Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE THOUGHT AND CHARACTER OF SOCRATES. 9wide experience amply sifted, and all the seemingquibbles of his daily talk were but infinitely variedillustrations of what we call the processes of definitionand induction.His was a method of inquiry therefore,but no system really formed ;he had no definitetheories or body of connected doctrines to be handedon by his disciples, or defended as a sacred trust.So it was that schools of widely different tenets alikeowned his influence and revered his name. Thesame principle and method were applied by all, butled them in some cases to conclusions far apart.But one feature which they mostly shared was hislarge interest in moral questions. Socrates is saidto have brought down philosophy from heaven toearth ;he certainly discouraged for awhile all theambitious speculations about the universe at largewith which the older thinkers were so busy. Theone thing of paramount importance in his eyes wasthe standard of right action ; if man is to rule hislife aright he must know what is honourable, just,and good ;all his efforts must be centred on thatknowledge, which alone will give him the virtue oftrue manhood. Without knowledge there is, hethought, no virtue possible, but only a blind followingof custom, authority, or law, or an aimless driftingwith caprice or passion.Each, therefore, of the greatSocratic schools had its own moral system, and itsrule of life ;the votaries of wisdom were the menwho were most intent to practise virtue and as;religion spoke in heathen days in faltering and misleadingaccents on such subjects, and in the decline