Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

PROFESSIONAL MORALISTS AT ROME.loyalone can cure the weakness or the sickness of thesoul.By her help man learns to distinguish the noblefrom the base, the just from the unjust, the thingsworthy of our choice from those which we shouldshun ;she teaches him how he ought to act in all therelations of his social life, warning him to fear thegods, honour his parents, respect old age, obey thelaws, submit to governors, be loving to his friends,show self-control with w^omankind, tenderness withchildren, moderation with his slaves— above all, notto triumph overmuch in prosperous days, or to be castdown in adversity, not to be overmastered by pleasure,or brutalized by passion." ^How they acted on such principles we see fromthe example of the youthful Persius, who describes forus in touching language the early relations that wereformed between himself and the celebrated Cornutus,whom he chose to be his -guide and friend.When first I laid the purple by, and free,Yet trembling at my new-felt liberty,Approach'd the hearth, and on the Lares hungThe bulla, from my willing neck unstrung ;When gay associates sporting at my side,And the white boss display'd with conscious pride,Gave me, uncheck'd, the haunts of vice to trace,And throw my wandering eyes on eveiy face,When life's perplexing maze before me lay,And error, heedless of the better way,To straggling paths, far from the route of truth,Woo'd with blind confidence my timorous youth.'De Educ. Puer., c. lo.^Persius. Gifford, v. 49.