Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

STOICISM ON THE THRONE. 221to nature, nature would have had it so. But becauseit is not so, if in fact it is not so, be thou convincedthat itought not to have been so : for thou seest evenof thyseU' that in this inquiry thou art disputing withthe Deity ;and we should not thus dispute withthe gods, unless they were most excellent and mostjust but if this is ; so, they would not haveallowed anything in the ordering of the universe to beneglected unjustly and irrationally." ^ But anotherpassage leaves a different impression on the mind, andis more consonant with the ordinarytenets of theschool :—" If souls continue to exist, how does the aircontain them from eternity ?But how does the earthcontain the bodies of those who have been buriedfrom time so remote ? For as here the mutation ©fthese bodies after a certain continuance, whatever itmay be, and their dissolution make room for otherdead bodies ;so the souls which are removed into theair after subsisting for some time are transmuted anddiffused, and assume a fiery nature by being receivedinto the seminal intelligence of the universe, and inthis way make room for the fresh souls which come todwell there. And this is the answer which a manmight give on the hypothesis of souls continuing toexist. "2But though there was this uncertainty about thefuture, there was none as to the duties of the presentlife, and no moody doubts had — power to cloud hispeaceful serenity of temper: "As to the animalswhich have no reason and generally all things and'"Thoughts," xii. 5.*"Thoughts,"iv. 21.