Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

1 08 STOICISM.I fled to you, Cornulus, pleased to restMy hopes and fears on your Socratic breast.Nor did you, gentle sage, the charge decline ;Then, dext'rous to beguile, your steady lineReclaim'd, I know not by what winning force.My morals, warp'd from nature's straighter course ;While reason press'd incumbent on my soul,That struggled to receive the strong control,And took like wax, temper'd by plastic skill,The form your hand imposed, and bears it still.Can I forget, how many a summer's day.Spent in your converse, stole unmark'd away ?Or how, while listening with increased delight,I snatched from feasts the earlier hours of night ?One time (for to your bosom —still I grew)One time of study and of rest we knew ;One frugal board where, every care resigned.An hour of blameless mirth relaxed the mind.And SO, too, we read in the next century of MarcusAntoninus, that his studies of philosophy began at avery tender age, when he caught up with eagerness,and pushed even to excess, the lessons of hardihoodand self-control. He tried to put his principles tothe test of practice, to live simply in the midst ofluxury and licence, to content himself with frugalfare, and to take the bare groundfor his bed atnight. At last, it needed all his mother's gentle influenceto curb the enthusiasm of his ascetic humour.^He gave the Stoic Rusticus the credit of his conversionto philosophy :— " It was he who made me feelhow much I needed to reform and train my character.He warned me from the treacherous paths of'"Age of the Antonines," p. 28.J