Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

94 STOICISM.hopes and fears in the sublime ecstasies of adoration.There was extravagance, doubtless, in the language ofMadame Guyon and her friends which might wellawaken grave mistrust in calmer minds there ; mightseem some disparagement of the ceremonial forms ofthe religious life with which a humble piety couldnot dispense ;and so, too, the language of the RomanStoics, with itsrhapsodies about the world-spirit andthe universal reason, and the truths which wereveiled from careless eyes by the child-like fancies ofthe poets, might well sound like an attack upon thepeople's faith, which was the more dangerous becauseitsspirit was intensely earnest, and not like thefrivolous indifference of dilettanti sceptics. A Neroor Domitian, indeed, are not to be compared inorthodox feeling with a Louis XIV. of France, butthe Imperial regime began with the revival of thepopular religion;the rulers were themselves thesupreme pontiffs, and favourites and ministers wereprobably not slow to turn such arguments to goodaccount when they wished to crush a rival influencetoo near the throne.Could any of the courtiers have been present atthe literary gatherings before which the young StoicPersius read his second satire, they might have foundsome of his shafts of ridicule come home to theirown hearts, while others were aimed at the superstitionsof the people. The poet has no mercy onthe hypocrites who pray with bated breath for favourswhich they dare not own to other men, and so maketheir prayers an insult to the gods they worship ;but