Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

'THE STOIC CREED AND TEMPER. 241set was followed steadily by the great lawyers, whogave coherent and articulate expressionto the imperialcodes ;from the prevalent system of philosophythey drew, perhaps unconsciously, strongphrases about natural justice, and endeavoured bydefinition and analogy, and methods of interpretation, to infuse an animating spirit into the dry formalismsof the past, and to bring the statute law intomore and more of harmony with their ideal. Theydid not carry this so far, indeed, as might have beenexpected, and the contrasts are often very markedbetween the abstract principles as stated in preamblesof the Digest, and the practical details whichregulate the different sides of social action. Buttheywere not theorists alone, but men of action forced totake account of the temper of the age and the forcesof resistance : not philosophers dealing with imaginarybeings, but statesmen hampered by historicdata, and the prejudices of the masses and the partialenlightenment of men in power. They had,therefore, to tolerate much that was inconsistent withtheir cardinal maxims of human equality and universalbrotherhood and the commonwealth of nations." Gaius, Ulpian, Papinian, and Paulus," it has been" said, appear very timid by the side of Seneca andEpictetus."! But the influence of the Stoic theorymight still be very real, though we must allow forthe constant force of friction. Christianity foundmuch to do in breathing a larger and humaner spiritDenis, " Idees Morales dans I'Antiquite ;"ap. Sir A. Grant,p. 121. R