Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

TEMPERED BY CONCESSIONS TO COMMON SENSE. 55the rigour of their definitions, to tone down andmodify the absoluteness of their maxims, and so toclothe the dry skeleton with flesh and blood as toitgive vital force to move as a real power among thehearts and consciences of men. Itmay be well,first, to briefly indicate the chief directions in whichsome change or relaxation seemed required, withoutentering at present into much detail uponThe practical mind of Rome, which had littlethe subject.taste for verbal subtlety or paradox, was most earnestin requiringa rule of life suited to the demands ofcommon sense, and we shallhave occasion at a laterstage to quote largely from the great Roman Stoics,and see how much was gradually done by them togive warmth and colour, and many-sided interest, towhat might seem at first unlovely and ungracious.The extravagant pretensions of the earlier membersof the school to lavish all the resources of thelanguage in praise of the consummate sage sooncaught the attention of contemporary critics, whokeenly scrutinized its meaning. The wise man inwhom there is no folly— no weakness, selfishness, orsin— the king-philosopher and high-priest of huma-— nity where is he to be found, and what are thetokens of his presence ? The men and women whomwe know have their good qualities and evil blended,and few of us can seriously think that we have ever 'seen perfection embodied in an earthly shape. Callit an ideal, ifyou will, to which we may tend but notattain, but then we have a right to remind you thatyour picture is confessedly a type of unapproachable