The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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CONCEPTION OF PHILOSOPHY 53
is
prated up and down. Thus the vulgar
have the
advantage over you ; for everywhere opinion is strong,
opinion is invincible" (Diss. iii. 16).
Next, the philosopher must show his principles in
his life : he must be a man of noble character and
consistent
precept
walk and conversation.
Practice
before
is the test. Not the distinctive cloak and
beard make the philosopher, but the life. "Above all
things, the Cynic s ruling faculty must be purer than
the sun ;
and if it is not, he must of necessity be a
gambler and a rogue, inasmuch as, while he himself is
entangled in some vice, he will censure others (Epictetus,
Diss. iii. 22). l Such will " I show myself to you
faithful, modest, noble, unperturbed. Not also then
deathless, unageing ? not also diseaseless? No, but
dying as a god, sickening as a god. This is within my
power this I can do. But the other things are not
;
within my power
I ;
cannot do. I will show the sinews
of a philosopher. What sinews are these ? Desire
never failing of its object, aversion not liable to chances,
I proper impulse, diligent purpose,
assent that is not
j precipitate. These you shall see"
(Diss. ii. 8). Surely
a man of that stamp might very well command, as the
greatest of the Stoics did command, the confidence and
the esteem of his fellow-men.
But, thirdly, the philosopher must have wide human
sympathies, and must not despise the plain man he
has a clear duty towards his illiterate and unsophisti
cated brother. The opprobrium of contempt
1
See also Diss. iv. 8.
for the