies supreme for ; unity is given to human
nature and harmony to life, when principles and
practice
meet.
II
What then, let us ask more particularly, is Philo
The Stoics defined it in a single phrase as
striving
after wisdom," and wisdom they defined as knowledge
of things divine and human," so that these things de
termine the scope of philosophy. 1 To modern thinkers,
this definition may seem inadequate and even naive.
But there is more in it, especially when taken in con
nexion with the Stoics application of it, than at first
sight appears. There is this, at least, in it :
first,
that no speculation is
philosophy that
does not run up
into consideration of the divine or all-comprehending
principle of existence ; and, secondly, that no philo
sophic speculation on things divine can rightly claim to
be legitimate that does not start from, and guide itself
1
See, e.g., Epictetus, Diss. \.
14 ; Seneca, Ep. 88.